Supervisor Bruno Sabatier and Moke Simon, and County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson were appointed to an ad hoc committee earlier this year to work with Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen to resolve concerns raised both by Huchingson’s office and board members starting last year.
On Tuesday they reported to the board and intended to ask the supervisors to accept a proposed retirement date Ringen had given them in writing after they asked her to resign.
On June 14, Ringen – who has been a county employee for three decades – sent an email to Sabatier and Simon, announcing her intention to retire Jan. 10, well ahead of the end of her term, which will be completed on Jan. 1, 2023.
Part of Tuesday’s discussion also touched on AB 632, legislation signed last month by the governor that will allow Lake County to consolidate its auditor-controller and treasurer tax-collector’s offices.
Despite the scheduled discussion of that resignation date, a last-minute change threw off the ad hoc committee’s calculations.
Specifically, Sabatier said he spoke to Ringen on Monday and that she had indicated she wouldn’t resign as of January, but was looking at a July 2020 date.
During the course of Tuesday’s meeting, Ringen would go further, refusing to commit to giving the board a specific resignation date by the end of the 2019-20 fiscal year, which ends July 31, and pointing to ongoing challenges, including having only half of her staff positions filled.
It also was revealed during the meeting that should Ringen resign, choosing her successor wouldn’t be a matter for a special election but would be up to the Board of Supervisors, according to County Counsel Anita Grant.
Ringen herself originally arrived at the job by board appointment in 2013 when her predecessor left to take another job. She’s since been elected twice.
The operations of the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office have been the subject of board discussions beginning in September, as Lake County News has reported.
Issues raised by the board and the County Administrative Office previously and which Sabatier discussed again on Tuesday have included performance concerns such as lack of consistent tax default sales, transient occupancy tax and property tax checks not being deposited in a timely manner, lack of transparency when it comes to the county’s investment practices and status, and issues of customer service coming to supervisors directly from constituents.
Sabatier said the board had been waiting patiently for a report from Ringen’s department, which they didn’t get. When the report didn’t come through, Board Chair Tina Scott formed an ad hoc committee, with Sabatier and Simon appointed to it, to work with Ringen’s office.
Sabatier said this year no tax auction was held, there have been more complaints about property tax and TOT checks, customer service and transparency.
Due to the continuing issues with the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office, which Sabatier said is one of the three key financial offices in the county, the ad hoc committee offered that Ringen resign so they could find a replacement, deal with the issues and alleviate concerns in the midst of a fiscal crisis.
On June 15, the ad hoc committee received an email from Ringen, which can be seen below, in which she said she expected to resign in January 2020.
“I am very committed to addressing your concerns, and will continue to work hard towards resolving these concerns. It has been a difficult decision to make, but it is my intension to retire from service as Treasurer-Tax Collector effective January 10, 2020,” Ringen wrote.
In that email, Ringen said that, beginning this month, she would “arrange to be available on a regular but limited basis to ensure a successful transition.”
Sabatier said the ad hoc committee wanted to get the matter to the board as soon as possible so it could begin the search for a new treasurer-tax collector as soon as possible.
He highlighted Ringen’s 30 years of service to the county, noting she has been polite and kind throughout their conversations, and that she had stepped up to fill the job when her predecessor left.
Sabatier said when he met with Ringen on Monday, she was looking at changing her retirement date so she could finish up the fiscal year.
Simon also thanked Ringen for her long term service. “This is a tough discussion and decision.”
Supervisor Rob Brown also thanked Ringen for her efforts, adding, “This cannabis debacle that the board thrust upon her” didn’t help with staffing challenges. “There are a lot of underlying issues that added to the problems in that office.”
Brown said he wasn’t sure what they were going to do about the matter at Tuesday’s meeting. “I know there’s a road that somebody's planning on driving us down and I’m not really comfortable with it at this point, and that’s combining the two offices.”
He added, “I think there’s a real issue with that,” including the loss of oversight.
Brown said the county has a comfort level with the auditor-controller, referring to Cathy Saderlund, who has held that job since 2011. However, he said Saderlund isn’t always going to fill that office, and noting that he wasn’t speaking for her, he said such a consolidation action could be a reason for Saderlund to leave.
