TO: Roger A. Hartman,
Douglas County Assessor
FROM: The People of
Douglas County ex rel.
In The
News-Review report dated October 5, 2016,
"More than 6,000 accounts
were overcharged ...
and those accounts have been
corrected
for the 2015-16 property
tax statements."
A similar report was published
in The Roseburg Beacon
Similarly, in your status
report published
in The News-Review on
April 30, 2017,
"... our internal
investigation found over 6,000 tax accounts
where values were artificially
inflated and were able to
value
correct them for the tax bills that went out in 2015."
According to the following
Internet website maintained
by your office, the latter tax
bills were mailed on or about
("last day to mail tax
statements")
The People of Douglas County now
infer that the
the total Personal Property
Taxes that were certified
by the Douglas County Tax
Collector for FY 2015-2016
should
have reflected the corrections which
you reported above.
However, the CFO's SUMMARY(s) OF
PROPERTY TAX COLLECTIONS
by Fiscal Year attempted to
certify the following totals, as archived
at the following Internet
location:
2013-2014
$3,297,524.24
2014-2015 $3,391,196.14
2015-2016
$2,900,390.01 <-- NOTE
2016-2017
$3,034,749.15
See also Line Item 3 in .pdf
files attached.
Assuming the overcharges were
$14 Million spanning 5 years,
the
average overcharge per year was $14M / 5 =
$2.8 Million.
Now, subtract the above amount
for FY 2015-2016
from the above amount for FY
2014-2015:
$3,391,196.14 - $2,900,390.01 = $490,806.13
We find it very difficult to
reconcile $2.8 Million
with
the latter difference of only $490,806.
Similarly, the above amount for
FY 2016-2017
also fails to reflect your
reported adjustments.
Accordingly, the most probable explanation for this discrepancy
appears to be a second set of
books that is being maintained
by the CFO's office. A local church member privately speculated
to me that the CFO's office may
be maintaining three sets of books.
The assessment adjustments
reported by your office for
FY 2015-2016 and FY 2016-2017
are NOT accurately reflected
in
the corresponding SUMMARY OF PROPERTY TAX COLLECTIONS
that was certified by the CFO for each of those two Fiscal Years.
And, a necessary consequence of
these discrepancies is that
business personal property
taxpayers continue to be overcharged,
contrary to your report that those tax accounts were value
corrected
on the tax bills that went out
in October 2015.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Andrew Mitchell, B.A., M.S.
Private Attorney General, Civil RICO: 18 U.S.C. 1964;
Agent of the United States as Qui
Tam Relator (4X),
Federal Civil False Claims Act:
31 U.S.C. 3729 et seq.
