LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a sale of tax defaulted properties for this spring, with more than 900 parcels set to go up for auction.
Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen presented the board with a resolution approving the sale accompanied by a list of 942 tax defaulted properties.
Until last year, Ringen and her staff had arranged sales that usually topped out at about 300 parcels.
However, in recent years there has been an increased push to do the sales regularly and in larger numbers, with the city of Clearlake demanding Ringen’s office take action to sell thousands of tax defaulted properties within its boundaries.
The city of Clearlake went so far as to sue the county, alleging that Ringen violated state law by not pursuing tax default land sales in a more timely manner.
The city also appealed to state agencies on the matter, and in December 2020 State Controller Betty T. Yee wrote to Ringen to offer recommendations including that she sell 1,000 tax-defaulted properties per year in order to be in compliance with state law.
Ringen said the sale is scheduled for May 27 to June 1. It will be conducted online.
Of the 942 parcels approved for tax sale, Ringen said 87 have been offered in previous sales.
The minimum bids on all of the properties totals $7,870,400.
In March the board approved a June sale of 490 properties, with minimum bids totaling $2,944,800.
For this new sale, Supervisor Bruno Sabatier pointed out that the reduction of minimum bids for the properties previously offered that didn’t sell reduced the potential return of unpaid taxes by $1.3 million.
He shared a list of the properties, showing that some of them had minimums reduced by tens of thousands of dollars. In the case of one property in Clearlake Oaks, it was reduced by $146,000 to $15,000.
“There has to be reductions in order to make these properties viable properties,” Sabatier said.
He asked Ringen if special districts that have liens on the properties were consulted before the minimum bids were reduced.
Ringen said no, that her office’s responsibility is to lower the bid enough to stimulate the bidding so the properties will eventually be productive.
The board unanimously approved the resolution authorizing the tax sale.
Based on the county’s list, it appears to include 433 parcels in Clearlake’s jurisdiction.
Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora told Lake County News after the meeting on Tuesday that the city is pleased to see the increasing number of properties noticed for auction, although the number in this upcoming sale is not at the 1,000-parcel threshold noted by the State Controller’s Office as being needed to clear the enormous backlog in a reasonable period of time.
“The city’s frustration on this auction is we were again told we could offer our requests for properties to be added to the auction list, but those requests were ignored,” Flora said. “I was given personal assurance in a direct conversation with Ms. Ringen about being able to send a list of city preferred parcels. Long story short, after a personal meeting and supplying the list within the tax collector’s timeline, the list was ignored.”
Flora said the city has a strategy in which parcels should be prioritized, that it believes would benefit both the city and the county, “but we can’t get them interested in working with us on it. We have also expressed a desire for direct sale of some properties, and sent a list of priority parcels, but have not received any communication from the tax collector about this opportunity.”
He added, “At the end of the day the more properties offered the better, but this problem isn’t going to be solved without a little strategy.”
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