Tax Assessors Assert Authority
We were given authority and we are not using it. We need to handle our own affairs,” exclaimed Jasper County tax assessor Bessie Davis during a board discussion Tuesday involving the proposed 2003 property revaluation.
The three-member board decided during the January 14 bi-monthly meeting to pay one board member $10 per hour to call references for the appraisal companies selected for the revaluations prior to awarding the bid. The board forwarded the request to the county commissioners who recommended that
consultant Dr. Van Whaler, former interim county manager, perform the reference checks.
Assessors seemed to be taken aback that the commissioners opted to pay the consultant’s $100 per hour fee versus the assessors suggested $10 fee. {{more}}
“We can have a called meeting and do it ourselves,” said Mrs. Davis in response to the commissioners suggestion. The assessors took no action on the matter.
Office manager Phyllis Norwood provided the board with an office update which included conflicts with the installation of the Norman System appraisal software. She reported that software technician Rodney Alexander visited the office last week to begin the conversion process and was expected back sometime next week to complete the conversion.
However, Mrs. Norwood also reported, per Mr. Alexander, that the new system would not be compatible to the software in the tax commissioners office, or to the Geographic Information Software (GIS) mapping system, or with the new office computers.
She informed the board that the commissioners approved a $7,400 expenditure for the installation of the system during their last bi-monthly meeting.
Chairman Joan Bell said she wanted to go on record with the fact that she previously opposed going forward with installing the Norman System until all the pertinent questions had been asked.
Mrs. Norwood informed the board that the errors and releases reviewed at the previous meeting had been approved by the commissioners and forwarded to the tax commissioners office. Additionally the board reviewed four error and release applications; three were approved and one was tabled for further review.
The office manager reported that currently there are 49 conservation applications and that the collected $490 application fees would be turned over to county commissioners office on Friday.
The assessors approved a request for maintenance office employee Susan Jones to attend an introductory appraisal training session February 10-14.
During a mapping update, Mrs. Bell reported to the board that a recent visit to the Rural Development Council (RDC) offices in Athens with Mrs. Norwood and Mrs. Jones netted some good results. She said that the mapping process was coming along well and that the latest updates were near completion.
In regards to the status of the 2001 appeals, Mrs. Bell said that Francis Cason, chairman of the Board of Equalization, agreed to meet with county attorney Dan Roberts to settle the appeals in question.
Upon contacting Mr. Roberts he suggested that Mrs. Norwood make the corrections for the BOE, return them to him and then he would forward them to Mr. Cason. In disagreement with that plan, the board voted to set up a meeting with Mr. Cason, Mrs. Norwood and Mrs. Bell to discuss the appeals corrections.
The board entered into closed session for a personnel discussion.
