Highlands School Board appoints new solicitor as collector of overdue property taxes

Former Highlands School District Solicitor Ira Weiss said his firm wasn’t given a chance to defend its record collecting delinquent property taxes for the district before being ousted from the job.

The school board voted 7-1 on Monday to appoint Andrews & Price as delinquent property tax collector, effective Tuesday.

Andrews & Price replaces Weiss’ firm, Weiss Burkardt Kramer, which it replaced as solicitor in April.

Weiss in March said his firm chose to withdraw from the district as solicitor. At that time, Weiss said his firm was willing to continue as delinquent property tax collector, a post the district appointed it to in January 2018.

Board member Bob Betts voted against appointing Andrews & Price as delinquent property tax collector. Debbie Beale was absent.

The board did not discuss the change before voting. No terms of the arrangement were disclosed during the meeting.

District officials have not responded to requests for information on how much the district is paying Andrews & Price for its services as solicitor. The Tribune-Review filed a Right-to-Know request with the district for that information. In a response dated Thursday, the district said it needs another 30 days to respond to the newspaper’s request because of staffing limitations and a response was not possible within the required time period.

District officials previously praised Weiss Burkardt Kramer’s work collecting delinquent property taxes, for which it was paid by keeping a 10% penalty added to delinquent accounts.

In May 2019, Business Manager Lori Byron said the firm’s collections for the 2018-19 school year through March 2019 exceeded the budgeted amount by about $196,000. The district anticipated the increased revenue to continue into the 2019-20 school year as a result of the firm’s collection efforts.

Weiss said his firm organized the district’s records and was collecting an average of $100,000 a month for the district.

From Jan. 1 through April, the firm collected about $688,000 in delinquent taxes, according to Weiss. The firm collected about $106,000 in January, almost $250,000 in February, about $268,000 in March and $64,000 in April.

“There was never any complaint by the district. Payment plans were established for those who could not pay in full at one time and there was a system for hardship cases as well,” he said. “The board and administration expressed satisfaction with the service and acknowledged the revenue stream for the district.”

Weiss said his firm was not given a chance to present its record to the school board. He said his firm will cooperate in the transition.

“I am proud of our record with the delinquent collection program we instituted at Highlands and, given the reports of the budget situation, the district will need to maintain this source of revenue,” Weiss said. “Changing collectors in mid-year and mid-month is not sound practice, but it appears this is the direction which this administration and board wishes to go.”

During a presentation on the district’s preliminary $48.99 million 2020-21 budget, which the board approved Monday, Byron said the district is expecting local revenue sources, including delinquent property taxes, to be reduced because of the economic impacts of the covid-19 pandemic.

The district is expecting collection of delinquent property taxes to fall by 30%, from $2 million to $1.4 million, Byron said.

The budget as approved would not increase property taxes, but has a $5 million deficit that would be covered from the district’s reserves.

The budget is available for review on the district’s website. The school board plans to vote on the final budget on June 22.