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Tax Collector’s Office Successes of 2007

This year brought much change and even more success to the Tax Collector’s office. As we close out this year, we take time to remember the improvements we’ve made and the fruits of our labor. The Tax Collector is focused on bringing managerial and organizational excellence to the entire agency. Some of our successes are:

• Queue Management & Waiting Rooms : To improve our customer’s experience when they visit our office, we have installed a queue management system in our West Palm Beach branch office to lessen waiting time, and offer seated areas to make waiting more comfortable. We will roll out the queue management system county-wide in the near future.

• New Office Hours: On Monday, July 9, 2007, the Palm Beach County Tax Collector changed its hours to 8:15am-5:00pm to better serve the public during the morning hours and reduce time customers wait in line. Additionally, the employee’s weekly hours worked increased from 37.5 hours to 40 hours.

• New Website Launched July 30: The new website was launched to better serve our online customers. The site allows customers to access information and make payments. Users have the opportunity to ask questions via an e-mail portal and access to breaking news affecting the Palm Beach County Tax Collector and its customers. The website is accessible in three languages, English, Spanish and Creole.

• New E-Newsletter Launched July 15: The Tax Collector introduced this E-Newsletter to 100,000 recipients. The newsletter is published monthly and offers information on specific subjects such as new office initiatives and helpful financial tips.

• Community Education/ Public Speaking: The Tax Collector introduced new programs to maximize public education by establishing a presence at community events. The organization participates in educational exhibits at many community fairs throughout the county to provide information to the public about our services. The Tax Collector and other office personnel make presentations for community groups such as Homeowner Association Meetings and civic groups. If your group is interested in having a speaker from the Tax Collector’s office, email us at taxconta@pbcgov.com.

• Stand – Up Meetings: All managers hold a fifteen minute “Stand-up” meeting with their employees every morning at 8:00 am, just before operations open to the public at 8:15 am. The meeting delivers daily announcements, office initiatives, and opportunities to promote two-way communication between employees and management.

• Process Control : The organization has begun documenting processes to ensure consistency throughout our seven locations. We will begin using measured data as the method for fact-based decision making and performance evaluations.

• One Stop Shopping : Cross training our employees enables our offices to serve our customers more efficiently as employees are better able to handle all transactions for each customer, and switch roles to adequately meet customer demand, and save taxpayer dollars.

• New Business Initiatives Committee: We have established a New Business Initiatives Committee to research potential new business opportunities for the Tax Collector’s office.