Shenandoah’s plan to hire Portnoff Law Associates to collect unpaid tax, utility, and services bills hit a bit of a snag recently.
The Allentown-based collection firm recently informed Shenandoah that it can’t take it on as a client because it’s behind on its property tax payments to Shenandoah Valley School District.
Back in July, Shenandoah agreed to let Portnoff collect more than $844,000 in unpaid sewer, water, and trash bills.
However, Council President Joe Boris said this week that Portnoff said it can’t take the borough on as a client.
“They do not want to do any business with us because of our past history,” Boris told council members.
Boris said that once Shenandoah resolves its delinquent accounts with the school district, Portnoff would again consider taking the borough on as a client to collect those unpaid bills.
Boris cited a letter he received from Portnoff informing him of the conflict of interest that prevents the collection agency from representing Shenandoah. Portnoff says in the letter that some of the back taxes owed to Shenandoah Valley date back to 2005. These are taxes on properties currently owned by the borough.
Portnoff gave Shenandoah 30 days to resolve the unpaid taxes to the school district or it’d be forced to terminate the borough as a client.
“We will pay the school their money,” Boris said. “That’s got to be done.”
Solicitor Shane Hobbs said that some of these properties were those that the borough acquired because they were falling to the ground so Shenandoah had to act quickly to acquire them but didn’t follow through on the legwork to get them into tax-exempt status.
He said that starting in 2025, any of the 31 properties that Shenandoah doesn’t sell off will be exempt from property taxes.
On Monday, Borough Council did unanimously vote to approve Schuylkill County Tax Claim Bureau as its tax collector in lieu of Portnoff.
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