The Coronavirus shutdown didn’t stop Sumter County residents from renewing license plates or applying for a concealed carry gun permit, largely due to efforts by Tax Collector Randy Mask to keep services running.
The tax collector’s office is a key point of contact for services that goes far beyond payment of property taxes.
At a budget workshop on Friday, Mask described his efforts to avoid service interruptions during the pandemic shutdown.
The drive-through lane at the Sumter County Service Center on Powell Road played a major role, Mask said.
“A lot of counties don’t have a drive-through,” he said, adding that service wait times in other counties could be up to one and a half hours.
In Sumter County, he said, car titles dropped off for transfer are completed within a day or two.
The drive-through lane attracted residents of surrounding counties, but Mask said he restricted services to Sumter County residents during the shutdown.
Next year’s proposed county budget includes adding a second drive-through lane at the county’s Villages Annex center at Morse Boulevard and County Road 466. The budget also adds a customer service specialist position.
County Administrator Bradley Arnold said he hopes the second drive-through lane can open early in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct 1.
Besides the drive-through, Mask said his office requires appointments. Employee desks were rearranged to increase spacing.
He said some driver’s license road tests now are done without instructors in the car. Instead, they observe the driver from outside, keeping in touch by phone.
The office also encourages use of the tax collector’s web site whenever possible.
Although Mask said his office continued to do business during the shutdown, the amount of services and phone calls declined from last year, which he attributed to greater use of online services and the restriction on services to out-of-county residents.
In April through June, the office handled an average of 495 daily transactions and received 510 calls, which peaked at 700 daily calls.
Since he took office seven years ago, Mask said he also has consolidated some functions with the county.
“Constitutional officers have their own way of doing things and this partnership is very rare,” he said.
Before he took office, Mask said the tax collector’s office hired its own information technology expert at an $80,000 annual salary and also had its own mail delivery system. Now, the office relies on the county for both functions.
