Elgin may reconsider fees for food handling permits

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

ELGIN — A decision by the city council to adopt the same food license inspection fees as Kane County is getting complaints from some restaurant owners who say they can’t afford the higher fees.

The complaints have prompted both Mayor Ed Schock and city councilman and fellow mayoral candidate Dave Kaptain to say they would like to revisit that move.

“There are two things to consider,” said Schock, who is seeking his fourth term as mayor in the April election. “With times still tough, one is seeing what we can do to help. The other is to look at the fee schedule and see if adjustments might need to be made.”

Kaptain, who is the only challenger to Schock on the April ballot, would like the council to look at this program again, too.

Annual increases

When Joe Follrath opened the downtown Elgin Quizno’s in 2004, the fee for his restaurant being inspected was $140. The fee has steadily climbed since then, to $570 for this year. With the economy impacting his business — as well as ongoing downtown construction and the area’s slow residential, commercial and retail growth — Follrath talked with Councilman Mike Warren about his situation.

With Warren’s assistance, Follrath was able to work out an installment payment plan with the city — one of three restaurateurs thus far to do so.

“Out of the total 391 food licenses billed, we have received full payment from 312 establishments,” city Chief Financial Officer Colleen Lavery said on Jan. 14.

Lavery noted that the city is willing to work with any of the establishments with still-unpaid fees to set up a payment schedule for them.

Last fall, the city council approved amending the city’s municipal code to adopt the Kane County fee schedule for licensed food service establishments and retail food stores. The move made food license fees uniform throughout Kane County and the Cook County portion of Elgin, and allows Elgin to manage its own food safety program.

Covering costs

According to the Oct. 22 committee of the whole session information packet, the fee schedule for the food program was adopted by the Kane County Board on July 14, 2009. The fees are based on current data related to the time and cost to provide these services as determined by the Kane County Finance Department.

“In general, the Elgin health program costs the city $185,952 per year, and our current fees are $74,442 per year,” the document states. “With the execution of the agreement with Kane County, our fees will increment to $162,442 in 2010 and to $236,360 in 2011. In keeping with the city council’s mandate that fees cover the costs of program administration, these increases are equitable.”

The document adds that “annual fees for the food safety program will increase revenue to the city of Elgin by approximately $88,000 in 2010 and by a total of $162,000 in 2011. The additional revenue will allow the health division of community development to cover the cost of administering the food safety program. The intergovernmental agreement requires the city to make annual payments to the county in the amount of $10,000 to cover the cost of providing assistance with food-borne illness investigations, food recall notices, and ongoing training programs.”

The county’s fee schedule has four tiers of establishments, ranging from large grocery stores to small places that only serve pre-packaged foods and beverages. Those food-handling permits are $850, $665, $570 and $500 across those categories.

Business license program underway, too

The city also is in its second year of a business license program, with those fees ranging from $35 to $500 per year. That fee was waived for downtown establishments while construction work there continues.

“In round numbers, 2,500 businesses applied for the license in 2010, and we estimate that 400 businesses have yet to apply” for one, Lavery said.

Licenses are required, but the city has been working with businesses toward compliance as the program is in its preliminary stages, City Manager Sean Stegall has said previously.

Kaptain would like the city to take a another look at the business license program, too. He said that from talking to merchants, the question is not so much the fee itself but clarification of what it is businesses will be getting for their money from the city and the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce, which is overseeing the business licensing effort.