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Osage County officials agree to publish corrections after erroneous tax-delinquent postings
Summary
Commissioners and the treasurer agreed to prepare public statements and work with the local paper to correct parcels mistakenly listed as delinquent; the commission also approved a temporary treasurer's office closure for September.
Osage County commissioners on Aug. 26 agreed to prepare and publish correction statements after several property owners found their parcels listed in the newspaper as delinquent when taxes had been paid.
The issue surfaced during public comment when a resident and Treasurer Laura Hawkins discussed multiple parcels that county records show as paid but were nonetheless printed in the newspaper’s delinquent tax listings. Commissioners directed treasurer’s staff to draft a statement for immediate publication and to work with the paper to remove or correct names where possible.
The statement the commission asked staff to prepare would note that the county identified posting errors, that affected taxes are paid, and that the county is correcting the records. Commissioners acknowledged the limits of the newspaper’s publication process — the paper typically runs the delinquent list in its system for multiple weeks — and asked staff to attempt removal or to append correction notices in subsequent printings.
Commissioners said they will handle any additional affected parcels on a case-by-case basis and asked the treasurer to include all known parcels in a single correction notice for the next available edition when feasible. County staff also agreed to post the correction notice on the county website and courthouse bulletin boards.
As part of routine business, commissioners approved a motion allowing the treasurer’s office to close on a date in September for an administrative reason identified by the treasurer. The motion carried unanimously.
The commission did not adopt any new ordinance or formal policy at the meeting; commissioners instead authorized staff to prepare corrective language and conduct outreach with the newspaper and affected property owners.
