By ANN PIERCEALL

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

MONROE CITY, Mo. -- Monroe City officials may ask Marion, Ralls and Monroe counties to consider collecting the city's property taxes.

The move would come after newly elected City Collector Kelly Zeiger declined to take office last month after she said she was told she would have to fund operations for the office.

In a letter sent to the city, Zeiger said she would decline the position after being told she would have to obtain her own office space and supplies, and would not be considered a city employee or be eligible for benefits.

Zeiger said she has been invited to an administrative committee meeting Wednesday, and would "rather not discuss it until after that."

The position of city clerk cannot be eliminated without a vote of the people. Mayor Neal Minor said he could appoint someone to fill Zeiger's term if the situation is not resolved.

However, City Administrator Jim Burns said all candidates for the collector's position were given a letter by City Clerk Gary Osbourne that state the position of utilities clerk -- tied for decades to the elected collector's position -- might be eliminated.

The utilities clerk position paid $30,000 annually and carried benefits. Burns said several people chose not to run after

receiving the letter. The elected position of collector pays 2.5 percent of city's collected property taxes, or about $6,000 this year.

"We provided to every person that came in and wanted to sign up for the collector position a statement that it was an elected position, and that did not make them a full-time city employee and that we were going to eliminate this full-time position," Burns said.

Zeiger, Osbourne and Penny DeLaPorte still ran for the collector position in April. Zeiger admits she received a letter, but contends she was not aware that it was not a city position and that she would be responsible for office costs.

Burns said he has discussed with the Board of Aldermen the idea of eliminating the utilities clerk position and outsourcing the collection of city property taxes to the counties.

"We have not made commitment on that, but we have made a commitment to eliminate the full-time employee position," he said.

Alderman Roch Buckman said the board has discussed those options, but that no decision has been reached.

"We're still trying to figure what the next best step is," Buckman said. "We're in a situation here where it's going to be difficult to figure what the right move is."

The collectors for Marion and Ralls counties said they could not begin collecting municipal taxes until next year. They have to determine the cost to develop a contract with Monroe City.

Monroe County already collects taxes for the cities of Madison, Paris, Stoutsville and Holliday. County Collector Anita Dunkle said there would need to be a contract in place to add Monroe City.

Burns said Monroe County could collect taxes for 1.5 percent of the total, and would handle about 75 percent of the property in town. Monroe County currently charges Paris 1.5 percent on property tax revenue and 1 percent on collected delinquent taxes.

"We're under some pressure to reduce our expenses," Burns said. "One of the ways we can do that is reduce personnel."

-- apierceall@whig.com/(573) 221-5879