HomeMy WebLinkAboutRes 015 - Convenience Fee - Debit Cards'6)
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Deschutes County Board of Commissioners
1300 NW Wall St., Suite 200, Bend, OR 97701-1960
(541) 388-6570 - Fax (541) 385-3202 - www.deschutes.or$
AGENDA REQUEST & STAFF REPORT
For Board Business Meeting of February 24, 2010
Please see directions for completing this document on the next page.
DATE: February 18, 2009
FROM: Marty Wynne Finance 541-388-6559
TITLE OF AGENDA ITEM:
Consideration of Signature of Resolution No. 2010-015, Adopting an Emergengy Fee for Deschutes
County regarding the Use of Debit Cards.
PUBLIC HEARING ON THIS DATE? No
BACKGROUND AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS:
The Clerk's office and dog licensing are going to be accepting debit cards. This is a convenience fee
(maximum $3.00, current amount to be charged $1.00) to cover the cost of setup and the merchant fees.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
RECOMMENDATION & ACTION REQUESTED:
Signature of Resolution No. 2010-015.
ATTENDANCE: Cheryl Circle, Christina Edleston, Nancy Blankenship
DISTRIBUTION OF DOCUMENTS:
None
REVIEWED
LEGAL COUNSEL
For Recording Stamp Only
BEFORE THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF DESCHUTES COUNTY, OREGON
A Resolution A Resolution Adopting an
Emergency Fee For a $3.00 Fee for Debit
Card Use by the Public When Paying County
Service and Permit Fees.
and
*
*
RESOLUTION NO. 2010-015
WHEREAS, various departments of Deschutes County charge fees for services and permits;
WHEREAS, several of these departments desire to allow members of the public to pay for the
County services and permits by using a debit card; and
WHEREAS, the County will incur costs related to installation, maintenance of equipment and
processing of debit card transactions that should be paid by each individual utilizing this form of
payment; and
WHEREAS, the fee as set forth in Exhibit "A" reflects the actual cost of providing the debit
card convenience services; and
WHEREAS, it is necessary to adopt and amend the fee schedules of the County in accordance
with Chapter 4.12 of the Deschutes County Code; and
WHEREAS, notice of an open public comment period on the proposed fee was published in
The Bulletin on February 3, 2010; and
WHEREAS, the establishment of this fee was open for public comment from February 3, 2010
through February 16, 2010 and no written comments were submitted; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF DESCHUTES
COUNTY, OREGON, as follows:
Section 1. That the fee set forth in Exhibit "A," attached hereto and, by this referee ze,
incorporated herein, is hereby adopted as an emergency fee for Deschutes County, Oregon.
Section 2. The fee adopted in Section 1 of this Resolution is effective upon approval.
PAGE 1 OF 2 — RESOLUTION NO. 2010-015
Dated this of , 2010 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
OF DESCHUTES COUNTY, OREGON
ATTEST:
DENNIS R. LUKE, Chair
ALAN UNGER, Vice Chair
Recording Secretary TAMMY BANEY, Commissioner
PAGE 2 OF 2 — RESOLUTION NO. 2010-015
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DEBIT CARD ACCEPTANCE PROPOSAL
Background:
For the citizens of Deschutes County to record a document, obtain a
marriage license or purchase a dog license there are only two
methods of payment we currently accept, (1) Check (2) Cash. Today
with the usage of credit cards and debit cards as a common method
of payment, we are increasingly receiving requests from our
customers to have these payment options available. The issue of
not being able to accept credit cards or debit cards as a payment
method, results in an inconvenience for our customers and
additional staff time. As is quite often the occurrence, a
customer will have to leave and return with cash to record the
document, obtain a marriage license or to purchase the dog license.
There have been instances when the customer has not wanted to
expand the extra effort and time and will not return to purchase
the dog license.
The County Clerk and Dog Licensing functions has not utilized the
acceptance of credit and debit card payments due to the costs
involved. The payment card industry does not allow the assessing
of convenience fees when credit card payments are accepted as a
method of payment.
Solution:
Our merchant processing, the processing of credit card and debit
card payments, is handled through Bank of the Cascades under our
banking services contract. Effective October 2009 Bank of the
Cascades partnered with a new merchant processor (Elavon) and is
now able to offer the County the option of acceptance of debit
cards without the credit card portion. When utilizing only the
debit card payment option, the payment card industry allows a
convenience fee to be assessed to the consumer to cover the costs
involved.
Recommendation:
We request the approval to proceed with the agreement to accept
debit card payments. Based on the costs of equipment, training,
installation, and estimated usage over a four year period, we would
need to assess a convenience fee of approximately $1.00 per
transaction in order to cover our estimated costs. We recommend
reviewing this fee structure periodically to determine if the
convenience fee amount paid by the customer is adequately covering
costs. If the number of transactions processed utilizing a debit
card increases over time, we could potentially recommend the fee be
reduced.