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ZEBULON - The Board of Commissioners and County Manager (CM) Brandon Rogers, County Clerk Angela Blount, and County Attorney Rob Morton held a workshop today with the Board of Assessors and Chief Appraiser Greg Hobbs and representatives from the Pike County School System. Tax Assessor Board members included Chairman Lyn Smith and members Gary Hammock, Tim Ingram, Christopher Tea, and Parrish Swift. Board of Commission members included Chairman Briar Johnson and members James Jenkins, Jason Proctor, Tim Guy, and Tim Daniel. School representatives were Superintendent Shane Williamson, Deputy Superintendent Melissa Smith, and Director of Finance Debbie Woerner.

The meeting ran just over 1 1/2 hours with questions asked and answered about the job performed by the Tax Assessor's Office and discussion about the Consent Order that was a result of the audit of the Tax Assessor's Office requested by the Board of Commissioners after a $48,645 penalty was given to the county by the Georgia Department of Revenue for difficiencies in the 2022 Tax Digest. The penalty is $5 per parcel in the county.

Click here to read "BREAKING NEWS: Board of Assessors Make Recommendation on the Department of Revenue's Consent Order with the County" published in 7.17.24: http://www.pikecountytimes.com/secondary/BREAKINGNEWSconsentorder7.16.24.html. This article has a link to all of the documentation that was discussed in the meeting today.

Members discussed the needs of the Tax Assessor's Office, the pro's and con's of signing the Consent Order, and what would be needed to accomplish what is mandated in the Consent Order in order to bring the office into compliance with state law for future years. However, the vote boiled down to the last ten minutes of discussion and a reading of state law from the county attorney.

The meeting started with an invitation to discuss the good and the bad from this Consent Order for the community. The school board was asked to be here because they have a different millage rate than we do.

Morton. Jan 9, 2024 notice was given by the DOR that they were intending to access a $5 per parcel penalty against us. The BOC and Assessors considered the notice. BOC filed an appeal in Feb. Board of Assessors also considered this at their Feb meeting. So the BOC sent a letter to the DOR with our appeal of 2022 Tax Digest. We sent the notice of appeal and asked for what you have before you. We also asked for a Performance Review Evaluation. We received a report and that was used by the DOR to form the Consent Order.

Morton advised that the Board of Assessors voted to deny signing this in their meeting on Tuesday because they don’t believe that they can meet the requirements and that it’s an exercise in futility. pikecountytimes.com/secondary/taxassessor7.16.24.html.

Hobbs. The Tax Digest is due in 362 days. It says when we sign this, we need to immediately get someone in place. I have no problem complying with everything in this order. But the time constraint, I don’t believe it’s going to happen. After July 15, 2025, it will be $500 per working day. Everything needs to be done. Concerned about being under the State’s thumb. They want all of the properties done. We don’t even have a personal property appraiser. You need somebody to help us get these things corrected. The last 4 years have been extremely difficult. Waiting on the sales ration that should be here by the end of the month. Already behind the 8 ball. Still working on 2024 and still not ready to send the Tax Digest to the State. It does need to be done.

Rogers. Other than the deadline. Why not sign it and hope not to pay the entire amount?

Christopher Tea. Audit, page 28. It summarizes the facility and equipment. The facility is not large enough to meet their needs now or in the future. That implies that the county needs to provide larger facility prior to the end of this process. Page 25. Currently have 5 appraisers. They broke down the number of appraisers. Average of 2500 parcels for large and small counties. Smaller counties have about 1500 parcels per appraiser with 10,000 parcels in the county. We need 2 more appraisers for this. Honestly, we need that but I don’t see that happening. Training will take time even if we had people.

Morton. Paragraph 5 of the Consent Order. His interpretation is that upon request of the Board of Assessors, the Board of Commissioners will provide the support, equipment, personnel, etc. that they ask for. I would agree that BOC is mandated to provide the necessary support as requested by the Board of Assessors including personnel.

Rogers. If we sign the Consent Order, it mandates that Pike County immediately have something in place to start the reappraisal. Are you saying that you need additional staff besides the company that will be walking the properties?

Tea. Yes. There are enough different requirements that additional staff would help cover the needs including a secretary.

