West Buechel property owners asked to prove they paid taxes after bookkeeping 'mess'

WEST BUECHEL, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city of West Buechel lost track of years of property tax records and is now telling people to prove they paid them.

City Clerk Treasurer Debbie Batliner described the prior administration's bookkeeping as "a challenge" and "a mess."

The city sent about 500 property owners delinquent notices going back as far as 2009. WDRB News obtained the database of those accounts and calculated the amounts owed. It topped $650,000, but Batliner said most of the mistakes are on the city's end, and those fees may in fact not be owed.

"The purpose is to clear these up," she said. "To the people that honestly paid, and it did not get tracked correctly, it's about accountability. We're asking those people to come forward. Show us that their mortgage company paid it or they paid so the account is not just lingering open."

Two state audits slammed prior administration in West Buechel, a town of 1,300 people, for lacking financial controls and abusing taxpayer money.

"Some of the property taxes is a good example," Batliner said. "We've had to go through boxes sheet by sheet, and we may find a receipt in one of those that we go back and we track."

"This was very predictable," former city council member Toby Clark said. "The bookkeeping was absolutely a mess."

Clark received one of the property tax notices. City records showed him in default about $2,500 for tax years 2010, 2013 and 2016. The amount shows the high cost of the penalty. Clark said his normal city property tax bill is around $100 a year.

"I've never even received one delinquent notice," Clark said. "I do fear people will go ahead and cave and pay these extravagant amounts of money that they don't necessarily owe."

Letters sent to West Buechel residents stating that they may be delinquent on their property taxes (Sept. 2019) — About 500 residents West Buechel, Kentucky, were shocked to receive notices in Sept. 2019 asking them for proof that they've been paying their property taxes.

There's also the issue of finding the proof. Clark said he paid two of the three years missing from his city property tax record with cash and did not keep a receipt.

Batliner said the city is not trying to generate a bunch of revenue but instead closing out old records and building an accurate accounting of money that's come in and gone out from the city. She said, so far, only about $5,000 has been paid from the notices sent to property owners.

Clark's account remains pending as he searches for proof he paid tax years 2010 and 2013.

"I don't even necessarily blame this administration," he said. "I think that what they were given over the last several years is a complete lack of documentation."

The new clerk treasurer said she's put several checks and balances in place to fix prior faults in West Buechel's finances. As one clerk takes money, a separate city employee prepares the deposit. Mayor Brenda Kay Moore personally takes that to the bank, and then Batliner keeps record that all three steps align.

"I understand that this is people's finances, their property," Batliner. "This is their home that this involves, but they all deserve accountability."