[ back ]
Full-time Chardon tax collector debated
(by Joseph Koziol Jr. - December 15, 2010)
Full-time Chardon tax collector debated
By JOSEPH KOZIOL JR.
Chardon City Council was hesitant last week to create a full-time position to aid in the collection of municipal income taxes.
Mayor Philip King asked Finance Director Jeff Smock to wait on his request to convert what is now a part-time employee to full time until a more comprehensive plan for new employees is presented.
Mr. Smock, who asked for the increased hours for the position, said it would help to enforce the city's laws for what is its largest, single source of revenue. Council created the part-time position two years ago in an effort to collect from tax delinquents. It is now a three-day-a-week position.
At the time the position was created, council anticipated that money collected from delinquent accounts could pay for it.
The city is in the process of switching from the Central Collection Agency to the Regional Income Tax Agency as agent for tax collections.
Although RITA is expected to be more aggressive in collections than CCA, Mr. Smock said, the full-time position is needed.
"The bottom line is, it's not all about how much money we find; it's about enforcement," Mr. Smock said "If they know we're out there beating the bushes, it helps with the enforcement. It makes other people file and pay when they may not."
He said he would have no trouble finding 80 hours a week of work for the position, particularly with getting landlords to comply with tenant lists. He said there is a "constant in-and-out of tenants" in the city, and trying to track them is a difficult job. "She could spend eight hours a day on nothing but looking for people," he said.
Mr. King, however, said he's not sure this is the time to be taking on another full-time position with benefits because of the economy and the city's financial situation.
Councilman Robert Cromwell said he also has doubts, saying RITA will be using its resources to chase the same delinquents.
Mr. Smock said there is no substitute for having someone on site each day to deal with tracking delinquents.
Mr. King asked whether the full-time position would recoup enough in taxes to pay for it.
Mr. Smock said that is hard to determine, because some people may be paying simply because they know someone in the city is dedicated to searching them out. "You can't quantify it that way," he said. "You can't."
Councilwoman Nancy McArthur said it may be time to consider the full-time position. She said the employee is just starting to make progress and three days a week limits their ability to make further progress.
But, Mr. King said, he is concerned there may be other positions that may be needed in the city and he could not agree to create one that only looks at income tax. He said he would rather see an employee who could handle several duties, such as payroll. He said the city has only one payroll person and when they are out the work cannot be done. "I have a difficult time throwing a full-time employee at it, trying to put out a fire," he said.
Mr. Smock said he did not see one more important. "I thinks it's more than justified to devote a full-time person to push collections and fighting people when that's the single biggest revenue that we have," he said.
Mr. Cromwell said he suggested creating the position and he only did so with the idea that measurable results could be seen. Those results, he said, would show that collections brought about because of the position would more than pay for the salary. It also should look at how much above the salary has been collected. "If we can't measure it, then now I'm really concerned," he said.
Mr. Smock said while measurable results were part of the original discussions, "collecting dollars isn't the whole story here." He said he believed that the position was responsible for collection "well over $100,000" so far.
Mr. King asked that the issue be brought back in a couple months after RITA has shown what it can do for the city in collecting delinquent taxes. He said a multi-tasking person would be better than just one dedicated to a single job.
[ back ]
