Perspective: A call to action to improve and save the Colorado public trustee system.

This is a call to action for the 2019 state legislature to help improve and save the public trustee system by modifying some of the Colorado state statutes governing it. The time for hollow political rhetoric and studies is over. Instead, let’s support meaningful efforts to improve this unique, venerable but fragile system.

Public trustees serve as the independent referees between lenders, which generally are banks, and homeowners or property owners. Ideally, public trustees don’t take sides and consider the human element of each case. Public trustees deal with foreclosures, and the release of deeds of trust.

Appointed by Gov. John Hickenlooper, I have served as the public trustee in Boulder County since January 2015. And as many have seen in newspaper and TV coverage, our office is dangerously close to insolvency because revenue has dropped so dramatically. Foreclosures and releases fell nearly 90 percent, from 1,352 foreclosures in 2010 to 143 in 2017. Though this is good news for homeowners, as we all know, good times never last.

As a result, I no longer am being paid to do my job. By foregoing my salary during these hard times, I am performing public service in the purest sense. The morale of my staffers is at rock bottom, and I have had to switch over to my wife’s health care insurance.

A fine distinction: Though I’m appointed by the governor, no state or county monies are allowed to be used to run the public trustee’s office in Boulder County (or any county). It should be referred to as the public trustee’s office in Boulder County, not the Boulder County public trustee’s office.

Colorado is the only state in the United States that has a public trustee system. Western states often settle foreclosure actions through the use of private trustees; Eastern states often use the judicial process. These processes often require more time and money than the public trustee system.

Colorado’s governor appoints 10 of the 64 public trustees, in the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, Mesa, Pueblo and Weld.

In another 52 counties, the elected treasurer administers the duties of a public trustee. In Broomfield County, the county commissioners appoint the public trustee. In Denver, the Clerk and Recorder’s office handles public trustee actions.

The problems in the Boulder County office are but a symptom of a troubled system. Many other counties are facing, or will face, the same financial problems. But they are fixable.

Here are my personal recommendations for reworking Colorado’s public trustee system:

•The 2019 state legislature should immediately increase the fees that the public trustee’s office of Boulder County (and other counties) can charge for foreclosure actions and releases of deeds of trust, and tie any future increases to a Consumer Price Index. Even a small raise would greatly strengthen the Boulder office’s finances. Counties can charge only $15 per release of deeds and $150 for each foreclosure opened. The last time fees were increased was in 2001.

•Keep the appointed public trustees under the Office of Boards and Commissions, but consider moving the direct financial oversight to an agency such as the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

•The 10 appointed public trustees of these larger counties, which perform more than 70 percent of the state’s transactions, could be absorbed by county treasurers’ offices, a county clerk’s office, or both.

•Abolish the statute that requires public trustees to give excess revenue to county commissioners’ offices. That money winds up in a county’s general fund, and, for example, could be used to plow county streets. That’s just wrong, particularly with the 10 appointed public trustees, because the counties legally cannot fund anything for public trustees other than office supplies. Instead, that money could go to a county housing authority that advises people how to navigate the foreclosure process, another county agency or a foreclosure relief fund.

The governor has plenty to do as he and his administration prepare to wrap up and wind down a productive eight years. It’s up to the legislature to address these growing problems.