NBS letter is legitimate

Lincoln Hills resident Louis Bobrowsky is all too aware that his age group is susceptible to scam artists."It's easy to take a senior, get them talking and deceive them," Bobrowsky said Tuesday.So when he received a letter from NBS Local Government Solutions stating he was delinquent in paying his property taxes, Bobrowsky was concerned."My first concern was that it was fake or a scam because it didn't have an invoice, didn't have an amount and it was some place not in Placer County that it was mailed from," Bobrowsky said. "It didn't say Placer County or the city of Lincoln. It looked like too much of a generic letter."The letter, dated Feb. 9, said that Bobrowsky needed to pay his property taxes, which were due Dec. 10. That meant he still owed an installment for the special assessment district his property falls under."This district was created by the city to fund public improvements in your area. When the district was created, bonds were sold to investors to raise money to pay for the improvements," the letter stated. "A special assessment is billed annually against your property to pay off the bonds."The letter directed him to contact the Placer County Tax Collector to pay his property taxes and to call NBS Local Government Solutions if he had questions."Thinking the letter was a scam," Bobrowsky said he went to the city and talked to a secretary in the city manager's office. Bobrowsky said she told him to contact the Placer County Sheriff's Department."I called the sheriff's office and they wouldn't investigate anything unless there was an actual crime," Bobrowsky said.Bobrowsky brought the letter into The News Messenger last Thursday to find out if the letter was part of a scam.According to both City Manager Jim Estep and Eric Waidmann, Placer County's assistant treasurer and tax collector, the letter is legitimate."NBS does the assessment district work. This is the company that administers the assessment district," Estep said. "No, it's not a scam."Waidmann said the city of Lincoln "contracts with NBS for bond administration.""This is a common letter sent out if someone doesn't pay their property taxes. Cities and counties enter into an agreement that special assessments can be collected on property tax bills," Waidmann said. "This is the first letter that goes out notifying the resident that they missed a payment. It's nothing that's a scam, it's NBS due diligence notifying them that they missed a payment."Bobrowsky paid his property taxes, but not by the Dec. 10 due date, according to the Placer County Tax Collector's Office.Tim Seufert, a NBS director, explained why the letter was sent."If they received a letter, that means they didn't pay their basic property tax bill on time, and within that bill, can be various assessments or special taxes that were approved," Seufert said. "The city is actually required to keep up with assessments and not let them get out of control, because if they did, the bonds would not be repaid timely. When they are special assessments with bonds involved, the city of Lincoln cannot wait. They need to be paying the bond holders in a timely manner."NBS Local Government Solutions provides services to cities, including calculating and tracking payments, according to Seufert, but it does not collect any money for the cities.The News Messenger asked Bobrowsky if he was happy to hear the letter wasn't a scam."Yes and no. If it was a scam, I would like other people to know," Bobrowsky said. "It had all of the earmarks of a scam."Bobrowsky "doesn't mind that the city contracts out," but said that "certain information should have been on the letter."First, who they represent, how much we owe and the reason (we owe)," Bobrowsky said.