The city’s ongoing efforts to collect past-due stormwater fees will be the subject of a closed executive session Thursday among the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners.
The five commissioners will discuss “legal issues associated with the collection of the stormwater fee,” County Attorney Bill Louis told The Gazette on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the City Council decided that delinquent stormwater fees would be certified to the El Paso County Treasurer’s Office for collection on the 2012 property tax bills.
In 2009, the previous council tried the collect delinquent stormwater bills through the county and then retreated.
After the city said it wanted to turn over past-due accounts to the county treasurer for collection, Louis sent a letter to then-County Treasurer Sandra Damron warning that the city-owned Stormwater Enterprise might not be entitled to use the treasurer’s office to collect the fees.
“Although hospitals and golf courses are operated by the private sector as well as by the public sector, there is no private sector hospital or golf course that can avail itself of this coercive power,” the letter stated.
The city delivered hundreds of past-due stormwater accounts and a certification letter signed by council President Scott Hente in recent days, city spokeswoman Mary Scott said.
“We do not have an official response from the county regarding them,” Scott said.
Not all past-due stormwater accounts have been certified to the county for collection. Read more about those accounts here.
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