Bellingham City Council Budget and Finance Committee

The Bellingham City Council Budget and Finance Committee held a brief afternoon session to consider updates to the fee schedule for the city's rental registration and safety inspection program. The committee unanimously approved an ordinance that streamlines billing practices and aligns late fee structures to reduce public confusion and administrative burden. The proposed changes represent administrative refinements rather than major policy shifts, following two years of experience operating under the enhanced program approved by council in 2023. Staff emphasized that the changes focus on making the fee structure more practical and understandable while maintaining program effectiveness. Julia Burns, the city's new Rental Protection Program Specialist, presented the updates alongside Planning and Community Development Director Blake Lyon. The changes include aligning late fees for inspections and registrations, extending the timeframe for late fee accruals from every 15 days to industry standards, and removing direct references to collections in favor of license revocation procedures allowed under the Bellingham Municipal Code. The committee also received an overview of ongoing program improvements, including policy formalization, enhanced inspector consistency measures, public outreach efforts, and the development of an interactive property inspection map for public use. A tenant advisory group is expected to be established in the coming month.

- **Ordinance amending rental registration and safety inspection fee schedule** - **APPROVED unanimously** by Budget and Finance Committee - Staff recommendation: Approve the ordinance - Council action: Approved unanimously (Anderson, Hamill, Cotton voting yes) - Changes late fee structure to align inspection and registration late fees - Extends late fee accrual period from every 15 days to longer intervals matching industry standards - Removes collections language in favor of license revocation procedures under BMC - Adds clarity on per-unit versus per-license charges

**Julia Burns, introducing the fee schedule changes:** "Nothing too major, hopefully, and hopefully nothing controversial, just some updates on how we charge fees." **Julia Burns, on the current late fee confusion:** "I think there's a lot of confusion about fees in general in the program. So when people are like, well, what is this fee for? And what's this fee? It just kind of makes it all the same." **Julia Burns, on the rapid late fee escalation:** "All of a sudden they wake up and they're like, wait, I have two late fees and it's only been two weeks. So just slowing that down a little bit, making it a little bit more standardized." **Blake Lyon, on the enforcement approach:** "Oftentimes that ability to license and register their units, especially if they have multiple units, is a better way of enforcing that than pursuing and trying to gain collections." **Council Member Anderson, on public perception:** "I wanted that to be shared with the public because when people here were no longer pursuing a fine, they just think people will just brush it off, but there's bigger consequences ahead than going to collections on this." **Council Member Hamill, supporting the changes:** "Just want to thank you for the work. It makes sense to update some of this."