It’s easy to think of the government as a faceless, inhuman entity, a machine with a mind of its own churning along.
It impersonally requests that you attend jury duty, it anonymously takes money out of your paycheck every week, and, if you don’t pay your taxes on time, it sends you a coldly formal letter notifying you that you’ve been fined.
But the government, especially at the local level, is anything but inhuman. It is operated by real people who are subject to human problems. Often times, these personal problems can drastically affect the government’s ability to operate.
Take, for example, former City of Falls Church Treasurer Bob Morrison.
Morrison had been attending to Falls Church’s finances for 13 years. He had just been elected to his fourth four-year term as Treasurer in 2004.
But Morrison had a problem: he was diagnosed with colon cancer in January of 2006.
Because of the demands the cancer put on his life, Morrison was unable to keep up with his duties as treasurer. A few months after the diagnosis, he resigned from his post to devote all his energies to regaining his health.
"I had [melanoma] almost 20 years before," Morrison said. "[So] I knew from that experience that if you're going to be successful in fighting cancer you need to be able to focus all your energies into that. I did not feel that it was fair for the people of Falls Church to be a part-time treasurer."
This put the City of Falls Church in a bind. Without an experienced treasurer, it was unable to collect delinquent taxes and this caused Falls Church revenues to be well under the amounts estimated in their budget.
Furthermore, a state tax relief law that partially subsidized personal property taxes was expiring at the end of August. This meant that anyone who owed outstanding taxes on their vehicles after Sept. 1, 2006 wouldn’t receive any state subsidy and would have to pay the full amount.
Falls Church wanted to collect on as many outstanding tax bills as it could before the Sept. 1 deadline so its citizens would receive the state-funded discount. But the delinquent taxes were piling up after Morrison’s resignation and Falls Church was incapable of processing them without an experienced, knowledgeable treasurer.
THIS IS WHERE ARLINGTON COUNTY came into the story. Arlington Treasurer Frank O’Leary heard about Falls Church’s dilemma and came up with an innovative yet simple solution: Arlington could use its tax collecting resources on Falls Church’ back taxes until their treasury department could get back on its feet.
O’Leary ran the idea by his old friend and former protégé John Tuohy, the director of finance for Falls Church. "John thought that this was a pretty good idea," O’Leary said.
"Frank understands the business [of tax collecting] like you wouldn’t believe," Tuohy said. "[He] came up with the idea of Arlington using their resources to assist Falls Church."
After getting legal approval from county attorneys, the partnership between Falls Church and Arlington began in May of 2006.
Amazingly, the plan benefited everyone involved, even the delinquent tax payers. Many were able to pay their outstanding bills before the Sept. 1 deadline and were eligible for the tax subsidy from the state.
The biggest beneficiary of the partnership, though, was the City of Falls Church. "They gave us over $300,000 in debt," O’Leary said, "And we’ve [so far] cleaned up about [$250,000] of it."
Instead of Falls Church paying Arlington for this service, O’Leary got approval from the courts to add on a $20 fee to each delinquent tax bill that would go directly to the Arlington County Treasury Department. This allowed Arlington to recoup any costs it incurred while providing a free service to Falls Church.
While the fee has yielded less than $7,000 for the county, Arlington Deputy Treasurer Gary Sabean said "It’s not about the money. It does cover the cost of whatever we did [but] it was negligible at that point."
Instead, he points to the satisfaction of helping out a jurisdiction in need. "It was a great experience," he said, "And that’s rewarding in itself."
KATHY KAYE, TREASURER OF FALLS CHURCH, expects the city to be able to collect its own delinquent taxes by the beginning of this summer. But Kaye said that Arlington will still continue to give the Falls Church Treasury Department legal assistance when they have to go to court.
"Arlington has such an exceptional collections process [because] they're so streamlined and so precise," Kaye said. "[The partnership has] helped me considerably being a new treasurer."
Bob Morrison is now in remission and is starting his own photography business.
"Once you have cancer you are never really cured but I'm as close to it as you can be," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting on with my life."
In the meantime, the innovative partnership necessitated by Morrison's absence has worked out.
"[This] has been extraordinarily successful. It's a win-win situation," Tuohy said of the inter-jurisdictional partnership, the first of its kind for a tax collecting venture according to those involved with the project.
O’Leary says that the success of this program proves a theory he has been trumpeting for many years. "The business of delinquency is best handled by localities working together," he said.
For now, he is just glad that he was able to help his neighbors. "[Falls Church] has benefited wonderfully and we were happy to help them out," O’Leary said. "It’s been quite a success story."