New Hampshire Tax Collectors’ Association
Executive Board Meeting
July 21, 2005
President Blandine Shallow called the meeting to order at 9:38 a.m. in the Concord offices of Plodzik and Sanderson.
Present were Blandine Shallow, CTC, President, presiding; Second Vice President Joan Porter, CTC; Treasurer Pat Milone, CTC; Secretary Brenda LaPointe, CTC; Director of Public Relations and Chairman of the Certification Committee Kathy Seaver, CTC; Legislative Chairman Jill Hadaway, CTC;; Education Committee Chairman Cheryl-Ann Bolouk, CTC:; Convention Coordinator Vikki Fogg, CTC; and Workshop Coordinator and Director at Large Joseph Wiggett, CTC.
Notable guests in attendance were Barbara Reid, Local Government Center liaison, George West, honorary member of the NH Tax Collectors' Association and Attorney Bernie Campbell.
The first item for consideration was the minutes from the previous Executive Board Meeting. A motion was made by Jill Hadaway to accept the minutes of the June 9, 2005 meeting as submitted. The motion was seconded by Cheryl-Ann Bolouk. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Blandine acknowledged Bernie Campbell's presence at the meeting and after a brief exchange of greetings, the purpose of his visit was quickly undertaken. Cheryl-Ann brought Mr. Campbell up to date with the ideas that have been talked about for his presentation at the fall conference. Tax Collectors generally are exposed to many types of documents that convey title to property such as Warranty, Quit Claim, Fiduciary, Quiet Title, and of course Tax Collector deeds. The differences between the various instruments and the situations under which they are used is the basis for the working title for the presentation, “Deeds from A – Z; Everything a Tax Collector Needs to Know”. Kathy Seaver added that there are often lots of issues surrounding deeds and legal questions that many of us are not equipped to answer. A fundamental understanding of the composition and the underlying principles of each deed type would be helpful. Attorney Campbell asked about the allotted time for the topic. Cheryl said that the time slot was on Friday morning from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Mr. Campbell thought that perhaps the best approach would be to give a short course in real estate law. The various kinds of conveyances are outlined in RSA 477 so that would be a good place to start. The process to Quiet Title is another issue that should also be included. Blandine said that she often has a problem trying to identify a current owner when something is in an estate. Mr. Campbell acknowledged that this can be difficult to determine and said that he could include not only Fiduciary Deeds but some information on the Probate Court process as well. He asked about including something on the recording process such as where to go to record a deed, what information is critical, or maybe even a short discussion on transfer taxes. Jill stated that the registry process has already been touched upon recently with one of the programs being presented by one of the County Registers. General consensus was that an hour of the presentation should be about the deeds themselves. George West interjected that the status of a Tax Collector's Deed as compared to a Warranty Deed was often a question. At this point Mr. Campbell imparted some of his infinite knowledge of deeds and briefly explained that a Warranty Deed was one in which the seller agrees to defend the title to the property against any prior or future claims. A Quit Claim deed on the other hand, has a more limited scope for prior claims. A Release Deed offers no covenants for protection. All these types of deeds may convey the same interest in a property they just do no offer the same guarantees – all, some or no remedies against claims. A Tax Collector's deed warrants that the procedure in the taking of the property has been followed precisely according to the law. After this short discourse, he added that along with this kind of information he would include RSAs and citations complied within the statutes.
The remaining balance of the program content was offered via questions from Kathy. “What happens to subsequent receivables when property is deeded?” This issue is left over from one of the Spring Workshops and the question remains unanswered. Kathy noted that the law is unclear as whether to abate, release, or ignore the unpaid receivables. Mr. Campbell noted that when tax deeded property is re-sold, the new owner would most likely want to have the previous liens released, but pending the provisions in the statutes there might not be a definitive legal answer to the question. The next query was, “What do you put on a Tax Deed for the dollar amount?” Kathy recalled that in previous years the wording was “for $1.00 and other considerations” but more recently the amount stated was the amount of the lien for the year being deeded. Blandine said that she had always felt that it was ok to not put an amount. Mr. Campbell responded that in New Hampshire it is not necessary to recite an amount on a deed. George West asked if it was also necessary to put a description on the deed or was a map, lot designation along with the previous deed reference sufficient. This is a question that Mr. Campbell will offer more guidance on in his presentation. Kathy said that perhaps including sample copies of deeds in his presentation would be a good idea. Cheryl asked Mr. Campbell is he was ok with the program title. He said that he would have to think about it and might offer an alternative when he sends his outline for review by the Board which he expects to have out prior to July 30 th .
