El Paso Matters – Meet the candidates for county tax assessor-collector in Democratic Primary

Ruben P. Gonzalez: Recent legislation mandates increased employee training, office space, and personnel. Going through the County Budget Process to resolve the issue.

Art Lujan Seelig: Employee retention. I have worked for the El Paso County tax office for more than  16 years and have never seen such a high turnover rate. I strongly believe that your employees are your most valuable assets. If you take care of them, most of them will stay, morale will improve and productivity will increase. All this comes back to taking care of your employees. At this time we have a 2.6 out of 5 stars rating in customer service. That is unacceptable. Most customers gave us a 1 star rating!

Ruben P. Gonzalez: Finalizing a new Call Center, offering a public internet portal to register and title vehicles, create an electronic inventory reporting system for the dealer community, and include private offices to implement HB 718 which is effective July 2025. 

Art Lujan Seelig: We close our offices at 4:30 p.m. which I think is too early. I’m one of the investigators that locks the doors and gates at that time. Customers drive up and ask me if we are already closed. When I tell them that we are, they get really upset and say they can’t believe we close so early. I hear it quite frequently. I will keep the offices open until 5:30 p.m. for the citizens of El Paso who work until 5 p.m.  while still keeping the same opening time ( 8 a.m.).

Ruben P. Gonzalez: Law enforcement involvement from all entities. Include public and news media to recognize the problem and report violators. Yes, however, more staffing in TAC enforcement division is needed to be more effective. No enforcement yields less revenue for the county and state.

Art Lujan Seelig: Not like it used to. Unfortunately, the Vehicle Registration Abuse Program isn’t much of a priority anymore. I will make sure that it once again will be a priority. Now people need to know that VRAP isn’t a cure all for this problem. But, most of the time when we send out letters, they do register their vehicles. Of course people need to realize there are 3 exceptions to the law. 1. Active duty military 2. Full-time student in any college or university  3. Employees/family members of the Mexican Consulate.

Ruben P. Gonzalez: State authorities need to enforce more actively. City and county need to be active also. Individuals buying from corner lots tend to have issues in obtaining legal plates and titles.

Art Lujan Seelig: We do work on these “Curbstoning” cases and have issued citations. I can tell you the problem isn’t as bad as it was in the past. Now people need to know that if the seller is not the registered owner, we can issue them a citation. But if the seller is the registered owner, we cannot issue them a citation. There is a Municipal Ordinance that says selling merchandise(including vehicles) cannot be sold on or near a roadway. Unfortunately we do not have the authority to enforce municipal laws.

Ruben P. Gonzalez: This model is working well and needs improvement. I need more trainers to train them and our staff to improve the quality of work. A county training center would help. Private offices need to exist, if they don’t, it will  impact the county budget and taxpayers as added staffing and space will be required to deliver services critically provided by these contracted offices. 

Art Lujan Seelig: For the most part the model is working. The only change would be is to give more training to these employees at the satellite offices.