Johnston County Tax AdministrationPat Goddard

Sheila GarnerTerre Keel

• 2003 Revaluation State Record For Informal Hearings

• We tried to keep it a secret!!!

• Among the fastest growing counties in North Carolina in the last ten years

• In the top 100 fastest growing counties in the United States during that same period

• Other than Panic and Hysteria?

• Market Value for Land – All Land

• Remarkable Value Appreciation from 1995 to 2003

• Politics

• Obvious: We needed better appeals tracking!

• Repeat of 2003 for 2011?

• Absurd paper shuffling and printing?

• Goals: Try for a better way Better citizen interaction Less preparation time for BOER meetings Better organization in the tax office Value loss reports at all levels

• New Software – Appeals Tracking Researched COTS software Asked other counties (Wake)

• Geographic Representations or Mapping

We will Discuss…

• Software configurations or Setup• Management of Informal Appeals

“Office Review” – Received by mail“Hearing Requested” – Taxpayer called for appointment

• Board of E&R Appeals• The Appeals Map

2011 Revaluation Year

9515 Appeals Informal Level 1199 Withdrew 4616 No Change 3560 Decrease 140 Increase

927 Appeals - Board of E&R (10% Average)

• Establish Market Areas or “Master Neighborhoods”

• Set up Market Areas in Neighborhood Master Maintenance screen

• Using ArcMap, identify neighborhoods contained within each Market Area or “Master Neighborhood”

• Assign individual neighborhoods to corresponding Market Area/Master Neighborhood

Assign Appraisers to Market Areas

• Appraiser can be assigned to an entire Market Area or to individual neighborhoods within a Market Area• Appraiser can be setup to hear Commercial Appeals, Residential Appeals or both

An administrator can setup hearing sites on the “Appointment Location Maintenance” screen.

For the convenience of it’s citizens, Johnston County

offered informal hearings at five locations.

Setup Hearing Locations

Add Appointment Dates & Times

Add Appointments

When user clicks “Add Appointments” on the Appointment Time Maintenance screen, the popup box to the left is displayed allowing user to add new appointment dates and times.

User chooses a hearing location from the drop down box.

Assign Appraisers to Appointment Locations, Dates and Times

Choose an appraiser and choose a hearing site from the location drop down menu (above). When user clicks continue, he is given the opportunity to select dates and times that the appraiser will be available to hear appeals at the given location.

How Were They Managed?

1.Returning a completed appeal form to the tax office. A hearing officer would review the appeal and notify the owner, in writing, of the results or2.Call the tax office and request an appointment with a hearing officer.

The county mailed a Notice of Assessed Value to the owner of each parcel. The notice explained that individuals could appeal the value by either:

The front of the notice informed owner’s of the 2011 market value and provided general information

about the reappraisal process.

The back of the notice provided specific information about the appeal process and had a detachable appeal form that could be mailed back to the tax office.

Notice of Assessed Value

Informal appeal forms received by mail were scanned by a vendor and returned to the tax office electronically as .pdf files. These files were uploaded to the tax software andplaced into a workflow queue - “Appeal Forms”. A manager assigns the workflow items to clerical employees who then enter the information into the Appeals Module.

Managing the Mail

Clerical user’s workflow queue

Managing the Mail – Entering Appeals into the System

System creates an “Office Review Appeals” workflow item

System auto assigns workflow item based on market area and appraiser setup

Managing the Mail – Routing the Appeals

Managing the Mail – Working “Office Review Appeals”

The Appraiser’s Workflow Queue• Displays a summary of the appeal• Provides links to:

Attachments (Appeal form, appraisal, photos, etc)Appraisal Record - opens in edit modeAppeals Module - data entry of decision and notes

Managing the MailCompleting “Office Review Appeals”

After updating the appraisal record, the appraiser enters his appraiser number, chooses a decision code, and enters notes. The system calculates the percent change. When the record is saved, the appeal status automatically changes to “complete” and the appeal is flagged for correspondence. The appraiser moves to his next workflow item.

Managing the Phones• Networked a phone “bank” with six lines

• Operators were provided a script

• Information was entered directly into the Appeals Module

• Appeal “Key” – Parcel Number

• System returns available appointments based on type of appeal (commercial/residential), and location of property (market area)

• Hearing appointment is added to appraiser’s schedule

• Average length of phone call – three minutes

1. User chooses Hearing Requested2. System determines how much time to

allow based on type of appeal (commercial/residential) & number in case

3. User clicks on calendar for available appraisers

4. User chooses appraiser from dropdown list

5. System returns list of available appointments

Managing the Phones Scheduling the Appeals

1. 2. 3.

