O FFICE OF THE T REASURER -T AX C OLLECTOR

H ALL OF F INANCE & R ECORDS 12 C IVIC C ENTER P LAZA , S UITE G76 P OST O FFICE B OX 4515 S ANTA A NA , CA 92701

www.ttc.ocgov.com

C HRISS W.

S TREET T REASURER TAX C OLLECTOR B RETT R.

B ARBRE C HIEF A SSISTANT T REASURER -T AX C OLLECTOR P AUL C.

G ORMAN, C.P.A., CTP A SSISTANT T REASURER -T AX C OLLECTOR

T REASURY

W ALTER D ANIELS A SSISTANT T REASURER -T AX C OLLECTOR

T AX C OLLECTION

R OBIN R USSELL A SSISTANT T REASURER -T AX C OLLECTOR

A DMINISTRATION

Title & Escrow Company Interface

March 1, 2007 9:00 a.m.

A SSISTANT T REASURER -T AX C OLLECTOR

I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY

C LARISSA A DRIANO -C ERES Welcome & Introductions

Hon. Chriss W. Street Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector

Presentations Office of the Treasurer-Tax Collector

(TTC) 1. 2. 3. 4. Consolidation of Services within the TTC

Brett R. Barbre, Chief Assistant Treasurer-Tax Collector

Updated Refund Process

Walter Daniels, Assistant Treasurer-Tax Collector – Tax Collection

Updated Payment Methods

Kim Hansen, Cash Manager

Data Delivery Enhancements

Clarissa Adriano-Ceres, Assistant Treasurer-Tax Collector – IT

Office of the Assessor

– Hon. Webster Guillory, Orange County Assessor

Office of the Clerk of the Board

– Darlene Bloom, Clerk of the Board

Office of the Auditor-Controller

– Frank Davies

Office of the Clerk Recorder

– Judith Hoshor

Questions, Answers & Round Table Discussion

ORANGE COUNTY TREASURER-TAX COLLECTOR EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT CONSTITUENT SERVICE Chriss W. Street, Treasurer-Tax Collector

Tax Collection Recap Fiscal Year End 2005-06

SECURED # of Bills Sent Out

814,058

SUPPLEMENTAL

172,636

Tax Charge

$3,820,183,838 $336,023,538

Fiscal Year Collections

$3,756,437,832 $282,585,562

UNSECURED

179,695 $198,733,450 $193,045579

BACK TAXES

95,482

1,261,871

$123,025,572 $50,806,819

$4,477,966,398 $4,288,875,792 % Collected

98.33% 84.10% 97.14% 41.30%

95.77%

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Tax Collections Jul. ’06 – Dec. 06

Type of Payment Mail Payments EFT Payments WEB Credit Cards IVR Credit Cards OTC Credit Cards ACH (e-check) Title Company Wires Receivable Wires Dollar Amount $1,615,715,759 Percent 72.23

$255,926,384 $61,735,247 $16,569,702 $4,045,188 $217,780,332 $31,275,392 $33,979,542 11.44

2.76

0.74

0.18

9.74

1.4

1.52

June 2006 - December 2006

$217,780,332 $33,979,542 $31,275,392 $4,045,188 $16,569,702.00

$61,735,247 $255,926,384 Mail Payments EFT Payments WEB Credit Cards IVR Credit Cards OTC Credit Cards ACH (e-check) Title Company Wires Receivable Wires $1,615,715,759

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT INVESTING

TRACS Financial Research

Public Interest 2006 Top Investment Returns

FUND NAME

1. Connecticut Short Term Investment 2. Florida SBA LGIP

3. Orange County Investment Pool 4. Orange County Education Investment Pool

5. Montana Short Term Investment Pool

2006

5.12% 5.08%

5.05% 5.03%

5.01%

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Constituent Service over the

INTERNET

540,059

550000 500000 450000 400000

Unique Visitors

350000

Document Views

300000 250000 200000 150000 100000 50000

46,901 390,505 59,958 422,820 70,172

0 2004 2005 2006

2004 - Pay Taxes Online 2005 - Supplemental Tax Calculators; Pay Multiple Online & Simultaneously 2006 - Email Reminder Subscription; Prior Year Refund Interest; Escheatment List

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Constituent Service over the

TELEPHONE

• Avg. wait time of 13 seconds to speak with an agent in Dec. ’06. A decrease of over 50% from Dec. ’05. • 14 Fully staffed phone lines everyday. 24 lines staffed during busiest time.

