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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 10011996 - D1 D. 1 THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA DATE: October 1, 1996 MATTER OF RECORD ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Board of Supervisors considered the 1995 -1996 Performance Report from Gus Kramer, County Assessor. No action was taken. THIS IS A MATTER FOR RECORD PURPOSES ONLY NO BOARD ACTION TAKEN GUS KRAMER COUNTY ASSESSOR 1995 - 1996 PERFORMANCE REPORT Al rA_ co Assessor's 1995-96 Performance Report Table of Contents Page Description Number Section I - Overview Departmental Responsibilities............................................................. 1 Organizational Structure...................................................................... 1 Section II - Resources Financial.............................................................................................. 3 Personnel............................................................................................ 4 AffirmativeAction................................................................................ 4 SickLeave.......................................................................................... 5 StaffDevelopment.............................................................................. 5 Automation.......................................................................................... 6 Section III - Customer Service Service Delivery System.................................................. CustomerProfile.................................................................................. 7 Customer Relationships...................................................................... 7 Section IV - Annual Performance Performance Indicators Obtain AB818 Funding.............................................................. 8 Meet AB818 Repayment Performance...................................... 8 Implement Technician Program in Marine Division................... 9 Implement Technician Program in Valuation Division............... 9 Accomplishments.............................................................................. 10 Section V - Challenges and New Directions Challenges........................................................................................ 11 NewDirections....................................................................................12 fD l ASSESSOR'S OFFICE September 10, 1996 SECTION 1 - OVERVIEW A. Department Responsibilities 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 service to the public as needed. The Assessor's Office is mandated to render all functions that are currently being performed. B. Organizational Structure The Department is organized into four program areas. These program functions are interrelated and work as a combined unit to meet the goals of the office. Appraisal - Ensure that all secured real and personal property within the County has been accurately valued and entered on the regular and supplemental assessment roils. 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. Support Services - Enroll all valid exemptions on the regular and supplemental local assessment rolls, provide data entry and drafting services to the department, review policies and procedures, and make changes where necessary, and provide public service to agencies, private organizations and to the general public. Administrative Services - Establish and administer policies relative to department operations and provide administrative guidelines for carrying out these policies. i � \ . & § ( a 2 LU ` ; ccIt\ . ( , ; / � 8 cc § 2 0 k z ` � § w § � � � . \ / § ■ < § ƒ § u ¥ % § 7 ƒ ` \ / \ % g I k ( o d \ \ , f i ■ q � \ § k # t ` � 2 \ . \ � \ % § # } �� Section II - RESOURCES A. Financial Resources The budget is allocated as shown below among the four programs: Program Expenditures Financing Net County Cost Appraisal $4,602,884 $9321473 $3,679,411 Business 1,3449358 282,990 1,061 ,368 Support Services 2,283,455 4431479 1,831 ,305 Administrative Svc. 551 .823 56,518 495,305 TOTAL $81782,520 $1,706,730 $7,075,790 Financing Source Amoun Property Tax Administration $1,494,328 Fees 175,975 Interdepartmental Transfers 36.427 Total $1,706,730 Property Tax Administration - Fees collected from Cities and Special Districts and funds from AB818. Fees - Revenue received primarily from the sale of assessment data and parcel maps. Interdepartmental Transfers - Drafting services performed for LAFCO. 3 • B. Personnel Resources Program Staff Appraisal 57 Business 13 Support Services 56 Administrative Services 7 Total 133 This is the first year utilizing AB818 funds that we have been able to restore part of our staff (seven positions) that has been steadily decreasing over the last five years. We are starting to implement a program of utilizing technicians (five positions) to accomplish some of the routine tasks currently being performed by the professional appraisal staff. The utilization of technicians should allow more work to be accomplished at a lower cost. C. Affirmative Action The Department is continually trying to improve its affirmative action representation. We recently completed an extensive outreach program to develop employment lists for both Junior Appraiser and Auditor Appraiser I. We made progress and will continue our effort until our goal is met. The following describes the staff by affirmative action category: Male Female Total Staff Workforce White 62 64 126 50.8%* 45.4% African American 2 6 8 -6.6% 7.6% Hispanic 2 6 8 6.6% 10.5% Asian/Filipino 4 4 8 6.6% 