Briar Johnson. You would still not have enough people even without the Consent Order? Rogers. How many people per parcel? Hobbs. No. We have a 6 person office. We have 5. We are pushing 11,000. Say 2,000 per appraiser. This was a review of the 2022 Digest. We did not have enough people to do the job. Where we are today is not where we were in 2022. We have a competent staff. 3,000 per year. Walk 25 properties per day and put it all in the computer. Then start it again the next day. Then stop if there is a problem including dealing with appeals.

Swift. What are you trying to accomplish today? Rogers. The BOC needs enough info to make a decision on the Consent Order.

Swift. We’ve already made a recommendation. Let’s get to the facts. Not in the best interest of this office or the county.

Morton. We were advising them that you recommended denial. Please let people finish speaking without interrupting. The Tax Assessors Office discussed this and recommended denial.

Rogers. If the penalty is the same, why does it matter? Why don’t we do this then? You don’t have enough staff. That’s relevant.

Tea. If we put in writing a request that we need updated facilities to meet the need, does the county have to comply? Morton. If there is a written request from the Board of Assessors, the BOC needs to consider that.

Tea. It says “shall” and if the commissioners decide not to update, etc. Morton. Without the written request and response, I can’t answer that. The DOR will make their own interpretation. The next interpretation is next year. Tea. The state recommends that we contract with an outside firm. We may not be able to get this done. Morton. Recommended that you contract with a vendor but not mandate. Lyn Smith. We haven’t submitted bids. We’ve been told it can’t be done. We can’t get the help so we recommended denial.

Johnson. We wanted to know why you recommended denial.Tea. The state monitors counties by looking at level of assessment, uniformity, and assessment bias. We passed 2 out of 3. Uniformity and assessment bias were passed, but we were uniformly low. If we bring those numbers up another 25% but the 14 mills for the BOE is a part of this. They only needed 12.07 mills for their budget. There would have been over 1 million in excess taxes with 14 mills rather than 12.07 mills. Excess tax revenues would have been $303 on a half a million home.

Johson. We have to do things right. We aren’t doing some of this stuff. We need to be focused on doing things right. Tea. Agreed. Treating everyone fairly is a goal. Being a part of a system that our taxes are too low but also saying that the BOE can’t go below a certain number of mills isn’t fair. If we bring up the estimated market value to comply with what the state wants, the amount of money being taken from tax payers is significant. Our property values are a part of this too. Johnson. Some counties are going over. Some are under. Rogers. You’re not allowing the taxing authorities to do what they are required to do by law. Are we going to fail next year too? Tea. No. The market is improving. We have no idea what will happen and will have to make that decision. We changed from $60 to $91 last year.

Hobbs. We will know more information at the end of July. In 2020, we passed everything. The data from this year will be used for next year. The data that we use is from the previous year. They will review this in 2026.

Johnson. Can we ask for an exemption on this? Morton. We can though everything is on a case by case basis. If you provide info to show that we are working toward what they are asking, it should be considered. This will max out at $48,645.

Rogers. What is the next step even if we don’t sign the Consent Order? Hobbs and Tea. We have to do a full walk around.

Superintendent Shane Williams. 14 mills equals 2 ½ million dollars for the schools. Tea. Most mortgages have escrows. This affects the escrows.

Johnson. How long to get this straightened out? Hobbs. Bids and price to walk everything. We don’t have the opportunity to hit the ground running. Sees this as setting us up for failure. Don’t want to be under the state’s thumb. Want to treat people fairly and assess properties fairly. But we don’t enough people to do what is needed. Still don’t have a sealed bid.

Johnson. Asked the other commissioners what they are thinking. No comments. Based on what I heard today, I think we should sign it, and we should try to do this. The money has been set aside for the walk around. We need to sign this and do what we need to do to help them. We will have a responsibility on this as much as they are. Tim Guy. I think we will be ok if they see we are trying to do this. We have got to get started on this one way or the other. Johnson. The clock is ticking. Outsourcing is a good idea. It’s up to $48,645. Jenkins. I heard on Tuesday that we are going to end up paying this anyway.

Hobbs. Most people do this over a 1 to 2 year period. This has an added element to it with 362 days. Johnson. We want to do this right regardless of how long this takes. It may be better to pay the fine now, but what about 5 years from now? I think we should sign the Consent Order and that there are more reasons to sign it than not.

