Following the law on judgments
‘Taxpayers feel the sting of city, county court judgments” (Our Views, Nov. 21) was a misstatement of fact and state law mandating how cities and counties must pay judgments.
First and foremost, county and city governments are nonprofit entities. Every penny that is made from county or city investments goes back into providing services to our citizens. Only the taxpayers “profit.”
The inference in the news story of Nov. 19 is that counties and cities are allowing judgments to be obtained against them so that they can buy them later. That is ridiculous. No county or city has control over who sues it or why. In the vast majority of cases the county is defended aggressively by the district attorney’s office. In many cases we are successful. Sometimes we are not.
By law, regardless of whether the county or city buys a judgment, a bank buys it or the judgment creditors keep it themselves, the cost to the taxpayers is exactly the same. It is must be placed on the tax roll to be collected over three years at an interest rate set by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
The practice of purchasing judgments began many years ago at the suggestion of the district attorney’s office. Doing so allowed that office to negotiate settlements at a reduced amount, thereby saving taxpayers money while also providing the county one of its best investments in terms of safety and return. It should also be noted that many other cities and counties in the state do the exact same thing.
No one likes putting judgment costs on the tax rolls. We abhor it. However, the only way the taxpayers ever benefit from a judgment is if the county buys it.
Vaughn, of Edmond, is Oklahoma County District 3 commissioner.