City Holds Last Minute Workshop on Draconian Appeal Fees

(KINGDOM OF SAN RAMON) --- With 24 hours' notice, the City of San Ramon held a workshop where the entire city staff discussed the most draconian Appeal Fees in the nation.

As we had previously covered, the City of San Ramon criminalizes our right to appeal their decision. The way they do it is set the appeal fees to infinity. As we previously reported, the City of San Ramon charges a $4,500 deposit, calculated at $330/hour until you run out of cash and withdraw your appeal.

Interestingly, this was based on a study by a consultant costing ~$ 200 K to tell the city that their cost to work on appeal is ~$7000. The city claims it will not bankrupt a resident. But they don't have an example, as, surprisingly, after the criminalization of the Appeal process, nobody filed an appeal.

Residents were given 24 hours' notice of the meeting, and the entire staff was present. Only five of us showed up: Former Mayor Greg Carr, Joyce Carr, Brian Swanson, Bob People, and me.

As per the history of the appeals before, when it was $300, like all other cities in the Bay Area, averaging about $280, as per public comment by Former Council member Jim Blikenstaff, who has spoken on it 5 to 6 times over the past year.

Interestingly, Council Member Rubio suggested that residents could collect approximately 4,500 signatures to obtain a waiver. That too, within a one-month time frame, to get a discount on infinite fees.

Later, Greg Carr shared his concern about a resident who lives next to the park and is now surrounded by a rental apartment complex he never signed up for.

I shared concerns about the lack of a limit on appeal fees, and that once a person is bankrupt, the city can tell them they didn't pay enough to continue the appeal.

I also addressed council member Rubio's 4500-signature collection in 30 days as practically impossible. The fees should be waived if the member brings 20 signatures as the minimum requirement to be on the ballot, or 100 as the minimum requirement to initiate a recall of the council member.

Brian Swanson raised concerns about short notice and the fact that only 8 seats were kept, without a recording of the meeting, which raised questions about accessibility and poor communication with the community. Additionally, he spoke about his own concern about the appeal fees.

Here is the short video recorded by a resident of Former Mayor Carr.

Last but not least, the amount paid to Matrix to study appeal costs, at least $200,000, was far higher than the combined cost of all the actual appeal work the city carried out.