JIPSD--Time for a Change

It is vitally important that we elect JIPSD Commissioners who are willing to deal honestly and fairly with the Town.

On August 11, I wrote Chairman Hollingsworth and the other Commissioners asking that they cooperate with the Town to allow a credit on the tax bills.  The County Auditor has insisted that the Town find a partner who will allow the Town's credit be a reduction on their line on the tax bill.  The Town has asked both the JIPSD and Charleston County to serve as a partner.    The South Carolina Attorney General's Office provided an opinion that either approach would be legal.   Here is a copy of the letter the Town sent to Chairman Hollingsworth.

On September 4, Chairman Hollingsworth wrote me and asked for a  mock-up showing how the tax bills would look if the Town partnered with the JIPSD and also how they would look if the Town partnered with the County.     Here is a copy of the letter Chairman Hollingsworth sent the Town.

While it was obviously too late for any tax credits to appear on the 2014 tax bills, this letter from the Chairman of the JIPSD gave me hope that an agreement would be possible for the 2015 and future tax bills.

On Saturday, September 6, I sent Chairman Hollingsworth an email with two mock-ups attached.  (I worked on them Friday evening and Saturday morning.)   I wrote:

Bill Woolsey <mayorwoolsey@gmail.com> Sat, Sep 6, 2014 at 5:35 PM
To: Donald Hollingsworth <donaldh53@hotmail.com> 

Dear Donald:

Thank you for your letter. I prepared mock-ups for the two versions of the tax bill. I have not received approval from the Charleston County Auditor for these formats yet. 

I am keeping your son in my thoughts and prayers. I know it is a difficult time for you and your wife. 

I am looking forward to meeting with you. Would you be free for lunch someday next week? 

I greatly appreciate that Robert Wise came to Town Hall to discuss JIPSD participating with the revision of the Town's Emergency Plan Thursday. Ashley Kellahan, the Town Administrator, reported that it went very well. 

Do you think Robert and Ashley should meet on the tax matter as well? 

Bill

Early the following week, on September 7 or 8, Chairman Hollingsworth called Peter Tecklenburg, the County Auditor.  According to Mr. Tecklenburg:

" The Chairman had called me and said you had told him my office was ready to go and that the town was just waiting on the PSD to approve."

As can be seen above, my email to Chairman Hollingsworth said that the County Auditor had not approved the mock-ups.    

The email I sent to the County Auditor asked him to review the mock-ups.

Bill Woolsey <mayorwoolsey@gmail.com> Sat, Sep 6, 2014 at 5:41 PM
To: Peter Tecklenburg <ptecklenburg@charlestoncounty.org> 

Dear Peter: 

I recently received a letter from the Chairman of the JIPSD asking for me to provide a mockup of what the tax bills would look like depending on whether the Town helped the taxpayer pay taxes to the JIPSD or else the Charleston County general government. 

I created some mockups of what I would like the bills to look like. 

I told them that these had not been approved by you, and that I would send them to you as well. 

Please let me know what you all think. 

Thank you very much. 

Bill

I received a  response on Monday, September 8 from the County Auditor:

Peter Tecklenburg <PTecklenburg@charlestoncounty.org> Mon, Sep 8, 2014 at 11:22 AM
To: Bill Woolsey <mayorwoolsey@gmail.com> 

Mayor, 

Congratulations on your re-election. Having been through the process I know how much work it takes – win or lose. 

I have looked at the mockups you created. They are very close to how our bills would look – the top portion with the Town credit would probably be identical but it would only show the credit once. Your mockup showed the credit up on top and then again under the PSD breakout; the credit would only be listed with the other credits up in the blue box on top. I need to make it clear though, my acknowledgement of the mockups you created is not approval. 

We have discussed (last email dated July 15th) that an Attorney General’s opinion is not enough to persuade the County attorneys that your proposal is legal or that the County is not on the hook if it is challenged. They have indicated to me and I believe to you or your attorney that their intent is to challenge any declaratory judgment to the highest levels. To the best of my knowledge there has not been any declaratory judgment. 