• Consolidated multiple telephone numbers into one central tax help line.

Dec. 06

Dec. 05 Dec. 04 % Answered

99.00%

98.00% 97.00% Calls Received

16,822

17,674 18,869 Calls Dropped

1%

2% 3%

Jul. 1, 2005 – Jan. 31, 2006 Jul. 1, 2005 – Jan. 31, 2006

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Delinquent Unsecured Tax Bills in Bankruptcy

$ Collected YTD % Increase

$1,267,000 $124,000

+919%

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• Hired PT Bankruptcy Lawyer • Employing a new system which prompts filings for Proof of Claims

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT AB589 Grant Money

 Bipartisan Bill effective 2002 giving grants to qualifying counties for the improvement of tax collections.

 Hired additional full time staff in necessary departments.

 Hired “Skip Chasers” so tax collectors are now calling good telephone numbers and reaching good addresses.

Feb. 26, 2006 Feb. 26, 2005

Delinquent Assessments Collected

25,179 20,118

% Increase + 25% ---

2006 2005 2004

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT AB589 Grant Money

Supplemental Back Taxes $ Collected

$5,611,171 $4,117,515 $1,976,407

Increase Over Previous Year +36% +48%

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Chriss W. Street Treasurer-Tax Collector

Office of the Treasurer-Tax Collector County of Orange Hall of Finance & Records 12 Civic Center Plaza, Suite G76 Post Office Box 4515 Santa Ana, CA 92701 www.ttc.ocgov.com

For Additional Information Contact Susan Czech Director of External Affairs Email: [email protected]

Phone: 714.834.5279

ORANGE COUNTY

TREASURER-TAX COLLECTOR CONSOLIDATED SERVICES

Brett R. Barbre, Chief Assistant Treasurer - Tax Collector

EFFECTIVE & EFFICENT

Consolidated Services at TTC

ORANGE COUNTY

TREASURER-TAX COLLECTOR TAX REFUND PROCESS OVERVIEW

Walter Daniels Assistant Treasurer – Tax Collector, Tax Collection Rogelia Martinez, Chief Deputy Tax Collector

Annual Refund Stats Fiscal Year 2005-2006

Roll Type Secured & Supplemental Refunds Processed 49,847 Unsecured 5,813 Prior Year/Redemption 1,963 Total 57,627

Reasons for Refunds

Duplicate/Double Payments

•Taxpayers •Title Companies •Mortgage Companies

Over Payments

•Penalty Overpayments •Transposition Errors

Mismatched/Short Payments

•Payments received late •Transposition Errors

Other Inflows to Refund Stream

Assessment Appeal Board Decisions (AAB) Assessment Roll Corrections (ARC) Negative Supplemental Tax Bills

Refund Processing Timeline

3 – 4 Weeks Mismatched/Short Payments AAB and ARC refunds under $2,500 Automatically refunded by the system provided there was no change of assessee within that fiscal year.

Negative Supplemental Assessments 6 – 7 Weeks Duplicate and Overpayments AAB and ARC greater than $2,500 Due to the fact that the “who paid” information must be determined before issuing these refunds.

Methods of Refunds



Refunds are processed and approved through the Assessment Tax System (ATS) and the checks are issued by the Auditor-Controller.



Occasionally Manual/Trust Fund refunds are processed for those items that cannot be processed through the ATS and the completed refund forms are forwarded to the Auditor-Controller for issue of checks.

 

Refunds for payments received by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), Credit Cards, ACH Debit (e-check) and wires are processed in normal manner through the ATS and the checks are issued by the Auditor Controller.

Credit card payments that are accidentally paid twice for the same parcel on the same day (duplicated) may be reversed by using reversal method. This will credit the taxpayers’ credit card account and the Tax Collector will not see it on the daily report or the bank statement.

Issues of Security & Control in the refund process

Only selected employees are given access to the refund releasing program.

