Bee County commissioners met with their attorney on Thursday to discuss the county’s legal dispute with Beeville ISD.

County Judge David Silva, all four commissioners, County Attorney Mike Knight and County Tax Assessor-Collector Linda Bridge visited with Austin attorney Allison Bass for about an hour.

Commissioners took no action upon returning to open session other than to adjourn the special-called meeting.

Beeville ISD filed a writ of mandamus earlier this month against Bee County, which essentially sought to force the county to collect the school district’s taxes this year.

BISD Superintendent Dr. John Hardwick Jr. said the school district was forced to take legal action after it was notified by the county that it would not collect its property taxes unless the district paid a higher collection service rate.

Hardwick said BISD had already adopted its budget and set its tax rate for the 2009-10 school year when commissioners voted Sept. 28 to increase the rate from $1.50 per parcel of property to $1.98.

The new rate would increase the cost of tax collection services to BISD from $19,365 to $25,918, an increase of $6,283.

Bee County collects taxes for all four school districts, the city of Beeville, Coastal Bend College, emergency service districts and water districts.

The other school districts will each pay between $2,500 and $3,500 in additional costs.

Hardwick said BISD adopted a resolution in July calling for the tax assessor-collector to collect the school district’s property taxes at the lower $1.50 per parcel cost.

The mandamus, filed in district court, is styled Beeville ISD v. Bee County and names the county judge, all four commissioners and the tax assessor-collector as parties.

Silva said the county has agreed to the terms of the writ, which are:

• The Bee County tax assessor-collector is to proceed with the printing of tax bills and the collection of BISD’s taxes for 2009.

• The parties to this litigation are ordered to participate in non-binding mediation within 90 days of the date of this order and report to the court the outcome of the mediation.

• If no agreement between the two parties is reached in mediation as to the costs of collection, the parties are ordered to request a hearing to seek a ruling regarding the costs of collection and any other unresolved issues remaining in this case.

Commissioners met in executive session on Friday, Oct. 9, to discuss the pending litigation. They returned to open session and made several motions, which were to:

• Rescind the motion approved by the commissioners court on Sept. 28 regarding the 2009 tax collection fees.

• Authorize the tax assessor-collector to proceed with the mailing of the 2009 consolidated tax statements, including all taxing jurisdictions.

• Suspend the authorization for the tax assessor-collector to collect $1.98 per parcel of property as actual costs and/or reasonable fees for all jurisdictions which have adopted resolutions requiring the tax assessor-collector to collect their taxes, until the issue of the fees for services is resolved.

Commissioners say they believe the $1.98 rate is reasonable, and they base that belief on the fact that the amount was recommended by a two-member committee appointed by Bee County and BISD last fall.

“We’ve compromised for the past several years, waiting for this day, and I believe we need to move forward,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Susan Stasny told her colleagues before making the motion to adopt the higher service fee.

Her motion was worded thus: “We accept the committee’s recommendation of $1.98 per parcel for the ISDs and keep the water district and four (emergency/fire) service districts at zero collection fee because we all benefit from their existence, and everyone else continue at 1 percent collection rate.”

Silva worried that adopting the higher rate could hurt some of the taxing entities financially because the committee did not return with their report until midsummer and the commissioners court was about to adopt the higher rate after the four school districts had already set their budgets and tax rates.

“I think this is going to hurt some of these because they’ve already set their budgets, but if this is the wishes of the court, OK, that’s the way it goes,” he said.

“We had no control over the timing of the committee,” Stasny told Silva. “I’m sorry the report came back so late but everyone is hurting budget-wise and we need to help Bee County as well.”

Silva expressed some concern that the school districts might be caught unaware.

“I don’t know if they were consulted but they will be now,” he said.

“They will be now,” Precinct 1 Commissioner Carlos Salazar repeated.

BISD trustees said they had never seen the committee’s “completed” study and recommended tax collection rate.