TRACKING APPEALS From Informal to The Board of Equalization

1
TRACKING APPEALSFrom Informal to The Board of
Equalization Review or A Method to Appeals
Madness
Johnston County Tax Administration
Pat Goddard Sheila Garner Terre Keel
2
Background

• 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

3
What Happened?

• 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!

4
Appeal Considerations

• 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

5
But How?

• New Software Appeals Tracking
• Researched COTS software
• Asked other counties (Wake)
• Geographic Representations or Mapping

6
We Developed an Appeals Tracking Module (BiTek)
We will Discuss

• Software configurations or Setup
• Management of Informal Appeals
• Office Review Received by mail
• Hearing Requested Taxpayer called for
  appointment

• Board of ER Appeals
• The Appeals Map

7
Appeal Statistics

• 2011 Revaluation Year
• 9515 Appeals Informal Level
• 1199 Withdrew
• 4616 No Change
• 3560 Decrease
• 140 Increase
• 927 Appeals - Board of ER (10 Average)

8
Behind the Scene Setup

• Establish Market Areas or
  
• Master Neighborhoods
• Set up Market Areas in
• Neighborhood Master
• Maintenance screen

9

• Using ArcMap, identify neighborhoods contained
  within each Market Area or Master Neighborhood
• Assign individual neighborhoods to
  corresponding Market Area/Master Neighborhood

10
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

11
Setup Hearing Locations
For the convenience of its citizens, Johnston
County offered informal hearings at five
locations.
An administrator can setup hearing sites on the
Appointment Location Maintenance screen.
12
Add Appointment Dates Times
User chooses a hearing location from the drop
down box.
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.
13
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.
Assign Appraisers to Appointment Locations, Dates
and Times
14
The Informal Appeals
How Were They Managed?

• 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

• 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 or
• Call the tax office and request an appointment
  with a hearing officer.

15
Notice of Assessed Value

• 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.

• The front of the notice informed owners of the
  2011 market value and provided general
  information about the reappraisal process.

16
The Informal Appeals How Were They Managed?
Managing the Mail
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 and
placed into a workflow queue - Appeal Forms. A
manager assigns the workflow items to clerical
employees who then enter the information into the
Appeals Module.
17
Managing the Mail Entering Appeals into the
System
Clerical users workflow queue
18
Managing the Mail Routing the Appeals

• System creates an Office Review Appeals
  workflow item
• System auto assigns workflow item based on market
  area and appraiser setup

19
Managing the Mail Working Office Review
Appeals
The Appraisers Workflow Queue

• Displays a summary of the appeal
• Provides links to
• Attachments (Appeal form, appraisal, photos, etc)
• Appraisal Record - opens in edit mode
• Appeals Module - data entry of decision and notes

20
Managing the Mail Completing 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.
21
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 appraisers
  schedule
• Average length of phone call three minutes

22
Managing the Phones Scheduling the Appeals
3.
2.
1.
4.

• User chooses Hearing Requested
• System determines how much time to allow based on
  type of appeal (commercial/residential) number
  in case
• User clicks on calendar for available appraisers
• User chooses appraiser from dropdown list
• System returns list of available appointments

5.
23
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

24
Informal Appeal Hearings cont.
Property Record Card
Hearing Appointments for Tax Appraiser - Monday October 28, 2010 Hearing Appointments for Tax Appraiser - Monday October 28, 2010 Hearing Appointments for Tax Appraiser - Monday October 28, 2010 Hearing Appointments for Tax Appraiser - Monday October 28, 2010 Hearing Appointments for Tax Appraiser - Monday October 28, 2010 Hearing Appointments for Tax Appraiser - Monday October 28, 2010 Hearing Appointments for Tax Appraiser - Monday October 28, 2010
Location Start Time Owner Appellant Parcel ID CaseID CaseCount
Human Resources 1245 PM GEORGE, JAMES P GEORGE, JAMES P 15039009 6502 1
Human Resources 1250 PM CALAVITO, CHRIS L CALAVITO, CHRIS L 05G02048T 6496 2
Human Resources 1250 PM CALAVITO, CHRIS L CALAVITO, CHRIS L 05G02048U 6496 2
Human Resources 100 PM SMITHFIELD-SELMA CHAMBER WENZEL, JASON 15074012C 6504 1
Human Resources 110 PM LEE, FRANKIE JANELE BAREFOOT LEE, HUBERT 08I13026A 6442 1
Human Resources 120 PM ABDALLA, MICHAEL J ABDALLA, MICHAEL J 14L10014I 6505 2
Human Resources 120 PM ABDALLA, MICHAEL J ABDALLA, MICHAEL J 14M12001C 6505 2
Human Resources 135 PM CHRIST COMMUNITY UNITED CORBIN, DALE 05G02008Y 6495 1
Appraisers Daily Schedule
25
The Informal Appeals Mail vs. Phone
Office Review (Mail) 2730 Hearing Requested
(Phone) 6470 Walk-In 335
26
Software Features That Made Things a Little Less
Difficult
27
Edit Parcel Feature
28
Owner and Appellant The Same Feature
29
Query Builder
Query results can be downloaded into Excel for
easy manipulation of the data.
Query Builder Screen
Results displayed in Excel
30
Workflow Queues

• 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

31
Johnston County BOARD OF Equalization and Review

• 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

32
Appeals to the Board of ER New and Improved

• 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 ER minutes

33
Board of ER Docket Sheet
34
Appeal Summary Sheets
35
Board of ERs Decision Box
36
The Appeals Map

• 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

37
The Appeals Map
A Visual Display of the Data
Parcels Appealed in 2011 and/or 2012
38
The Appeals Map
2009 2010 Qualified Sales and Forced Sales

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

39
The Appeals Map
The Ability to View the Decisions
Blue parcels were appealed in 2011 Green Tax
Office decision Dark Blue Boards decision
40
The Appeals Map
Provided a quick look at Land Features - value,
unit price, zoning, condition factor Building
Elements - value, design factor, quality code,
year built, EOB, FOB

• Land Value

• Building Quality

41
The Appeals Map

• Main Benefit Fair and Equitable Decisions
  Consistency

42
Questions
The Johnston County Tax Office PO Box
368 Smithfield, NC 27577 919-989-5130 Pat
Goddard Sheila Garner Terre Keel