Yabba Dabba DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.......

Tax collector puts a stop
to online bank payments

By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Sep 07, 2010 @ 08:30 PM


FALL RIVER — The city tax collector’s office has deleted the online bank payment system, effective immediately, citing backlogs caused by researching bills paid by that method.


Those wishing to pay online may only do so using a credit card option that includes a fee schedule based on amounts, City Collector Ida Geraldes said.


“It just takes too much research on what you’re trying to pay,” said Geraldes, a 25-year city employee promoted recently to department head.


Online banking started about seven years ago.
Many residents pay bills through a mailed check or come into the tax collector’s at Government Center to pay in person, she said.


While online banking is seen by many as improving efficiency, Geraldes said the opposite seems true for their office.
“I stopped it when I was processing the mail. The itemized bills just didn’t have enough information — such as the type of bill and quarter being paid — and didn’t allow our system to process them quickly,” Geraldes said.


“Everyone in the office agreed this is ridiculous,” she said. “It just takes too long to process the mail.”


She made the Flanagan administration aware of the change.


While online banking was used primarily for water/sewer bills and excise tax bills, Geraldes said such checks mailed from banks listed a disclaimer that they cannot be used to pay real estate taxes.

" But the system doesn’t have a way to stop you from doing it,” said Geraldes. She said the department had been accepting the limited number of online real estate bills that fell through, but will stop that.


On Aug. 26, the office mailed out roughly 7,500 letters to taxpayers about the change in online banking.

More than 5,000 of those went out with the latest water/sewer bills due next month.


Another 2,500 notices of the new policy went out with demand letters for those behind on the real estate quarterly taxes, she said.


Anyone paying those bills by online banking will have such payments returned, Geraldes said. “Up until today we were accepting them,” she said.


She noted the extra cost fee structure by using the relatively new credit card system with the city’s bank. Up to $100 of taxes is $2.50; $400 to $700 is $17.50; and $3,100 to $4,000 is $100 under the city’s UniPay system by UniBank.
She said the bank and credit card company makes the profit, not the city.


Further information is listed at the city website www.fallriverma.org and clicking “online bill pay.”


Geraldes said online banking did not comprise a large percentage of tax bills paid, but said the research needed contributed to the system falling behind and contributed to a public complaint and firing of the prior collector a few months ago.

There remain times the office is behind on processing collections and, therefore, being able to immediately deposit the funds, she said. She said the office could be a week, or even two, behind at times.


Geraldes said she does not find that acceptable and collections were processed up to date as of Tuesday.
The method to keep payment records straight is to bundle the payments and dates received each day until they can processed and deposited, Geraldes said.


“My biggest concern was processing the mail and doing it effectively and efficiently,” said the new collector. Her current salary is $63,600.
E-mail Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com.

 Tax Collector's Office reconciling receivables

 Well, lookey here. The Mayor has fired a slow, incompetent Tax Collector and has hired an utter stone aged moron to replace her. All I'm worried about right now is which member of the FROED Board of Directors has a close personal friend working at Unibank?! I keed, I keed! I've been following Fall River politics for too long!
 

No, this is one huge step for idiots, one huge leap backwards for mankind and the tax and rate payers of Fall River. Silly me, I always thought the objective of the Tax Collector's primary job was to make sure that all payments should be deposited into the bank as soon as possible so that the City could make some interest earnings on the quarter billion dollars that flows through it's accounts each year. How could I have been so wrong all those years (20) as a Municipal Finance Director? I guess you're never too old to learn new things!

 

First this idiot lawyer as mayor fires the IT manager. Then he promotes some lifetime slacker yes woman as the Tax Collector, someone who knows absolutely nothing about correct Tax Collector procedures or requirements. This is a typical "Fall River Pride" F-UP, and is the equivalent of going back into the stone age to suit the talents , or lack thereof, of the unqualified people toiling away in the Collector's office.

 

I just don't get it. This move is so atrocious it is an exhibition of a stupefying level of wrong! And while everyone is agreeing to the great leap backwards in the Sylvanagan regime, I can tell you right now the reconciliations  between tax and fee payment receipts to taxes and fee payments committed and owed ledgers will never be known for certain. This means yet another embarrassing request by the City to DOR to certify a tax rate for accounts no one can verify. I mean, I am nearly speechless over the gross incompetence and mismanagement being displayed so proudly by this administration.. It boggles the mind of any thinking, caring person.

 

 

Fall River's Tax Collector hard at work!

I'll state it flatly...this woman, who ever she is, must be removed immediately. If there are problems with the payment system, don't stop it, FIX IT! What she is doing, with Mayor Bag Boy Deluxe Sylvanagan's blessing, is like starting a new checking account because you can't balance the current one! To place an unqualified, backwards thinking person in control of the City's cash flow is typical of Sylvanagan's woefully inadequate understanding of how to run a municipality. He's had ZERO prior experience in the day to day running of a municipality in this state. Being  assistant legal counsel in Taunton, a City not known for it's public management excellence, does not count, no matter how many property liens he's taken to court. This guy, through his solely reactive firings and hirings is nothing but an administrative and management CLUSTER F*&@. How about some proactive administrative and financial management ideas Mayor Sylvanagan? Oh, and how's that Casino deal coming along? What a useless tool of a politician. He sickens me!

 

Too many idiotic photo ops, not enough proactive action with this fool as mayor. It's been the hallmark of the Sylvanagan administration from before Day 1 in office. He had no answers during the campaign, only glib statements and lies. It continues to this day. I am sure that's all we'll ever get from this Bag Boy.

 

But hey...you elected him, not me. What are YOU going to do to fix it? You'll get a chance next year. Better do it right, though, because I hear they are replacing the Tax Collector's office computers with carrier pigeons and an abacus for every desk.