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2.2.2 Cost of the abatement program. In <br />addition to the cost of the program of nuisance <br />abatement undertaken by the City are all those costs <br />associated with the program in general, including <br />sending abatement notices to owners who then <br />cut their own vegetation, and inspecting these <br />properties and so forth. It is difficult to place these <br />costs on those who are also paying for the City cutting <br />down their weeds, but the choice is to either have them <br />pay or to place the burden on all the City taxpayers. <br />2.2.3 Policy choices. How much of these <br />administrative costs beyond the personnel costs you have <br />identified should be placed on the abatement bill is a <br />policy choice for your department and the Manager's <br />office to make. <br />Presumably the practice of making the abatement <br />costs a lien on the property has solved most of the <br />uncollectibility problem. This does not make the lien <br />program cost free, however. Even though the accumulated <br />interest is eventually collected, the City has paid a <br />large front -end cost and carried this cost for a long <br />time before it is collected. <br />A ten percent surcharge on the contractor's hourly <br />rate may adequately reflect the share of the <br />administrative costs of finding a contractor and <br />generally administering the abatement enforcement <br />program. This charge may not cover all the costs <br />associated with the program that you decide should be <br />paid by those who make the greatest demands on the <br />program -- those who force the City to do the abatement <br />itself. The City has a wide range of options for <br />pricing the costs of abatement, depending on how much of <br />the entire program cost is to be placed on those who <br />force the greatest expenditure of time and effort. <br />In any analysis of how much cost should be shifted <br />to those people, you should keep in mind the <br />relationship between these charges and other charges and <br />charge rates that your office uses for accounting <br />purposes and for actual billings to customers. All <br />these should reflect similar rates and a similar <br />philosophy. <br />Recommendation: If the ten percent figure that Mr. <br />Spickerman took from the dangerous building abatement <br />represents a reasonable approximation of the administrative <br />costs of finding a contractor and incidentally <br />administering the abatement program, this figure could be <br />4-- MEMORANDUM <br />