City Council - Budget and Finance Committee
City Council - Budget and Finance Committee
Mon, March 23, 2026
Agenda items
Vote records
Discussion summary
Transcript
Meeting summaryAI-generated
City Council Budget and Finance Committee — March 23, 2026
This was a brief Budget and Finance Committee meeting with a single agenda item. The committee was chaired by Councilmember Lisa Anderson (Ward 5), with Councilmember Dan Hammill (Ward 3) also present. Councilmember Jace Cotton (At-Large) sat in for the absent Councilmember Michael Lilliquist.
Ordinance Amending the Fee Schedule for the Rental Registration and Safety Inspection Program
Julia Burns, the city's Rental Protection Program Specialist, presented proposed updates to the fee schedule for Bellingham's Rental Registration and Safety Inspection Program — the program that requires landlords to register rental units and submit to periodic safety inspections. Burns was joined by Blake Lyon, Director of Planning and Community Development.
Burns explained that since the council approved expanded program fees and staffing in 2023, staff have had time to identify practical improvements to how fees are structured and communicated. The changes are largely administrative and intended to reduce confusion for landlords and the public.
The key changes in the ordinance include:
Aligning late fees for inspections and registrations so both carry the same late fee amount, eliminating a common source of public confusion.
Slowing the escalation of late fees, which had been accruing every 15 days — a pace that staff described as too rapid and out of step with industry standards. Under the new structure, fees will accrue less frequently.
Removing direct reference to sending unpaid fees to collections, instead referencing the broader range of enforcement remedies available under the Bellingham Municipal Code (BMC).
Clarifying per-unit versus per-license charges, and making general formatting improvements for clarity.
Burns noted that late fees have never been a primary revenue source for the program — the core program fees (for inspections and missed appointments) were increased in 2023 and are sufficient to sustain operations — so slowing the late fee accrual schedule will not meaningfully impact program finances.
Councilmember Hammill asked about the practical consequences of removing the collections pathway. Burns and Lyon clarified that rather than pursuing collections against a landlord who hasn't paid fees, the city can instead revoke or withhold the landlord's rental license. Lyon noted this is often a more effective enforcement lever, particularly for landlords with multiple units, since losing the ability to legally operate a rental is a stronger incentive to comply than a collections action.
Burns also took the opportunity to brief the committee on related program improvements underway, including: formalizing policies for handling uninhabitable units and unfit sleeping areas; developing inspector audit processes to ensure consistency between city and private inspectors; creating standardized compliance notice templates; launching tenant-facing outreach materials and a landlord-tenant law presentation scheduled for April 23rd; and developing an interactive public map showing each property's registration status and inspection history. A tenant advisory group is also in development.
Vote: Councilmember Hammill moved to approve; the motion was seconded (seconder not explicitly named in transcript). The committee voted unanimously in favor (3–0). The item will be forwarded to the full council.
Key Takeaways
The ordinance makes administrative improvements to the Rental Registration and Safety Inspection Program fee schedule — aligning late fees, slowing escalation, and improving clarity — with no significant financial impact to the program.
The city is shifting away from sending unpaid rental program fees to collections, relying instead on license revocation as its primary enforcement tool, which staff describe as more effective.
The Rental Registration Program is actively working on several broader improvements, including inspector consistency audits, an online inspection checklist, a public interactive property map, and a new tenant advisory group.
A free landlord-tenant law presentation is scheduled for April 23rd, aimed at helping landlords and tenants navigate recent regulatory changes.
AI-generated summary from voice-to-text transcript. Not the official record. Verify important details with the source documents linked above.
What happened at this meeting
An ordinance amending the fee schedule for the Rental Registration and Safety
# Combined Summary
Staff presented an ordinance amending the fee schedule for the Rental Registration and Safety Inspection Program to streamline billing, reduce public confusion, and improve enforcement. Key changes include aligning late fees for inspections and registrations, extending late fee accrual periods to industry standards, removing direct references to collections, and clarifying per-unit versus per-license charges. Julia Burns, the rental protection program specialist, noted that late fees were not part of the original 2023 program funding calculations, so reducing their frequency will not impact operations since late fees are rarely collected. When Council Member Hamel asked about collecting delinquent fees, staff explained that the program now revokes rental licenses for non-compliance rather than pursuing collections, which is more effective enforcement. The committee voted to approve the fee schedule update.
