"Unacceptable"

Thus quoth Board of Estimate and Taxation Chairman Steve Walko, speaking of the recent clusterfreak at the non-Tax Collector's office. One wonders what he means by that: will heads roll? Will appropriate chastisement be forthcoming? Will the stocks be brought back at long last?

This is an appropriate and overdue time to revisit the suggestion that has been made before, namely, to disband the office of the Tax Collector in the Town of Greenwich. Here's what a commenter on Chris Fountain's fabulous blog, "For What It's Worth", recently noted:

"The Town Website contains a downloadable file of assessments, with owner’s names and mailing addresses.

"So why does it take a $100K /yr. elected official, a staff of 6, and a software company on contract for the mailing, to print and mail the bills?

"Couldn’t a Pitney-Bowes machine and a staff of one do this for 23,000 properties in about a week?

Sounds like a great idea! You can follow the action on Chris's blog at:

http://christopherfountain.com/

Meanwhile, you might want to call or email your elected representatives on the RTM, the BET, and the Board of Selectmen, and let them know whether you want them to continue to waste precious Town resources on an AWOL non-tax collector and a dysfunctional department (in which the morale is rumored to be abysmally low), or, alternatively, to automate the whole process and bring it into the 21st century.

After all, it's your tax dollars not at work that are being wasted on this boondoggle. You have the right to ask for change. That's what representative town government is all about.

A simple charter change amendment would do it. With luck, the non-tax collector would be out on the street–I mean, the golf course–by October. Who’s with me on this one?