Mary-Jane Foster, candidate for mayor in the Democratic Primary, today called for an independent operational and financial audit of the city’s Tax Collector Department. “We are seeing very serious management deficiencies in this department, which is putting our precious tax dollars at risk,” the candidate said. “We have recently learned, only because of a police investigation, that the tax collector has a program whereby independent contractors are allowed to seize citizen’s vehicles, impound them, sell them at auction and keep the proceeds; doing so without turning any funds over to the tax collector and without detailed accounting for all these transactions. In a city where tax dollars are stretched so thin due to a stagnant tax base, we can ill afford this level of mismanagement,” Foster charged.
Foster noted that this is not just a problem for the city but an injustice to city residents who have had their properties taken as a form of punishment and not a tax collection effort. “The city of Bridgeport, led by the Finch administration, is just as responsible as this contractor is for stealing personal property for financial gain. A man ‘of the law’, who bragged about making $1M a year, charged with 18 counts of forgery and 21 counts of criminal impersonation is just uncalled for.” Foster called on the city to immediately begin legal action to recover any lost tax revenues due to the actions of a rogue state marshal. Foster called for both personal civil action and pursuing any insurance remedy that might be available.
