(La Porte County, IN) - An effort will seemingly be made to have La Porte County Auditor Tim Stabosz kicked out of office following a mistake his office made on property tax bills sent to homeowners.

 

La Porte County Commissioner Rich Mrozinski said he plans to call for the removal of Stabosz and present copies of state law that make it possible at Wednesday’s county commissioner's meeting. Mrozinski said Stabosz had made other mistakes like a late bond payment that kept the county government from saving about $200,000 on a refinancing last year.

 

Mrozinski said Stabosz is often not in his office and is too focused on using public office to settle personal and political scores with unfounded allegations of corruption and fraud.

 

“This is totally out of control. This is by somebody who absolutely does not know his job. He doesn’t take any interest in learning his job. He won’t take advice from anybody. It just keeps getting worse by the day,” Mrozinski said.

Stabosz is 16 months into his first four-year term as auditor.

 

The state law Mrozinski referred to requires a county officer to be “physically present” in their office during regular office hours for a “reasonable amount of time each month.” Mrozinski said an effort is also being made to find state laws that might qualify Stabosz for early dismissal on other causes.

 

“I’ve had enough, and the taxpayers deserve better,” Mrozinski said.

The county commissioners sued Stabosz last year for ignoring their orders to pay county government attorney Shaw Friedman. The case was later settled out of court when Stabosz agreed to pay a vast majority of the claims totaling over $26,000 that he withheld from Friedman. However, he didn’t have to pay the $2,500 on claims that he still questioned. Stabosz is also being threatened with another lawsuit for withholding some of Friedman’s claims this year.

 

In a still-undecided lawsuit from last year, Friedman sued Stabosz for defamation of character on claims that Friedman runs county government.

 

Stabosz said the property tax billings mistake affects homeowners who qualify for the supplemental homestead exemption deduction.  He said the amount listed in this year’s tax billing is the same as last year because the figure was not recalculated. The figure has to be recalculated based on current home values.

 

He partly blamed a “relatively new” tax deputy in his office for the mistake, along with himself and others involved with the process for not catching the error before the property tax bills went out. As a result, more than 22,000 corrected tax bills could have to be reprinted and sent out again, possibly costing tens of thousands of dollars to fix. 

 

Stabosz says that he and other county government stakeholders have already been in touch with the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance on how to resolve the situation. As a result, correct tax bills will likely be sent out in the near future or the fall.

 

In the meantime, Stabosz said property taxes can still be paid, but the difference will have to be made up when the correction billings go out. 

 

“We’re on top of this problem and looking at how to best solve it,” Stabosz said.

He also disputed the reasons given so far that might qualify for his ouster. Stabosz said he’s in his office most of the time but sometimes doesn’t show up because he works from home. He explained that he often reports late for duty, occasionally, to make up for lost time from being at meetings of the county commissioners or county council.

 

Stabosz believes the law is intended for officer holders continually not reporting for work physically. Stabosz explained that Mrozinski often spends long stretches at a second home in Florida.

 

Mrozinski said the Indiana law applies only to full-time officer holders like an auditor or assessor and the position of commissioner and council member is part-time.

 

While in Florida, Mrozinski attends and participates in commissioner's meetings on video conferencing apps, like Zoom. Mrozinski also said he often does his job in Indiana or away on the phone and is at the commissioners’ office most days after coming home.

 

“I spend more time doing county business than he does, I’ll tell ya,” Mrozinski said.