Pat Milone handed out copies of the Treasurer's Report dated June 30, 2005 (included as part of these minutes). She noted that the bills for dues had finally been sent out and the money was beginning to come in accordingly. She also noted that there were some vouchers to be signed that had not been presented at last months meeting due to her absence.
Kathy Seaver brought forth a request for money from the Certification Committee. She said that there were many applications for scholarships this year and that not all of them could be accommodated. The Town Clerk's had been approached about assisting this year as well, but due to other obligations the request was turned down. Kathy noted that Certification has a big year this year with 27 first year students scheduled to attend. Pat Milone stated that educating the people that we are professionally associated with is an obligation which we should fulfill. Barbara Reid said that training people in their first year of service to a community is beneficial in the respect that they are complimenting technical information with networking capabilities. After a short discussion, Vikki Fogg made a motion to fund $1,650.00 worth of scholarship requests to the Certification Program for the 2005 session. Joe Wiggett seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous voice vote. On behalf of the Certification Committee, Kathy thanked the Board and said that she does not anticipate as many requests in the future. A suggestion was made to include a letter with the next mailing that would urge people to seek funding from their various towns during the budget process if they plan to continue in the program. Joan Porter asked if it was possible to request proof that people had actually sought funding but had been denied. Such a request might discourage people from expecting to receive scholarships every year.
Brenda LaPointe had little to offer for the Secretary's Report. The bills for dues had been sent out by the Local Government Center right after the last meeting so there had not been time to review the list. Pat will be giving a copy of the dues received reports to Brenda as they come in so that a list of paid accounts can be compiled. Since a mailing with convention information is imminent, Vikki said that she would talk with Amanda at the LGC and then get together with Kathy to review the updated list of Collectors.
Next up was Kathy Seaver with the Certification Committee report. As previously stated, this will be a big year for Certification. There are 24 registered for the recertification class and 48 in the regular day to day classes. Kathy has finished putting together a rough draft of the calendar for Tax Collectors and a copy was handed out for comment. Joan remarked that she would not mind having information about Town Clerk functions on a calendar as it was good to know in any given month what the Clerk was experiencing for workload. Kathy mentioned that the Managing the Work lesson has been expanded to include a section on ethics and integrity in the workplace. The Certification Committee will be tackling the presentation of this subject matter as it has been difficult to come up with an instructor that can successfully adapt material to the students. When all is said and done, there will be 9 or 10 new graduates this year. Kathy ended by saying that she had received a thank you note from Cindy Heon. Blandine also acknowledged a note from Cindy for the clock that was sent from the Association.
An update on recent legislation was given by Jill Hadaway. The records retention schedule has become an RSA (instead of a rule) and will be effective as of August 29, 2005. HB394 which is the bill that changes lien notification to include the name of the current owner, was adopted as Chapter #0140 and is effective August 16, 2005. The pending legislation that Jill has previously spoken about concerning a change to the veteran's credit qualifications also passed as Chapter #0126 and will be law on April 1, 2006. Jill expressed her thoughts about the “nebulous” wording in this piece of legislation. As she interprets it, anyone currently serving in the armed forces as well as those that served during the Persian Gulf War are no longer required to have earned an armed forces expeditionary medal or a theater of operations medal to qualify for the credit. Kathy Seaver took exception to this interpretation and said that she thinks that the last part of the wording covers it, “Any other war or armed conflict that has occurred since May 8, 1975, and in which the resident earned an armed forces expeditionary medal or theater of operations service medal.” Barbara Reid concurred with Kathy's interpretation as well. Jill made reference to the line before the one that Kathy read and said that this line only speaks to the Persian Gulf War but does not say anything about the medals. The difference of opinion being unresolved for the moment, discussion moved rapidly on to updating the law books. Kathy noted that the updates will be worked on at Certification and will include all of the new legislation.
