Reassessments by Children?

On October 17, 2023, the Warren County Board of Supervisors approved a reassessment contract with Cowan Services, LLC. It was done as part of the consent agenda, so if you weren’t actually looking for it, you would have missed a rather important decision affecting all taxpayers. This time, the Board approved a contract for one licensed assessor and his two young, unlicensed family members.

The accepted proposal and contractual documents are available online at the end of the agenda packet. The two rejected proposals were understandably not yet available until after the contract was actually signed.

Notably, the Board has again chosen to forego a professionally licensed visual inspection.  Instead, the proposal clearly states, “Data collectors who are unlicensed will be utilized during the reassessment to make site visits to residential and small commercial properties. Their work will be processed and reviewed by staff … It is more typical to use data collectors (who are well trained but unlicensed and unskilled in valuation) and have their pictures and field-work be reviewed by appraisers.”

The two employees hired as data collectors are uniquely talented. One, a 2018 graduate from home school, studied Biblical Hebrew, animal husbandry, metalwork, and beekeeping. While she has taken the introductory course in real estate, no license was found on DPOR. The other, a 2020 home-school grad, studied Biblical Hebrew, animal husbandry, and art. Neither have listed college experience or presumably ever owned their own home. This is certainly not a character flaw, but it is also not a qualification for a job that pays $581,330.75 for a two-year reassessment that will be used as the basis for taxation of county homeowners.

The contract also states that “Income and expense questionnaires will be mailed by the contractor to appropriate properties.” When asked, Sherry Sours, Comm’r of Revenue, said this referred to commercial property, but the contract does not specify.

In summary, taxpayers may wish to pay as much attention to how their property will be assessed and by whom as they do to how their library is stocked. In my opinion, the Board has not held to the standard set out in their RFP (Request For Proposal), but you can read it and decide for yourselves.

C.A. Wulf
Warren County

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