Director of county’s Office of Financial Management explains that collection agency continues to try to recover funds
During the regular meeting of the Sarasota County Commission on Sept. 8, in Venice, Commissioner Mark Smith pulled one item from the Consent Agenda of routine business matters to request an explanation from Kim Radtke, director of the county’s Office of Financial Management (OFM).
“Obviously,” Smith told her, “this caught my eye.”
The agenda item called for the board members to “adopt a resolution relating to the write-off of uncollectible accounts receivable for Emergency Services, Public Utilities, Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources, Libraries and Historical Resources, and Governmental Relations in the amount of $5,808,506.57.”
“Each year,” Radtke told the board members, her staff compiles what is called “the ‘write-off resolution’ on behalf of each of the departments that actually [bills] customers.” The funds represent unpaid bills from prior fiscal years, she added.
“The purpose of writing these accounts receivable off,” Radtke continued, “is to prevent overstating the assets on our balance sheets.” That relates to a policy of the Office of the Sarasota County Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller, which undertakes a thorough review of the county’s finances after each fiscal year, Radtke noted.
That policy calls for any unpaid bill to be written off after three years, she said.
The following totals were provided by department in a staff memo included in the Sept. 8 agenda packet:
The formal resolution that the commissioners were addressing that day referenced the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s “Accounting Policy 9.10, Uncollectible Accounts Receivable.”
“Now, I just want it to be very clear,” Radtke stressed, adopting the proposed resolution “does not stop us from continuing to collect.” Overdue bills are sent to a collection agency, she added, which works on the county’s behalf.
“Just out of curiosity,” Smith responded, “what’s our track record on collecting over the years?”
“They do a pretty good job,” she replied, referring to the agency’s employees. “Our larger one is our EMS billing,” she noted. “Over the years,” Radtke said, the amount of the unpaid bills that ended up being collected was “close to 80%.” For the 2024 fiscal year, she said, “It was 76%.”
With Public Utilities bills, Radtke added, only about 0.2% had remained uncollected.
A staff report regarding the funds, which was part of the Sept. 8 agenda packet, pointed out of the Emergency Medical Services write-off, “Collection efforts for write-off accounts do not cease. [County Commission] Resolution No. 2025-203 approved $3,904,179.48 to be written off for [the 2023 fiscal year] and since that time, the third-party billing agency and the collection agency have collected an additional $80,654.86.”
Another section of the report explained that the “Emergency Services Fire Prevention Division bills for False Fire Alarms,” with a county resolution allowing that, as well as invoicing for “a high incidence of false fire alarms due to malfunctions,” and billing for “accidental or malicious activations of alarms,” which — the report noted — “causes a significant misuse of firefighters and resources of the County Fire Department by causing the dispatch of units to the scene of a false alarm or alarm malfunction, rendering these units unavailable to respond to legitimate emergency situations.”
Chair Ron Cutsinger told Radtke, “I think it’s important to note that $5.2 million of the $5.8 [million] is Emergency Medical Services. That’s a huge number.”
The staff report showed the following details for the billing for the Emergency Medical Services Division:
Nonetheless, Cutsinger added, “Appreciate the work there and continue to try to do the best we can to get that money collected.”
Cutsinger said he was certain staff was doing its best.
Smith then made a motion to approve the resolution, and Commissioner Teresa Mast seconded it. The motion passed 4-0.
(Commissioner Joe Neunder was absent from the meeting.)