Scott Maxwell:
We don’t need to elect tax collectors.
Scott Maxwell
For years, I’ve argued that we don’t need to waste time, energy and money electing tax collectors in this state.
Collecting taxes doesn’t require a politician. It requires a competent office administrator.
The only time tax collectors usually make headlines is when they’re doing something stupid or controversial. (Kind of like lieutenant governors.)
Seminole County has proven this twice in a row.
Last year, Seminole voters tossed Ray Valdes out of office after the Sentinel revealed that Valdes and a cousin were buying properties that the tax office was responsible for auctioning off.
It was a suspect mixing of private profits with public service, and voters booted Valdes after 28 years in office.
Residents hoped for a fresh start with his replacement, Joel Greenberg — a guy who actually agreed with me that the position was unnecessary, but now seems drunk with power.
First, Greenberg started feuding with county commissioners, even issuing a trespass notice to one of them.
Then the state chastised him for spending too much money, and the Sentinel revealed he was involved in odd land deals, selling off county offices and trying to purchase strip malls with taxpayer money.
Now he’s trying to be a traffic cop. After arming himself and his staff with guns and awarding himself a gold-medallion badge, Greenberg decided to pull over a woman because Greenberg didn’t like the way she was driving through his neighborhood.
In a conversation Wednesday, Greenberg defended himself on all counts and said that, in the incident with the motorist, he simply behaved like any devoted father who was “sick of people speeding around here and waking up the damn baby.”
Yeah, I’m not so sure about that.
More on Greenberg’s views in a moment. But first, let’s take a time-out to note that, when State Attorney Phil Archer’s office began investigating Greenberg’s traffic incident this month, it was the second time Archer had investigated a Seminole County tax collector in as many years.
Just before Valdes was defeated, Archer’s office probed a physical altercation between Valdes and a local blogger who was promoting Greenberg’s candidacy.
Two tax collectors. Two investigations. Don’t we all have better things to do?
Archer sure does, saying: “I’d really rather concentrate on violent criminals than elected officials behaving badly.”
Amen. Enough already. Ax the darn post.
Seminole County leaders — either the charter review commission or the county commission — should look at eliminating it as an elected office. Either
group could ask voters to make the final call.
The same thing should be considered in Orange, where we know an elected collector isn’t needed because the last one rarely showed up to do his job.
I’m talking about former collector Earl K. Wood. He was in his 46th year in office — collecting a $151,800 annual paycheck (on top of the $358,976 in “retirement” benefits he’d collected more than a decade earlier) — when the Sentinel learned he rarely actually entered his office.
Wood said the office ran fine without him … making my point.
Wood was a Democrat. Valdes and Greenberg are Republicans. Who cares?
I don’t care if the tax collector bows down at the altar of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It’s all a waste.
When I reminded Greenberg Wednesday that he once agreed with me, he responded: “I do agree with you.”
Well, Halleluj … And then Greenberg finished his thought, saying that he favors axing the elected tax collector position and replacing it with an elected “revenue officer” one. Sigh. Greenberg says he’s gotten a bum rap with all the controversial headlines.
He’s convinced the realestate deals will save taxpayers money. He says County Commissioner Brenda Carey was rude and deserved to be blocked from his buildings for a while. And he says his confrontation with the motorist was misrepresented in the sheriff ’s report, claiming he never used a “flashing white light” and that, after trying to slow down motorists by standing on the side of the road, he finally tailed this one woman because her driving was particularly bad.
“I did what anyone else would do,” he said.
I disagree. So does prosecutor Phil Archer, who called Greenberg’s behavior ill-advised and potentially dangerous. Archer said he has decided to ask the Florida Attorney General’s Office about the propriety of a public official wearing a badge while taking an action usually reserved for cops.
Greenberg is convinced voters like his shake-things-up style and will want him to stay in office.
I think most voters would prefer tax collectors to simply collect taxes.
Better yet, just put the position out of its misery and save voters, taxpayers — and local prosecutors — a lot of headaches.