WITKOWSKI FIGHTING TAX FORECLOSURES

By DEBRA HAIGHT

ST. JOSEPH – Berrien County Treasurer Bret Witkowski admits he’s a little bit competitive. While that meant striving to be the best in athletics in high school and college, today it means doing all he can to serve the people of Berrien County in his role as county treasurer.

“I need to be competitive,” he said. “With foreclosures, I’m competitive in terms of coming up with anyway I can to help people. My ultimate goal is to have no foreclosures but to at least have less every year … I enjoy my job, I’m busy but I like what I do.”

Witkowski will be starting his fourth term as county treasurer in January, having been first elected to the post 12 years ago. Previously he served six years on the Berrien County Board of Commissioners including time as the county board chairman. His college degree was in business and finance.

“I’ve always liked finances and it’s what drew me to this job but it’s just a small part of what I do,” Witkowski said. “I’ve had to learn the foreclosure process the last several years. I enjoy it when I’m able to work with people and keep them from being foreclosed.”

He said helping people keep from losing their homes is worth all the extra efforts he’s made. He visited communities throughout the county earlier this year to reach out to everyone having trouble paying their taxes and has set up regular office hours every Tuesday morning at the south county building in Niles.

He’s seen all his work to set people up on payment plans make a difference. Foreclosures are down from a couple of years ago and people are turning their lives around. “Sometimes it’s the first time those on payment plans have been successful with something,” he said.

He called foreclosures a “snapshot of the economy two years late.” Numbers of foreclosures are still higher than what they were in 2004 when he became treasurer but are lower than they were at the height of the housing crisis in 2010.

“The economy has improved slightly but it will never return all the way,” he said. “The middle class is disappearing. I see older residents struggling more than I ever had. If they have medical issues, it put things in jeopardy for those who have been struggling anyway.”

“I have had people in my officer who were dying,” he said. “When you come across situations like that you have to remember we could all be in that situation and have compassion. I work with them so they can have peace.”

“What is my goal as treasurer, is it to own property or collect funds?” he asked. “If people work with me, I work with them. We have 586 people on payment plans and a 92 percent success rate. I enjoy that aspect of my job. It saddens me to have a situation where I can’t help and we have to foreclose.”

Besides handling property tax collection and foreclosures, the county treasurer’s other duties include handling all investments for the county which is another area that has taken a beating over the last decade. While the county earned $1 million in investment interest 10 years ago, that number is just $100,000 today. His goal is to invest county funds wisely and with Berrien County based financial institutions.

The county treasurer is also responsible for selling dog licenses and park passes, handling deposits for all county departments and approving all county bills.

His background is in finances which has proved helpful both in his current job and his stints as a village manager in Stevensville and helping communities and school districts with their financial problems.

While others have been critical of the emergency financial manager law, he can see the positives as he said last week at Michigan State University in East Lansing. “Can it be improved? sure, but it has helped communities,” he said. “Three Oaks didn’t have money to cover their payroll. We kept them afloat by buying their ballparks which they ended up paying off early.”

As for what he does away from work, he’s still very much into sports. He coaches the junior varsity girls basketball and powerlifting teams at Michigan Lutheran High School and is a color commentator for St. Joseph High School football games for WSJM.

A native of St. Joseph, he played football, basketball and track at St. Joseph High School and is in the high school’s athletic hall of fame. He went on to play football in college at Ball State University.

Besides announcing the St. Joseph games, he also announces a couple of Michigan Lutheran and Lake Michigan Catholic football games each year. He hosts a Saturday morning coaches show. “I think more people identify me from sports than from being county treasurer,” he said.

“I like what sports does, I like to be around that energy and excitement,” he added. “A bad day at the office is cured by an evening of coaching and announcing games … I also mow the soccer field at Michigan Lutheran Middle School every week, that’s an hour of pure sanctuary for me each week where I can relax for an hour.”