COLUSA, CA (MPG) — The Colusa County Board of Supervisors introduced the first reading of an ordinance on Aug. 12, to create a countywide fee schedule, beginning with the Clerk-Recorder’s Office.
County Administrative Officer Wendy Tyler said the ordinance will place all county fees into a single chapter of county code, replacing scattered resolutions and amendments.
“This has been on our radar for quite some time that the county needed to actually update a number of these fees,” said Tyler. “Rather than having all these stand-alone documents, the law says you have to do these by ordinance. So we are creating a chapter in county code where all county fees will reside. This is just the first step in that process.”
The Clerk-Recorder’s Office is the first department to complete a fee study and analysis, with other county departments expected to follow in phases.
The new ordinance calls for fee reviews every two years to ensure charges reflect the actual cost of providing services. Tyler emphasized that state law does not allow the county to charge more than the cost of service, noting that the changes are not intended to generate profit but to bring fees in line with expenses.
“Departments will go through their fees and look at their costs, and come to the board for adjustments,” Tyler said. “It’s not just for increases, but decreases as well.”
County Clerk-Recorder Cristy Edwards said the adjustments are necessary to stop the county’s general fund from absorbing losses.
“Every transaction our department is facilitating, the county general fund is losing money,” Edwards said. “It’s losing a lot of money.”
She explained that her office conducted time and cost studies to determine how long each task takes and what resources are consumed, including staff labor, copier rental, paper, and ink.
Some of the increases are substantial because many of the fees have not been revised in decades.
Edwards said some date back to the 1980s and 1990s. For example, the fee for filing a fictitious business name statement will rise from $10 to $70, while related services such as withdrawal and abandonment will increase from $5 each to $55. Marriage services will also see notable adjustments, with a public marriage license moving from $56 to $198, and a confidential marriage license from $60 to $222. The marriage ceremony fee, which has remained at $30 for many years, will now be set at $95, while the “commissioner for a day” designation will rise from $75 to $110.
Other changes include the fee for a duplicate marriage license, which will move from $10 to $40, and the cost of certified copies, which will increase from $2 to $8. A search by name will increase from $5 to $10, and copy fees will climb significantly, with the first page rising from $1 to $8 and each additional page from $1 to $2. Fees for professional registrations are also changing, such as the registered process server filing, which will rise from $100 to $175. The cost to file or cancel a notary will increase from $7 to $30, while a notary certification will rise from $1.75 to $25.
Supervisors acknowledged that some of the adjustments appear large at first glance, but the difference reflects decades without revision.
“Some of the fees seem to have such an exorbitant increase because they are probably from the 1980s or 1990s,” Tyler said.
Edwards added that each proposed fee was calculated using a formula that factored in staff time, indirect costs, and overhead. She said this process demonstrates that the office has worked to match charges to real expenses.
“I provided information that this is our cost every time we have to go retrieve something,” she said of concerns raised about copy charges. “The cost to do the transaction at the counter, make the actual copy, the cost of renting the photo copier, the paper, the ink, all of that.”
The board introduced the ordinance unanimously. A second reading is scheduled for Aug. 26, after which the new fees will take effect 60 days later. The ordinance also provides that state-regulated fees will continue to be updated automatically without board approval, ensuring that changes required by statute are applied promptly.
The complete list of current and proposed fees for the Clerk-Recorder’s Office is available to the public. A side-by-side comparison of charges was published in the legal notice section of this edition of the newspaper on Aug. 1, and Aug. 8, so residents can review the adjustments.
Tyler said the intent of codifying the fees is both transparency and sustainability. By placing all fees in a single chapter of county code, the public will have access to one clear reference, and departments will be required to revisit their fees regularly.
“Every department will be studying what their processes are to serve the public, reviewing their fees, and using the formula provided by the County Auditor-Controller’s Office to convert them into what the actual cost of performing the transactions is,” she said.
For now, the Clerk-Recorder’s Office is the first step, with residents set to see the new rates in effect later this year. Other departments will continue with existing rates until their studies are complete, after which they too will be added to the countywide fee schedule.