City weighs outsourcing lien recovery as staff flag $60M in outstanding building and code liens

City staff briefed the commission on May 11 about Tamarac’s current lien inventory and a potential vendor to assist with recovery.

Stephanie Bass, co‑compliance manager, said the city’s current process is largely reactive: liens are typically addressed when title companies, buyers or realtors surface them during property transactions. Bass told commissioners the city’s combined outstanding inventory is roughly $60.4 million across more than 2,000 cases — about $28.1 million in building liens and $32.2 million in code compliance liens.

Staff presented Orange Data Solutions (ODS), a private vendor that offers proactive outreach, title‑search integration and settlement negotiation on a contingency basis. Staff said ODS would not charge upfront fees, instead accepting a percentage of any recovered settlement amounts (staff presented a 20% contingency example). The vendor also reported recovery results from a comparable municipality (Oakland Park), which staff said yielded approximately $1.3 million recovered over several years from a set of dormant cases.

Commissioners sought more detail and raised several concerns: Vice Mayor Bolton and others questioned the Oakland Park figures and asked how many total cases ODS targeted versus what it recovered. Commissioners also requested a neighborhood breakdown (residential v. commercial), asked whether the city could hire in‑house staff to do outreach and requested information about typical collection rates, vendor outreach methods (call center, letter, email, title research) and the vendor’s specific track record. Several commissioners emphasized equity concerns: many liened homeowners are low‑income and mitigation programs should avoid unduly penalizing residents who may already be experiencing financial hardship.

Staff said ODS would work under city‑approved settlement parameters, that the city would retain final approval over any reductions and would receive payments directly, and that implementation would be phased after procurement and agreement negotiations.

The commission did not authorize a contract at the meeting. Commissioners asked staff to return with: (1) ODS representatives or competitive vendor comparisons, (2) a cost‑benefit analysis versus hiring in‑house staff, (3) a detailed breakdown of lien cases by neighborhood and property type, and (4) clearer internal rules about settlement thresholds and who is authorized to negotiate and approve reductions.