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Issues and Policies Affecting My Office

Efficient Operations

The more efficient my Office can be, the better it will operate for all Arapahoe County residents. Efficiency comes in many forms, but they all team up together to make a cohesive, well-oiled machine. 

Efficiency takes stress off of staff, saves money, and supplies better service to everyone in Arapahoe County. The more efficient my Office can be, the more Arapahoe County benefits.

Improving Procedures and Processes
  • I have changed how my Office looks physically to allow for consolidation of space (bringing the Public Trustee’s Office over into the Treasurer’s space), which allows for more effective communication and saves money.
  • I have changed the organizational structure of my Office so staff can work and collaborate better.
  •  I have also added simple technology tweaks to make it easier for customers to communicate with my staff and get service faster when calling, emailing, or walking in. 

According to MIT, $60,000 per year is needed to survive in Arapahoe County as a single person. Three years ago, nearly half my staff made less than $60,000. Now, only about 20% of my staff make less than $60,000.

My goal is to improve this further and make sure everyone in my office makes a thriving wage. Happier employees means the residents of Arapahoe County will get the best possible service from my Office whether they are having trouble making a payment, need past information, or need help completing an exemption application. 

  • We are beginning the process of redesigning our website to be able to communicate better information to Taxpayers so they don’t have to call my office but can simply access the information at their leisure online. 
  • We are building a tool that will show where your tax dollars are spent within Arapahoe County and, hopefully soon, many other taxing districts in Arapahoe County.
  • We are building a link between software systems so our Public Works Department data talks to the Clerk & Record’s data, which talks to the Assessor’s and Treasurer’s data so we can automate many of our manual entry processes. 
  • We are starting to plan out a central hub where residents can find all of the important information they need for any County service all in one place.
  • I am working with my fellow elected officials to combine services and bring new services to Aurora where they are desperately needed. This includes the Board of County Commissioners (“BOCC”)–Commissioners Campbell and Summey are running for re-election with me and are key to continuing to push Arapahoe County forward; the Clerk & Recorder Joan Lopez; Sheriff Tyler Brown; Coronor Dr. Casey Bitting; Assessor PK Kaiser; and DA Amy Padden (not up for election this year).
  • I am also building plans to propose to the Board of County Commissioners a bigger, more robust procurement division for Arapahoe County. Arapahoe County is not a small county, so we need to stop acting like it. A more robust procurement division would guarentee we get the best deal on everything the County buys, help us negotiate better deals with suppliers, and free staff time so we don’t have to be focused on purchasing the product or service and can worry about how that product or service can best serve Arapahoe County residents. 
  • We are building out a new tax collection software system that will shorten the time it takes to do many different processes in my Office; make it easier for customers to pay their property taxes online; it will allow for historical information to be purused online; and allow for scheduling payments far in the future so you never forget to pay your property taxes.
  • Debrucing in November 2024 didn’t solve all our problems, but it now allows us put in the work to catch up on the backlog of projects, plan more than a couple years into the future, and spend money proactively so we can save money in the long run. 

Better Investment Strategy

All counties in Colorado have to follow pretty restrictive state statutes regarding what they can invest public dollars in. These are the same statutes that all taxing entities in Colorado have to follow. This isn’t bad, certainly, but it does mean you have to work harder to find the best investments for your tax dollars.

When this sort of restrictive scheme is the norm, it’s the little things that can make all the difference.

Better investments also mean more money for the County, which is more money to spend on services for residents. Better investment strategies are also more transparent, so Taxpayers can see where their money is invested. 

Empowering Staff to Do Their Job

Arapahoe County has experienced investment staff that spend time digging for higher yeilding bonds that other investors around the country miss. Having the right people in the right place with the right tools, then letting them do the job they’re good at is key.

I want every penny to be invested every minute it’s in the county’s possession. Arapahoe County is large enough that we have hundreds of millions of dollars in our accounts during most of the year. Arapahoe County keeps about 14-15% of the money the Treasurer’s Office collects, or it is already spoken for in our budget for the year. So, even if most of it is not ours, we can safely invest it — either while it’s on its way to another taxing entity or until it’s actually spent by Arapahoe County — to make more interest for the County. When you are dealing with millions of dollars, even hours invested makes a difference in the amount of interest you make throughout the year. 

There is also the potential next year to get dollars, through loans and the like, for infrastructure projects, affordable housing developments, etc. I am trying to push this plan as hard as I can to benefit Arapahoe County.

I’m changing our policies and procedures so my Office holds more money  in our coffers, even if just for a short time.

