Committee AuDIT/fISCAl Committee Back – Dennis Zimmerman, JoAnn Miller, Gary Moran Front – Thomas Ma, Ellen

Locate, describe and identify ownership of all property within the county.

Establish a taxable value for all property subject to taxation.

List all taxable value on the assessment roll.

Apply all legal exemptions. On March 27, 2007, an interview with the Assessor and five staff members was conducted. A guided tour of the Assessor’s main office was conducted after the interview. FINDINGS The newly elected Assessor has made personnel changes in his staff structure and has started a review of the Assessor’s operations in preparation to formulate a Business Plan. The Assessor is also in the process of requesting funds from the Board of Supervisors to remodel the three floors occupied by Assessor personnel. The Assessor is in the process of converting certain hard copy paper files to a digital format. The intent is to save space, increase safety and secure all records. The Assessor has reclassified some staff positions to unclassified status, which will afford him the means to accomplish future goals for the office. The reclassification was made with the concurrence of the affected staff personnel. The lack of a formal structured training program for such positions as Appraiser has been identified as a need for the Assessor’s future plans. At present, a new Appraiser is assigned to one of nine district offices and trained by staff Appraisers from that office. Training information imparted to trainees may not be consistent in offices throughout the County. A tour of the facility on the third, fourth and fifth floors revealed a need to remodel, repair, upgrade and/or replace various items in each of the three floors. The current Assessor’s building was constructed in about 1958 and was originally the Treasurer’s Office. The original vault used to maintain County funds is still in place and used for file storage. Ceiling lighting in some offices consists of old florescent fixtures set into suspended ceiling tiles. Due to glare emitted by these lights on computer monitors, some of the fixtures have been turned off to facilitate the use of computers. There are certain areas where suspended ceiling tiles are missing, broken or stained. Work cubicles are very small, close together and most of the work area furniture is old “Steel Case” type. The furniture in some areas was obtained from County storage where old, replaced County office equipment is discarded.