Recent audit boosts Jacobs' contention that fees might be too developer-friendly

Posted December 25, 2005

Orange County commissioners argued again last week about what fee to charge developers who want to build on the county's most clogged road segments.

Commissioner Teresa Jacobs has railed for more than a year that the current add-on fee is too developer-friendly and built around old road-construction costs. She has also maintained that senior staffers misled commissioners and the public in response to her questions about the fees.

Jacobs' colleagues have largely ignored or downplayed her concerns. But a couple of them seemed more receptive last week after Comptroller Martha Haynie issued an audit that backed Jacobs' concerns.

Still, Commissioners Homer Hartage and Bill Segal said that even if Jacobs is correct about some of her fee arguments, she should not accuse top staff of misleading folks throughout the debate.

"I have no way of knowing if that's true," Segal said of her allegations

So we want to help out.

In August, County Attorney Tom Drage told Hartage that a state agency would soon offer a model clogged-road fee formula that counties may "potentially" adopt statewide. Turns out, lawmakers already mandated a certain formula by then -- one that just so happens to charge more than Orange's fee does. Drage apologized last week, saying his comments were not meant to mislead commissioners on what formula would be charged, but added that some state decisions could still affect how that formula works.

That's true.

But earlier this year, another top staff attorney told commissioners that a now-retired county engineer was responsible for crafting that oft-disputed formula. Turns out, that wasn't entirely true. Apologies followed.

In interviews, memos and public meetings, various top staffers also said that construction costs used to calculate the fees are updated regularly, and the policy, if nothing else, has been consistent through the years.

The two main findings of Haynie's audit: Construction costs were not updated regularly, and the policy has been inconsistent through the years.