Food trucks and events serving food will pay more after Santa Barbara County’s Environmental Health Services announced changes to the costs of its annual health permits.

The county Board of Supervisors approved the new rate structure for health permits on Tuesday, allowing EHS to fully recoup the cost of providing services funded by the fees.

Mouhanad Hammami, the director of county Public Health, told the board that the changes would not affect its programs or services. The adjustments would allow the department to recover costs as the cost of its services has changed.

“(It) is an administrative action necessary to ensure adequate funding levels are maintained for existing programs and services,” Hammami said.

The changes will affect 36 fees for services provided by EHS. Out of those 36 rates, 20 will see an increase, and 12 will decrease. There are also three new permit costs and one that will not be adjusted. Two older fees will be removed.

Under the new plan, annual health permits for restaurants between 1,500 and 3,000 square feet would decrease from $842 to $823 per year.

Mobile food vendors will see a fee increase from $468 to $542 per year.

The EHS also compared some of the new fees to those of surrounding counties, such as Ventura, Sonoma and Monterey. The department found that the new rates for restaurants and mobile food facilities are still lower than the median for other counties.

An outside review of the EHS prices revealed that 99 out of the department’s 122 fees do not fully recover the cost of providing the service since the last time they were changed. The last time the rates were adjusted was six years ago, in 2019, according to Hammami.

The new rate system was analyzed by an outside firm that looked at the current rates and calculated how much time it took staff to provide the services and the cost.

Some of the new fees being introduced by the department will cover industries that were not covered under the current structure, such as cottage food or private home kitchens.

EHS staff also recommended that the department be allowed to evaluate its costs annually and return to the board every year to adjust its rates as needed.  

Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino expressed his support for the changes. He said he appreciated that the department analyzed its system and didn’t just increase all of its rates across the board.

“We got rid of some (fees). We brought some new ones. The fact that you reach out and did all the comparisons (to other) counties, it really helps us,” Lavagnino said.

Supervisor Bob Nelson expressed concern about raising the fees and the impact it may have on nonprofit organizations and charities that host picnics and other food-related events to raise donations.

Under the new plan, one-time events will pay $716 for a health permit compared with the previous cost of $384. Nonprofit organizations holding events still will pay $384.

Nelson said some of his constituents call off fundraisers because they cannot afford the fees. In other cases, he said, they just hold the event without the permit.

“It still happens with no regulation and no oversight,” Nelson said. “So, (it’s) kind of making criminals of good people trying to do the right thing, but they are balancing the greater good in that case.”

Nelson proposed dropping fees for nonprofit organizations to zero, but Lavagnino disagreed with the idea because of the cost of sending employees out for inspections.

Instead, Lavagnino proposed approving the increases and having county staff return in April with research on how to modify the fees to benefit nonprofit organizations.

In the end, the board voted to approve the changes in a 3-2 vote, with Nelson and Supervisor Roy Lee voting against it.