Audit: Marshal Shook Down Businesses

A politically connected marshal managed to “coerce” a $5,000 delinquent tax fee from a business that had already paid up—and “misrepresented” facts in order to collect a $2,000 fee on a $133 tax bill.

Those details leap from a scathing, previously unreleased audit that led the city to overhaul how it collects delinquent taxes.

The audit, by RSM McGladrey, Inc., was released Monday to the Independent as a result of a Freedom of Information request. The city hired McGladrey on Nov. 25, 2008, to investigate a series of taxpayers complaints about how the city handled the administration of tax warrants to collect unpaid tax bills. The city released two drafts of the audit dated March and May 2009. The city never made the audit public.

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