Treasurer's office looks to contract out mailing statements

By Charlene Sims, Journal staff

LCJeditor@icloud.com

MOUND CITY - Linn County Treasurer Joannie Reed met with Linn County Commissioners Alison Hamilton and Jim  Johnson on Monday, June 22, to tell them that her office was planning to hire a company to mail out the tax statements rather than have the treasurer's office handle do the mailing. Commissioner Jason Hightower was not present at the meeting.

“I hope it’s going to be best for the county,” Reed said. “It’s going to save us some money in my budget.”

Reed said that as far as she knew the treasurer’s office had always mailed out all of the tax statements. She said she and former county treasurer Janet Kleweno had talked about this approach, wondering what the costs and the time frame would be.

Reed said while it wasn’t set in stone yet, she had received a quote from a representative of Professional Office Services. That company will basically provide everything. They will provide all of the envelopes and return envelopes. Reed said all she would have to do is give the company a file of everybody that needs to receive a statement.

Reed told the commissioners that the quote is just under $10,000 for the company. She said that last year the treasurer’s office spent $9,591 just in postage. Reed pointed out that some extra mailings had to be sent last year due to issues with the levy.

In a phone conversation later, Reed said she was going to make sure that she budgeted for any extra costs this year from the company. The company does charge a 25 cent fee per statement to check with the post office to make sure the address is good. Reed said that her office gets a lot of mail returned because of incorrect addresses.

Reed also said that the company has a contract with the post office and that helps a little with postage rates and increases.

Hamilton asked if a QR code could be added to the online statement. Reed said she would talk to the company about that.

Reed said that with all of the changes and turnover that her office had this year, this approach will be good for her office.

Reed told the commissioners that, at present, the treasurer’s office received payments through three different vendors and she is working on cutting that down. She said she was looking at changing the online real estate taxes to PayIt, which is the company that already handles online tags. She said that it would not cost the county anything to switch companies.

During the phone call, Reed said she wanted to make sure that the treasurer’s office had control over who was paying online. For example, it might be confusing if a person paid taxes for a property that was already in foreclosure.

The fees are all the same. The charge is a $2 processing fee, and then for those paying with a credit card it’s 2.5%, the same as residents are already paying. If a person is paying by an electronic check, it’s $1.25 plus a $2 service fee. That is the same as it is with the company the county is using now.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Learned from Public Works Administrator Jesse Walton that two pieces of equipment, a motor grader and a dump truck, break down last week. He said he should be getting the estimates for the repairs later in the day and they can be presented next week.

• Approved $14,432 to purchase a guardrail and posts from Welborn Sales to replace a guardrail outside of Parker that was damaged in a ditch fire. Johnson asked if insurance would be involved. Walton said no, the county had just received a call about the damage and nobody seems to know who started the fire.

• Learned from Walton that some road crew staff would be working overtime this weekend to catch up.

• Went into executive session for interviews with the two commissioners, human resources representative Rose Mohler, County Clerk Chasity Ware and Shawn Tuggle for a total of 30 minutes. No action was taken as a result of the closed-door sessions.

• Went into executive sessions for a total of 30 minutes for an interview with J.D. Handly with two commissioners, Ware, and Mohler.  No action was taken as a result of the closed-door sessions.

• Went into executive session for interview with the two commissioners, Mohler, Ware, and Mike Nation for 30 minute. No action was taken as a result of the closed-door session.

  
  

• Postponed decision on 4-H building rental until next week when Hightower will be present.

• Went into executive session for 10 minute for attorney-client privilege with two commissioners and County Counselor Jacklyn Paletta.