Adams County assessor recommends outsourcing Form 11 mailing to save on postage

Mary, speaking for the assessor’s office, presented a cost comparison for producing and mailing Form 11 reassessment notices and recommended using Master's Touch to handle printing, insertion and presorted postage. Mary said the vendor's service estimate for printing, envelopes and mail prep is $2,994 and the estimated presort postage is $9,610. "So given all of them, it comes up to $2,994," Mary said.

Mary contrasted that with an estimated in-house cost of about $21,400 once staff wages, envelopes and postage are included. She told commissioners presorting by the vendor would reduce per-letter postage from the new 78¢ retail rate to an estimated 59.3¢ rate for presorted mailings and that the vendor can consolidate multiple parcels for farming customers to reduce envelope counts. "So in other words, the Manila envelopes will still go out. So that's that's great because that's time consuming," Mary said.

Commissioners discussed budget lines and whether postage would be covered and agreed a trial of Master's Touch for one year made sense; a commissioner moved to approve the vendor arrangement and the board approved the motion. Mary said she will bring final contract details and that she may move postage across funds if necessary.