Sept. 15, 2015 • Volume 18, Issue 18 • Complimentary • www.blufftonsun.com

• Life on the May 6A• Walk to End Alzheimer’s 14A• Red Apron House Party 16A• Catfish Festivalreturns 20A• See designerBra Project 21A• Bucket list forretirement 30A• Memories onCanvas show 33A

INSIDE

New county treasurer serious about citizens’ moneyBy Dean Rowland

CONTRIBUTOR

Beaufort County has a message forproperty owners in default: “Pay (youroverdue taxes) or forfeit (your propertyat public auction).”

Properties that did not sell at last year’sannual Delinquent Tax Sale were listedonline for the first time late last monthfor weeklong bidding. Winning biddersof the properties, all of which wereowned by the county’s Forfeited LandCommission, were issued property titlesimmediately.

The public has another opportunityto purchase property online or in personon Oct. 5 at the county’s annual

Delinquent Tax Sale. Winning biddersmust wait one year and one day duringthe exemption period for the originalproperty owners to pay their back realestate taxes or else their deeds willchange hands.

Last year, the county collected $22million from the sale, including backtaxes; the year before that, $40 million.

Money is serious business for thecounty, and no one is more serious aboutit than county treasurer Maria Walls,who assumed elected office July 1 afterspending four years as deputy treasurer.

“I want people to feel comfortable thatthey have someone representing them

P H O T O B Y D E A N R O W L A N D

County treasurer Maria Walls oversees operations in the treasurer’s office in Beaufort.Please see TAXES on page 10

New small business acknowledges value of everyoneBy Gwyneth J. Saunders

CONTRIBUTOR

After 29 years in corporate America inMichigan, Laurie Brown had had enough.The job was good but no longer fulfillingand, after moving to Bluffton inSeptember 2014, Brown sought a way to

satisfy the soft spot in her heart forhelping people.

Out of that desire grew Bluffton-basedAunt Laurie’s, a source of gift baskets forall occasions. To fill those baskets, shesought organizations that employedpeople with disabilities to produce suchthings as lotions, soaps and candles.

With themed gifts for new home-owners to dog lovers to the latest creation– a Bluffton-focused selection – the bas-kets were one way Brown could meet hergoal.

“The vision of Aunt Laurie’s is toinspire people to acknowledge the valueof everyone; every human being has

value. We’d like that to come through thepassion of our efforts,” said Brown. “Themore product I sell, the more people Ihelp. It’s really important.”

The gift baskets evolved out of conver-sations with her SCORE small business

Please see BASKETS on page 12A

Page 10A The Bluffton Sun Sept. 15, 2015

here every day,” said Walls, who lives inBluffton with her family. “It’s not just me.I have a staff (24 full time) that representsthem every day.”

After the embezzlement scandal thatrocked the office in 2011 before DougHenderson became treasurer through agrassroots petition campaign, there wasmuch work to do to restore public faithand trust in the department.

Henderson appointed Walls as hisdeputy treasurer.

“We needed to bring credibility backto this office,” she said. The first moveshe and her boss made was to install aninternal control procedure that made alldepartments and staffers accountable forevery monetary transaction processed,documented and verified, with checksand balances in place.

“As an auditor and CPA, when Ilooked at the county’s financial state-ments and saw that we had internal con-trol comments (from auditors) and defi-ciencies numerous years in a row, that

alone was terrible,” said Walls, a NewJersey native with degrees from RiderUniversity in her home state. “So, to me,considering my background, that wasnot acceptable, so I set a goal for myselfthat we wouldn’t have any control com-ments our first year.” She succeeded.

“We were both very proud of what weaccomplished in four years,” said Walls,who moved to the Lowcountry eightyears ago.

Among other initiatives she imple-mented as deputy treasurer was updatingmoney flow procedures by replacingantiquated carbon copy receipts with anelectronic “data flow chart” from everycounty department that handles money.

She also reduced internal expendi-tures by sending confirmation receiptsonline instead of by mail, saving $60,000last year. Overall, she reduced depart-ment expenditures by 24 percent duringher tenure.

The first official action Walls tookwhen assuming office in July was to

update her department’s website to makeit more viewer-friendly for the public.

“What we are doing is to make iteasier for our citizens to learn informa-tion about our office,” Walls said.

As county treasurer, Walls hasretained the initiatives she implementedas deputy to enhance accountability andefficiency, and will roll out new agendaitems in the future. Among them are to:

• increase tax payment options • reorganize the Bluffton office for

public convenience and set up paymentkiosks

• change the electronic check pro-cessing procedure and eliminate creditcard convenience fees assessed to thecounty by credit lenders.

Walls’ mantra over the past four years– and now – is simple: “We learn, weimplement and we get it done.”

Dean Rowland is a veteran senior editorand freelance writer living in Bluffton.

TAXES from page 1A

Inside this edition of TheBluffton Sun, you will find a spe-cial 12-page pull-out section thatlists more than 1,100 BeaufortCounty properties that will be soldat auction Oct. 5, if the delinquenttaxes are not paid in full by 5 p.m.Oct. 2.

The sale will take place at 10a.m. Oct. 5 at the Charles LindBrown Activities Center, 1001Hamar St. in Beaufort.

If you think you might oweproperty taxes on your holdings,check the listings carefully.

Anyone interested in bidding ondelinquent properties may registerat www.bcgov.net by Oct. 2.

SEE BEAUFORT COUNTY DELIQUENT TAX SALE

LISTINGS INSIDE