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Finance director outlines department staffing, tax collections and short-term timing differences
Summary
Deputy Director of Finance Danae Galloway briefed the commission on department functions, staff counts and revenue timing issues; she said property tax bill mailings occurred later this year and that the city is implementing a short-term rental tax system with Deckard Technologies.
Danae Galloway, deputy director of finance and support services, told the commission on Oct. 21 that the finance department does far more than revenue collection and financial statements: it manages purchasing, tax administration, accounts payable, clerical services, courier routes and several federal program reporting responsibilities.
Galloway said the combined purchasing teams include two full-time staff — Purchasing Manager Kaylin Fox and Purchasing Specialist Whitney McFarland — who handle bids, contracts, purchase orders, uniform programs and auction activities. She listed the tax department staff and roles, saying the tax team includes an occupational tax administrator (Data Coombs), collection specialist Kristen Jackamowicz, occupational revenue clerks (Michelle Pam Green and Stacy Allen) and revenue clerks (Sheree McCormick and Cynthia Askins).
Galloway said the city mailed 24,963 property tax bills this year and that roughly 75–80% of those arrive by mail. She said the department’s three-year average collections from net-profit audits is about $706,000 and that in the most recent year net-profit audits collected more than $1 million. She described property-tax timing in September as the primary cause of a variance between actual and budgeted revenues: “we sent the tax bills out three weeks later this year than we did last year,” she told the commission.
On short-term rental (Airbnb/Vrbo) tax collection, Galloway said the city subscribes to a system shared with the Convention & Visitors Bureau. The vendor name given in the meeting was Deckard Technologies; Galloway said the city shares the subscription cost with the CVB and that City Manager Nate Pagan facilitated the initial contact with the company. Galloway said the software reports nightly rental activity by address and that staff expect it to make compliance tracking easier once the program is fully implemented.
Galloway also detailed accounts payable and clerical duties: she said Accounts Payable lead Susan Steersman processes roughly 15,000 invoices per year, and she described three part-time couriers — Walter Phelps, Denny Lee and Larry Catron — who deliver inter-agency mail and run bank errands. She closed by saying the finance department supports federal programs such as transit, CDBG and HOME, manages two TIF districts and prepares the annual budget book and audit materials.
During questions, a commissioner asked who is leading the short-term rental tax work; Galloway said that Angela Wanninger manages the project with assistance from Ashley Agata.
Galloway concluded, “We make every cent count,” and thanked her staff for their work.
