City Payment Center Operations and Tax Collection Discussion - April 13, 2026
City Payment Center Operations and Tax Collection Discussion
The council committee met on April 13, 2026, to review the City Payment Center (Treasury) operations, including tax and fee collection, delinquent tax management, and opportunities to improve revenue collection and payment accessibility. Key officials present included Deputy Commissioner Vicky, Commissioner of Assessment Matt OJ, and several councilors.
Discussion Items
- Overview of City Payment Center: Deputy Commissioner Vicky explained that the Treasury collects tax, water, parking, and school zone payments, processes cash payments, and bills for police overtime, board-ups, cut-and-cleans, demolitions, emergency repairs, and PILOT/shelter rent payments. The center employs five cashiers, eight control clerks, and three information aides.
- Delinquent Tax Collection and Seizure Process: Vicky described the seizure process: after 2.5 years of tax delinquency, the city sends a 60-day notice, and seizure takes 6–9 months. Commissioner OJ noted a property with delinquencies dating back to 1955 and confirmed that tax petitions are on his desk, with seizure anticipated on the 16th. A councilor asked about the timeline and how to deal with out-of-state owners who abandon properties; Vicky said the best approach is to proceed with seizure quickly.
- Revenue Enhancement and Late Charges: Vicky reported that collection rates have increased every year due to proactive outreach, working with delinquent taxpayers, and assessing late charges on PILOTs and shelter rents. Late charge income has risen dramatically. A councilor asked whether adding a staff position would pay for itself; Vicky indicated current staffing is adequate except for the new school zone fine program, which has generated 700 refunds due to vendor errors (tickets issued on snow days or when equipment wasn't ready). The refunds are time-consuming.
- School Zone Fine Refunds: Vicky explained that the vendor (Yenoptic) approved tickets incorrectly; the city is processing refunds for 700 tickets. Councilor questioned the approval process; Vicky noted both SPD and the vendor are supposed to review.
- Payment Accessibility: A councilor asked how to help people pay more easily. Vicky mentioned the mayor suggested extended hours (open until 7 PM on Mondays) and that the Invoice Cloud portal allows online payments for many fees. She noted that mail delivery issues in some neighborhoods cause missed tax bills, and the center now sends courtesy notices and delinquent notices, which have improved collection.
- Booting Fee and Paylock: Vicky noted the city pays a 28% fee to the booting vendor on outstanding parking tickets, costing a couple hundred thousand dollars annually. She said they are working to incorporate school zone fines into the booting system and may raise the booting fee and reduce the percentage paid.
- Late Fee Waivers: Vicky stated there are strict guidelines; to waive a late fee, a resident must show proof they stopped payment on a lost check. A councilor suggested promoting the option to mail tax payments directly to City Hall, and Vicky agreed to check if there is room on the tax bill to add that information.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken. The council thanked Vicky and her staff for their work.
- Vicky agreed to follow up on adding a mailing option to the tax bill and to check on the Invoice Cloud portal issue.
- The council will continue to explore ways to improve payment accessibility and recover delinquent taxes, with a focus on the booting fee reduction and extended hours.
- A motion to adjourn was made and seconded.
Meeting Transcript
The city payment centers, yeah. That's okay. Thank you for common with me going up with uh myself several times. All right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. Um is what I was saying. We are moving on to part two of four for the day. Um joined by the same group of counselors um with Commissioner Nestry and the keyboards. The Department of the Treasury, which is more commonly known as the City Payments Center. Um we are on page eighty-seven for the counselors. Um and I'll turn it back over to you all to give us an intro of the payment center and what it does, how it connects to everything, and then we'll jump in with some of the details. Sure. Um City Payment Center, also known as the Treasury, is where we collect the money. We um collect and process uh tax payments, water payments, parking payments, the new school zone payments. We process the cash payments here at the city. Um the original agreement just allowed for the um third-party contractor to collect payments, and then there was no way for people to pay cash. We have a lot of people who pay cash. So I said let's make it easy for people to pay. And um we made an agreement to collect cash payments here for those kinds of violations. We also do the billing for the Syracuse Police Department for all the overtime they work at like the dome or um individual security details throughout the city. Uh we bill for the board-ups if somebody's property is broken into at three o'clock in the morning. Um the city has a gentleman in DPW who's on call, not a job I'd want. But he'll go out at three o'clock in the morning and board up the broken windows so further damage isn't uh experienced. We do bill for the service uh because we don't get plywood for free and the guy doesn't work for free. So we bill for the board ups, we bill for the cut and cleans. Those are properties that are either not maintained by owners or um the owner is you know, MIA, vacant lots that you can't figure out who owns it. They need to be cleaned of either litter or they need to be mowed, overhanging branches need to be trimmed. Um if it's a major cleanup, we also bill for those. Um that involves um and Andy Jacobowski and his crew where they take a bunch of trucks and you know they sometimes have to get the police out there to tow illegal vehicles. I mean it's you know, it's what when the lots are really a big big mess. Uh we bill for the demolitions that the city does. Um for the emergency repair program. And we bill for the pilots and shelters. Those are payments in the taxes, agreements that uh SIDA and the city has made um for um to improve development. Um shelter rents are for um section eight housing entities that um have an agreement with the city, they pay a a lower base rate based because they are government uh subsidized. So uh basically we have uh five cashiers, um eight control clerks, three uh information aids, and we answer any questions constituents call about any of the aforementioned types of bills that we send out. Um we do research um if there's questions. Um sometimes uh there might be a mistake on the tax bill, whether for whatever reason. Um and we work with assessment to get those um corrected and bring them to you and we have them corrected. We also do the uh municipal sidewalk billing. Um that goes on the tax roll. All of the um board ups, cleanups, ERPs, um, demolitions, um municipal sidewalk. All of these things have to be updated every year. We roll any onto taxes that as of April 1st have not been paid. If we bill it on April 1st, we figure by the time somebody mails it in and gets it to us, then we're really getting too close to the cutoff in May for the tax roll. So we do that. We do add uh late charges as announced on the bill. So if someone doesn't pay, we do add it to the tax roll. If they don't pay the taxes, then they are seized.
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