Tonight the Powell Republican Club met and the Speaker was Knox County Trustee Ed Shouse. Shouse has been in office for about 7 months. He has had one retirement where the duties and half the salary were shared among multiple employeesx. One other employee departure that wasn’t replaced. Other cost savings measures were not sending tax statements to individuals that have their property taxes paid through a bank, mortgage company escrow accounts. In addition, tax sale notices have been reduced to the legal minimum to be published in the newspaper three times, resulting in the vicinity of $35,000.00
Shouse recognized Trustee employees Carla Hatfield and Justin Biggs. He said that Hatfield is an example of an employee that is cross trained to do multiple tasks. She is currently working with the tax sale/collection team. She said that she really enjoys her job and is pleased to work in a stable, consistent office.
Shouse recognized Collections Supervisor Justin Biggs. The Collections/Delinquient Tax department is currently run by 5 people and 2 other staff which one of them is Hatfield. In the past the department has employed in excess of 10 employees.
Knox County Trustee Collections Supervisor discusses the last 5 months collections as Trustee Shouse waits to take questions.
Biggs explained there are 22,000 businesses in Knoxville and 192,388 parcels of property covering the 508 square miles in Knox County and 97 square miles in the city. Biggs further explained that since becoming Collections Supervisor in November. The department collected in November $835,954.26, in December $706,521.46, in January $824,119.28, in February $1,122,123.95 and in March $778,350.77 All of this money was collected by Delinquient accounts totaling $4,267,369.72
Biggs is a fresh presence in a stale environment. Now, if only Kristen Phillips were to see the hand writing on the wall, as she was Craigy’s chief and move to another department, like others have done and Biggs becomes the next Chief Deputy to Shouse