Valley County approves treasurer's pooled-cash report, orders certification of delinquent mobile-home fees to property tax rolls

Valley County commissioners on Oct. 15 approved the quarterly pooled-cash statement from County Treasurer Joanna DeFork, authorized the certification of multiple special fees to property tax bills and granted a tax cancellation for a mobile home that burned in 2023.

DeFork told commissioners the county’s new Tyler financial software had trouble producing the pooled-cash report for several months but staff and the vendor resolved the issue. She said staff reviewed and reconfigured about 17,000 account records so the system could produce a balanced pooled-cash report. "I, Joanna DeFork, County Treasurer, do hereby certify that the above is true and correct," DeFork said, describing a signature page she prepared to mirror the old report.

The quarterly pooled-cash report lists each county fund’s claim on cash, the county’s bank-account balances and a pass-through account labeled "due to other funds." DeFork said the report reconciles those three measures and that the versions produced each month since the software change have balanced to zero. Commissioners moved and seconded approval of the quarterly treasurer’s report; the motion carried.

Why it matters: the pooled-cash report is the main internal control showing whether the county’s accounting balances to bank cash. Restoring automated, auditable reporting after software conversion reduces staff time and the risk of reporting errors.

Commissioners also approved a request to create a new "special" in the tax system to allow delinquent mobile-home personal property taxes to be certified to the associated real-property tax bills when the mobile home and the land have the same owner. DeFork said the county has 22 delinquent mobile-home accounts this cycle (23 including the cancellation considered separately): 11 where the mobile home and the land share the same owner and 11 where they do not. She said certifying those same-name accounts to the land is likely to increase collection because land taxes are more often paid through mortgage escrow and tax deed sales attract more interest than mobile-home auctions.

The treasurer asked the commission to certify the 11 same-name mobile-home delinquencies as a group; she said the total for those items to be added to real-property parcels for 2025 is about $2,500. She also asked permission to create the special in the software so the transfers can be performed; commissioners approved that request.

Separately, DeFork presented a tax-cancellation request (listed in the packet as 25-01) for parcel MH00135000007A, a mobile home in the Mason Joyce Casper Trust name. DeFork said the mobile home burned in 2023 and the only unpaid tax on the MH parcel is $15; the assessor’s office later removed the structure from the rolls but the title remained in the prior name. DeFork said sending the $15 to the sheriff for collection would impose a $20 sheriff fee and staff time and was unlikely to succeed because the titled owner no longer owns property in Valley County. Commissioners approved the…