The Washington County Board met last night and they heard from Bruce DeLashmit of Bellwether, LLC out of Bloomington, a company that works with counties on their various fees.  The County has not raised fees for many departments for many years and they wanted to find out what is involved and how to go about it.  There are state statutes on how high some of these fees can be and the county handling it was not going to work out, so they approved of Bellwether putting a proposal together for $12,000.  They will gather all the information from the County Clerk & Recorder’s office and the Sheriff’s Department.  The Sheriff’s Department handles the security for the court and the bond process.  The fees will be determined by the labor and time involved, as well as the technological advancements and costs incurred.  The people that will have to pay the increased fees are anyone using the services, not the general public of the county.  The next step is to have all the information ready near the end of the month.  Then Bellwether will go over it all and put together proposed fee changes for the Board to approve.  DeLashmit said that if the County doesn’t make 5 times the cost of $12,000 in new revenue, he won’t charge them.  He also recommended that the County use a collection program through the State Comptroller’s office that is free.  A list of people that owe the County is sent to the Comptroller’s office and anytime those people get money, such as a tax return, the money will go to the County to pay the outstanding fees or costs.