In 2018, she also won Legacy Award from Florida Tax Collectors Association
Sarasota County Tax Collector Barbara Ford-Coates recently received recognition from the Florida Tax Collectors Association for excellence in financial operations, the association has announced.
Ford-Coates’ office processes more than a million state and local transactions annually, receiving more than $1.6 billion for the services the staff provides, a news release points out. “Ford-Coates earned the Legacy Award for Continued Excellence in Financial Operations after being examined by a judging panel” comprising financial experts from across the state of Florida “and earning a perfect annual audit,” the release adds.
“The Legacy Award is one of the highest financial honors a Florida Tax Collector can receive,” said Bruce Vickers, president of the Florida Tax Collectors Association, in the release. “Barbara is a model of excellence in this state” Vickers added. “Her team has proven that the office operates with the highest degree of integrity.”
To be considered for the Legacy Award, the release explains, a tax collector must, “among other things, demonstrate financial excellence and implement enhancements in crucial areas of financial competency,” including the following: innovation and automation; customer focus; and budgeting.
Ford-Coates also received the Legacy Award in 2018. A news release that the Florida Tax Collectors Association issued then pointed out that, since 2011, Ford-Coates had “consistently earned the Excellence in Financial Operations Award …” However, the release noted, for the 2018 honor, she “demonstrated that her office had even further enhanced its financial operations.”
“Barbara Ford-Coates has continually proven that she operates her office in an exemplary and award-winning manner, Ben Anderson, then the president of the association, said in that release. The panelists who judged the various tax collectors’ offices’ financial records, practices and use of technology that year also analyzed “Ford-Coates’ methods for delivering service to the people of Sarasota County and consideration of the technological innovations she has developed and put in place,” that release said.
“The Tax Collector’s Office handles property and tourist taxes; motor vehicle, vessel, and manufactured home titles and registration; drivers’ licenses; disabled parking permits; hunting & fishing licenses; and concealed weapons applications,” the latest release notes.
For more information about the Sarasota County Tax Collector, visit www.SarasotaTaxCollector.com