Building Superintendent Suggests Increasing Fees by One Third

In order to meet the village board's latest budget mandate, building superintendent Mike Filippon suggested increasing the fee schedule rather than paring down his small staff of six.

In order to achieve the target, which totals $47,117, Filippon said he'd have to eliminate one of his staff members. "We're a really small department. We only have six people and every one of them has very unique and dedicated functions that they perform. If you remove any one of them it would have a serious effect on the function of our department," he told trustees during the most recent budget session. "I feel adamant about not reducing a staff member.

"We suffer from not being able to produce the kind of effect we would like to have even with the staff we have," Filippon continued, adding that the department has an "acceptable lead time" on permit turnarounds, Zoning Board of Appeals applications, etc. "People still complain but anything done to this department to extend that even more believe me would cause some serious complaints," he said.

Though hesitant in the past to increase the fee schedule Filippon said in these "desperate times" a modest increase would essentially leave the department fully funded.

"We're not supposed to be for profit organization and the fees that we charge let's face it they get passed on to the village residents and the commercial property owners so I always felt our fee structure, which is 1.5 percent of the estimated cost of work, is a fair number," he said. "If we were to modestly increase that fee by one-third, we would essentially be fully funded and that includes benefits. So that's where I stand."

Compared to other municipalities like Rockville Centre, which charges $200 for the initial $1,000 worth of work and $17 for every additional $1,000, Garden City currently charges $115 for the initial $1,000 worth of work, whether its new construction, alterations and/or additions, and $15 for every additional $1,000.

The one-third jump would increase revenue by approximately $200,000, Filippon said. The department currently brings in approximately $600,000.

"We're about 80 percent fully funded now," he said. "If we increase fees by one-third we will be fully funded."

Trustees agreed that 2 percent was reasonable though they did not formally vote on the change during the budget session.