The Jones County Board of Tax Assessors held two called meetings last week. The first was to appoint an interim chief appraiser, and the second was their rescheduled monthly meeting.
Board Chairman Leigh Stanford led both meetings.
The March 10 meeting took less than 15 minutes. All members of the board were in attendance except for Tim Andrews.
After calling the meeting to order, Stanford got to the point after the opening prayer and pledge. The chairman announced that James Davis had been selected to act as chief appraiser and consultant to the board of assessors.
Stanford said Davis is an Appraiser 4 and had served as chief appraiser in Bibb, Upson, Colquitt and Monroe counties. He currently serves as an instructor for the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.
Stanford said Davis also served as an instructor for the Georgia Department of Revenue Assessor/Appraiser Training Program and was president of the Georgia Association of Assessing Officials.
“We are confident Jim’s 50-plus years of experience in the field will greatly aid us in the performance of our duties,” she said.
Stanford asked for a motion, and board member Andrea Riley made the motion to appoint Davis to the position of interim chief appraiser. The motion was approved unanimously.
Davis was in attendance at the meeting. Stanford expressed her appreciation to Davis for his willingness to work with the board.
“We are very determined to make sure all Jones County properties are assessed in a fair and equitable manner,” she said.
March 13
Stanford called the meeting to order that had been rescheduled from its original March 6 date because the newly appointed board members were in training classes.
The meeting was called to order at 5 p.m. with Stanford, Riley and board member Joe Rutledge in attendance.
Following the opening prayer and pledge, the chairman recognized Mickey Parker, who had asked to be on the agenda.
Parker began by thanking the board for hiring Davis as the interim chief appraiser.
“That was a brilliant move,” he said.
Parker went on to say that he agreed there needs to be a county-wide revaluation, but the problem is it will take two to three years to get all the properties at their correct values.
“We know the 9,400 property value increase made last year were not done legally,” he said. “I ask the board to revert those properties back to their original assessments.”
The speaker’s concern was those 9,400 property owners would be paying higher taxes until the revaluation was complete.
Stanford said she was under the same impression that it would take several years. She said the county would open the bidding window for companies interested in performing the revaluation Monday, which was only the beginning of the process.
The chairman said she also agrees those 9,400 assessments need to be looked at. She said she thought they had already been reversed.
JCBTA secretary and tax appraiser Kim Adams said the worst part of the problem, the overrides, have been corrected. She said they are also looking at other changes, running sales ratios and doing valuations.
“We are making every effort to make everything fair this year. Taxpayers also have the option of appeals after they receive their tax notices,” she said.
Appraiser Bill Goodman said the 9,000 adjustments affected 2023, and that was not the correct way to do it. Even with the adjustments, the tax ratio was still low.
“It took a long time to put the adjustments in. We are doing everything we can to make it right, pending the revaluation,” he said.
Riley said Davis would be taking a look at the issue.
Stanford asked if there was a way to identify the properties that had not been corrected.
“Until we have identified the problems, we will expect people to come to the office,” she said.
The chairman said they are also looking at staffing for the department.
Parker asked, if property assessments were up last year, would they go down. The answer from the appraisers was no.
Stanford said anything that is seen needing to be corrected, would be corrected.
Goodman added that things were being done the right way now.
Parker told the board that he was satisfied with the answers he had received.
Action items
Board members were presented with 20 conservation covenants for renewal, an approval of a CUVA breach due to the property owner’s age, 32 errors and relief issues and 28 motor vehicle appeals to review and approve, along with 70 homestead applications.
The final agenda item was a budget discussion.
Stanford said the board has been working to address issues since being appointed, and it is clear that the department’s budget needs to be amended.
“The training of the new board members took 47 percent of the training budget. We need more money,” she said.
The chairman said there was a lot of work to be done to get the properties assessed before May 1. She said they need to contract with retired personnel to work on a part-time basis and need overtime approved for the current staff.
Stanford said the peer review noted that two more people were needed, an appraiser and another appraiser assistant, due to the number of the county’s parcels.
She said she is meeting with the consultant that did the county’s salary study to look at the current salaries.
“We are looking at each employee, their duties and performance. We may need to adjust,” Stanford said.
The chairman asked for board approval to get on the Board of Commissioners agenda to ask for a budget amendment of $75,000.
“We need that to accomplish what we need to do and make sure the staff attends training classes,” she said.
Riley made the motion to approve the request to the commissioners, and approval was unanimous.
With no more business, the meeting was adjourned.
The next meeting of the JCBTA is scheduled at 5 p.m. April 3.
