City treasurer reports tax-billing and payments progress, technology and staffing issues

Jennifer Dimock, city treasurer and collector, told the Garden City Council Finance Committee Wednesday that the department mailed thousands of tax bills in July and is about halfway to full collection for those accounts. "In July, we mailed 7,143 preliminary real estate tax bills for a total of $17,402,827.30," Dimock said. "As of September 9, we've collected $8,963,849.91. This is about 52% of the overall billing." She added that second-quarter installments are due Nov. 3 and some taxpayers pay multiple installments at once, affecting the snapshot of collections.

The treasurer said the office mailed 313 personal-property bills totaling $783,134.54 and had collected $431,565.33 as of Sept. 9 (about 55%). On motor-vehicle excise, Dimock said the Registry of Motor Vehicles issued four commitments for 2025 totaling $2,545,070.27; collections to date were $2,261,802.96. She said the office issued $26,236.55 in refunds and $57,139.04 in abatements and explained refunds typically reflect duplicate payments.

Dimock reported parking-meter revenue has been steady since July 1. "Since July 1, we've collected $10,483.50 from the coin and mobile app, Parkmobile," she said, and 88 meter-violation tickets issued since July produced a $13.20 average fine payment rate of about 46% paid to date.

She described recent equipment and software issues. The office replaced a five-year-old check scanner after jams; payroll checks briefly could not be printed in August, requiring handwritten checks, and check alignment and signature-printing remain imperfect. Dimock said she and IT are evaluating Munis forms for check printing to resolve signature and alignment issues. She also said Munis and the water department are upgrading the water-billing module; once upgraded the office hopes to generate a file to upload bills to Unibank so residents can see amounts due online rather than having to know their dollar amount now.

Dimock said she is balanced with the auditor through July 31 and is reconciling August accounts. The city switched liability insurance to HUB International at the start of the fiscal year and the treasurer called the transition "rocky" at first but said open claims are being resolved. She is assisting Community Development/Planning with reconciling grant software to Munis and the bank; she expects to complete outstanding entries by the end of the week and turn accounts back to Director Stevens.

Committee members asked about tax-title enforcement and the cost of pursuing tax foreclosures. Dimock said the city recently put unpaid 2023 taxes into tax title for 17 properties. An administrative official cautioned the committee that a recent state law on home-equity and tax-title foreclosures changes how sale proceeds are distributed and that new regulations from the state agency for housing and livable communities are expected. "If we foreclose and sell a house, we maintain how much that property owed us originally in taxes and have to write a check to the previous owner for the difference between the sale price and what they owe us in taxes," the official said, describing the law's effect on proceeds; committee members said they will await state regulations before changing foreclosure practice.

Council members also asked how many employees still receive paper checks; Dimock estimated about 10 per week on average, higher in summer because of temporary hires, and said most staff are on direct deposit.

The committee did not take formal action on any operational changes but requested follow-up information on tax-title costs, expected state regulations, the water-billing upload timeline, and the Munis check-printing fix.