Chief appraiser hires consultant to defend him
All members of the Jones County Board of Commissioners, the Board of Education chairman and school superintendent and four representatives of the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, including its sales ratio director, were left to stand in the hall outside of the Board of Assessors Office for more than 30 minutes waiting on a late consultant to arrive.
The Jones County Appeal for its 2023 Ratio Study was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., Oct. 1. Stan King, CEO of GMASS Appraisal Services, who was secured by Jones County Chief Appraiser Anthony George, arrived at 10:30 a.m.
The reason the commissioners, representatives of the BOE and DOAA representatives were left standing in the hall, rather than being taken into the assessors’ office to wait, is unknown.
George came out to let those in the hall know the consultant was running late twice, but then turned and left them standing where they were.
When King did arrive, everyone was invited into George’s office, but the DOAA representatives were ushered elsewhere while King spoke for another 30 minutes.
The DOAA members portion of the meeting began an hour late, not the usual way to treat those hoped to assist with a problem.
King’s presentation consisted of a complicated maze of information about the problem with the state’s methodology in coming up with the sales ratio, much the same information previously presented to the Board of Commissioners by George.
“The problem started with the 2020 hyper-inflated economy,” King stated. “This isn’t just a Jones County issue; it’s a state issue.”
King laid the problem with the county’s low sales ratio with the state, assessing no responsibility to the county’s tax assessors. In fact, he contended that Jones County’s internal sales ratio, when correctly computed, was a practically perfect 38.
The consultant seemed to say the failure of the appeal was a foregone conclusion and arbitration would be more successful.
The county’s sales ratio for 2023, according to the DOAA study, is 31.26. The target ratio is between 36 and 40.
DOAA Sales Ratio Director Lee Thomas agreed that the problem began in 2020. He said before that year, the county ratios had been very close. He said after COVID hit, property values started going up, and last year 65 counties were below the acceptable 36 ratio.
Thomas said the issue is property values have not increased significantly in Jones County despite the increase across the state.
Thomas used the county’s five-year property tax digest history to show property values had not kept up.
King’s arguments were numerous and confusing but seemed arbitrary when looking at the difference in the values of properties and their sales prices. Multiple properties that were valued at $50,000 to $60,000 sold for $200,000-plus, as reported in the preliminary sales ratio study.
The values of 45.8 percent of Jones County real property parcels had no change in value from 2020 to 2023.
George argued that the parcels selected for the study were not representative of Jones County.
Commissioners asked several questions of the DOAA representatives, trying to gauge the county’s current situation and next steps.
Thomas said one of his major concerns was the way sold and unsold properties are treated.
“It’s a uniformity issue,” he said. “The county is tasked with keeping values at fair market value. The red flag is properties with no change for three years.”
The director said they were just getting into the 2024 digest, and he can tell it has increased a good bit. But he doubted it would be enough. Thomas said the problem is a majority of the county’s property values are low.
“I don’t believe you will have a satisfactory ratio next year,” he said.
Thomas said most counties submitted materials to the DOAA before their appeals, but they had received nothing from Jones County.
George handed him a stack of properties he felt were at issue, and the director agreed to consider them.
Thomas said the county should receive a report of the outcome of the appeal in a few weeks. After that, the county will have 15 days to file for arbitration. The meeting that began at 10:30 a.m. adjourned at 1:30 p.m.
An interesting development at the conclusion of the meeting was a discussion among commissioners about who was paying King. An email was distributed to board members prior to their Sept. 17 meeting, which was a request from George to hire a consultant for the sales ratio appeal and arbitration.
The consensus of the commissioners was that request, which was for consultant expenses totaling $5,000 to $6,000, was not approved.
Anyone interested in watching the Oct. 1 appeal hearing online can do so by going to jonescountyga. org, click on the Government tab, Board of Commissioners, then view commission meetings live.
