The county tax assessor-collector can play various roles depending on the size and structure of the county. For example, your county tax assessor will always be an agent on behalf of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, registering and titling vehicles for county residents, but he or she could also be your property tax collector, your voter registrar, and possibly run your local elections. In Dallas County, my office has two main responsibilities: Property Tax Collections and Motor Vehicle Services.
Regardless of what county tax assessors may do, they ALWAYS have contact with more constituents than any other county department. I like to say the County Tax Office is the grocery store of the county; everyone has to come to them for something, whether they want to or not!
There are also other customer-facing elected officials like the county clerk, district clerk, justice of the peace, and even the constables. Each of these officials has some type of interaction with various county constituents depending on the needs of those constituents. Then, there are the county judge and county commissioners, who have control of the budget and county facilities.
None of these officials could do their jobs without cooperation from the others. Two of the biggest ways that Commissioners Court members and other elected officials work together are on public facilities and weather events. When I took office 17 years ago, Dallas County public facilities were adequate at best, but they certainly weren’t accommodating or inviting. I began working with county administration to see how our Tax Offices could be spruced up and made to be safer and more efficient. The buildings were old and poorly maintained, and the design of the workflow was outdated. Additionally, the county owned way too many small buildings and rented several other facilities.
Two years after I took office, Commissioner Elba Garcia was elected and appointed to be over the Facilities Committee. Commissioner Garcia shared my vision of better facilities to serve the needs of the public. She went to work convincing her colleagues that we could either pay for deferred maintenance and keep putting band-aids on old, outdated facilities and wasting money on rent, or we could establish true County Government Centers that were designed to house multiple county departments and service multiple constituents at one location.
As the largest public facing department, the Tax Office took a key role in working with architects to design buildings that worked for everyone. Each time a government center was designed, all the departments were asked if they needed an office, how much space, and what they would do with the space. Through this collaboration, a standard model was developed. Although each Government Center may look slightly different or have a different color scheme or layout, they all have one thing in mind: efficiency.
The Tax Office was always the first office that the public saw, with 80 percent of our constituents needing access. Priority was then given to departments such as the district clerk’s passport office and the Dallas County Veteran Services Office. Additionally, and for safety reasons, the constables were also located on the first floor of the structure. As you moved up the building, you would see justice of the peace offices, commissioners’ offices, and partner agencies such as AgriLife Extension.
By working together, Dallas County has been able to construct and/or remodel eight facilities to accommodate this new model. During that time, we have been able to reduce facility inventory by selling off smaller unused buildings that no longer needed to be maintained. The new buildings are safer, allowing for security measures and protocols, but more importantly, they are constituent- and employee-friendly. They have more disabled parking spots than a normal building, especially since that’s where temporary and permanent disabled placards are provided to residents who need them.
Additionally, these facilities assist a larger volume of customers, allowing for fewer overall locations. Seventeen years ago, we had 11 public Tax Office branches, but today we have seven larger offices that run smoother, are better managed, and are safer for staff and customers.
Recently, the southern part of the country experienced some inclement weather, and Texas was hit especially hard. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a convenient time of year as the bad weather came in the same week as a statutory property tax deadline. The county judge worked directly with emergency management, various local agencies, school districts, and cities to decide if, and when, county facilities would be open. Part of that process included communication with county officials who serve the public. Was it safe to travel? Would the staff be present to assist customers if the schools were closed? Is there an option to extend delinquency dates at the local level? Spoiler alert: There isn’t. By working together collaboratively, the county judge was able to make decisions on closures that considered the safety of our residents and our staff while maintaining the ability to properly serve our constituents.
Each elected official could work alone in a silo and probably be somewhat effective, but by communicating with each other over items like new facilities or county closures, we are able to efficiently serve our constituents. Not everyone always agrees or even gets along, but as elected officials, putting aside our personal agendas for the betterment of our county is the strongest thing we can do because we are always Better Together!
