Countywide : Third Appeals Board Created for Backlog

A backlog of 25,000 assessment appeals by property owners prompted the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to create a third appeals board.

The additional board, which reviews the petitions filed by property owners who want their assessed values refigured or adjusted, is part of a package of reforms that county officials hope will speed the often criticized process. Supervisor William G. Steiner said the measures will shave weeks or months off property owners’ wait.

Abut 65,000 appeals are pending before the county. About 25,000 of those were filed last year and should have been done by now, officials said.

At the office’s current pace, officials said, it would take three years to clear away that piled paperwork--if no one else files an appeal. County Assessor Bradley L. Jacobs has said the logjam was created by a depressed property market and a lack of resources.

But the delays have drawn fire from residents frustrated by the delays and the automatic 2% increase that has been tacked onto their property assessments annually.

The yearly increase, coupled with the downward slide of Southland property values during rocky economic times, prompted thousands of residents to file appeals in recent years.

The supervisors voted early last month to revamp the system used by the county assessor’s office and to hire temporary employees.

They also increased the number of hearing officers, who meet individually with property owners to help settle appeals.

All three assessment appeals boards will now have regularly scheduled meetings for the first time, with meeting sessions expanded to a full day instead of just a few hours, a county report shows. The report on the adopted reforms shows officials expect the workload to increase by 50%.

Kathy Goodno, who led a committee examining the backlog problem, said Tuesday that the revamped approach has appeals process has “accelerated tremendously.”

“Everything has come together real well, things have been set in motion to improve the situation,” Goodno said.

In all, the reforms will cost the county $370,000. The reforms will not immediately benefit landowners awaiting an answer to their appeal--officials expect to reduce the backlog by just 30% by July.