Sycamore city should pay back $120K in overtaxed bills, some residents say; city mulls options

SYCAMORE – Sycamore elected officials have not yet reached a consensus on what to do about overtaxing residents $120,000 on their 2022 property tax bills, although some residents are asking that they pay it back directly.

After a Daily Chronicle review of tax records discovered the city of Sycamore overtaxed residents almost $120,000 in 2023, city officials have spent the weeks since mulling over how to address the situation.

City staff have proposed a number of options, including issuing rebate checks or addressing the overtaxation on the city’s 2023 property tax levy collection plan, which is not yet approved by the City Council. A final vote on the matter, with another chance for residents to weigh in, is expected at a public council meeting Dec. 18 at the City Center downtown.

Marvin Barnes said he believes it’s a “totally understandable clerical error” but called on the Sycamore City Council this week to pay it back to residents and property owners.

“We all make mistakes. [It’s] completely understandable,” Barnes said. “But how you correct your mistakes is a critical part of this. In my opinion, and all due respect of all of you, you have an obligation to come clean on this and be transparent and forthright. And the only option – I know it’s very laborious to be able to do it – but the only option, in my view, is a rebate check.

“To try to blend it in the levy for next year, 99% of the people aren’t going to see it, and they won’t believe it. ... You overtook money from them, so you need to return it to them.”

[ Sycamore overtaxed residents nearly $120K without City Council approval, records show ]

Fellow resident Ted Strack, who also sits on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, said he agrees that something must be done, but he said he supports a scenario that would abate the amount on the 2023 property tax levy, which is owed in the spring.

“That [$120,000] needs to go back to the citizens in some manner,” Strack said. “What I don’t agree with is the idea of a rebate check. I think logistically that would be a nightmare.”

Sycamore resident and business owner Adam Benn – who owns Accurate Towing, ran for mayor in 2020 and said he plans to run again – said he believes the city should undergo an audit to assess whether errors are happening elsewhere.

“I don′t believe in the term ‘clerical error’. ... I think that’s a nonsense term. It’s theft from the citizens,” Benn said. “I think what needs to be done is the city needs to hire an outside law firm to audit the city, audit the finance, audit everything and find out where’s the problem. Where are we hemorrhaging from?”

[ Sycamore officials offer few remedies for overtaxation error ]

Sycamore City Manager Michael Hall said that according to his math, about 95% of all Sycamore properties would receive between 1 cent and $30 in a rebate check if the City Council authorized that route.

Two Sycamore properties would receive more than $1,000, he said, including one business that would be rebated $1,800, and 237 properties would receive $10.

Hall said stuffing envelopes with rebate checks could cost the city more in labor and materials than the $120,000 overtaxed amount.

“Is it doable? Yes. The only problem we do have is who does it go to? We have the names and addresses, obviously, of everybody that paid taxes, but the people that moved poses a little bit of a problem,” Hall said.

Another option would be to rebate $120,000 in taxes on the city’s 2023 property tax levy. If the city went with that option, Hall said, two newly created unfilled positions would be eliminated: a junior city engineer and an economic development community planner, who was meant to help the city bring in new business.

Another option could be to take the $120,000 in overtaxed money and put it to use elsewhere, such as to help fix an aging and broken fire engine or to pay the city’s police and fire pension obligations, Hall said, adding that he believes it’s “probably not a popular option.”

Second Ward Alderman Chuck Stowe said he supports abating $120,000 off the city’s property tax levy.

“I think we have to be transparent about this,” Stowe said. “There was a mistake made. It wasn’t anything done on purpose – it was a mistake.”

First Ward Alderman Alan Bauer said he also supports abating the amount on the tax levy. He said he wishes the overtaxation had been brought to light sooner.

“I’m not sure that the term was correct, a ‘clerical error,’ whether it be the mistake or not correcting the ordinance when it was submitted ... not checking when it was signed off on,” Bauer said. “We made a mistake, but our character should be about how we deal with that mistake. If we don’t own it, then we’re bigger fools. So I do appreciate that it was brought to our attention. Now it’s time to correct it.”

DeKalb County Treasurer Becky Springer told the Daily Chronicle this week that she wanted to publicly address comments made by city officials that alleged the county government did not want to help Sycamore in its efforts to address the overtaxation.

Hall on Monday reiterated those comments that he first made Nov. 20 that the county did “not want to be involved in any kind of give-back of the money, so that would leave it up to the city to decide how to do that.”

“I’m a little frustrated because it came out in the paper the other day that the county refused to help. And that is not the case,” Springer said. “Michael Hall has never called the county. I’ve not spoken to him about this. Period.”

Springer said Sycamore Finance Director Kristian Dominguez called the DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder’s Office when the overtaxation came to light.

Springer and County Clerk Tasha Sims determined that the county’s books had been closed for the year, and their hands were tied. A Nov. 30 email from Dominguez with Hall cc’d on it asked whether Springer could send some tax information to the city.

Springer said she sent a list of every city parcel that paid tax money in 2023 and how much they paid.

“The tax sale has already happened. I can’t open my books back up and help.,” Springer said. “There’s not a way. It’s not that the county wouldn’t help, it’s that we can’t help. Had they found [the overtaxation] in June or July, we could have worked with the city, run new bills. That would have been costly for the city.

“We can’t expect DeKalb County to pay for a city of Sycamore error, so I would have charged it to the city.”