Road fee audit finds $400K in errors
Orange County official studied 21 months of charges
A new audit of transportation impact fees charged by Orange County for new restaurants, medical offices and more than 400 other commercial projects found almost $400,000 in assessment errors.
Some charges were too high, others too low, Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond, the county’s fiscal watchdog, said Tuesday.
His examiners, who studied records from October 2015 through June 2017, found fees were not always calculated correctly according to the project’s size, location or features.
Diamond said accurate assessments are necessary to ensure that new development is paying its fair share for improvements to the county road system.
“I really look at it as an opportunity to make sure the county is doing the best job it can,” said Diamond, pointing out that county staff, for the most part, properly calculated and assessed fees according to code.
Transportation impact fees, sometimes called road impact fees, are onetime charges on new construction intended to help pay to build new roads and upgrade existing ones to accommodate needs caused by growth.
“Everybody’s affected by traffic whether you’re commuting to work or going to the doctor or taking the kids to school,” Diamond said. “Anything the county can do to make sure it’s doing the best it can to provide better transportation is critical.”
Orange County has collected more than $27 million in transportation impact fees over the past five years.
The county collected nearly $13 million in roadimpact fees during the audit period.
“We don’t like to make mistakes,” said Jon Weiss, director of the Community, Environmental and Development Services Department, which calculates and assesses the fees. “But we’re appreciative of the outside, independent
perspective the comptroller brings.”
Weiss said he reviewed and concurred with the audit’s finding and its recommendations for improvement.
“The audit will make us better,” he said.
Weiss said a technology upgrade will eliminate some problems identified by the audit, which also found weaknesses in other process which contributed to mistakes.
All commercial projects are not considered equal in road impact.
Orange County charges developers according to the project, according to a set fee schedule.
Because a hamburger restaurant usually drives more traffic than a doctor’s office, for example, the impact fee for the eatery is more costly.
A fast-food restaurant with a drive-thru window pays steeper impact fees a place that offers dine-in only.
Staff goofed in calculations for a new Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and a new Dunkin’ Donuts, both of which offer drive-thru service, but were not assessed for that feature.
The under-assessments shortchanged the county by $96,000.
Another miscalculation undercharged a Zaxby’s restaurant by about $63,000.
The county also charges impact fees to build schools, provide new fire stations, add parks and expand lawenforcement services, but those assessments were not reviewed by the audit.
Diamond recommended the county fix the errors.
“Any underpayment to the county should be paid and the county should refund any over-payment,” he said. “I think that’s like paying your taxes. If you pay too much, you should gt a refund and if you don’t pay enough, you should pay the difference.”
Weiss said he will seek direction from county commissioners on how to handle incorrect fee assessments.