For example, before bidders can bid on a property at our Public Trustee’s foreclosures, Treasurer’s Deed sales, or November tax lien sale, they must give a deposit to our online auction company as earnest money. Instead of having the auction company hold that money, I changed our procedures so we hold that money until the sale concludes and we need to refund that money to bidders.

I have also helped change State statutes that allow Arapahoe County to hold onto unclaimed funds for up to two years, which was increased from six months. That allows Taxpayers easier access to claim those funds and allows us to invest that money while we hold it.

I track CSAFE and ColoTrust’s investment returns to benchmark our own. If we are outperforming their investment returns (which we have every year I have been in office), we are doing our job, because they would be the likely alternative to invest our money. Not only did we out perform CSAFE and ColoTrust, those firms charge investment fees, so we save even more money by paying employees to invest that money for us.

Updated Tax Collection Practices to This Century

Arapahoe County typically collects about 99.5% of all taxes we bill out every year. That is kudos to the Taxpayers of Arapahoe County for paying their taxes.

Most of that remaining 0.5% is collected during the yearly Tax Lien Sale every November, but that puts homeowners at risk of losing their property for delinquent taxes. When you collect more than a billion dollars in property taxes, that 0.5% is significant dollars and cents, so the sooner we can collect it, the better for everyone.

My goal is to make it easier and more convenient for people to pay their property taxes — so we can collect as much of the property taxes we bill out each year as possible before Tax Lien Sale. 

Paying Bills Online More Easily and Securly

We received and processed more than 73,000 physical checks last year. Those payments take up to a week to clear the banking system and land in our accounts. Those checks also cost us $0.03 per check to process and significant staff time to make sure those checks get applied to the correct accounts.

In order to reduce the number of checks we get, we switched from mailing out full bills / statements to mailing a postcard with a QR code. This has and will continue to help taxpayers find our website and pay online for free.

Paying online is also more secure for Taxpayers. Mailing a check puts your bank and routing numbers at risk of being stolen, but paying online only gives your information to your transmitting bank and our receiving bank. This is so secure, not even my Office can see the information in this digital transaction.

We will continue to process checks as quickly as possible if that is your preferred method for paying your taxes, but we also want to offer more opportunities for Taxpayers to pay online — for convenience, security and efficiency.

I have already put in place a new third-party payment processor that allows Taxpayers to pay their property taxes through our website using various payment methods, including:

  • ACH / E-Check, which is free of any fees
  • Credit cards
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay
  • PayPal
  • PayPal Credit

This is a huge step for convenience for many Taxpayers who expect to pay bills using this century’s payment methods. My Office is here to serve the entire population of Arapahoe County, so whether you want to pay your property taxes online or you prefer paying by physical check, we want to make it easy and convenient for you to do so. 

We are also currently contracting with a new software vendor to administer our entire tax parcel tracking system in Arapahoe County. This will allow for more information sharing with Taxpayers as well as scheduled payments and automated payments. This new system will also make it easier and more convenient to access your tax bill online and receive reminder notifications through email and text. 

We are working with our banking partners to add different methods for Taxpayers to choose from when getting a refund or other payment from Arapahoe County. We are also building our new parcel tracking software which will have options for scheduling payments far out in the future as well as recurring payments.

Building the Foundation for New Revenue Sources and Services

Arapahoe County could support a public bank for its residents. While we do not yet have the infrastructure to operate one, we are moving in that direction for many reasons.

One of the futures of public financing runs through public banking, and Arapahoe County should be a part of the first wave, not lagging behind. Cities like Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles are all exploring public banking systems. Sixteen states have seen studies and bills pushing a public banking system.

This is not only a feasible idea, but one I am trying to develop a plan to implement as soon as possible. 

Offering Services to Residents

Big banks don’t care about you unless you already have money. A public bank could give Arapahoe County residents access to capital to make their lives better, when they otherwise would not be able to get that money. This lack of access can doom small businesses or never get them started in the first place. 

Public banks can offer these services and access to capital your standard bank won’t, including:

  • Small business loans
  • Construction loans for affordable housing
  • Mortgage loans at preferred rates
  • Infrastructure loans to other counties, cities, and school districts

Who knows what other services a public bank could fund for Arapahoe County residents, and as we discover them along the way, we’ll develop them and use them for the good of everyone.

Through the Executive Budget Committee, I helped the Commissioners start the first affordable housing fund in Arapahoe County history. This fund will start seeking deals and loans to give builders capital so they can more easily and cheaply build affordable housing. Returns on this money help build the fund, which could create assets to later fund a Public Bank of Arapahoe County.

A public bank has a different purpose from a private bank. Therefore, a public bank can offer services at better rates to residents and direct profits to pay for public projects that benefit everyone in Arapahoe County. This is more revenue to serve Arapahoe County residents without raising taxes. 

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