by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Mike Hogan, who won last year’s election for Duval County tax collector, had thought about running for the office for 11 years.
It seems hard for him to believe that his first year in the new job is already a diminishing dot in the rearview mirror.
“It was definitely worth the wait, but that year sure went by in a hurry,” said Hogan. “I really wanted to work as an administrator in local government. I’ve got aspirations and goals like anybody else.
“I wanted to do this, and I want to serve at some time as mayor of Jacksonville. I think this will give me an opportunity to hone my administrative skills and understand city government from the working level to the policy level.”
Hogan also served on City Council (1991-99) and won a seat in the State Legislature in 2000.
For the most part, Hogan was kept busy the pat 12 months by some changes he was making in the department, practically all aimed at increasing employees’ pay and improving customer service.
“I’m still getting probably 20-1 praise comments to complaints,” he said. “Many of the complaints are actually questions about how we’re structured.”
Hogan has extended operating hours to accommodate customers whose own work schedule had coincided with the office’s. Hours now are 7:15 a.m. to 5:45.
“That’s something that I ran into when I campaigned, something that constituents were looking for,” said Hogan. “The work hours were the same. They couldn’t show up except at lunch, which is our crunch time, 10-2.”
He also got approval from City Council for 11 new part-timers to work specifically during “crunch time.”
“Our focus has been customer service,” Hogan said. “That’s something we’ve done a lot of work with.”
Improving customer service was also behind another change brought about by other complaints heard on the campaign trail — customers being given different information, depending on which branch office they’re in.
“I’ve experienced that myself,” Hogan said. “That’s really frustrating.”
Most training had been done on the job, with experienced clerks showing the ropes to new employees.
“But you may have a clerk who learned the wrong thing training another clerk,” said Hogan. “That just perpetuates bad information.
“The other thing that happens is you’re taking an experienced clerk off the line to help an inexperienced one. You lose one, and you still have one that’s going to be slow. The public’s wait will be longer.”
Once again, he went to City Council, asking for a full-time trainer. After new employees are trained, a curriculum will be developed to bring the rest in for retraining.
Because the 2003 election was held in April, Hogan missed one of last year’s “major pieces of work,” the sale of delinquent tax certificates. He was there for every bit of it this time around.
Each May, the office auctions off the tax certificates of property owners who haven’t paid their taxes. Sales have been brisk since “corporate America has decided that’s a good place to invest some of their money now,” Hogan said. “So corporations and banks are bidding on these certificates.”
This year’s auction has been every bit as frenetic as those in years past — 60 to 70 people packed into the clerk’s office on the fifth-floor, dozens yelling out bids simultaneously.
Sales were supposed to end today. Certificates were going so fast, however, that Hogan didn’t expect any would be around after Thursday.
“We’ll sell just about every one of them, which is a benefit to the taxpayers (as a whole),” he said. “The City will receive that money.”
Property owners are responsible for remembering to pay their tax bill, but Hogan still makes sure they’re reminded.
“We send notices,” he said. “The law doesn’t require us to do that, but we do it as a convenience for the taxpayer.”
Even more care is given with homesteaded property.
“I don’t want to sell Aunt Sarah’s homesteaded property,” said Hogan. “That makes us a little uncomfortable. Maybe she’s a widow; maybe her husband took care of those things, and she didn’t understand the bill.
“We want to explain it to them, make that one-on-one, face-to-face contact.”
By extending the certification program, Hogan is making training available to all employees, not just key managers.
“The employees come back from the training grateful because now they see the bigger picture,” he said. “They see why we do some of the things we do.
“And, if you’re certified, the state requires you pay that person a little more money. So we’re raising salaries.”
In fact, Hogan discovered that dealing with low salaries was “one of the depressing things about my situation. I have some great employees who have been here a long time, and they’re paid very little.”
In Baker County, salary for an entry level revenue collector is $5,000 a year higher than it is in Duval. Starting salaries in a couple of surrounding counties are “a little below” Duval’s, “but their steps are much higher, so they move up quicker.”
“I don’t know how they do it day in and day out,” said Hogan. “Probably everybody would tell you that the toughest job is dealing with the public. Retail sales, for instance.
“But when people come into the tax collector’s office, they’re not walking out with a new pair of shoes or a new dress. They’re here to pay a tax, a fee or a fine.
“And people can get very irritated about taxes.”