001It is uh 12:00. Uh we have a quorum of the board. This meeting is called into order. Uh we didn't have anybody sign up for public comment today, so we're going to go straight into uh update on the district's delinquent tax collections. Uh if y'all would like to come up. [Music] I have Robert Mott with me. He is a counsel with our firm and he is the Mott in the the super long law firm name. So >> happy to be a resident of Rena. So that's right. >> Yes. Yes. Along with Diane White, your your chief appraiser and tax assessor collector and Hayden Bartley, an attorney with my firm that helps me do all the the heavy lifting around here. He's actually going to be back later this week to attend a docket on Thursday.
002Yeah. So, we have our delinquent tax collection report, fairly similar to the one I gave earlier this year, um but we're at a different part of the tax calendar, so it's going to look a little bit differently. Um, so note as we go through these that these are the delinquent taxes only. Uh, Miss White and her staff do a fantastic job of collecting the currents. They're collecting around 98% of the tax levy each year and I'm getting around 2% of what's left over. So that's great news. Your residents are taking care of their taxes. They're paying their taxes. They're taking pride in their property. And so we're getting that 2% year after year. The 2024 taxes are included in this report. They were not included in the last report. Those were turned over to us
003July 1 of this year. So, we've done a lot of work since then, making our calls, sending letters, doing title research, trying to contact property owners, lean holders, heirs, etc. So, let's get into the report. The first chart I have for you is the accounts by status. And this gives you a breakdown of the entire delinquent role through the 2024 tax year. And we've categorized all of the accounts and where they are in the collection process. So it gives us a bird's eye view. You'll notice the largest part is the litigation section at 34%. So those are accounts where we have tried to contact the taxpayer. communications broke down or they were refused to pay or got into a payment agreement, defaulted the payment agreement or they're no longer around, those types of situations. So,
004we found it necessary to file a delinquent suit. Um, once those parties are served, we'll be able to seek a judgment from the district court and proceed to selling the property on the courthouse step should they not come forward and set up a payment plan or or pay off the taxes or sell the property, etc. We work very hard with the taxpayer throughout the whole process. At the end of the day, we want them to keep their property and maintain their interest in their property and we want to collect the money. It's the goal is not to have tax sales. So, we work very hard to get them get them over to Dian's office and take care of everything. Next largest section is the action pending at 29%. So, this is predominantly going to be
005your 2024 delinquencies that we started working on July 1. So since July 1, we've sent uh a mass mailing and then after that mass mailing, we work the roll top down and we give everybody a phone call and then we make our way back through it and try to reach out to them a second time. So we do an enormous amount of research in this phase to try to ascertain where the taxpayers are, if they've had an address change, however we can reach out to them if we can't get a hold of them and get them on a payment schedule or get the taxes paid. We do title research in our Houston office to find out are they still the owners? Has the property changed hands? Are is there a mortgage lean? Um what's going
006on? Uh are they deceased? Is there a probate filing? Are there heirs that we can identify and contact? So much research is going on in this phase. And when those communications break down or unable to find someone to pay the taxes, that's when they'll go into the suit or litigation phase. After that, we have the deferral section. Those are taxpayers who are 65 or older and have elected to defer payment of their delinquent taxes. Um, or they have a disability and they can only do this on their resident's homestead. So, they're only entitled to one tax deferment at a time and they can pay at any time during this tax deferment. However, we cannot enforce collections on them. We don't give calls. We don't send letters. Um, they are not sued. Um, so they their
007property is protected while they have this deferment status. Um, however, they can pay at any time. They can set up a payment agreement. They can do quarterly payments. Um, and then the taxes ultimately do become paid when they no longer use that property as their resident's homestead. Next up is partial pay. These are accounts where we've contacted the taxpayer, set them up on a payment agreement, and we're allowing them to make monthly installment payments till the taxes are paid in full. Next up, we have our dollar range chart. So, this just gives me an idea where the dollars are owed. Like I said, we work the roll top down to maximize our efforts for the district. Note that the 10,000 the 10,000 and up section at 33%. Many of these are in that tax deferment
008status. Um otherwise, if not, they're in a pending collection suit or an active payment agreement. So we've we've worked our way all the way through that section and tax year chart is next and this is outstanding taxes yearbyear. So you'll see the largest section is the 2024 section at 33%. Um we started working on that July 1 and after that the segments are getting smaller and smaller yearbyear. The 17 and prior section at 19%. Um, this is going to be where properties could be struck off to the district where we went through the tax sale process. It it rarely happens. It doesn't happen often. Um, I we've not even been able to get to the courthouse steps because the tax sale we set up earlier this year, everyone paid before we got there. So, we
