The Tax Man Apologizes : Public Retraction Is Due Those Wrongly Named as Delinquent

Ray Fowler scanned his morning newspaper to see whether any of his friends or neighbors had made the list of Los Angeles County taxpayers who were late paying their property taxes. The last thing he expected to find was his own name.

“It is just not a happy experience to go whipping down the delinquency column and find yourself listed there,” he said--especially since he had paid his taxes. He said the list, prepared by the county tax collector, left his friends and neighbors with the erroneous impression that “Ray Fowler is a deadbeat” and brought him “strange looks” at his bank.

“It was like having a pie thrown in your face,” said Lillian Romero-Gomez, who was shocked to find her name on the list, even after she had sent copies of her paid tax bill to the tax collector’s office.

They and a few other taxpayers complained to their county supervisor. The result was a change in county policy. From now on, taxpayers erroneously identified as delinquent can get a public apology from the tax collector in the form of a published retraction.

Mindful of Image

The Los Angeles County tax collector’s office, mindful of its image, recently led a successful lobbying effort in Sacramento that led to a change in state law allowing counties to delay publication of the lists for up to a year in order to ensure their accuracy.

The county is required by state law to publish the lists of delinquent taxpayers. But it does not make the same effort to notify those who are due refunds.

About 2,500 taxpayers a year are believed to overpay their taxes but never receive refunds because the county cannot find them. Unclaimed money is deposited into the county treasury after a four-year waiting period.

This year, the coffers were boosted by $479,626 in overpaid property taxes, including $7,387 due a single unwitting taxpayer.

County officials said it would be unfair for the general taxpayer to bear the expense of tracking down taxpayers who, in the words of one official, are “poor record keepers.” They said it is the taxpayers’ responsibility to keep track of how much they pay.

Published Each September

As for the county’s delinquency lists, nobody knows how many taxpayers’ names end up there mistakenly. The lists are published every September in community newspapers, and nearly 100,000 names appeared last year.

Tax officials say mistakes are inevitable because of the sheer volume of property tax bills--a staggering 2.5 million--and the complexity of the tax system.

Barbara Sanchez, manager of the tax collector’s secured property division, said she “would be surprised if I have 50 people” a year complain that their names were published in error. Until now, the tax collector has sent letters of apology to taxpayers “and to whomever they tell us they want us to write,” including gossipy neighbors, Assistant Tax Collector David Collins said.

That was not enough for Supervisor Pete Schabarum. He recently won his colleagues’ approval to require the tax collector to publish an apology when requested by a taxpayer. Tax Collector Sandra Davis said her office will determine whether an error has been made. Wording of the apology has not been worked out.

Schabarum proposed the new policy after complaints from several constituents, including Fowler.

Fowler, owner of apartment buildings in Claremont, said he saw his name on the list published in his community paper, the Claremont Courier.

He said he paid his taxes in December, 1987, but because of a processing error, received a delinquency notice in the mail the following June, the month the tax collector sends notices to delinquent taxpayers.

Forgetting that he had paid, he sent another check. Perusing his financial records the next day, he found proof of his earlier payment and stopped payment on the second check.

“How many other citizens have paid twice under such circumstances?” he wrote Schabarum. “If the county records show I’m delinquent, and I don’t have an infallible system and am busy, as well as basically compliant, I’m inclined to pay.”

Tax Collector Davis, in a letter of response to Schabarum, said Fowler was at least partly responsible for the mix-up.

“Mr. Fowler did not review his records before taking action and sent a check to cover the delinquencies. Had he determined that payment was made and so advised this office, research would have uncovered the processing error and it could have been corrected so that no default or published notice would have occurred.”

But Fowler and two other taxpayers interviewed said they tried for months to clear up the matter with the tax collector before contacting Schabarum, whose office resolved the problems within a few weeks.

Referring to the tax collector’s office, Fowler said, “Most of them treated me as if they were not in the tax collector’s office, but in the felony division of the Sheriff’s Department, and I was the culprit.”

Mindful of its image, the tax collector’s office recently began training its operators in “telephone etiquette.” In addition, the Board of Supervisors has allocated $4 million to add phone lines and increase staff in the tax collector’s office.

“Taxpayers do not want taxes raised, but they want immediate service,” said Sanchez, pointing out that the tax collector’s office processes more than 4 million tax payments a year and is still not fully computerized.

Karen Greenbaum-Maya, another Claremont taxpayer who wrote Schabarum, said she was “outraged” to find her name on the delinquency list.

“That’s not how I wanted to appear in the paper, as delinquent in my taxes,” she said. “I am a psychologist, and I work in the area where I live, and that’s embarrassing.”

And, “as far as we knew,” it was unfounded, she said.

Greenbaum-Maya admitted that she was not entirely blameless. She and her husband indeed owed taxes, but she said they were unaware of it until they saw their name in the newspaper. She said she never received a notice in the mail in June.

Greenbaum-Maya said that after she saw her name in the paper, “we did the conscientious thing” and immediately called and wrote the tax collector’s office to try to clear up the matter.

Despite her efforts, she said her and her husband’s name appeared in the newspaper a second time. The lists are published three consecutive weeks.

The taxpayers have mixed views about a public apology.

“The county uses its money poorly enough as it is,” Fowler said. “The issue is really at the front end. Why did this whole thing happen in the first place?”

Greenbaum-Maya and Romero-Gomez said they welcome retractions.

“That’s the fair thing to do,” Greenbaum-Maya said.