There could be one less elected official in Glenville if a proposal to abolish the receiver of taxes position is approved.
The Glenville Town Board has introduced a local law to eliminate the elected position following the sudden retirement of Receiver of Taxes Joan Menhinick over budget cuts to her department totaling around $12,000.
The proposed local law doesn’t completely remove the position, because the board has expressed intentions to make it a part-time post. The switch would allow Supervisor Christopher Koetzle to follow through on his idea to contract with a bank to perform tax collections.
Koetzle has touted outsourcing tax duties to a bank as a way to reduce costs and enhance services for residents.
“I don’t see where we would lose any service or anything the resident is currently receiving,” Koetzle said. “We would still have that internal expert in this area … we would still have that point of contact in the town.”
Residents have the chance to weigh in on the proposal to eliminate the elected position during a public hearing at the Glenville Town Board meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
Since Menhinick’s departure, former Rotterdam Comptroller Patrick Aragosa was hired to assist the town with January tax collections, which is one of the busier times for the department. There are also two seasonal part-time deputies working with Aragosa.
“He has been a real good addition to our staff,” Koetzle said of Aragosa. “He knows the process and he has been around a long time.”
Deputy Supervisor Alan Boulant added the switch to a non-elected, part-time receiver would save the town from having to pay the various benefits previously associated with the position.
Boulant said the practice of outsourcing the duties to a financial institution is not uncommon for a municipality.
“With Joan retiring, it just makes the most common sense to have a bank do it,” he said. “There are just so many more positives for it and, frankly, we don’t need another elected position.”
Koetzle said the town is in talks with a “local bank” that’s “very interested” in a contract. Since it would be a professional service, Koetzle said it doesn’t have to go through an official bidding process. He has estimated the cost to contract with a bank at around $10,000.
Koetzle and Councilman Sid Ramotar both work for KeyBank, but Koetzle said the town hasn’t had any discussions with that institution to perform tax collection services.
“I have not approached them and they have not approached me … they are not the bank we are currently talking to,” Koetzle said. “There is going to be no unethical behavior here … There is really no concern about that at this particular juncture.”
A bank could also offer services the town currently doesn’t provide, such as Saturday hours, drive-thru service with possible night drop off and an opportunity to pay bills online.
“It is going to save the town more many and residents are going to have more options,” Boulant said.
Koetzle also pitches the switch as running the town more like a business.
“I think it really begins to take the old model of local government … and begins to professionalize it,” he said.
Also, if the receiver of taxes isn’t an elected position, then Koetzle could begin to cross train the employee. Koetzle plans to have the receiver assist the Town Clerk’s Office, among other possibilities. Elected officials can’t be forced to do anything outside of their scope, he said.
“It gives us the management imperative to be able to do this cross-functional training between departments,” Koetzle said. “If you have an elected official, you can’t tell them to do anything.”
