93.3 KWTO Keeping Watch Over the Ozarks
Greene County Collector Leah Betts, whose resignation in February was made public today, slammed the Greene County I.S. department and the Greene County Commission in her resignation letter.
Betts says that over the last two years, she had been repeatedly raised issues concerning the software problems which hampered her ability to do her job. She says she reached out to the Greene County Commissioner verbally and in writing and received no help.
“The I.S. Department of which you are the elected body directly responsible for, has been unprofessional, disrespectful, and unwilling to do what was needed to get the job done in a timely manner,” Betts wrote. “Moreover they refuse to take any responsibility for their inability to manage the project at hand.”
“Both you and the I.S. Department have, and still are, in denial regarding their role in the failure of the task to successfully connect the Assessor’s new program to the County Clerk and Collector’s shared program,” Betts continued. “The only available avenue to address this unacceptable behavior was the Commission, and you refused to heed my warnings and please for purposeful assistance time and time again, even thought it became very apparent the concerns were legitimate.”
Betts, who has worked for the county 18 years, was elected collector in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. She said that the problems with personal property taxes that residents have dealt with this year were avoidable had the Commission taken action.
“The chaos of this tax season was indeed preventable if you would have taken action,” Betts wrote. “There are additional county politics that have also hindered the flow of processes for the good of the people that I will not go into in this letter. It is truly disgraceful to the Greene County family and the county as a whole.”
Betts said the response of citizens to the problems have been “amazing” but that she realizes the situation will not improve.
“This is a battle that clearly cannot be won which prohibits me from being able to provide the citizens of Greene County the efficient service they deserve,” Betts concluded.
The Greene County Commission sent the following statement to KWTO regarding Betts’ resignation letter:
We wish Ms. Betts all the best in her future endeavors and thank her for her service to the citizens of Greene County. She is to be commended for her efforts to provide top quality customer service to those who interact with the Greene County Collector’s Office. We further thank her for working to complete this year’s cycle of tax statements.
In addition, the Greene County Commission would like to assure residents that this year’s tax cycle has been and continues to be a collaborative effort. Several offices, including the Commission, Assessor, County Clerk, Collector and Information Systems department, have worked tirelessly to address the issues that were brought to the Commission’s attention in September 2020.
The Commission immediately provided leadership – bringing together every involved office and department – to facilitate communication and find solutions. This resulted in the ability to mail the majority of the tax statements before the end of the year and make significant progress on processing the remaining statements. This same collaborative approach is helping to identify options to streamline assessment, billing and collections in the future. For this, and all issues related to the County, the Commission will keep the focus on positive resolutions.