Clerk Finds More Lapsed Tax Appeals : Bureaucracy: Grand jury expresses interest in breakdown of property tax process.

The scope of the county’s property assessment appeals blunder continued to grow Monday, with Clerk of the Board Phyllis A. Henderson confirming that the deadlines on another 28 cases expired before their appeal hearings had been scheduled.

Those cases alone mean an additional discrepancy of as much as $155.6 million between what the owners say their property is worth and what the county had assessed them at, officials said.

County officials said the total snafu in at least 201 cases in its appeals process could cost the county, school districts, cities and other governmental agencies $10.7 million or more in lost tax revenue over the next two years.

Meanwhile, members of the Orange County Grand Jury on Monday asked to meet with Supervisor William G. Steiner regarding the breakdown in the appeals process, an indication that the panel intends to investigate the matter.

“Frankly, I would welcome the assistance of the grand jury and its audit firm to help sort this mess out,” Steiner said. “While this is bad news, I’m reassured that the clerk of the board is finally getting a handle on this and we won’t continue to hear more bad news.”

Steiner added: “There needs to be a conclusion brought to this fiasco so the taxpayers can be reassured that their appeals are being handled appropriately.”

To date, the deadlines on at least 201 property assessment appeals have expired, forcing the county assessor to accept property owners’ value of the property, instead of his own. In one case alone, involving the Bank of America, there was a more than $100-million difference between what the bank estimated the property was worth and the county’s estimated value.

The total valuation difference in all the cases exceeds $427 million in taxable property for 1992 alone, county officials said. For the county, that could mean a total loss of $640,000 for the General Fund over the next years, officials said. The average tax rate in the county is 1.25% of the property’s assessed value, of which 6% goes to the General Fund.

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The mistakes on the appeals have angered the Board of Supervisors, prompting some members to look into possible disciplinary actions against Henderson and Assessor Bradley L. Jacobs. The two department heads blame each other for the foul-ups.

At least one supervisor has suggested that Henderson consider resigning from her post. Henderson, who was appointed to her position in 1992, reports to the Board of Supervisors. Jacobs, who is an elected official, does not. Among the disciplinary action being considered, county officials said, is revoking the clerk’s and assessor’s salary raises, which were approved earlier this month.

County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider said Monday he is investigating the matter to determine who is responsible and how to prevent the problem from recurring. A preliminary review of the appeals process, however, has found that the county’s methods are flawed, county officials said.

According to state officials, Orange County is the only county in the state that requires residential and business owners to appeal tax bills to the assessor instead of the clerk of the board. The practice raises potential conflict-of-interest issues, they said.

The additional 28 appeals that have expired in the county’s system were found by Henderson, who worked over the weekend to determine the scope of the problem.

“I haven’t done anything but work on files,” Henderson said. One of the files Henderson found over the weekend involved an unidentified parcel where the difference between the county’s value and the owner’s value was nearly $96 million. Henderson said she believes she has found the last of the expired appeals.

Jacobs declined to discuss the matter Monday.

Henderson said last week that she disciplined one of her employees because of the recent mistakes. She declined to identify the worker, but county sources have said the employee is her top assistant, Nancy Swanson.

Swanson could not be reached for comment.

Some county officials said the appeals snafu was partly due to an overloaded and overworked appeals process that started bursting at the seams when property values in the county took a dive, prompting many property owners to appeal tax bills.

At one point last year, the county faced a backlog of 68,000 appeals. That number was cut to 36,000 appeals after the Board of Supervisors allocated funds to the assessor to hire more assessment workers.