Fee Increases Put on Hold By City Council

Note: The complete list of proposed fees can be found

The City Council decided to table a long list of city fee changes proposed by Mayor Michael McGlynn.

The decision to table the request was unopposed Tuesday night and came after two councilors said they were concerned over the cost of some of the fees.

Before its regular meeting Tuesday, the city council met with McGlynn and several municipal department heads who explained the proposed changes.

The most significant came from the building department, which looked to add new fees for air conditioning systems, commercial-use kitchen equipment, like grease traps and hoods, and new fees for solar panels and cell antennae.

Councilor Robert Penta said many of the fees are tacked on to expenses that are mandatory for people starting a business.

"It’s a double whack at the person going into business,” Penta said.

Many of the building fees are based on a fee structure put in place in Lexington, Building Commissionr Paul Mochi said. They are intended to assure that certified technicians are installing the equipment, he said.

"This helps eliminate untrained people doing installations," Mochi said.

Based on his personal experience recently having a kitchen installed, City Councilor Paul Camuso said he believed businesses should have to pay up for kitchen work, too.

“You get whacked by everybody, businesses should be no different,” Camuso said.

The proposed fee changes were tabled after Councilor Breanna Lungo Koehn suggested the city look into reducing the initial charge for some of them.

"Some of these are $100, $200," she said.

Penta agreed.

“It’s just the dollar amount for some of these is kind of excessive," he said.

The fees will be tabled and brought up by the council again at a later date.