4.

5.

“Informal Appeal Hearings”

• Five hearing locations spread throughout the county• One clerical person at each location

• Print schedules, appeal summary sheets, and Property Record cards for hearing officers

• Check in appellants• Scan appeal forms and supporting documentation• Enter “walk-in” appeals into system

• Laptops for each hearing officer / appraiser• Tax software – Appraisal and Appeals Modules• MapClick – GIS

Hearing Appointments for Tax Appraiser - Monday October 28, 2010

Location Start Time Owner Appellant Parcel IDCase

IDCase

CountHuman Resources 12:45 PM GEORGE, JAMES P GEORGE, JAMES P 15039009 6502 1Human Resources 12:50 PM CALAVITO, CHRIS L CALAVITO, CHRIS L 05G02048T 6496 2Human Resources 12:50 PM CALAVITO, CHRIS L CALAVITO, CHRIS L 05G02048U 6496 2Human Resources 1:00 PM SMITHFIELD-SELMA CHAMBER WENZEL, JASON 15074012C 6504 1Human Resources 1:10 PM LEE, FRANKIE JANELE BAREFOOT LEE, HUBERT 08I13026A 6442 1Human Resources 1:20 PM ABDALLA, MICHAEL J ABDALLA, MICHAEL J 14L10014I 6505 2Human Resources 1:20 PM ABDALLA, MICHAEL J ABDALLA, MICHAEL J 14M12001C 6505 2Human Resources 1:35 PM CHRIST COMMUNITY UNITED CORBIN, DALE 05G02008Y 6495 1

“Informal Appeal Hearings” cont.

Property Record Card

Appraiser’s Daily Schedule

Office Review (Mail) 2730Hearing Requested (Phone) 6470Walk-In 335

Query results can be downloaded into Excel for easy manipulation of the data.

Parcel Number

Appealed Market Value

Tax Offi ce Decision Code

Tax Offi ce Decision

Market ValueTax Offi ce Market

Value Loss01005031C 934,063 No Change 934,063 001009017N 39,500 Value Decreased 28,840 10,66001009017Q 39,500 Value Decreased 28,840 10,66001009017R 39,500 Value Decreased 28,840 10,66001009017W 39,500 Value Decreased 28,840 10,66001009017Z 19,750 No Change 19,750 001010016 41,800 No Change 41,800 001012014B 15,760 No Change 15,760 001012014C 17,810 No Change 17,810 001012014D 21,060 No Change 21,060 001012014H 62,940 Value Decreased 37,520 25,42001015024 63,390 Value Decreased 45,690 17,70001015024B 623,150 Value Decreased 327,810 295,34001016028 177,240 Value Decreased 164,270 12,97001016028A 128,270 Value Decreased 119,630 8,64001020017 79,720 Value Decreased 58,760 20,96001023035 32,670 No Change 32,670 001023051 262,150 Value Decreased 211,630 50,52001025012A 1,412,679 No Change 1,412,679 001029019 48,540 Value Decreased 37,260 11,280

Query Builder Screen Results displayed in Excel

Provided the ability to:• Track “How Many”• Sort - By name, neighborhood, case, date• Evenly distribute workload• Print property record cards for all items in a queue

• Created by the Board of Commissioners March 12, 2001

• 7 members representing Commissioners from each district

• Diverse backgrounds-farmers, real estate, bankers, & attorney

• Accommodated waiting area within meetings in 2011

• Appointment letters electronically generated

• Appeal packet electronically generated from existing data

• History of appeal

• Visualization of the appeal and surroundings

• Quick and easy access to other appeal documentation

• Decision letters electronically generated

• Starting point for Board E&R minutes

• Query Builder used to extract data from CAMA file and Appeals Module

• Downloaded into a text files

• Data imported into Access for easy manipulation

• Exported as DBF files

• DBF files used in ArcMap to create shape files

• Updated weekly

A Visual Display of the Data

Parcels Appealed in 2011 and/or 2012

2009 & 2010 Qualified Sales and Forced Sales

• 2011 Appeals (Blue)• Qualified Sales (Green)• Forced Sales (Red)

The Ability to View the Decisions“Blue” parcels were appealed in 2011

Green = Tax Office decision Dark Blue = Board’s decision

LAND VALUE BUILDING QUALITY

Provided a quick look at…Land Features - value, unit price, zoning, condition factorBuilding Elements - value, design factor, quality code, year built, EOB, FOB

Main Benefit: Fair and Equitable Decisions – Consistency

The Johnston County Tax OfficePO Box 368Smithfield, NC 27577

919-989-5130

Pat GoddardSheila GarnerTerre Keel