Please see information below provided to the Fairfield Board of Health at the October 16th, 2017 meeting.  The Board will consider voting on these changes at the November 13th, 2017 meeting which is held at 7:30pm in the first floor conference room of Sullivan Independence Hall, 725 Old Post Road, Fairfield. Those wishing to provide comments regarding the proposed changes can attend the November 13th meeting or comments can be sent by email to healthdept@fairfieldct.org.

Proposal to Change Fairfield Public Health Code Section 1.7 - Health Department Fee Schedule

Factors Driving and Taken Into Consideration Regarding Proposed Changes:

• With the intent to increase Town revenue, the First Selectman’s Office asked the Health Department to compare its license, permit and other fees to area health departments or districts with similar demographics and who offer similar services.  In those areas where the department was below the “market rate” we were instructed that the department should work to increase fees to be close to the market rate.    In cases where Fairfield was significantly below the market rate, efforts were made to balance the requirement to move toward the market rate and to avoid dramatic increases in the actual dollar increase in the fee.

• A comparison was done between the permit and license rates of Fairfield compared to those same fees in other towns in Fairfield County, including Greenwich, Norwalk Stamford, and Westport.  The comparison indicated that the Town of Fairfield rates were under the market rate average in many categories.

• New regulations were adopted this year by the CT State Legislature that partially went into effect October 1, 2017 and goes fully into effect July of 2018.  The October 1, 2017 portion of the new regulations require the re-categorizing of all food establishments and therefore necessitates changes to our license structure to be in compliance to those standards set forth in the FDA Model Food Code. 

• Since the changes to the fees structure where necessitated by new regulations, the Department is seeking to take the opportunity to greatly simplify its licensing/permit structure.  The proposal reduces the number of different license and permit categories/fees from 38 down to 18.

Current Section 1.7 – Fee Schedule

1.7 All license, permit and plan review fees shall increase two percent each January 1st.  The increased fees shall be rounded to the nearest whole dollar. An updated fee schedule shall be placed in the code each January 1st. Other fees shall be based upon costs and adjusted accordingly each January 1st.

PERMITS

PLAN REVIEW FEES

OTHER FEES

Comparison of Proposed Changes to Fees with Average of Area Comparable Fees:

.

*Radon Kits $20.00 cost from supplier.

**Tick Test $5.00 cost of postage to send to state lab.

The Health Departments/Districts of Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Westport were used for comparison as they are also larger municipalities with numerous food service establishments, having large portions of the town with homes on septic systems, having many cosmetology facilities and Stamford and Norwalk also issue housing certificates.   

New Proposed Section 1.7 of Fairfield Public Health Code

1.7 All license, permit, certificate and plan review fees shall increase two percent each January 1st.  The increased fees shall be rounded to the nearest whole dollar.

 An updated fee schedule shall be placed in the code each January 1st. Other fees shall be based upon costs and adjusted accordingly each January 1st