Calaveras County Building Department Land Use Trust Fund

The 1990 & 2004 Board of Supervisors resolutions, 90-356 & 04-235, addressing Building Department revenue and appropriation by the establishment of a Land Use Department Trust Fund are not strictly in compliance with California Health and Safety Code §17951.

California Health and Safety Code §17951 (c) states “The amount of the fees prescribed pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (b) shall not exceed the amount reasonably required to administer or process these permits… and shall not be levied for general revenue purposes”. Fees collected, which exceed expenditures, can be carried over to the next fiscal year but are to be allocated only to the Building Department. The intent of the code is to prevent additional taxation when fees are collected and used for purposes other than to fund Building Department operations. Through the Supervisors resolution of 1990, 90-356, the Land Use Trust Fund could be used to “fund various expenditures associated with the operations of the Surveyor, Planning, Building and Environmental Health Departments”, as well as the Building Department, in violation of California Health and Safety Code §17951.

In 2004 the Board passed Resolution 04-235 which amended 90-356, effectively allowing funds which had been deposited only into the Land Use Trust Fund to go into the General Fund. The amendment was a violation of the California Health and Safety Code §17951. 31

In 2006 at the behest of the Director of Community Planning, the County Administrator’s Office began drafting a resolution intended to bring the funding process into compliance with California Health and Safety Code §17951. The resolution is expected to be presented to the Supervisors before the end of the 2006-2007 fiscal year. In addition, the Administrator’s office has the task of researching budgets since 1996 to determine funds which should be returned to the Building Department budget. This research is to include the establishment of all Building Department costs not charged in the budget. An accounting standard, A87 charges, allows for recovery of indirect costs not originally included in department budgets.