Morton. Doesn’t have a legal opinion but said on Tuesday that you have the right to sign or choose not to sign this. Full information. In addition to the penalty, any other state agency can withhold any funds becoming payable including grants that includes public roads. This is more than $48,645. You need to know this so you can make an educated decision.

Swift. There will be a huge increase in taxes because of the 14 mills. The state is punishing us on this. Rogers. The question is whether to pay the penalty or not. The Board of Assessors says not to pay the penalty and do a complete walk around. Did we pass the sales ratio this year? Hobbs. I think so. Yes.

Discussion of utilities. Need to be between 36 and 44%. Hobbs. The values that we have now are low. I asked that the Board of Assessors raise the per square footage up, and they told me no, but we have to follow what the properties are selling for so we can get utilities to pay what the county is owed. The entire county needs to be reevaluated. It will be a hardship on the office, but we are going to work to do things right. Johnson. We are here to do what is best for the county. Shane Williams. If we don’t get this right, we’ll have to raise the millage rate to cover the budgets.

Johnson asked for commission discussion. Timmy Daniel. This is not what we do, this is what they do. Jason Proctor. Which will cost the taxpayers the least amount of money? [Note from the Editor: This was an excellent question that was probably at the forefront of everyone's mind.]

Discussion. We may not have to pay the full amount. This will put us on a deadline to get things done. The Assessor’s Office will do whatever they are told. The state said that we were about 25% low in 2023. We made some corrections but won’t know about 2024 yet.

Tax Commissioner Donna Chapman. Values versus millage rates and taxes. The market affects all of this. Tea. Going to submit something in writing for facilities. Maybe ask to use the EMA building for some of their work. In order to comply with the Consent Order, we’ll submit the request. Rogers. What do you need space wise? If you’ve got a company doing the walk around and you have your people in the office working, why would you need more room? Tea. If we ask for specifics, the BOC will need to comply and help us. Discussion. Can the state help with this? Yes and no.

Johnson. What do y’all want to do? Tim Guy. Motion to sign the Consent Order. If we have to consider losing grants, we need to sign this. Motion dies for lack of a second.

Motion that we don’t sign the order but there needs to be a way to see that this is being done. We need to give us a monthly report from the Tax Assessor’s Office. Discussion. Johnson. And if they don’t? We have no recourse. Swift. A schedule seeing what has been completed? Yes. Johnson. We asked for the audit and now we’re going to do this our way.

Tea. Asked about grants. Morton. The state can permanently withhold roads and grant funding. He read the following from OCGA 48-5-346:
"(a) (1) If a county tax digest for its preceding digest review year was conditionally approved and the commissioner conditionally approves the digest for the next subsequent digest review year for the same or substantially the same reasons, the commissioner shall order the payment of the specific penalty as provided in this Code section and the withholding from the county of the state grants specified in this paragraph. The Office of the State Treasurer and any other state agency or officer shall upon such order's taking effect permanently withhold from the county any funds otherwise becoming payable during the withholding period specified in subsection (b) of this Code section to the county under:
(A) The road mileage grant program specified in Article 1 of Chapter 17 of Title 36;
(B) The county appraisal staff grant program specified in Code Section 48-5-267; and
(C) The public road grant program specified in Code Section 48-14-3..."
[Note from the Editor: At this point, the entire meeting came to a FULL STOP. Rob mentioned the possibility of repercussions at the meeting on Tuesday, but the word "shall" brought a whole new meaning to this today. I think if he had read and emphasized like this on Tuesday, the Board of Assessors would have agreed that this needed to be signed.]

Swift. It’s almost to the point that commissioners need to say that we agree, but we need to protect ourselves. Guy. If they can make us pay this penalty, they can take the million dollar grant for Tanyard Road. [Note from the Editor: Parrish has served as a county commissioner so he knows that role as well as what he is learning as he serves on the Tax Assessor's Board now. This statement summed things up well, and Tim Guy summed it up well too. At this point, it was understood that the county has GOT to comply or else.]

Tim Daniel. Rescinded his second. Jenkins rescinded his motion.

Guy. Motion to approve the execution of the Consent Order with a request for a monthly report regarding the progress of meeting the requirements of the Consent Order. Jenkins second. More discussion on the state law that Morton read from state law.

Call to vote. Approved 5-0.

Click here to read the Consent Order: pikecountytimes.com/secondary/pikeconsentorderDOR2024.pdf.

Motion to adjourn. 3:37 p.m.