Staff presented an ordinance amending the fee schedule for the Rental Registration and Safety Inspection Program to streamline billing, reduce public confusion, and improve enforcement. Key changes include aligning late fees for inspections and registrations, extending late fee accrual periods to industry standards, removing direct references to collections, and clarifying per-unit versus per-license charges. Julia Burns, the rental protection program specialist, noted that late fees were not part of the original 2023 program funding calculations, so reducing their frequency will not impact operations since late fees are rarely collected. When Council Member Hamel asked about collecting delinquent fees, staff explained that the program now revokes rental licenses for non-compliance rather than pursuing collections, which is more effective enforcement. The committee voted to approve the fee schedule update.
Agenda items (1)
Procedural (1)
24854ProceduralAn ordinance amending the fee schedule for the Rental Registration and Safety
The city is updating the fees that landlords pay to register rental properties and have them inspected for safety compliance.
What happened
# Combined SummaryStaff presented an ordinance amending the fee schedule for the Rental Registration and Safety Inspection Program to streamline billing, reduce public confusion, and improve enforcement. Key changes include aligning late fees for inspections and registrations, extending late fee accrual periods to industry standards, removing direct references to collections, and clarifying per-unit versus per-license charges. Julia Burns, the rental protection program specialist, noted that late fees were not part of the original 2023 program funding calculations, so reducing their frequency will not impact operations since late fees are rarely collected. When Council Member Hamel asked about collecting delinquent fees, staff explained that the program now revokes rental licenses for non-compliance rather than pursuing collections, which is more effective enforcement. The committee voted to approve the fee schedule update.
Additional votes recorded in minutes
Recommend approval of ordinance amending fee schedule for Rental Registration and Safety Inspection Program
aye 3 · absent 1
Daniel Hammillaye
Jace Cottonaye
Lisa Andersonaye
Michael Lilliquistabsent
Verbatim transcript available
49 transcript segments indexed
City of Bellingham Budget and Finance Committee minutes March 23, 2026, 1:30 PM Chair: Lisa Anderson Phone: 360-778-8200 Members: Daniel Hammill, Michael Lilliquist Email: ccmail@cob.org Web: cob.org/council City Council committee meetings Standing committee members receive reports and information, ask questions, and vote on a recommended action for consideration by the full Council at the regular meeting.
So, the next committee before us this afternoon is budget and finance, and that committee is chaired by Councilmember Anderson. So, I'll turn it over to her. Thank you, and good afternoon. Um we have one item in front of us, and joining me today is Councilmember Hamel, and in Councilmember Lilliquist's absence, Councilmember Cotton has agreed to sit on this committee.
There is no public comment period during committee sessions. Call to order and roll call Council President Stone called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. Present: Committee Chair Lisa Anderson, Fifth Ward Committee Member Daniel Hammill, Third Ward Board Member Jace Cotton, At-Large Excused: Committee Member Michael Lilliquist, Sixth Ward Budget and Finance 24854 1.
Um so, before budget and finance committee, we have an ordinance amending the fee schedule for the rental registration and safety inspection program. In 2023, the city identified several improvements to the rental registration and safety inspection program, including updating fee and support additional efforts under the program that were approved by council.
An ordinance amending the fee schedule for the Rental Registration and Safety Inspection Program Summary: Julia Burns, Rental Protection Program Specialist, and Blake Lyon, Planning and Community Development Director, presented the ordinance, which amends the fee schedule for the Rental Registration and Safety Inspection Program.
The ordinance amends the existing fee schedule to make billing for rental registration and safety inspections more practical. The ordinance changes late fees for inspections to match registration fees to minimize confusion by the public, simplify billing, and clarify how and when these fees will be assessed.
Council Members discussed the ordinance and asked questions. Action: Daniel Hammill moved to recommend approval of the ordinance. MOTION CARRIED 3-0. Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 1:49 p.m.
So, joining me today is Julia Burns, the rental protection program specialist, along with Blake Lyon, our planning and community development director. So, I'll turn it over to the two of you to share what you're requesting.
Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Again, Blake Lyon, director of planning community development. Uh as you noted, with me today is Julia Burns, her first time in front of you, also wanted to take the opportunity to introduce her, and she'll be walking us through some of the things that are before you today.
We've also, given the support that the council provided previously, as noted here, there's a number of different um kind of refinements and enhancements that we're working on. In addition to Julia's efforts, uh behind me are um Kurt Abefeldt and Moss.
Moss is serving as our uh clerk for all that, and really helping us to orchestrate and refine some of those programs. So, Julia's going to walk us through the item for you today, and then we've got a few other pieces of information we'll share with you as well.
Good afternoon, Councilmembers. Um apologies for any kind of technical things I'm I'm encountering, as I haven't done this before. Um so, um I am here to, as Councilmember Anderson said, that I'm here to um to propose some um updates to our fee schedule for the rental registration and safety inspection program.
Um a little bit of background, which you all just heard, but in 2023, um there council approved updates to the program, including fees to support some expanded um activities of the program, including additional staff members.
Um and now that we've had a few years to start um operating with the new changes, we're just identifying some places where there can be improvements, and um making things a little bit more streamlined.
So, that is the intent for today. Um nothing too major, um hopefully, and hopefully nothing um controversial, just some updates on how we charge fees. So, um aligning late fees for inspections and registrations, right now we have um different fee amounts for um late fees for inspections versus registrations.
Um so, we just want to make those the same, so that they're more easily understood. Um I think there's a lot of confusion about fees in general in the program. Um so, when people are like, "Well, what what is this fee for?
And then what's this fee?" Just kind of makes it all the same. Um also, aligning late fee accruals to industry standards. So, at this time, we um the basically the late fees escalate every 15 days, um which is really quick for um turnaround on our end, and also just um really quick for the public.
Um all of the sudden, they wake up, and they're like, "Wait, I have two late fees, and it's only been 2 weeks." Um so, just slowing that down a little bit, making it a little bit more standardized. Um removing direct reference to sending to collections, we're going to refer instead to um what remedies um we are permitted under BMC um under the BMC, rather than to collections.
Um some formatting changes for clarity, and then um clarifying which charges are per unit versus per license. So, this is what we had, um and then you can see in the blue, they're just a lot of uh text updates.
You can see, we have identified per unit on a lot of those fees, um changed from changed the past due periods, um and then just reorganized it a little bit in order to make things clearer for the public and for staff when they're trying to assess fees.
Um and then I think the only thing I in addition to that that I just wanted to cover, when we passed um the new fees in 2023, um late fees weren't part of the accounting of supporting this program. So, um if there are any issues as far as um you know, charging late fees uh little less frequently, or I guess less escalating them less quickly, um it won't necessarily have an impact to our program, because um we don't collect that many late fees anyway.
Um and then in addition to that, um we have covered the program basics with our actual program fees, rather than late fees. Um and you can see there, too. Um those are our fees for inspections and missed appointments.
So, we did increase those. Um so, it feels like it's not necessary that we rely on those late fees. Um and then I was as uh Mr. Lyon's uh referenced, I was just going to go over briefly some of the projects that we're also working on.
Um so, since I've been back, uh we've been formalizing many of our policies and processes. So, um what do we do when we come across uninhabitable units? How do we um proceed, making sure that tenants are not living in unsuitable situations, um and also, how do we require that, and how do we move forward?
Um what qualifies as passed with conditions? I think we need to be um clear across all both public and private inspectors, what is allowable to be passed, and what should be a failed failed with a reinspection.
Um we do encounter unfit sleeping areas from time to time. Um if people are sleeping in closets or rooms without windows. Um so, how are we going to make sure that those renters aren't turned out to the street, but also how they're how we can make sure that they're sleeping in somewhere safe.
Um the code also allows us to inspect up to 100% of units if we have um reason to believe that some of that the owners' properties um are have a lot of deficiencies or are unsafe. Um so, we're developing exactly how we're going to go about doing that when we encounter those situations, so that when we do, we can do it efficiently and um thoroughly.
