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. e (CCQ)rPW The fum will visually inspect aU property before suit is filed. Under our current provider, suits were filed and judgements were obtained on property (houses) that did ~fexist. If the property had been visually inspected, we could have saved ourselves a lot of time and effort and would not have overstated the amount of our delinquent tax roll. These are just a few areas we believe the new provider will be able to assist in cleaning up our rolls. We will enjoy an increase in suit filing activity and tax warrants while still maintaining control over the operation. The new firm will start effective April 1, 1998 for a three year term. Under the term of his contract, the current provider will have until December 31, 1998 to bring to completion all suits he has previously filed. In preparing a contract, with the firm, we considered including a performance measurement criteria but were unable to fmd one that would fairly and accurately provide a comparison. We considered basing it on the amount of delinquent taxes that were collected but rejected that idea because of outside influences. For example, at the last City Council meeting, a street closing netted the City and School $19,514 in delinquent taxes. The tax attorney had nothing to do with that however he will get credit for the collection and even make $2,532 in attorney fees. In reviewing the collection efforts of our current provider, I fmd that they range from a high of 36% a year to a low of 8% a year. The high year of 36% was a year when the City purchased a lot of property for the construction of bond projects. Another measurement criteria we considered was to base it on the number of suits fLIed and again did not believe that would be a good tool. It does not take much to file a suit, just fill in the blanks and file. The real work is what happens before and after the suit is fIled. While the contract is not tied specifically to a performance indicator, we did add a Section and Exhibit that listed properties that we specifically want worked over the three year period. We would have asked any of the three firms to agree to this. The properties are those we strongly suspect have title problems. In conclusion, it is our recommendation the City of La Porte engage the law firm of Perdue, Brandon, Fielder, Collins & Mott, L.L.P. as its Delinquent Ta"< Collector for a three year period starting April 1, 1998 and ending March 31, 2001 and providing for one two year renewal option ( our choice). The School District approved their contract with Perdue at their School Board meeting of March 11, 1998. XC: John looms, Assistant City Manger Kathy Powell, Tax Assessor/Collector