I. RECOMMENDATION:
Financial Services Director requests approval of agreement with HdL Coren & Cone for Property Tax Audit and Information.
II. BACKGROUND:
HdL currently provides sales and use tax revenue management services for the City since 2000 and the reports are very helpful in revenue management and business license fee recovery. HdL has been continually updating its review and analytic procedures and will provide staff with a wide variety of reports that are straight-forward and easy to use. The firm has also enhanced its ability to provide information and analysis very quickly after the close of each quarter.
Founded in 1992, HdL Coren & Cone (HdLCC) developed the first computer software system in California for tracking property tax revenues for counties, cities, and special districts. The company was the first in the state to go beyond using parcel data for allocation audits by developing specialized reports and models to assist government agencies by using the data for parcel administration, focused economic development strategies and revenue projections. The corporation is owned by its employees and the major stockholders that manage the firm. The staff consists of 15 highly qualified analysts, auditors and information systems technology professionals.
III. DISCUSSION:
Services include verification of proper revenue allocations and payments to the City, and appropriate follow-up and recovery efforts when it appears there are errors or under-payments. The databases HdLCC uses to perform these revenue management functions and will furnishes a variety of reports detailing property and revenue trends for the entire City and Successor Agency and for custom defined geographic areas. These reports can be used for budgeting purposes, planning, economic development and public
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information. Among the reports provided are top property owner/taxpayer listings, identification of property ownership transfers, sales trend analysis, Proposition 8 tracking and restoration forecasting, use category value/revenue analysis and budget projections. We also provide the City with quarterly reports of successful, pending and historical assessment appeals.
Specific advantages that HdLCC possesses to perform the services being sought by the City include:
• HdLCC maintains property tax data for 45 California counties, including all agencies in those counties. The size of the database plus a sophisticated computer system uniquely qualifies HdLCC to provide the most comprehensive property tax analysis available in California.
• HdLCC’s audit team has developed specialized databases and audit techniques and is thoroughly familiar with the County of Fresno. This familiarity, and excellent working relationships with County departments, will allow Coalinga to recover all misallocated property tax revenue in a timely manner.
• HdLCC’s service team is comprised of individuals with extensive experience in property tax assessment, administration, auditing, economic development and financial management. All of the firms’ key personnel have worked in or with public agencies and thoroughly understand their challenges and needs. This ensures prompt and knowledgeable response to inquiries and provides for relevant and timely information.
• HdLCC employs a staff of three full time information technology professionals with expertise in applications development, network design and maintenance, database management and technical support. These staff members continually work on developing and enhancing the firm’s technological capabilities.
• All HdLCC staff works from our centrally located headquarters in Brea, California. The decision to operate out of a single location allows the company to minimize overhead costs and thereby lower service fees, maximize coordination of client services, protect the company’s substantial databases and allows for immediate response to requests for information or assistance.
• HdLCC will provide Coalinga staff with access to the firm’s web-based property tax software which affords city staff a user-friendly tool for parcel look-up and will display parcel ownership, valuation, sales and building/land characteristic information.
IV. ALTERNATIVES:
Not approve agreement.
V. FISCAL IMPACT:
The fiscal impact to the General Fund and the Successor Agency Fund will be 50% reach at a contract price of $2,025 per quarter and 25% of net tax recovered for the City and/or Successor Agency in the audits perform over the period of time allowed by State statue (current year and 3 prior lien date years). Given the different analytic resources employed by HdL Coren & Cone, it is possible that the amount of property tax recovered could offset the cost of this contract.
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