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No action taken on part-time Salem tax clerk

SALEM — City council’s Finance Committee plans to reconsider a request to change a part-time tax office job from seasonal to permanent, but not until fall after measuring the financial worth.

Committee Chair Councilman Brian Whitehill commented after the meeting Monday that the committee didn’t feel there was enough merit to make the change now, since the money is already in the budget to hire someone to cover the rest of the year at the seasonal rate of $11.06 per hour.

Councilman Andrew Null, also a member of the committee, said it’s really a non-issue until they start the budget process for next year, especially since the tax administrator has the power to hire someone now without legislative action.

Councilman Geoff Goll, another committee member, said he would be more inclined to support the idea if shown how the person was going to generate income for the department, referring to an argument that the seasonal person focuses on paperwork and processes related to the collection of delinquent city income taxes. He questioned how much delinquent tax the department collected as a result of the work done in the office.

No action was taken at this point, with city Income Tax Administrator Fred Pamer told to hire the seasonal person for the rest of the year and track the return from collection of delinquent taxes.

Pamer said anyone who’s interested in the part-time position should contact him at the Income Tax Office located on the second floor of city hall.

The income tax office currently includes the full-time administrator, a full-time clerk and a permanent part-time clerk who works 24 hours per week at a rate of $12 per hour. The seasonal part-time clerk usually works 16 hours per week, although last year there were some times when the person worked more to fill-in for the other part-timer when they were off for personal reasons.

Pamer asked to have the seasonal person switched to permanent part-time, that way the two part-timers together would add up to 40 hours per week and they could have more coverage in the office and to keep with delinquent payers and filers.

“We’ve had increased demands,” he said.

He noted how the contractor registration program and utility registration program both help them identify people who should be paying city income tax. He also said working with a collection group has helped them identify more delinquent taxpayers and they’re actually taking some cases to court.

Whitehill asked about an issue with Pamer being able to take his comp time for putting in extra hours and was told that could be cut down with an additional person in the office. Pamer said the office has benefitted from having the registration programs.

When asked by Goll how much money was raised through the delinquent tax collection efforts, he guessed more than $20,000, but at one point also mentioned the amount of $50,000, saying the amount of delinquencies is constantly changing as people pay and more people are found.

Null said he would like to know what the difference in cost will be from having someone part of the year to having them the whole year.

City Auditor Betty Brothers said they could evaluate it before doing the budget for next year and decide whether it would work.

City Treasurer Dr. John Conrad also attended the meeting.

“We do think the position will pay for itself,” he said.

In a related matter, Goll suggested that Pamer and Brothers check into whether the city could place a section on the city income tax form for taxpayers to donate a portion of their refund to the city for equipment. He noted that both the federal and state income tax forms allow for donations to presidential elections or parks and the city of Akron has a place on its forms to donate money to fire equipment, police equipment or park equipment.

mgreier@salemnews.net

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