The title of the 2024 Performance Review of the Jones County Board of Tax Assessors could be “The Buck Stops Here.”
The 142-page document is dated Dec. 17, 2024, but it was not received by the Jones County Board of Commissioners until last week. That was over a month after the first vote by the commissioners Dec. 3 to remove the remaining members of the Jones County Board of Tax Assessors (JCBTA). The vote to remove the members was 4-1, which at the time had three members.
Commissioner Daylon Martin was opposed to the removal.
That decision was confirmed with the same vote following a Jan. 7 hearing to allow JCBTA members to present their arguments. The term of one of those board members expired Dec. 31, leaving two members remaining.
Information in the Performance Review Board (PRB) report did nothing to change the decision of the commissioners who voted to remove the board members.
The document is known as a peer review because it is performed by other professionals in the field. The JCBTA had a previous peer review in 2008. That review, however, only consisted of nine pages.
The 2024 review was conducted by Ben Pope, who is a compliance specialist III with the Department of Revenue and two chief appraisers, James Stokes Jr. of Paulding County and Charles Anglin II of Putnam County. They were appointed to perform the review by the Revenue Commissioner of Georgia, Frank O’Connell.
The review board started its investigation of the board of JCBTA Oct. 14, and it included a review of tax assessors board minutes, policies, procedures and schedules, tax documentation, properties, appraisals and interviews.
When talking about the role of the board of assessors, the report said it is hard to overstate their importance to the administration of property taxes and in the vitality of local government.
The bottom line is everything that happens in the Jones County Tax Assessors Office is the responsibility of the JCBTA. That includes but is not limited to property tax assessments, the hiring of staff members, their safety and training, tax exemptions, board meetings and the county’s tax digest.
As a result of interviews by the PRB, it was concluded that department funds were not being used efficiently for training. The majority of the funds were used for the chief appraiser and board members while staff members received minimal training, resulting in non-compliant staff training.
It was determined the chief appraiser had attended ample training, but his education was not reflected in his ability to perform his duties.
The tax assessor department staff consists of the chief appraiser, an appraiser III, two appraiser IIs, an appraiser trainee who was employed in May but has had no training, and two support staff members, who are not certified.
The report documented that there have been ample class opportunities for all staff to be compliant in their training. It is the responsibility of the chief appraiser to make sure staff are trained, and the oversight of the chief appraiser is the responsibility of the JCBTA. Their dependence on the chief appraiser does not relieve the board of assessors from their responsibility of performing their statutory duties.
Land valuations were found to be inconsistent in the City of Gray, and for small tracts of land, schedules were found not to have been updated since 2007. Conservation Use and Forest Land covenant documents were found to be incomplete.
Jones County failed its state sales ratio audits for the past two years. It was determined that the county’s failure of the sales ratio audit in 2023 caused a loss to the county of $321,068 in public utility payments.
The report states that homestead exemptions for seniors were calculated incorrectly for those 65 and over, and that created a concern that taxpayers may have missed out on higher level tax exemptions.
The report summary states the 2023 Department of Audits and Accounts sales ratio study shows Jones County has a level of uniformity issues in all four classes of property, commercial, residential, industrial and agriculture.
A county-wide revaluation was recommended.
According to articles in The Jones County News, previous revaluations of Jones County properties occurred in 1985, 2001 and 2007, due to property values being out of compliance. The county was subsequently fined by the Georgia Department of Revenue. Jones County paid $10,000 in fines to the state in 1999 and 2000 because of an unacceptable sales ratio compared with property values and $1,700 in 2006 and 2007 due to property values again out of acceptable limits. The peer review states its finding may be grounds for the removal of JCBTA members. Georgia law provides that board members can be removed for failure to perform their duties or requirements.
The board members do have the right to a hearing before a superior court judge, who will make a recommendation about their removal to the governing authority, which is the Jones County Board of Commissioners. The necessary paperwork for that appeal was filed at the Jones County Courthouse Jan. 14.
The final decision is made by the Board of Commissioners, the same board that appointed the JCBTA members.
