ASSESSOR'S OFFICE I. DEPARTMENT MISSION OR MANDATE OR GOAL The purpose of the Assessor's Office is to produce a timely roll of all property subject to local assessment; administer legally permissible exemptions; develop and maintain a set of current maps delineating property ownerships; defend assessments as required before an appellate body, and; provide information and services to the public as needed. The Assessor's Office is mandated to render all functions that are currently being performed. II. MAJOR PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS A. APPRAISAL. Ensure that all secured real and personal property within the County has been accurately valued and entered on the regular and supplemental assessment rolls. BUDGET: $6,520,732 FTE: 47 B. BUSINESS. Ensure that all business personal property within the County has been accurately reported and valued and values have been entered on the regular and supplemental assessment rolls. BUDGET: $1,816, 962 FTE: 12 C. SUPPORT SERVICES. Enroll all valid exemptions on the regular and supplemental local assessment rolls; provide data entry and information systems support to the department; provide drafting services; review policies and procedures, and make changes where necessary; implement new laws, and; provide public service to agencies, private organizations and to the general public. BUDGET: $6,115,838 FTE: 56 D. ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES. Establish and administer policies relative to department operations and provide administrative guidelines for carrying out these policies. BUDGET: $1,296,468 FTE: 7 E. DEPARTMENT DATA. BUDGET: $15,750,000 FTE: 122 27
Title of Position No. of Positions County Assessor 1 Assistant County Assessor 2 Principal Appraiser 4 Supervising Appraiser 6 Associate Appraiser 21 Assistant Appraiser 11 Junior Appraiser 10 Senior Real Property Technical Assistant 6 Real Property Technical Assistant 1 Supervising Auditor-Appraiser 1 Senior Auditor-Appraiser 4 Auditor-Appraiser II 2 Auditor-Appraiser I 3 Network Analyst I 1 Information Systems Specialist III 1 Drafting Services Coordinator 1 Computer Aided Drafting Operator 6 Assessor s Clerical Staff Manager 1 Supervising Assessment Clerk 4 Assessor s Local Exemptions Specialist 1 Clerk-Specialist Level 8 Clerk-Senior Level 19 Clerk-Experienced Level 6 Assessor s Customer Services Coordinator 1 Administrative Services Assistant III 1 TOTALS 122 28
III. DEPARTMENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS A. STAFFING/TRAINING 1. In 2014, despite extremely low staffing levels, the Assessor s Office managed to meet the statutory program obligations and delivered a timely assessment roll. 2. Worked closely with the Human Resources Department to establish employment lists and fill vacant positions. This effort included reviews of class specifications, opening recruitments, testing applicants and ultimately hiring permanent and temporary employees. Doing so insured that we had the minimum staffing level required to carry out all of our mandated appraisal program responsibilities and provide assessment services to the citizens of Contra Costa County. 3. Provided safety training for all new employees. 4. Ensured that all new employees completed the on-line Ergonomics Training Course. The Department also provided ergonomic workstation evaluations. 5. Offered annual rotational appraiser assignments in the Standards/Public Service Division and the Commercial and Industrial Division of the Assessor s Office. These rotational assignments provide appraisers the opportunity to gain hands on experience in working in different divisions within the office and has resulted in cross-training appraisal staff. This exposure also gives appraisers the opportunity to obtain a better understanding of how their work affects other divisions within the office as well as other departments within the County. 6. Trained Standards Division Appraisal staff on a wide variety of tasks and topics including changes in ownership, exemptions and exclusions, and preparing State Board of Equalization Reports. B. TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENTS 1. Created an interface program bridging the statewide online business property statement filing system with the Assessor s Office unsecured database, which has increased the accuracy of assessments, cut processing time from hours to minutes, decreased the number of temporary staff during the busy filing season, saved printing time and keystrokes, and generated work paper packages that combine data used for annual assessment and future audits of businesses. 2. Developed a new program that creates a quarterly report of property that has changed ownership. This new state compliant report runs 29
