County treasurer's duties are wide-ranging

As Flathead County treasurer, Adele Krantz has a lot more to keep track of than tax collections.

Krantz, 49, is starting her third four-year term in a job that involves overseeing not only the county’s tax department, but also the motor vehicle division and the accounting office where all of the county’s investments are made.

She’s also Flathead County’s public administrator. The county takes charge of estates for which no administrators are appointed or estates of decedents who have no heirs.

When a county resident dies and has no family, or if the family refuses to pay for a burial, it’s Krantz who is tasked with making arrangements for a county burial and poring through personal belongings that can be sold to help the county recoup some of the cost.

“I protect the county’s interest if the family doesn’t have any means” of paying for a burial, Krantz said. “We’ll send things to auction or post them on Craigslist.”

If there is a prepaid burial, Krantz still may be asked to get involved, to liquidate any assets, pay bills and close out an estate. On occasion she works with family members out of state, settling affairs and even sending them personal items if they’re unable to travel to Flathead County.

She handles about 20 to 30 such cases a year.

Her public administrator duties have put her in some unusual situations. And she can be called into action at any time.

“I’ve gone in crawl spaces to look for wills,” she said. “It’s a lot of work, but I take pride in being the public administrator.”

The Department of Motor Vehicles is a busy place within the Courthouse West building where the various divisions of the Treasurer’s Office operate. Because Flathead County doesn’t have an option tax, lots of out-of-state residents choose to have their vehicles licensed here to save money, Krantz explained.

Those licensing a vehicle must have a local physical address, which is easily accomplished by creating a limited liability company.

“You’d be amazed at how many people find a way to do that,” she said. “It’s been a loophole for many years. This summer we were getting a hundred titles a day in the mail, and that’s a lot.”

Knowing the codes for all of personalized plates offered in Montana is a task in itself, she said.

The Treasurer’s Office accounting department is where all of the investing is done.

“That’s a big part of my day,” Krantz said. “It’s a lot easier to be treasurer when the interest rates are good.”

Low interest rates during the past several years have been a challenge for Krantz, who is in charge of getting the most out of the county’s investments.

The county’s investments averaged $148 million in fiscal 2014, with average monthly interest distributions of $64,392. By comparison, during fiscal year 2009, investments averaged $102 million, with average monthly interest distributions of about $228,600.

Krantz invests money from the county, local school districts and other districts, such as fire and rural special-improvement districts, in a variety of short- and long-term funds, then distributes the interest back to those entities. There are restrictions on how the county can invest its money; high-risk investments are not allowed.

“Investments are my No. 1 ‘I don’t sleep at night’ thing,” she said.

The tax department keeps Krantz running, too. Last year the county levied $153.9 million in property taxes, and sent out 58,000 tax bills that were processed manually in-house.

Krantz noted that the tax delinquency rate is at an all-time low. A total of $1.5 million in delinquent taxes as of Sept. 30, 2014 is an “unheard-of” figure, she said, because companies and individuals are purchasing most of the delinquent liens because Flathead County is such a desirable place to own land.

“Before, we were happy if the delinquent taxes were below $10 million,” she said.

Krantz oversees 19 employees that staff the Treasurer’s Office departments. And while leadership is one of Krantz’s natural traits, she has a philosophy that reflects her own work ethic.

“I don’t expect my employees to do something I wouldn’t do,” she said. “You do what you have to do.”

KRANTZ LEARNED about hard work at an early age, growing up a small farm in the Ronan/Pablo area. When her grandparents eventually moved off the family farm and into town, Krantz and her family lived in the old farm house with no running water for a time until they built a house in the same area a couple of years later.

She attended elementary school in Pablo and graduated from Ronan High School in 1983. Three years later she married her high-school sweetheart, Clark.

Krantz always excelled in math and had an interest in business, so it was no surprise when she earned a degree in business from Montana State University. Her focus was on business education, but after she finished her student teaching in Clyde Park, north of Livingston, Krantz quickly realized “teaching wasn’t for me.”

Her husband was the natural-born teacher. He taught for 25 years, with 21 of those years at Flathead High School.

Krantz went to work for Flathead County in 1991, first in the tax office and then in the motor vehicle division. When Treasurer Patty Arnold retired halfway through her term, Krantz was appointed treasurer in 2004 and was first elected in 2006.

Krantz’s life is busy off the job, too.

On the family farm in the Fair-Mont-Egan area, the Krantzes raise cattle and sheep.

“If it’s my turn to check the ewes, I’ll tell my staff I may be a little late to the office,” Krantz said with a smile. 

All three of their children were in 4-H.

Their daughter Collette, 24, is an accountant in Denver; son Carter, 20, attends college in Powell, Wyoming, and is pursuing a ranch management degree that eventually will bring him back home to help farm; and Keaton, 17, is a standout football player at Flathead High School.

The Krantzes also own farmland in Lake County, and Clark helps manage his family’s farming interests there, in addition to working part time at CHS and farm work here.

It all makes for a busy life, Krantz readily admitted.

“We don’t take a lot of time off,” she added.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.