Imagine what would happen if a group of like minded home owners in a covenant controlled subdivision were dissatisfied with a reappraisal done by the tax assessor of a county. Would they just call one another and complain? Would they break into two political groups and try to lay blame for a less than acceptable reappraisal on the doorstep of the opposing political party? Would they break into various factions within their community and argue with each other about why one group or another was responsible for what seemed like an unfair increase in taxes? Of course not.
No, when something like a countywide reappraisal occurs and something seems out of the ordinary, what normal people do is to call a neighbor and ask them if the got their appraisal in the mail, and if they did, ask the follow up question about whether they felt it was fair. A friend of mine who is well versed in property appraisals looked at the list of 389 appeals that were sent into the Elbert County Tax Assessor's Office. This person noticed that, of 80 homes in the Sky Rim subdivision, 23 of the residents living there, (or a little over a third of the homeowners) decided to appeal the reappraisal numbers calculated by the county. It was determined collectively that not only did their taxes increase significantly, nobody from the county actually went out to Sky Rim and actually inspected the properties. As I have reported before, Elbert County no longer even has a licensed appraiser employed who is qualified to do the inspections.
Three members of the Sky Rim subdivision enlisted an actual licensed appraiser. As a result of the information presented by that professional and licensed appraiser, every appeal was found to be legitimate and all 27 members of Sky Rim subdivision were granted substantial cuts in their property taxes. Why does it look as though Billie Mills and her chief analyst, Mike Akana, are in way over their heads? It appears as though the entire county reassessment was based on computer models, maps and guesses. And could this be the reason Mike Akana never seems to work in one place for very long?
On another topic, I have noticed that the EC Republicans have been busy purging from a number of Elbert County websites everybody who even remotely is not in lockstep with the political ideologies of Peterson, Wills, Richardson or even former Commissioner Schlegel. The vast majority of the people being tossed off of EC business sites, the EC Republican page, etc. are conservatives. It makes one wonder why all of this purity of beliefs stuff is occurring at this particular moment in time.
Commissioner
Richardson has been asked to recuse himself a number times from the review
and approval of the Independence project because of his perceived
conflicts of interest. Richardson is being called out for endorsing the
Independence project because he is a member of the Elizabeth School
Board when he is well aware that the Elbert County Planning Commission
had not yet presented their findings to the Elbert County BOCC. He
should not offer any analysis of any project that has not been been presented to the BOCC before it has gone through the correct channels.
A
few weeks ago, Andrea Richardson, Commissioner Richardson's wife, made a
public spectacle of herself at the Stop Over-Development booth at the
Elbert County Fair. Mrs. Richardson, a successful realtor in the
Elizabeth area, was wearing her Elizabeth Chamber of
Commerce badge when she lost her temper and went on a 10+ minute rant
that required intervention by Elbert County law enforcement.
Did these two events trigger the recent purging of individuals and businesses from Elbert County websites? Coincidence? I wonder.
Touchy or
vindictive? You be the judge, but I suspect that before it's all
over, this, too, will end up in court. This debacle of recusal
and the conflicts of interest, and even shoddy property reassessment will go
down as another unforced
err on the part of Elbert County government officials who still seem to
believe that rules and procedures are for dimwitted suckers. Heck, it's
only taxpayer dollars and a well-earned, further tarnished reputation
badge for our county.
Hi Robert,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this article. Sky Rim has 77 houses on 79 lots, I live in the Sky Rim Subdivision and happen to be the President of the HOA. I first called Mike A. after receiving our new property tax assessment and our tax increased nearly 38%. I called Mike and spoke to him for nearly an hour, after that hour, I needed to poke my eyes out. He did not know Colorado Statutes regarding appraisals, he could not explain the method that the county used for the tax valuation. It was basically a shotgun method and he used no comps.
As a good neighbor, I sent a blast email to the homeowners and 23 homeowners chose to appeal and as you noted, they were all reduced substantially. I was recently removed from the Elbert County Citizens Facebook page by Marlene Groves for who knows what reason (probably because I don't agree w/her craziness) but am happy to help anyone else in the county that would have cared for some helpful details on how we reduced our valuation by nearly $100K.
There is a fair amount of divisiveness in this county and it only seems to me like a parochial tug of war. Regardless of your political views, this county will only move forward if we all pull on the same end of the rope.
I am a victim of Akana's terrible appraisal practices in Saguache County. He has no clue what he's doing and many of us are paying the price. I would love to chat with you about the blast email you sent to all homeowners because I would like to do the same.
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