I have agreed to provide to you any information you would like on assessments, property owners, addresses, ect. It was my understanding that you were exploring the idea of sending checks again, at least this year. 

The prospects of including the credits on this year’s tax bills as you have illustrated on your mockups is nonexistent. 

Peter Tecklenburg
Charleston County Auditor
ptecklenburg@charlestoncounty.org

I responded immediately, explaining that I was just asking what the bills would look like and had assumed that it was too late for this year's bills and that this was for 2015 taxes.

Tecklenburg responded to me:

Peter Tecklenburg <PTecklenburg@charlestoncounty.org> Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 12:44 PM
To: Bill Woolsey <mayorwoolsey@gmail.com>
Cc: Russell Campbell <RCampbell@charlestoncounty.org> 

OK, I understand. I will copy Russ on this and have him take a look at it and get back to you. This year's tax bill is off the table but I appreciate your persistence on this thing; they can't fault your effort. 

Peter

Little did I know that the County Auditor had also forwarded the September 8 email to Chairman Hollingsworth on September 9.

After some back and fourth with the Assistant County Auditor, I had the mock-ups consistent with how the County Auditor's office would do them.   I emailed the result to Chairman Hollingsworth on September 16.    

Bill Woolsey <mayorwoolsey@gmail.com> Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 4:06 PM
To: Donald Hollingsworth <donaldh53@hotmail.com>

Chairman: 

I discussed the tax bill mockups I sent last week with the County Auditor. He and is staff insisted on something different. 

I have attached a "base" bill, which is no credit. The CC bill is what would happen if the Charleston County allowed the Town to help our taxpayers pay their County taxes. The JI bill is what would happen if the JIPSD allowed the Town to help our taxpayers pay their JIPSD taxes. 

Bill

Notice that I did not say that Charleston County had agreed to allow the Town to help our taxpayers pay County taxes.   I said "if."

Here is a tax bill with no credit.   Here is tax bill if the Town partners with the JIPSD.   Here is a tax bill if the Town partners with Charleston County.

On October 2, I received an email from Chairman Hollingsworth rejecting the Town's proposal.  He wrote:

Donald Hollingsworth <donaldh53@hotmail.com> Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 6:36 AM
To: Bill Woolsey <mayorwoolsey@gmail.com> 

Mayor Woolsey, 

Upon extensive review and consideration on position on this matter is still the same. Did the county agree to your proposal using example CC of you mock ups. I still don't see how this involves us and it should be taken up between the Town and the Auditors office. If you could let us know if the county is in agreement with the CC mock up you have proposed.

Respectfully Your 

Donald Hollingsworth
Chair
James Island Public Service District

I was disappointed.   I was puzzled regarding the question about the mock-up that showed what would happen if the Town partnered with the County.   Who did he mean by "the County?"   The County Auditor agreed that this was what the bills would look like.   But I was still in the middle of negotiations with the County about  putting a credit against their line on the tax bill.

I wrote back immediately, sharing my disappointment and noting that if the JIPSD would cooperate with the Town, a larger tax credit would be possible in 2015.

Bill Woolsey <mayorwoolsey@gmail.com> Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 7:16 AM
To: Donald Hollingsworth <donaldh53@hotmail.com>
Chairman Hollingsworth: 

I am very disappointed that that the JIPSD is not willing to cooperate with the Town on this matter. 

Because the JIPSD collects the largest amount of property taxes from taxpayers in the Town, the amount of tax relief the Town can provide would be much higher for the next few years if the JIPSD would work with us than if we must work with the County.
Bill

On October 6, I received an additional email.   For some reason, Chairman Hollingsworth really wanted to know whether "the County" had approved the mock-up showing what tax bills would look like if the County would cooperate with the Town.  

Donald Hollingsworth <donaldh53@hotmail.com> Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 6:15 AM

To: Bill Woolsey <mayorwoolsey@gmail.com>

Mayor Woolsey,

Referring to our email dated 10/2/14 I was wondering why you didn't answer my question in reference to the County's answer to the tax credit example CC. 

