Fee recovery schedule critical piece of Globe’s future sustainability

As Globe City Council works to update its Strategic Action Plan in preparation for setting the 2025/2026 budget, Council has prioritized creating a sustainable model for the future.

One important aspect of future fiscal sustainability is updating the City’s fee schedule for everything from administrative costs to development to utilities in order to recover cost of services staff provide for individuals looking to develop in Globe, thereby reducing the financial burden to taxpayers.

“We want to be sure our planning is fiscally sound, not just to have the financial resources in place, but we’re also focused on bandwidth,” says Assistant City Manager Linda Oddonetto. “Do we have the proper staff in place that can meet the demand on the city for quality service. The City Council is also focused on investing in infrastructure, because if we don’t maintain and improve our infrastructure we cannot attract economic development.”

Since 2018, the City of Globe has embarked on a mission to increase economic development, repair existing infrastructure and create a sustainable model for growth in the future.

City leadership has implemented its plans, working to maximize the municipal tax base by seeking outside funding through grants and loans offered through federal and state government as well as private partnerships with businesses and nonprofits, which frees up tax dollars for additional improvements.

As part of its efforts to modernize and expand public service, for example, the City is working to build a new fire station with modern safety improvements at the former site of medical offices on Ash Street. The $13 million project is in the early planning phases, but would not be possible without the help of grant funding. 

Those funds would not be available without a significant expansion of the City’s internal capacity to deliver projects, including a position dedicated to identifying and applying for grants through various agencies.

“Money that comes in from grants is critical to moving these big projects forward, so the City working towards them is a great thing,” Oddonetto adds. “Each department’s staff are the technical experts who help to create the scope and narrative for the grant applications, but what’s even more important than getting grants is managing them and keeping them.”

While there have been bumps in the road, including the COVID pandemic, wildfires and monsoon floods, the City has ably navigated unforeseen events and maintained its trajectory towards sensible growth.

In order to facilitate that growth there has been a need to increase City staffing to accommodate increased workloads in several departments that have been leading the evolution of Globe’s workforce.

As the City seeks to modernize, it has been working with out-of-date processes, such as building codes that were enacted in the early part of the century and a fee structure that is equally out-of-date.

“City fees are not something that we make money on, but we can’t subsidize new development either,” says Mayor Al Gameros. “We don’t want to be in the red with our fee schedule, it’s more about raising fees to recoup the costs of services. What this really means is that the services are being paid for by those who are being served, and not subsidized by all residents.  We want to be to the level where we’re at break-even point so we can sustain it.”

The proposed fee structure was rolled out at the January 28 Council meeting and over the course of the next few weeks, Councilmembers will meet in four workgroups to fine-tune the details for implementation by the end of the fiscal year in June.

The new fee schedule for residential and commercial sanitation services has been posted on the City’s website—per Arizona statute—as the first step in the process of adopting the new fees.

City Manager Paul Jepson explained the need for the increases at the recent Council meeting, reporting that an audit of one large development project identified about $30,000 in lost fees, either because Globe’s rates were outdated or because prior leadership never put cost recovery fees in place that other cities have been charging for many years.

Jepson said that “in a perfect world” the City would be able to recover 100% of its expenditures on a project—inspections, research, paperwork or a number of other obligations performed by City staff—but 60% to 80% is a target most cities strive to receive. Globe’s current recovery rate for development projects is about 30%, meaning citizens pay about 70% of the costs.

He said some developers are “shocked” when they find they do not have to pay certain fees in Globe that are de rigueur elsewhere.

“By collecting proper and reasonable fees for what we do, we’re actually saving money for the taxpayer to make sure that they’re not footing the bill for growth,” Jepson said. “This is not just development services. This is for public safety and public works.”

He added Council’s actions are in response to the past six years of increased economic and development activity, and in addition to making fiscal sense, it telegraphs Globe’s identity as a destination for people and businesses.

“We’re not changing every fee, but we’re taking a comprehensive look at everything and making sure that we’re not missing anything,” Jepson said. “We are a modern, growing, professional city. The way we run our development services, the way we run our fire and police departments, the way we run our court and administration, we need to do so in a professional manner and do it consistently and fairly. We need to be up to speed with our peers in other jurisdictions.”

Mayor Al Gameros says that although Globe has a population under 10,000, the reality is the City regularly serves more than 34,000 residents being a regional hub at the crossroads of several key highways. He believes modernizing municipal government is key to the future of Globe and that this is a key next step in that process.

“Previously, we weren’t ready for our current rate of growth because we had to have the right staff in place to be ready for it,” Gameros says. “We could not have done it with the staffing capacity that we had back in ’18. We had to bring on the professional staff that’ll help us and to be ready for plan reviews, inspections, grant submissions and other vital functions. That’s what it’s all about.

Councilman Mike Pastor, a lifelong resident and member of a family representing five generations in the Globe-Miami region, says that over the course of his time as a public servant—he has served both on City Council and as a County Supervisor—he has seen growth that has been chaotic at times. He believes this will give Globe’s leadership an opportunity to have more control over what is surely to come.

“We have to provide fire protection, we provide police, we provide all the services that somebody would need to develop or become a successful entrepreneur in the community,” Pastor says. “People have a hard time understanding that the codes are there to protect them, and not there to punish. We need to protect our residents, their homes and businesses, and protect the new development coming in. That’s why we need to have current development fees and requirements in place to protect everybody.”