009effectively canceled the tax sale because everyone either paid in full or set up a payment agreement prior to. However, from time to time, uh, properties do get struck off in the tax trust. So, some of those older years could be struckoff properties, could be those over 65 tax deferrals where the deferrals remained on the account for many years. Um, could be an account where there's an airship situation or title issues. and we work year round on those with our title department and with Miss White's office to try to identify those and if we feel the property truly doesn't exist. Um we provide her office enough evidence so that it can be removed from the role because if if has a mapping or title issue and we can't identify where it's located, we can't sell it
010on the courthouse steps because we want to assure when we debit a tax sale that we're conveying good title. So very rare. However, it does happen from time to time. Then after the tax year chart, I have four charts that show you some historical collection data from 2021 through 2024, I believe. And this just shows you where we are at with um collection percentages. Um so you'll notice for 2021, we're over 77% collected of what was initially turned over for that tax year. 22 72% 23 67% and for 2024 which we just started working on this year we're almost 32% collected. I think we're looking to have our next tax sale in May. We only had had one judgment right for tax sale at this time of year. So um we opted to not do
011an October tax sale with just one property. And the reason for this is I believe that many folks are taking care of business. They're we're we're getting judgments. We're going to court. Hayden and I are going to court almost every other month. We're getting judgments. People are paying. People are getting in payment agreements. I think we're sufficiently getting their attention and they're taking care of their business. Um so we're looking at next May for a tax sale. And um we are are continuously visiting the courthouse and doing our research and and proceeding with our our litigation to get it to judgment. Um if you are interested in following tax sales, you can visit our website pbfcm.com. Um we do uh you can sign up on our homepage for a weekly update. You'll get a update
012every Friday morning and it'll show you tax sales statewide if that's something you're interested in. Yeah. Any questions? I just I just want to say thank you publicly uh to the firm for all that y'all done. Uh this is one of the the first steps this board took um when I became acting superintendent was was bringing you on and it's it's been a fantastic move. So it's been great for the the district, the revenue of the district. So thank you. >> Absolutely. And if you ever have any questions, please feel free to reach out and contact myself or Hayden. Um, if you have any question, Diane can get you in touch with us and we're happy to help anytime. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you so much. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Next, we
013have uh consider and possible adoption of a board resolution electing candidates for membership on the board of directors for Washington County tax appraisal. Uh, Miss White. Hello and thank you uh for having me. Yes. So, Mr. Douglas Bohart, I believe, is who we're asking you all to nominate um or who the board has brought forth uh for you all to nominate. Mr. Bohart's served on our board for about four years. He was initially uh nominated by Blind College, but Blind keeps um a member of their own board of trustees is who they typically will nominate for my board. And so, Mr. Boheart's no longer serving on the Blend board of trustees. And so, but he's an excellent board member. He's uh at every meeting. He's always prepared for the meetings. Um he has a background
014in uh banking. He was president of a local bank for quite some time. So, when we're going through our audits and our financials, our budget process, he's always very um very educated in in any everything he brings to the table for that. And so, we think he would be an excellent board member um as somewhat of a representative for BTOSD. Of course, if you ever have any questions about our office for those operations, um it's always best if you have a board member you can easily get in contact with in addition to myself. So, uh so we would ask that you nominate Mr. Douglas Bohart. >> I would like to make a motion to adopt a board resolution electing candidates for the membership of the board of directors for the Washington County Tax Appraisal District
015as presented. I'll second. >> Okay. A motion has been made by Archer Archer, seconded by Kelvin Raven to adopt a board resolution electing candidates for membership on the board of directors directors for the Washington County Tax Appraisal District as presented. All in favor? >> All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Next, we have the consent agenda. We can pull any items if we need to or approve everything. Um, I do want to point out though that uh in our board book it does say the trip is for April 12th, 2025. That's actually for 2026. So, just for clarification purposes. So, um, but if it's already passed. Yeah, let's hope it's not backwards. So, uh, we'll move in a motion. And if y'all unless anybody has any questions or wants to pull anything,
016>> I'll uh I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> I second it. >> Okay. Motion has been made by Justin Collie, seconded by Bonnie Brickmire to approve the consent agenda as presented. All in favor? >> All opposed? Motion carries. Okay. With uh no more business uh before the board, it is 12:13. This meeting is adjourned.