I also do not understand your statement about the PSD collecting the largest amount of property taxes in the Town. I don't understand as the County taxes alone dwarf any credits the town could provide. If you could clear up these matters it would be deeply appreciated.

Donald Hollingsworth

I responded on October 8:

Bill Woolsey <mayorwoolsey@gmail.com> Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 8:25 AM
To: Donald Hollingsworth <donaldh53@hotmail.com>
Bcc: Ashley Kellahan <administrator@jamesislandsc.us> 

The County Auditor said that the tax example CC is how they would do it. I haven't sent it to anyone else at Charleston County. No one else has asked for a mock up other than you. 

Charleston County has not agreed to help the Town with our program for tax relief. Nor has is refused. 

If you look at your property tax bill for your house, the JIPSD collects approximately 48% and the County collects 22%. The Town currently has $1.4 million in our tax credit account. By next July, we will have $2.2 million. This could provide a tax credit $380 for a $200,000 home. The County collects only $200. The credit would zero out. The JIPSD collects $438. A much larger tax credit can be provided next fall if the JIPSD is willing to work with the Town. 

Thank you.
Bill

I didn't think too much more about this until the JIPSD meeting on October 13.   At that meeting, the JIPSD Attorney, Trent Kernodle, read a portion of my email, saying something like, the Mayor wrote in an email:

Charleston County has not agreed to help the Town with our program for tax relief. Nor has it refused. 

And then he read a portion of the email that Tecklenburg had sent me nearly a month ago, on September 8 and forwarded to Chairman Hollingsworth the next day, on September 9. Kernodle added that the County Auditor had written to the Mayor:

 I need to make it clear though, my acknowledgement of the mockups you created is not approval. We have discussed (last email dated July 15th) that an Attorney General’s opinion is not enough to persuade the County attorneys that your proposal is legal or that the County is not on the hook if it is challenged. They have indicated to me and I believe to you or your attorney that their intent is to challenge any declaratory judgment to the highest levels. To the best of my knowledge there has not been any declaratory judgment.

A bit later in the meeting, Chairman Hollingsworth did the same.   He read the same portion of my October 8 email and also the same portion of Tecklenburg's email from September 8.

In reality, the County has not rejected the Town's proposal.    By October 6, it should have been obvious that we are not talking about a Town tax credit on the 2014 tax bills that had already been mailed on October 1.   

First of all, the County Attorney said that he wanted to see a declaratory judgment by an appeals court before he would recommend that County Council go forward.   That is not a rejection, but the sort of litigation he described to the Town Attorney in a July 2 conference call looked to be expensive and time consuming.   That would make it impossible for a tax credit to appear on the 2014 tax bill.

On July 17, I met with the County Attorney, the Chairman of County Council, and County Councilman Joe Qualey, along with Senator Paul Thurmond, to discuss ways to reduce any legal risk to the County without time-consuming and expensive litigation.  My goal was to get the tax credit on the bill in 2014.  

The meeting was inconclusive, but at the end Chairman Pryor said that he would like to help the Town and we would meet again to see if there was some other method to reduce any legal risk to the County.   We agreed to meet after the Town's election.  


The reason was obvious.   If  I lost the election, there would be no point in meeting about tax credits on the tax bill.

I sent a follow up email to the Chairman of County Council on July 22, and he replied, "Thanks Mayor Woolsey for your insight on this issue. After the election I am still committed on trying to make this work without putting the County at risk."    I didn't take that as a rejection.

While "the County" has not rejected the Town's proposal, a more interesting question is why Chairman Hollingsworth asked me twice about "the County's" view of a mock-up, when he and his Attorney felt they already had the answer in an email from the County Auditor a month earlier?      Why did the JIPSD Attorney and Chairman Hollingsworth pull  the very same two sentences out of context from my October 8 email, and then read the same section of the September 8 email from the County Auditor?   


It is time for a change at the JIPSD.   We need JIPSD Commissioners who will be straightforward and deal honestly with the Town.