At Tuesday’s Lawrence County Commissioners meeting, local businessman Jim Kratzenberg expressed his displeasure at not being able to buy $5 million in negotiated property tax liens from the county treasurer and that, in his opinion, it was illegal.

He said those outstanding liens should be considered a county asset and, as such, were subject to Ohio law, which County Treasurer Tressa Baker contradicted.

“I’m here to complain about a contract given out to an out-of-state company without public bidding or public advertisements,” Kratzenberg said to the commissioners. He cited two sections of Ohio law that he said county treasurers have to follow: 307.09, which says, in part, “If the interests of the county so require, the board of county commissioners may sell any real property belonging to the county and not needed for public use;” and 5721.33, which sets out how “A county treasurer may, in the treasurer’s discretion, negotiate the sale or transfer of any number of tax certificates with one or more persons.”

He said Tax Ease Ohio had handled the liens for the county for the past three years until Dec. 31. He put in a proposal to the treasurer on Dec. 2 and was hoping to talk to Baker and possibly win the bid.

“A county asset is a county asset, nobody needs to say a tax lien is not a county asset, because they are money,” Kratzenberg said. “If you sell tax liens individually, they have to be advertised and bid. And the lowest interest rate gets the bid. In the loan where they sell the bulk tax liens, it doesn’t say anything about publicly advertising or bidding.”

He said he was upset about it and that his interest rate of 15 percent was the winner based on state law because it was less than the 17 percent that NAR Solutions had. He said his issues were no transparency and no public bidding.

The liens went to NAR Solutions and Kratzenberg said he spoke to Baker and asked for it to be bid on again “which seems fair because I have employees in the county, I have lawyers in the county. This company from Nebraska doesn’t do anything for Lawrence County, nothing whatsoever.”

Commissioner Colton Copley said they would need to have a discussion about it, although the tax liens are outside the commissioners’ realm.

“Not when it is a county asset,” Kratzenberg said.

Baker was at the commissioners’ meeting, but didn’t know Kratzenberg was going to be there.

She said her understanding was that liens are not considered an asset under Ohio law section 307.09.

“They are uncollected debts and I am critically aware of the importance of collecting those delinquents,” Baker said.

She had met with representative from NAR Solutions at County Treasurers Association of Ohio conference.

“I talked with county treasurers that have worked with them. I am confident in their customer service and their ability to administer payment plans for taxpayers,” she said, adding that selling these debts and collecting on those debts is complicated. “I understand the struggle that folks have. One of the things that Mr. Kratzenberg didn’t mention is that 5721.33 is at the treasurer’s discretion. And I am making the decision and I am making the best decision I can.”

Copley said that the commissioners would contact the county prosecutor to get a legal opinion on the matter and they would follow up once they had a better understanding.