faster, gathers all the data needed to comply with state requirements, provides all new error checking for our internal change in ownership processing, and provides an all new data file version to accompany the PDF report. 3. Created a program to automatically refresh Department databases. This will result in a savings in staff costs and staff time. C. DEPARTMENTWIDE 1. Met our net County cost budget allocation for FY 2013-14 and provided financial support for the Enterprise Geographic Information System (GIS). 2. Updated and revised valuation procedure manuals for appraisal staff. 3. Exceeded the Small Business Enterprise (SBE) Program 50% goal established by the Board of Supervisors by awarding qualified purchases to Small Business Enterprises. Participation in this SBE Program has contributed to the success of the County s objective to provide small businesses with a fair share of the County s business. 4. Partnered with staff from the Treasurer-Tax Collector s Office to reduce the number of outdated addresses and potentially missed changes in ownership in the Land Information System (LIS) database. 5. Reduced the backlog of Proposition 58 (Reassessment Exclusion for Parent-Child Ownership Transfers) applications, streamlined procedures and trained staff, which resulted in reducing errors and improving customer service. 6. Participated in numerous Public Speaking Engagements for a variety of real estate, appraisal and service organizations to promote and improve customer service, and educate the public on the goals and objectives of and services provided by the Assessor s Office. 7. Completed 246 Mandatory and 269 Discretionary audits of businesses during FY 2013-14, which resulted in a net addition of over $191 Million in assessed value to the unsecured assessment roll. 30
IV. CHALLENGES A. INTERNAL TO DEPARTMENT 1. Complete the annual assessment roll on time and in accordance with legal mandates. 2. Continue work to complete the Assessor Parcel Map Conversion Project which will eliminate the redundancy of effort in drawing assessor parcel maps in both CAD and GIS software applications. Once the project is complete, all assessor parcel map pages will be created using only GIS software. 3. Fully train Standards Division appraisal staff on policies and procedures regarding changes in ownership, the proper application of property tax exemptions and exclusions, and the preparation of internal reports and State Board of Equalization mandated reports. 4. Continue to revise and update the Business Unsecured Database (BUD) programs to ensure data consistency and accuracy, and to more easily extract data for reporting purposes. 5. Convert various types of paper recorded documents to digital format. Doing so will save staff time in printing, sorting and attaching documents to existing paper records. 6. Implement the Enrollment Form function of the online AES valuation program, including redefining business workflows and training appraisal and support staff on new procedures. The online valuation program will eliminate manual data entry and the potential for typographical errors, and create an electronic record of events. 7. Re-write the business rules and computer programs that support the Assessor s Supplemental Roll. 8. Update and re-write the business rules and computer programs for the Property Tax Postponement Program to comply with Assembly Bill 2231 which was signed into law September 28, 2014. 9. Implement a new program to review businesses that have not filed business property statements for three years or more. Auditor- Appraisers will analyze businesses and recommend audits if necessary. 31
B. INTERNAL TO COUNTY OPERATION 1. Continue to work with the Human Resources Department to recruit aggressively and fill vacant positions in order to maintain sufficient staffing levels to perform all of the mandated functions of the Assessor s Office and provide assessment services to the citizens of Contra Costa County. 2. Eliminate mailing of 90% of the hard copy Form 571-L Statements and instead send out a one page letter to taxpayers with instructions to use the e-filing system. C. EXTERNAL TO COUNTY OPERATION 1. Continue to participate in the development and implementation of the Enterprise Geographic Information System (GIS) project. 2. Work with members of other county assessor s offices throughout the State to discuss and improve valuation methodologies and coordinate efforts to apply assessment laws and practices in a consistent manner. Cooperation with other counties can reduce costs associated with unilateral research and analysis, and avoid costly assessment appeals. 3. Create and add more State Board of Equalization assessed parcels into the Land Information System (LIS) and the Geographic Information System (GIS). V. PERFORMANCE INDICATORS 32
A. REAL PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS WORKLOAD INDICATOR Number of Units Number of Secured Parcels 359,327 Number of Recorded Documents Reviewed 44,492 Number of Reappraisable Changes In Ownership 22,859 Number of New Assessments from New Construction 3,138 Number of Parcels with Proposition 8 Assessments 80,605 Number of Claims Granted (Propositions 60, 90 or 110, Base Year Value Transfers For Persons Over Age 55 or 196 Disabled) Number of Claims Denied (Propositions 60, 90 or 110, Base Year Value Transfers For Persons Over Age 55 or 54 Disabled) Number of Claims Granted (Propositions 58 or 193, Parent-Child or Grandparent-to-Grandchild Transfers) 2,147 Number of Claims Denied (Propositions 58 or 193, Parent- Child or Grandparent-to-Grandchild Transfers) 677 B. BUSINESS PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS WORKLOAD INDICATOR Number of Units Number of Unsecured Parcels 45,751 Number of Vessel Assessments 25,678 Number of Aircraft Assessments 470 Number of Property Statements that Resulted in Assessments 16,299 33
C. PERSONAL PROPERTY AUDITS WORKLOAD INDICATOR Number of Units Number of Personal Property Audits Completed 218 D. ASSESSMENT APPEALS ACTIVITY WORKLOAD INDICATOR Number of Units Number of Assessment Appeals Filed in FY 2013-14 1,089 Number of Assessment Appeals Resolved in FY 2013-14 1,507 34