Brown said he wanted them to get input from Saderlund. “I really want to know she thinks, candidly. I’m not sure exactly where to have that conversation. But it has not occurred.”
He said the treasurer-tax collector, auditor-controller and assessor-controller’s offices are elected for a reason, so that voters can decide who holds the job.
Simon said there have been some honest discussions involving the ad hoc committee, and that they had talked to Saderlund. “Ultimately it is up to the board and ultimately it is up to Barbara.”
Huchingson said a transition team and plan haven’t been put in place yet to address the possible consolidation of the auditor-controller and treasurer-tax collector’s offices. She said meetings with auditor-controller have taken place, but no formal steps toward any transition have been taken because this discussion at the board level needed to be had first.
Ringen explains challenges, won’t give firm date for resignation
Ringen, who was invited to speak, said she originally decided to retire in January but soon came to the realization that the date didn’t give adequate time for training and moving in a new direction. As a result, she decided to postpone it until the end of the fiscal year.
However, she said the final date ultimately depended on the training and transition, and so she could give no specific date, noting it’s a work in progress.
“We’re still struggling with staffing,” which is at 50 percent, Ringen said, reporting that another employee resigned last month.
In the last year and a half her office has had 17 recruitments, only two of which were successful, Ringen said.
“It’s impossible to do the day-to-day operations successfully with 50 percent staff,” both on the treasury and tax collector sides, Ringen said.
For tax collector staff, Ringen said it takes three to five years to become an effective employee and learn the process.
Regarding the complaints about her office, she said they get a lot of them – many are unfounded – and that’s the nature of the business.
“I do want the department to move forward in a positive manner,” she said, noting she has worked for the county for 30 years and is proud to serve taxpayers.
Sabatier said the ad hoc committee had the conversation with Ringen about her resignation because they were not seeing what they wanted. He said they had received calls from a school district about not receiving payments and from the Tourism Improvement District about not getting its revenue. A tax default property auction also hasn’t taken place.
“We’re hitting some of those roadblocks,” he said.
Regarding Ringen’s resignation date, “To leave it open-ended to me does not fix the problem that we know that we have,” Sabatier said.
Brown said Ringen’s staffing problems fall back on the board. “We need to do everything we can to increase those staffing levels.”
When the sheriff came to the board about having a 15 to 20 percent vacancy rate, Brown said the board gave pay increases to staff, they didn’t ask the sheriff to resign. “Let’s commit to do the same thing with other departments that are struggling and having the same problems in order to resolve those issues. This falls back on us, ultimately.”
Sabatier asked Ringen, flat out, if she would agree to put July 31, 2020, as her resignation date
“No, I do not,” said Ringen.
Simon said the board was having the discussion because “an email came in response to a question we asked you,” namely, that she would resign.
“A date would be nice, obviously,” he said.
Despite Ringen refusing to give a firm date, Simon later would move to accept Ringen’s intended resignation and establish a transition team for the anticipated resignation by the end of the fiscal year. The board voted 4-1 – with Brown voting no.
The board also received a brief informational update on AB 632 from County Administrative Office staffers Matthew Rothstein and Patrick Sullivan.
The governor signed the bill on July 9. It gives the county the flexibility to combine the auditor-controller and treasurer-tax collector’s offices.
“That’s part of why we haven’t had more robust conversations of all the details of what this may look like,” said Rothstein.
Lake County also has the clerk’s office consolidated with the auditor-controller, which was authorized by county ordinance in October 1993. To bring the offices into alignment, Rothstein said the board also would need to break up those two offices, also by ordinance, which would take effect at the end of an elected term. The next election for those offices is November 2022.
Rothstein said the two department heads would be important contributors to the overall evaluation of a consolidation, with Saderlund already having said she is willing to be involved.
Sullivan said the board’s options for what to do with the county clerk’s office would be consolidating it with the assessor, with the recorder or having it as a standalone department. He said they are limited on what they can consider based on state law.
Huchingson said there really is no option to act under AB 632 until the end of the terms of the current officials, which run for another three and a half years left on their terms. She said the time to look at it is two to two and a half years from now, to allow for planning.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
061419 Lake County Treasurer-Tax Collector resignation email by LakeCoNews on Scribd