Higgins, Murphy Discuss Pilot Debt Collection Program

At October’s Quorum Court meeting, JP Randy Higgins (R, Dist. 2) discussed the details of a plan to begin to quickly address the County’s unpaid circuit court fines/fees as well as what he said was $5 million in unpaid property taxes from Tax Collector Sherry Koonce’s records.

The topic of uncollected County debt has been a Quorum Court focus for at least a couple of months. The process requires debtor data to be submitted to the Department of Finance & Administration by mid-December so tax returns can be garnished in the spring for those individuals who are due to get a tax return.

Pilot Program First, Then Feedback

While discussing his withdrawal of Ordinance 20-25, Higgins said he had just learned that the County could begin a pilot program through the County Attorney’s office that would allow us to take advantage of the time constraint of getting the debtor data in by mid-December this year.

That development caused him to pull Ordinance 20-25 back, he said, even though it was just written after last week’s Committee meetings.

Later, Higgins said he intended “to table it until such time that we get feedback from the pilot program…. Really, we don’t need feedback until sometime .. this time next year, maybe a little earlier so that we can determine what direction we want to go for the 2022 year.”

Higgins emphasized

the more I have gotten into this, I feel like we’re not prepared…. We need some feedback from the executive branch and so far really it’s been the Quorum Court driving this….

To your point, crossing the line with the executive branch, we don’t really need to get into the weeds, we need to support the executive branch and recommendations they’re making to us.

Program Timelines

When JP Jerry Boyer (R, Dist. 12) asked how quickly the pilot program could be operational, County Attorney Phil Murphy said

We’ve always been preparing for the option that somewhere in-County, in-house we would need to support a person that was doing this role … we’ve already ordered the necessary documents and have got the ball rolling on getting all the social security numbers that we’ll need.

… I would expect that the first week or two between now and (November) 7 or so, most of our time will be spent combing data and going through the spreadsheet that we have as far as the list of debtors — really trying to figure out who we think are going to be money well spent on sending letters out to.

Hopefully by November 14 we’ll begin mailing letters out to the debtors. That way, by January 1 anyone that has requested a hearing (to appeal) will have had that hearing and we’ll upload the data on January 2nd, the first working day in the new year.

Murphy added, “through the debt set-aside garnishment program, we’ll be able to provide monthly updates on what we’re receiving,” and suggested that he provide a monthly spreadsheet report to the Courts & Public Safety Committee.

Attorney Acts as Sheriff’s Agent

When Boyer asked if an Ordinance was required to begin the pilot program, Murphy explained

The Quorum Court has put the responsibility of collecting fines and fees with the Sheriff. That duty would remain with the Sheriff. It’s just that the Sheriff, as one of my clients — I would be operating as an agent and assisting him.

Cost

Murphy estimated the program’s cost through his office to be around $9,000 for letters and postage (via a third-party vendor), with labor provided through his staff. He added that the costs can be paid from the “other professional services” category in the Judge’s 2020 budget which still has a substantial balance of unspent 2020 funds.

Because the County Attorney’s office has adequate funding and is acting as the Sheriff’s agent, no action was required from the Quorum Court to begin the pilot debt collection program through the County Attorney’s office.