8.9% American Indian 0 2 2 1 .6% .8% Vacant Positions 0 0 6 Total Positions 132 * Percentage of Female Staff 4 D. Sick Leave The Department continues to discourage the indiscriminate use of Sick Leave. Over the last three years the average Sick Leave used per employee has remained fairly constant. The Sick Leave hours in BOLD were adjusted to remove hours used for maternity leave and catastrophic events. Ad"usted Sick Leave Hours TOTAL HOURS TOTAL HOURS YEAR HOURS PER EMPL HOURS PER EMPL 1994 71657.7 63.3 61715.2 55.5 1995 71929.0 64.7 61971.1 56.9 1996 7,842.0* 64.8* 71013.0* 53.9* *Projected based on seven months activity E. Staff Development Performance Evaluation - The Department requires that a performance evaluation be done annually on all employees by their supervisor. All supervisors are evaluated by their staff and the results of these evaluations becomes part of the Supervisors own evaluation. Professional Development - All appraisal personnel are required to attain an appraisal certification issued by the State Board of Equalization, and to maintain their certification are required to complete up to 24 hours of continuing education annually. Qualifying courses are available through the Appraisal Institute, State Board of Equalization, and we work with other neighboring counties to provide qualifying courses. We encourage all of our staff to take courses from the training institute and other course work to assist in their career development. 5 F. Automation Automation has and continues to play an important role in allowing the office to improve production so more work can be accomplished with fewer staff resources. The office utilizes a combination of the County mainframe computer, office Local Area Network (LAN), County Wide Area Network (WAN), and Personal Computers to accomplish its' mission. Recently we acquired more than 50 new personal computers and were able expand our Local Area Network (LAN) through the Property Tax Administration Funds provided through AB818. We have linked our offices and the Clerk of the Board with fibre optic cable to provide instant access to our Assessment Appeal Database and as well as other common databases. We have one full time staff person with appraisal experience who writes and maintains all of our PC database programs. We are planning to enhance our in-house PC database staff to meet the continuing automation demands of our appraisal and audit staffs. Appraisal Division - Utilizes Personal Computers using in-house developed software to assist appraisers in completing the more complex appraisals. The programs speed the appraisal process as well as providing good documentation for answering questions or presentations to the Assessment Appeals board. Business Division - Utilizes Personal Computers and in-house software to assist the auditors in completing local and out of state audits. The use of personal computers has also enhanced the speed of completing Audits as well as providing uniform documentation. Support Division - Utilizes computers to draw the floor plans of new construction and to compute square footage. This has removed a time-consuming task from the appraisal stall. We recently installed a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) system and are in the process of converting our parcel maps into digitized formats. Funding from AB818 will help to speed the labor intensive conversion process. Once converted this system will provide many dividends in the future. In the next few months we will be connecting our drafting computers to the County WAN, which will allow direct access to maps maintained by the Public Works department. Administrative Services -An enhanced Server and upgraded Novell Software for our Local Area Network (LAN) was recently installed. Payroll and personnel data is maintained on the network and provides easy access for reporting data that is not available readily through the County system. This division continues to 6 develop and implement new procedures to improve the overall production of the office. SECTION III - CUSTOMER SERVICES A. Service Delivery System We provide a wide variety of public service functions: Verification of Ownership, parcel Numbers, Building Square Footage, Use Codes, Parcel Maps, Assessment Data, Property Characteristics, Mailing labels, Data Tapes. Most of these services are free to the property owner. However, we do charge non property owners and commercial companies who are reselling the data. We provide service over the counter (Monday - Thursday 8:00 to 4:30 and Friday 8:00 -4:00), and telephone service (Daily 8:00 to 4:00). B. Customer Profile The Assessor's Office serves all the residents of Contra Costa County by ensuring fair and accurate assessment of property in the County. This includes all property subject to local assessment and the application of all permissible exemptions. This necessitates dealing with the single family residence as well as major commercial and industrial property owners. C. Customer Relationships We are proud of the level of public service provided by our staff and receive numerous unsolicited letters commending our staff. We are currently developing WEB pages on the Internet that will offer answers to many taxpayer questions, we will also have forms that can be downloaded thus saving both time and money for the office as well as the taxpayer. Our next goal on the Internet will be to provide more extensive information regarding parcel ownership and values so as to reduce the counter and phone traffic in the office. Section IV_- Annual Performance A. Performance Indicators 1. Obtain AB818 