Council rejects law firm for delinquent taxes
Company asks city to use different firm from county
By Lori Mellinger Bullard Banner News

When February's Bullard City Council meeting opened with its open forum on Tuesday, one of the comments came from Smith County Tax Assessor/Collector Gary Barber.

Barber explained that the county began a new bid process and one of the changes made was choosing a new law firm to collect delinquent taxes.

"We made the decision to accept a bid from Linebarger, Goggans, Blair and Sampson based on its 15 percent collection fee," Barber told the council. The tax office had previously used Perdue, Brandon, Fielder, Collins and Mott.

"The switch doesn't affect the entities' income at all, but there is less of a burden on the delinquent taxpayers," Barber said. "Our office felt we needed to go with the Linebarger firm - as opposed to the Perdue firm because of the five percent difference."

Perdue, Brandon, et al, charges 20 percent to the delinquent taxpayer.

Barber also said the Linebarger firm has someone who is available at the Smith County office to answer questions to the public.

"We hope Bullard chooses Linebarger to collect its delinquent taxes, too," Barber said.

The issue came to a vote later in the meeting when a Tab Beall, from the Perdue firm, spoke to the council.

The firm asked three items to be placed on the agenda: the first, terminating an inter-local agreement with the county for the assessment and collection of property taxes, the second, to require the county to perform these functions; and the third, retaining Perdue to collect Bullard's delinquent taxes.

Beall told council members the city was not required to use the same firm as the county. He said his office, too, would agree to only collect 15 percent - instead of its usual 20 percent.

Beall also said the primary advantage would be his firm would be "directly beholden to the City of Bullard."

"This would give you more accountability," Beall said.

Mayor Pro-Tem A.W. Hines and City Manager Larry Morgan both said they had no issue with Beall or his firm, but Hines and the rest of the council believed it in the best interests of the city to use the same collection firm as Smith County.

Councilman Rodger Johnson made a motion - which passed unanimously - to drop the items from the agenda - effectively killing Beall's request.

The council ended up tabling many of the items on February's lengthy agenda - mostly awaiting more information before a final decision was made.

Among the tabled items were:

! an item on the Artesian Meadows subdivision. Hines expressed concern over the lack of a surety bond on the part of the developer. The council decided to table the item while it looks at writing an ordinance requiring developers to have surety or performance bonds.

! a request from two property owners asking for reimbursement of damages incurred from a sewer overflow. Morgan told the council that recent heavy rains, coupled with a large amount of grease lodged in the drain, caused a rush of effluent that the system was unable to handle. Hines said there was never an engineering study done on the subdivision where the homeowners live, and he believes the houses are below the sewer level.

! a proposed increase on garbage collection rates because of an increase in rates charged to the city by Allied Waste. Allied Waste Sales Manager Tony Cain said his firm was upping the city's rates at least 4 percent - but because of rising and fluctuating fuel costs would probably raise it more. The council is waiting on final figures before members vote on the amount of increase.

The city is expected to approve at its next meeting allowing residents of Bullard's extra territorial jurisdiction to be on the planning and zoning commission. A city's ETJ is the area adjacent to the corporate limits of the city over which the city may exercise jurisdiction by means of subdivision control.

The discussion follows the resignation of planning and zoning member Jimmy Clark - who recently moved from the city limits.

Johnson said he's in favor of the idea.

"We have so many talented people who live in Bullard's ETJ but not in the city limits," Johnson said. "It would be good if they had a say in the future of Bullard, because they, too, have a vested interest."

Johnson said most of those in Bullard's ETJ end up in Bullard city limits within the next few years anyway, and they had a stake in Bullard's success.

The council is expected to take action on the proposal in March.

Bullard City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. second Tuesday of each month at city hall. For more information, call 903-894- 7223.