15 West Kellogg Blvd.

Saint Paul, MN 55102

City of Saint Paul

Minutes - Final

Legislative Hearings

Marcia Moermond, Legislative Hearing Officer

Mai Vang, Hearing Coordinator

Joanna Zimny, Executive Assistant

legislativehearings@ci.stpaul.mn.us

651-266-8585

Thursday, October 3, 2024

9:00 AM

Room 330 City Hall & Court House/Remote

Garbage Hauling Assessments

9:00 a.m. Hearings

Special Tax Assessments

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 1223

FARRINGTON STREET. (File No. CG2403A1, Assessment No.

240115)

RLH TA 24-381

Sponsors:

Kim

Approve the assessment, noting it has already been paid.

No one appeared

Moermond: this particular property has forfeited to the state. This is for Quarter 3

which was before it forfeit, and was appealed, but the State of Minnesota did pay the

bill, so I will recommend the appeal is denied noting the assessment has been paid.

Referred to the City Council due back on 11/6/2024

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 735

MARYLAND AVENUE EAST. (File No. CG2403A1, Assessment No.

240115)

RLH TA 24-391

Sponsors:

Yang

Approve the assessment.

Jessica Stortenbecker, owner, appeared via phone

[Moermond gives background of appeals process]

Staff report by Supervisor Lydia Campbell: the property owner purchased this home

May 6, 2024. Her first bill was prorated to include service from May 12, 2024 to

September 30, 2024 in the amount of $148.43 which was paid on July 19, 2024. The

delinquent balance of $180.31 is for service from January 28, 2024 to May 11, 2024,

and was left unpaid by the previous owner. Current property owner has attempted to

contact previous owners without success. Staff does not recommend removing

assessment as the property owner is responsible for any assessments on the

property.

Moermond: why are you appealing?

Stortenbecker: I am appealing because as she stated, I have attempted to contact

the property owner. Directly, my title company has attempted, my realtor has tried. I

do have paperwork from my title company with a forwarding address, name, and

number for the previous owner. What I’m trying to understand is I have a legal

document stating they’d pay any outstanding delinquent bills. How do we move

forward with getting them the bill?

Moermond: I don’t know. I say that not to be facetious, but because this is really a

private matter between the two of you. Some people file in small claims court, some

people hire an attorney to make a phone call. I don’t have decent advice on that.

What I can’t do is have the City go back and try and track them down and bill them as

humans, because the assessment attaches to the property not to them. It is

unfortunate but it is what I’m stuck with. Does your title company cover situations like

this? Sounds like you’ve talked to them.

Stortenbecker: so, at the City level it is tied to the property, it doesn’t matter how it

gets paid it just needs to be paid.

Moermond: it is tied to the property and whoever owns the property is responsible for

the assessment. I know that isn’t what you’re looking for but it is all I have.

Stortenbecker: when will it go to the taxes?

Moermond: the Council votes November 6 and if they ratify the assessment you can

pay it through the end of November then they forward all unpaid assessments to

Ramsey County to go onto your property taxes. If you are ready to pay now, you can

go on the City’s website and pay by using the assessment lookup feature.

Referred to the City Council due back on 11/6/2024

10:00 a.m. Hearings

Special Tax Assessments

RLH TA 24-392

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 1056

OXFORD STREET NORTH. (File No. CG2403A2, Assessment No.

240116)

Sponsors:

Kim

Layover to LH October 17, 2024 at 10 am. Current recommendation is to remove

NSF charges.

Lucy Bloedoorn, owner, appeared via phone

[Moermond gives background of appeals process]

Staff report by Supervisor Lydia Campbell: the homeowner is contesting the Quarter

2 assessment saying Highland Sanitation charged the property owner four insufficient

fund fees onto the Quarter 2 2024 invoice. The property owner is contesting the two

remaining fees on her bill. She was told by a representative from Highland Sanitation

via email on March 13 the four insufficient fund fees ($30 each) were added to her

account and told property owner "all unpaid balances are turned over to the City of

St. Paul. We are unable to carry over balances from one billing quarter to the next."

However, on June 4 a different Highland representative stated the reason why her

Quarter 2 bill was so high is because "Her normal 3-month invoice is $112.57 the

difference is the four insufficient fund fees at $30 each for a total of $120.00 added to

the $112.57. The insufficient fund fees were not turned into the city for collection on

the Quarter 1 invoice as they weren’t billed on an invoice yet to this resident." The

Quarter 1 invoice Highland Sanitation provided shows the four insufficient fund

payments were reversed on February 22 and sent to the city for assessment but the

insufficient fund fees were not included on the Quarter 1 bill.

Moermond: Ms. Bloedoorn, tell me what is going on.

Bloedoorn: I want to just be able to pay the City. I have records from my credit union

showing the epay and records showing no non-sufficient funds happening in my

checking account. I don’t understand Highland can assert there’s non-sufficient funds

when I don’t see a record of anything on my end. I spoke with the branch manager of

TruStone and she couldn’t’ find anything other than the epayment checks going out

from the post office. Three of them went out, it is somewhere in the realm of Highland

to do something other than say to me there is non-sufficient funds when I have no

record of non-sufficient funds. I just want to pay the City going forward because I

know they won’t screw it up like Highland.

Campbell: coming up next April 2025 the City will be taking over billing for all 1 to 4

unit houses for garbage. Good news for you is you no longer pay any hauler directly,

all payments will go through the City via assessment, and we will also charge at the

end of the quarter, rather than the billing. They were trying to bill you for 2023 bills on

your 2024 bill, so it should help avoid this happening.

Bloedoorn: the most recent payment I made to them was carrying cash up to their

Vermillion office and getting a paper receipt. I don’t trust them to process my

payments. They have no track record of doing that. I have bill pay records showing

payment to HS November 10, 2023.

Moermond: you can always pay the City by assessment, but we’d have to work

through the problem that assessments have late fees attached.

Campbell: if you prefer to pay the City you will incur a late fee every month of the

quarter of 5%. If you let it roll over into an assessment it would have those added

charges. That’s a choice you can make, but you do have to pay through Highland

until next year.

Moermond: I’m lacking more details directly from Highland of what is included in this

proposed assessment. What I was hearing was best guess, but we’d like better

documentation. With respect to the insufficient fund charges, there’s no question you

did make a good faith effort and I want to credit that. I’ll make that go away, but I want

to first ask Highland to produce an itemized invoice. We can speak again in 2 weeks

and I should have that information. I’ll delete the insufficient fund charges when all is

said and done.

Laid Over to the Legislative Hearings due back on 10/17/2024

Special Tax Assessments-ROLLS

Ratifying the assessment for the City’s cost of providing Collection of

Delinquent Garbage Bills for services during April to June 2024. (File

No. CG2403A1, Assessment No. 240115)

RLH AR 24-94

Sponsors:

Jalali

Referred to the City Council due back on 11/6/2024