HomeMy WebLinkAbout20130056.tiff RECEIVED
Minutes DEC 2 6 2012
WELD COUNTY COUNCIL WELD COUNTYCOMMISSIONERSNovember 26, 2012
The Weld County Council met in regular session in full conformity with the Weld County
Home Rule Charter, Monday, November 26, 2012, 6:30 p.m. at the Southwest
Complex, Longmont, Colorado.
ROLL CALL: The meeting was called to order by President Charles Tucker and on roll
call the following members were present, constituting a quorum of members thereof:
Councilman Charles Tucker, President
Councilwoman Perry Buck
Councilwoman Marge Klein
Also present: John Lefebvre, Weld County Treasurer and Karleen Watson, Council
Secretary.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Councilwoman Buck made a motion to approve the
November 26, 2012 agenda with the addition of the discussion of interviews under New
Business. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Klein and carried.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Councilwoman Klein made a motion to approve the
October 15, 2012 minutes. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Buck and
carried.
APPROVAL OF DOCUMENTATION: Councilwoman Buck made a motion to approve
the 2012 3rd Quarter Report to the People. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman
Klein and carried.
PUBLIC COMMENT: There was no public comment.
PROGRAM REVIEW:
Mr. Lefebvre provided a hand out which listed the Treasurer duties, goals and
accomplishments for 2012, goals for 2013 and interesting statistics. His office is
responsible for collecting property taxes which were $386 million in 2012.
Approximately 99.97% of taxes have been collected. A million uncollected taxes which
includes Abound Solar with about $800,000. All uncollected taxes are either in
bankruptcy or personal property taxes. Personal property are not seized until after
October 1. Taxes collected go to the underlying authorities of more than 300. This
makes up about 20% of the work the County Assessor and Treasurer work together. Mr.
Lefebvre spoke about the tax debt due from Abound Solar. County is second in line to
the Federal government for any money paid out from the bankruptcy court. Oil and gas
operations pay $4 in taxes for every $1 made. Property defaults are about $200,000
and each year the County writes off $18,000 to $100,000. Oil and gas is taxed on
production which does not include equipment or trucks and does not include the
companies that provide services to oil and gas companies. Taxes from oil and gas
make up for 50% of the collected taxes in the county. County is two years in arrears in
collecting taxes from oil and gas. The Treasurer then invests the difference (between
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Weld County Council Minutes
November 26,2012
Page 2 of 3
about $100 and $200 million) throughout the year. The Treasurer distributes to school
districts 15 times a year and other underlying authorities 12 times a year so that schools
get money faster. As the County Treasurer, he chairs the Weld County Retirement
Board, which controls $135 million in investments for retirees.
Mr. Lefebvre then discussed the Treasurer's office goals and accomplishments.
1) Incoming calls to their office have been reduced by 20% because they are
producing real time data on the internet that can be accessed. This allows for
printing of statements of taxes due which reduces mistakes and
miscommunication. This enables him to keep staff at a smaller number and has
had a reduction in employees since 2000. A Certificate of Taxes Due is what is
due at that moment in time. This can be paid online instead of being a manual
process. His office has been rated the number one Treasurer's office list of ten.
2) His office first emailed tax notices in 2012 to individuals that came to the website
and signed up. They will increase this year to 2,500. They have expanded
electronic billing from 20,000 to 25,000 bills. His office sent out just over 25,000
tax bills as a spreadsheet saving the printing and mailing charges on 25,000 bills.
3) They are listing all mobile homes available for immediate sale on the web site
and promoting the sale of same through news releases. They collected all mobile
home outstanding property taxes for the prior year before they were transferred.
They also streamlined the process by posting all of the mobile homes eligible for
title transfer at the same time as the other mobile homes that were distrained.
They also sent by regular mail the notice of potential loss of property at the same
time as the certified mailing.
4) Delinquent notices have been moved up to early July with other delinquent
notices rather than September with the result being distraining 800+ mobile
homes in 2011 to 438 in 2012, and saving taxpayers over $16,000 in fees and
advertising costs. In 2011, 500 went to tax lien sale and this year it was just over
200 that went to tax lien sale.
5) They have expanded ACH distributions to include further credits and saving
accounts.
6) They have new RFP for banking services (four total banks are sent RFPs).
7) They have moved all historic tax sale and tax lien images to the internet.
8) His office began posting all legal notices on the Treasure's website.
Mr. Lefebvre's hand out listed the Treasurer Goals for 2013 and Mr. Lefebvre provided
some interesting statistics. Electronic payments have increased since the first year of
2009. Total payments increased by about $10,000. In 2012, Vestas paid over $1 million
online which skewed the averages higher but only changed the number of payers by
one.
In 2012 his office had 5,000 properties go to tax lien sale but this has decreased to
$4,000. Actual property with improvements has not been deeded for the last 20 years.
The redemption period is three years on property and most are redeemed. Property
that is considered improvements only does not have a three year redemption period.
Also, 1,791 tax certificates went to sale which is a great improvement. Average
premium percentage of face value is 6.10%. The Treasurer's office has issued more
deeds in recent years than in past.
Weld County Council Minutes
November 26,2012
Page 3 of 3
PAYMENT OF BILLS: Councilwoman Klein made a motion to pay bills as listed below:
Mileage for Councilman Charles Tucker $ 87.94
Mileage for Councilwoman Perry Buck $ 48.49
Mileage for Councilwoman Marge Klein $ 101.95
The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Buck and passed.
NEW BUSINESS:
Invitations: Councilwoman Marge Klein will attend the 2012 Employee
Recognition on 12/5.
Coordinator reports:
Councilman Charles Tucker attended the Greeley water works presentation.
The Elected Officials luncheon was attended by Councilwoman Marge Klein.
Councilwoman Klein also attended the Town/County Dinner and the Wildlife Sanctuary
Wine and Cheese Event.
*Interviews: The Council discussed placing an advertisement of vacancy for
District 2 due to the resignation of Ginny Buzcek. The Council discussed that the
Secretary ask County Attorney Bruce Barker about the replacement being chosen by
the existing council or the elected council. After which, dates will be decided as to when
applications will be due and interviews scheduled.
ADJOURNMENT: By acclamation, the meeting w a urine. . 8:1 : p .
November 26, 2012 Council Pr ,ident Charle- Tucker
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Council Secretary Karleen Watson
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