The Roane County News carried a Damon Lawrence story on a letter from the state regarding the 2015 reappraisal progress...

In a Nov. 10 letter to Property Assessor David Morgan, the director of assessments and field operations for the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s Division of Property Assessments expressed doubts about the assessor’s office ability to complete an acceptable reappraisal program on time.

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Morgan has consistently refused to be interviewed by Damon Lawrence or cooperate with the Roane County News as a result of what Morgan says is misinformation in their published news articles. Here is his response to the state.

November 20, 2014

Don Osborne
Director, Assessment and Field Operations
Division of Property Assessments
James K. Polk State Office Building
505 Deaderick Street, Suite 1400
Nashville, Tennessee 37243-1402

Re: Roane County 2015 Reappraisal

Dear Mr. Osborne,

I would like to thank you for your recent letter sharing your opinion of our reappraisal program. We do appreciate your concern as the monitoring body for the Assessor Office, but our opinion differs greatly from yours concerning our office and its ability to successfully complete the reappraisal in time.

I would like to specifically address the first five points from your letter:
(1) The loss of 2 appraisers from my staff - We have already hired 2 very capable replacements.
(2) The implementation of a new CAMA system in my office – The original plan was to have our Patriot system implemented by January 1, 2014. The State Board of Equalization did not approve our system until sometime in March 2014, which delayed our Patriot implementation until July 1, 2014.
(3) The lack of training and competence in the use of the new CAMA system – The original plan was for my staff to train on the Patriot system from January – July 2014, then start working on the reappraisal in August 2014. Due to us not going live with the Patriot system until July 1, 2014 we have been forced to learn our system and work on the reappraisal simultaneously, which has been difficult, but we have made great strides in the past few weeks. My staff has worked hard to become more competent with our Patriot system and to use that knowledge toward our reappraisal effort.
(4) The fact the reappraisal plan was developed and submitted using CAAS – Our original reappraisal plan was prepared in 2010 by the former Assessor. It was prepared assuming the use of the old state system (CAAS). It was prepared using historic dates that were necessary to a county using the CAAS system. While these dates have been benchmarks in the past, they are not valid with counties using the Patriot system. The Patriot system has far greater capabilities with its analysis tools and its change tools. Using the Patriot system we can complete our reappraisal faster than our county has done in the past. Bradley County did not start working on their reappraisal using Patriot until January of last year, and they finished in record time with an accurate reappraisal that was approved by the Division of Property Assessments. According to Bradley County and our Patriot vendor, we are actually ahead of schedule for completing our reappraisal by the State mandates.
(5) The delay in rate development – We requested information on State developed commercial/industrial and extra feature rates from our local Division of Property Assessments in the meetings we had in February, March, August, and September. We did not receive that information from the State until our meeting with the area manager on October 22, 2014.

Further, we respectfully disagree with the comment “no progress has been made on the 2015 Roane County reappraisal program.” Our office had made progress at that time, and continues to make significant progress weekly. Patriot employees have also been working very hard with us to ensure we can provide deliverables to the State Division of Property Assessments within the next few weeks.

Our plan of action for the next few weeks includes the following:
(1) Beginning on Monday, November 24 we will have 4 employees working 100% of the time in the reappraisal office, as opposed to 2 employees previously. This will give us the extra manpower needed to review and analyze parcels. We also have a great support staff of mapping and data keying personnel that will be prepared to help when needed.
(2) I have approved the use of overtime (paid as compensatory time) for the appraisers working on the reappraisal.
(3) I have 2 vacant positions at present and will be hiring 2 additional appraisers to fill those spots in the near future.
(4) We will continue working with our Patriot vendor, who has given us lots of support over the past few weeks.
(5) We have also been talking with consultants who have been through successful reappraisals in the past, and may use them if needed. That is an option we have available to us.

On a different note, it was brought to my attention that members from the Comptroller’s Office (Division of Property Assessments) may have met with other elected officials from Roane County in a meeting a few weeks ago concerning the Roane County Assessor Office. If this meeting did indeed take place, I would be highly offended as I was not invited nor was the public. As the Elected Official that represents the Property Assessor Office, I should be the first one to know about any meeting that takes place concerning my office. In the future, I would request the professional courtesy of being invited to attend any meeting concerning my office or any issues with my office.

The Division of Property Assessments and my office share the same goal, which is a successful and timely reappraisal for Roane County in 2015. I feel that if we can work together toward reaching that same goal, instead of being divisive, it would be better for both parties involved. My office is very capable of completing a timely and accurate reappraisal and we take this reappraisal very seriously. The last Roane County reappraisal in 2010 was a disaster, as there were hundreds of appeals that my office is still working to resolve at present. We do not want the same thing to happen again. The citizens of Roane County deserve fair assessments, and that is exactly what we intend to provide with our reappraisal in 2015.

As you know, I have been in Nashville all week for training, so have not been able to meet with my staff or our Patriot vendor. I need a day or two to sit down with them when I return on Monday, November 24 so that we can determine completion dates for the items you requested. I should be able to send you a second letter with those estimated completion dates by Tuesday, November 25.

Thank you,

David Morgan
Roane County Property Assessor

Cc: Honorable Justin Wilson, Comptroller of the Treasury
Kelsie Jones, Executive Secretary of the State Board of Equalization
Stephanie Maxwell, General Counsel, Comptroller of the Treasury
Greg Moody, Assistant Director of Assessments and Field Operations
Jess Conway, Area Appraisal Manager, Division of Property Assessments
Keith Gibson, Area Appraisal Supervisor, Division of Property Assessments
Honorable Ron Woody, Roane County Executive
Will Denami, Executive Director, Tennessee Assessor’s Association