Property Administration funds. The goal was to obtain the $2,022,000 allocated to Contra Costa County. These funds were available to allow county assessor's to reduce backlogs, enhance automation, defend assessment appeals, restore staffing, and provide staff training. Outcome - With the Board of Supervisors approval we were able to negotiate a contract with- the State Department of Finance and receive the funding. However, we didn't receive the funding until late in the fiscal year and were able start all of our new programs but will have to complete some this new fiscal year. 2. Meet AB818 Repayment Performance Criteria There were four performance-based repayment criteria specified in the AB818 contract. These criteria were based on assessing new construction with no building permits, performing additional non-mandatory audits, continuing to review and grant Proposition 8 reductions in value, and not failing to defend all assessment appeals before the Assessment Appeals Board. If these criteria were met this would satisfy repayment of the loan. Outcome - We performed at or above 100% on each of the four specified criteria and therefore have satisfied the repayment criteria for the 1995-96 AB818 contract. s 3. Implementation of the Real Property Technical Assistant classification in the Marine & Aircraft Section. The goal was to replace 85% of a journey level appraiser and 100% of a Senior Clerical position with one technician. This required introduction of new computer programs and reassignment of functions to existing staff. Outcome - The program has been in place for six months and we have obtained the anticipated efficiencies and realized the expected savings. 4. Implementation of the Real Property Technical Assistant positions in the Valuation Divisions. There are many functions performed by professional appraisers and auditors that are routine in nature and can be performed by technicians who have received adequate training. The combination of the professional appraisers and auditors with trained technicians should result in more production at a lower cost. Implementation of these positions has created new promotional opportunities for the clerical staff. Outcome - Last year through the use of AB818 funds we were able to create the positions and in this current year we have filled the positions and are in the process of training our new technicians along with our new Junior Appraisers. 9 B. Accomplishments 1. Expanded public service hours so as to provide counter service during the lunch hour. 2. Started development of our Internet WEB page. 3. Hired and trained six new Junior Appraisers. (AB818 Funds) 4. Expanded Local Area Network (LAN) to include all commercial & industrial appraisers plus the audit staff. (AB818 Funds) 5. Successfully resolved a number of large assessment appeals. 6. Expanded training opportunities for Professional and Clerical staff through the use of AB818 funds. 7. Completed an audit of Assessment Appeal process with recommendations. 8 Created Real Property Technical Assistant position in office. 9. New personal computers for staff and upgraded network server. 10. Administrative Reorganization. 11. Participation in Contra Costa Home & Garden Show. 12. Participation in the Home Buyers and Sellers Faire. 13, Real Estate Brokers/Public Education Program. 10 �l Section V - Challenges and New Direction A. Challenges 1. Change of Lien Date: January 1, 1997 the Assessment Lien date changes from March 1 st to January 1 st This is going to result in many procedural changes as well as significant changes in many of our data processing programs. The County General Fund will notice a reduced growth in the assessment roll due to the shortened lien period (10 months) in the first year. We have been planning this change with data processing staff for a number of months and hopefully will have a smooth transition. Many of our staff have been actively involved with the data processing changes and developing the required changes in procedure. 2. Restoration of Proposition 8 Values: The real estate market in the Bay Area appears to be starting to recover, this will result in an increase in the number of sales as well as the need to start restoring previous reductions in value (Proposition 8's). The combination of these two events is going to put an unprecedented burden on our staff. We are hoping that the implementation of our Technician program, hiring new Professional staff, and the increased use of computers will allow us to absorb this expected increase in a work load. 11 B. New Directions 1 . Adequate Office Space: The real estate market recession has caused a tremendous increase in assessment appeals in the commercial and industrial area of the office. We have met this increase through a combination of automation and additional staffing, unfortunately both these solutions require additional office space. We have been forced to split our staff into two locations which is very inefficient and costly to operate. We have reached a point where we are placing staff in totally inadequate space to perform their jobs, space that does not meet ADA standards. We need adequate space to house our entire office staff and to be located near other county agencies involved in the tax assessment function. 2. Automation: Automation continues to be the most effective way for us to meet future challenges. We are always looking for areas in the office where we can functions more efficient through changes in procedures and automation. The changes and saving realized this last year in the Marine Division is an example of our goals. 12