Once the refunds are released to the system, a weekly approval report is produced the following Monday. (The system will not release refunds for those payments made

within the past 14 working days. This is a built-in safeguard against ‘bad checks’).

Next Monday the final report is printed. This report is verified by the Supervisors and approved by the Managers prior to being delivered to the Auditor-Controller’s office for final processing. The Auditor-Controller runs the refund job every Friday. The refund checks are mailed the following Monday.

Additional Refund Information

For any information concerning refunds, please contact:

(714) 834-3411

THE END Thank you for your Attention

ORANGE COUNTY

TREASURER-TAX COLLECTOR METHODS OF PAYMENT

Kim Hansen, Cash Manager

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment REMITTANCE PROCESSING ENHANCEMENTS

 Upgrading existing machines with new software  Installing a new 3 rd machine  Character recognition has improved  Fewer items sent for data correction  Very reliable system with

same day

processing

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment TITLE AND ESCROW COMPANY PAYMENTS - HISTORY

 Prior to electronic payments, payments were made by check  Checks didn’t include a payment stub  TTC staff made a payment stub for each payment  In 2005, TTC requested title and escrow companies to pay electronically  Today, most companies are paying via wire transfer

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment TITLE AND ESCROW COMPANY PAYMENTS - EFT

 Back office processing is a labor intensive manual process  There is no standard format within wires for parcel/bill number information  Payment information and actual payment often are not received simultaneously  Staff time for research and refunding has increased significantly

$120,000,000 $100,000,000 $80,000,000 $60,000,000 $40,000,000 $20,000,000 $0 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 $14,763,900 334

Dollar Amount 04/05 - 05/06

Number of Wires 04/05 - 05/06 $110,356,744 6,666

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment TITLE AND ESCROW COMPANY PAYMENTS - EFT

•Cost of a wire is much higher than ACH or check ($6.00) •The bank fees have increased dramatically due to high volume of wires •Processing time for EFT payments takes up to 2 weeks •Overall, EFT payments are not working!

•A change is necessary

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment PAYMENT OPTIONS FOR ALL TAXPAYERS

TTC has many payment options:  Cash  Check  Credit Card via telephone  Credit Card via web  ACH Debit via web  ACH Credit  Wire Transfer

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment PAYMENT OPTIONS FOR TITLE AND ESCROW COMPANIES

Currently, title and escrow companies have these options:  Check  ACH Debit via web  ACH Credit  Wire Transfer

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment PAYMENTS

 The Treasurer-Tax Collector strongly recommends that title and escrow companies no longer use ACH Credit or Wire Transfer payments.

 Today, our preferred payment methods are:  Check  ACH Debit via web

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment CHECK PAYMENTS

 TTC will revert back to creating payment stubs for each payment  Guaranteed

same day

processing with next day visibility  If title and escrow companies include the reference or escrow number on the check, it will be included on any refund!

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment ACH DEBIT VIA WEB

 Safety and security controls available today mitigate most of the risk previously associated with ACH debit  Dealing with a known partner  Debit filters on your bank account  TTC website can process single or multiple payments  Payment window stays open/active for 8 hours

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment FUTURE PAYMENT OPTIONS

 TTC will continue to work with title and escrow companies to develop efficiencies for both sides  Electronic payments continue to grow and develop  ACH Credit could be utilized with some standardization of addenda information

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Methods of Payment PAYMENT METHODS

 Talk to your treasury/finance group  Let TTC help educate them  Questions??

ORANGE COUNTY TREASURER-TAX COLLECTOR DATA DELIVERY ENHANCEMENTS

Clarissa Adriano-Ceres Assistant Treasurer-Tax Collector, Information Tech.

EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT Enhancements to Data Delivery Methods Before

Data files are copied to tapes Tapes are physically delivered or picked up Takes days before data gets to destination

After

Data files will be made readily available through the County FTP server Data accessed anywhere through your browser Data is retrievable anytime

Chriss W. Street

Treasurer-Tax Collector

Don’t forget to drop your business card in the drop box in the foyer if you want to receive periodic email updates as to future enhancements at the TTC .

Thank you for your time and the opportunity to serve you going forth. We look forward to your questions and feedback at the conclusion of today’s presentation.