Recommend approval to authorize the City Manager to renew an annual contract with Delinquent Tax Services, Inc., for Delinquent Property Tax Collection Services in the Amount of $104,800. This contract provides for the administration of the process used to issue property liens and conduct delinquent tax sales, which are necessary enforcement actions for the collection of property tax debt. This is a cost-neutral contract, because all fees are passed directly to the customer when the property enters the collection process.

The contractor will perform the following professional services:

• Initial pursuit of delinquent taxes via standard collection notices
• Secondary pursuit of delinquent taxes via filing of tax executions and all legally required notices pertaining to such executions
• Conduct thorough searches for bankruptcy filings and for all entities with an interest in the property in question
• Prepare all legal notices, advertisements, and abstracts required throughout the levy process

The collection process will be cost neutral to the City with all costs for processing, materials, postage, and services at the expense of the contractor. The costs will be recovered by a flat fee from the taxpayers when delinquent accounts are paid in full to the City. The flat fee is $30.00 per collection with a balance of less than $50.00 and $55.00 per collection with a balance of more than $50.00. For collections of accounts at the levy and tax sale status, fees will be $185.00 (maximum) per collection.

This contract was initially awarded in July 2017 after a bid review process in which Delinquent Tax Services, Inc. submitted the proposal that was ranked the highest. The method used for this procurement was the request for proposals (RFP) which evaluates criteria in addition to cost. The criteria used for this RFP were proposer’s qualifications, experience, including local government, methodology, capabilities and capacities, references, local vendor participation, and fees.

This is the second of four renewals.  The contract term shall be from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020.

Approval