Cheryl-Ann Bolouk handed out an agenda for the Annual Conference. The Education Committee has been updating the “Helpful Hints” for the Thursday afternoon presentation. She noted that the “Monthly Balancing by User Groups” needs to be refined a bit to make sure that all of the various groups are covered. Other than these few items, everything looks to be all ready to go.
Cheryl moved on to the Local Government Center fall conference and said that the topic of “Record Retention and Document Management” has been submitted and is pending approval. The Town & City Clerks' Association will be co-sponsoring the event. Jill has helped her to coordinate the subject matter and round up some people to assist with the presentation. The plan is to approach the program from the stand point of local government and reach beyond the scope of just Tax Collector's.
Joan Porter concisely and in good humor, offered forth the Workshop Coordinators report for Joe with one sentence, “Joe has nothing because I gave him nothing.”
Convention Coordinator Vikki Fogg handed out a draft copy of the information that will be sent out for the upcoming conference. Surprisingly, she pointed out the fact that the costs for accommodations have only increased by $25.30 since the last visit in 2000. Pat Milone suggested that perhaps the Executive Board would like to consider offsetting some of the fees this year. This idea was mulled around for a bit with Vikki bringing up the fact that there are many incidentals that the Association has to pay for which are not included in the package costs. Courtesies such as food and drink during the breaks add up after awhile and she gave some examples. George West said that perhaps it would be worthwhile to take a clue from the Town Clerks and ask vendors to sponsor some of the breaks. Jill mentioned Wells Fargo and Kathy said either Citizens Bank or TD Banknorth might also be interested. Kathy cautioned that it might not be appropriate to hit the vendors too hard as they would be asking them for sponsorships on the calendar as well. At this point the price of the advertisements on the calendars was discussed. The price of $100.00 per ad was generally agreed upon with a suggested format size of 3” X 5” or larger. The discussion about offsetting costs to the conference was put on hold until next meeting.
Convention plans continued with Vikki noting that people to act as greeters needed to be lined up as well as County Coordinators notified about the “New Collectors Roundtable” and reminded to bring gifts for the raffle. Blandine said that she would contact Pat Woolsey to follow up with these tasks. Conference packets generally are put together the night before by Board members that arrive a day in advance for set up. An idea was hatched to put the packets together ahead of time thus offering an opportunity to have more people assist. A decision was made to meet on Monday, October 3 rd , 1 p.m. at the Local Government Center in Concord to accomplish this task. Vikki wound up discussion about the convention by noting that registration forms are expected to be mailed along with the bulletin and be available on the website www.NHTaxCollectors.com within the next two weeks.
LGC Liaison Barbara Reid quickly mentioned that she was preparing a session for LCG's Annual Conference to be entitled, “Is there a fox in your chicken coop?” The subject matter will be dealing with fraud and ways in which to identify it. She wanted everyone to know that she would be contacting some people to obtain first hand knowledge of their experiences.
Last but by no means least, George West threw out an idea that he had while working on his presentation on the history of tax collecting for the conference. He thought that perhaps a few of the retired Tax Collector's like Maurice Barrett or Ed Garvey might be interested in helping to compile information from the archives. The suggestion was made in passing and will be discussed in more detail at another meeting.
Cheryl-Ann Bolouk made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 12:10 p. m. Joan Porter seconded the motion and it passed unanimously by voice vote.
The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 11 th , 9:30 a.m., at the Office of Plodzik and Sanderson.
Respectfully submitted,
Brenda L.LaPointe, CTC
Secretary