TO OUR VALUED CITIZENS, CLIENTS AND CUSTOMERS,
Beginning July 2012, you may notice a change in your Environmental Health permit/service fee. Some fees have gone down, while others have increased, depending on the amount of time required by our staff to ensure compliance with applicable laws and standards in each program area. The changes reflect a major effort to more fairly recover costs of providing inspection services and regulatory oversight.
As part of our public health mission, the Department of Environmental Health is charged with an important responsibility to “prevent, preserve and improve those environmental conditions that affect our community’s health and safety.”
Most of our services are mandated by State law, while some standards are adopted by local ordinance. All are designed to assure that regulated activities comply with minimum standards of hygiene, safety, and toxics management. All help ensure a clean, sanitary and pollution free Santa Clara County. Our programs do not depend on the County General fund for support, but rather are financed primarily through permit and service fees.
We understand that the fees we charge for our services impact the businesses we regulate, so we are serious and sincere in our efforts to minimize the cost of our programs. We recently contracted with an independent consultant to fully study and analyze the fee structure and to recommend fees that are fair and equitable within each fee category; justified and defensible; comparable to services in similar counties; and ensure that our charges directly correspond to a single program or service. We feel that the new distribution of charges is equitable and more accurately reflects the time, effort and service levels provided by our staff.
The new fees were presented to the Board of Supervisors for adoption at its meeting of May 22, 2012, and are scheduled for implementation on July 1, 2012. I realize that the new charges may not be good news for all of our clients. Please understand that this Department is committed to finding additional ways to ease the regulatory burden on businesses by focusing on efficiency, cost reduction and high quality environmental health services.
Please visit our website at www.ehinfo.org, contact us by email at DEHWEB@deh.sccgov.org, or call (408)918-3400, if you have questions or suggestions. We value your input. On behalf of the entire staff of the Department of Environmental Health, I wish you the very best.
Scott Bourdon, Director
Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health
FAQ's and New Fee Schedule:
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