Mission 

The County Treasurer collects all revenues received by the County, provides reporting for balancing, revenue, and expenditures for all taxing authority funds and financial accounts. Additionally, the County Treasurer administers the collection of taxes on real and personal property.  

The County Treasurer also directs the cash availability and investment strategy. Because safety of county monies is extremely important, the county treasurer keeps abreast of trends in fraud and takes measures to protect the county’s financial assets. 

The County Treasurer is responsible for Public Trustee functions including processing and recording releases of deeds of trust and most foreclosure actions on deeds of trust in the county. 

Description of Core Services 

• Revenue Collection:  Receipting all monies coming into the organization and providing detailed tracking data. 
• Tax Collection:  Administering the tax collection process from sending tax notices to receipting payments, notifying accounts of delinquency, notifying investors of endorsement opportunities, distraining mobile homes and personal property, conducting the tax lien sale, and administering the treasurer deed process. 
• Distribution and Disbursement to Taxing Authorities:  Reporting collections to taxing authorities and processing disbursements. 
• Fund Reporting:  Posting revenue to funds and exporting data to the Finance Department. 
• Reconciliation of Cash:  Daily reconciling of cash accounts to fund balances and reconciling all cash accounts to statements. 
• Internal Control:  Providing guidance to departments for developing strong internal controls. 
• Releases of Deeds of Trust:  Process releases of deeds of trust for beneficiaries and grantors. 
• Foreclosures:  Administer foreclosure process on deeds of trust. 

2025 Accomplishments and Challenges

• Worked with County Attorney and BoCC to sell or donate County Held Liens- at this time the Archuleta County does not have any county held liens. 
• Cancelling old liens – keep from accruing more fees and interest, continue working with this type of accounts. 
• Collected delinquent taxes from past years, possessory interest, mobile home taxes. 
• Working with Assessor’s office to identify destroyed, abandoned mobile homes. 
• Cross train employees in different area of the Treasurer’s office 
• Worked with Finance to set up Landfill to be able to use credit cards, big success. 
• The new Supreme court ruling on Treasurer’s Deeds – final decision made – must hold a Treasurer’s Deed auction before deeding to property to investor. 

2026 Goals 

• Increase the number of payments sent to the lockbox for faster receipt posting, work with lockbox to implement procedures to log return mail and payments. 
• Increase compliance with reconciliation deadlines in departments. 
• Encourage the use of e-mail for Tax Notice to save on postage and printing costs. 
• Educate residents on the web site, website searches, tax sale. 
• Keep working on uncollectable tax accounts and have them removed from the tax roll. 
• Work diligently with the other departments to improve communications and streamline work. 
• Will introduce Escrow Payments to county residents offered by AutoAgent – this program helps property owners budget their tax payments on a monthly basis. 

2026 Challenges 

• Unforeseen foreclosures, banks are supposed to start the foreclosure procedure after the first of the year. 
• Decline in Treasurers Deed due to legislation changes – an auction is now required before deeding property to investor.
• More delinquent tax accounts – legislation changed the process, after tax sale any unsold tax accounts will no longer be stricken off to the County – will not be able to sell over the counter, no lien will be placed on accounts, they will just show delinquent.
• The increase of property taxes, having more delinquent accounts, more advertising, bigger tax sale.
• The increase of printing and postage.
• Lockbox has been moved from Denver to Dallas, this might cause property owners some concern, but LockBox helps us process many more payments electronically than manually.