Uh and then inspector audits, this is um again about consistency. Uh we want to make sure that all of our inspectors are evaluating things to the same standards as each other. So, um we will we're developing how we're going to review their results, um and ensuring that everyone is uh performing to the standards with which we hope they are.
Um and then the compliance process and templates. So, um we have developed not only a process of when we'll be sending things to compliance, but also the um the templates for each official notice that we have to send, and ensuring that those meet the requirements of the BMC.
So, that when we do send things to compliance, which should be happening, you know, much more efficiently now, um that they will be going through without any issue. So, those are some of the policies and processes that we're working on.
Um we're also doing communications and events. So, we've developed a new flyer for tenants um that is explaining what the rental registration and safety inspection program is, and how they can engage with it.
Um we have updated the renter resources flyer, um so that um landlords can give this out to tenants with resources for them, um as far as their legal resources, um and financial resources. Fair housing month presentation, we are going to be doing um a landlord-tenant law presentation um on April 23rd, and um I hope you all can be there.
Uh well, we're going to cover some of the newer um regulations for landlords and tenants, um because we've got a lot of feedback that um there's a lot that have passed in recent years, and people are a little bit overwhelmed, so we want to respond to that.
Um and then we also did um some tabling at Western um housing fair. So, that's some of our outreach that we've been doing. And then, um code changes, we're working on some of the code changes in line with the policy updates that we've been doing um, in addition to um, the um, audit process as well as um, changing a little bit how we do um, certification posting um, and then we're working on having the inspection checklist online.
That will make it a lot more efficient for um, private inspectors to be able to post their results um, and we can also make sure that again with that kind of consistency making sure that we are looking over being able to look at the results and see um, what it is that um, they're finding deficiencies in and if that compares to our city inspectors.
Um, data review this is something that has um, been really interesting just being able to take some time to look at um, pass and fail rates um, and see sort of where what patterns and and themes we're seeing in the data over the last few years.
Um, the inter- we have an interactive map. This will have um, people will have the ability to click on different properties and see their inspection history um, and if they are in fact registered with the program and if they have a passing inspection.
Um, so hopefully that will be really helpful for the public and then the tenant advisory group um, this is something that is impending and um, I'm sure we will hear more about that next month. So, um, happy to answer any questions.
Committee, are there any questions? Um, opening up to rest of the council. Any questions about the uh, new fee structure? Okay. I'd be looking for a recommendation cuz this is a vote to approve. Council member Hamel?
I'll move to approve. Okay. Um, just want to thank you for the work. It makes sense to update some of this. I did have one question. Um, if we are taking out um, sending something very delinquent to collections, could you cover what the collection methodology would be should someone decide not to pay?
Sorry about that. Um, so I'm just going to pull up the Bellingham Municipal Code. We um, basically if fees are not paid um, then the license becomes um, it's basically a uh, I'm losing my words. I apologize.
Um, so if fees are left unpaid instead of sending them to compliance we basically say that they're um, out of compliance with our program and then we can revoke the license and then um, go through more steps with them as far as getting them back into um, compliance.
And I think the one thing especially with um, inspection fees is that um, inspections fees are only charged after someone has a has a passed inspection. So, to send somebody to collections once we already know that they have a safe home that they're renting, we're trying to make sure that we're not I guess what I'm saying is we used to we used to send them to collections and then revoke their license immediately.
Um, this is a process of of rather than sending them to collections we go through like a more of an I'll I feel like I'm making a hash of this. >> [laughter] >> Um, what Julia's referencing is the fact that we have the ability to uh, revocates somebody's license if they're not in compliance with the program.
So, instead of trying to pursue uh, and chase after a fee and go through a big protracted process, often times 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.
So, it's a it's a grounds for revocation of their license. And so that's been much more effective. Thank you. I wanted that to be shared with the public cuz when people hear we're 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.
So, thank you for sharing that. Um, so we had a vote uh, for approval. So, um, I uh, all those in favor say I. I. I. All opposed? Um, great. I will bring this forward and thank you again. Wonderful to meet you directly.
Um, so end of the committee's back to council president. Thank you very much. So, we'll take just a brief moment to queue up the next meeting and that will be the committee of the whole. So, just a moment.