Dear Friends,

Pat Landford (Submitted Photo)

I would like each of you to know how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to serve as your Tax Collector for the past year.  Having been appointed to this position on February 17, 2015 has been one of the highest honors of my life.  I’ve been a lifelong resident of Hendry County as well as a property owner for approximately forty years.  I have always done my best to give back to our county and hope to be able to continue to do so.

Although I’ve been in this position for less than half of the four year term, the office, along with our great staff, has made large strides in updating as well as providing more efficient customer services to everyone who comes through our doors.  We have added services such as issuing birth certificates in both Clewiston and LaBelle, added Concealed Weapon License Applications, updated and modernized our website, renegotiated contracts to receive better rates and replaced old equipment with updated versions.  We have added, at no cost to tax payers, flat screen displays in both offices to allow local and office announcements and advertisements to be displayed in our lobbies.  We are now in the process of changing our taxing system internet provider to offer a more modern and efficient service to all of our taxpayers of Hendry County.  We have initiated VRN training which teaches, among other things, to better communicate with our customers in a more friendly and  efficient manner. During my first year as Tax Collector, not only have I accomplished the above changes, but I have done so while still being able to return over 43% more in excess fees than the previous year before my appointment.

At my first Tax Collectors Association conference, our office was presented the Certificate of Merit Award for the efficient ways we are handling your tax dollars.  I am proud of our accomplishments in just the first year.  I hope to be able to continue working with our great staff to make sure the offices in both LaBelle and Clewiston continue to be the Tax Collectors offices our Hendry County residents deserve.  I pledge to each tax payer in Hendry County that I will strive daily to accomplish this goal.

Basically I want to do in this office what I have done here in Hendry County for the past 40 plus years – I want to do the best I can with what God has given me, always looking to Him for guidance and always remembering a quote I have  done my best to live by, “Trust takes years to build and a moment to destroy.”

I am very optimistic and excited to have the opportunity to serve as your Tax Collector for a full four year term, and hopefully longer, to see just how far these new services, with more to come, will take us.