Thursday, January 14, 2010

Today's Journey Toward Enlightenment

Well, right now I feel like I've been run over by a bus, and this blog editor doesn't have spell checking, so somebody better tell me if I start typing gibberish.

Last night, I went to the county website and to the G.I.S. Mapping area, where tax assessment information is available for all County properties.  I checked on the properties surrounding us so that I could figure out the price per acre of land value to compare.  Each property has a map, which is supposed to represent your tax plat.  I noticed that ours was incorrectly mapped and that affected the maps for several adjoining properties.  In fact, it was so incorrect that most of our barns and one of our ponds was on a neighbor's property map!

I got kind of worried about that.

The tax asssessments on the site were last year's.  Nevertheless, I went ahead and printed them out and realized that there was no choice but to make the time to go down to the Clerk's Office in the morning to make note of the reassessments.  That turned out to be a good thing, in an educational sense, because I could then note patterns which would help me try to make sense of how these assessments are done.

There was only one looseleaf binder with the asssessments listed alphabetically by land owner.

While I was there, three other people asked me if they could look up something in the book.  Since I had a bunch of listings to look up, I let them interrupt me.  Why, I wondered, wasn't there at least one more copy for people to use?  (I do a lot of wondering.)

I did some head scratching when I noticed that some land values did not change from last year to this year; some building values went up, despite the fact that there were no major improvements that I was aware of; most building values went down, as expected they should; some land values went WAY up, some only went up a little.  So far, I was seeing no clear pattern, except that the general trend was upward. 

According to a press release emailed to me by the County Administrator, "Rural land values rose the most of all property types since 2006, increasing 18%."

One of the men wanting to use the assessment book mentioned that his 100 acres went up to a value of $6,000.00 an acre!  He said the land was just mostly pasture land on which he raises cattle.

I'm thinking someone would really, really, like to buy his land for development. 

He seemed pretty saavy, however, and was preparing to appeal with plenty of information at hand.

So, I'll study all the assessments and reassessments when my head clears.

Back to the G.I.S. maps:  I went up to the County Administrator's Office (I'd warned him and the new Assistant County Administrator that I'd probably be looking them up to ask some questions.)  They were both IN A MEETING, but the secretary told me that she'd just talked to a secretary in the Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue and that my survey and the G.I.S. map MATCHED.

I said I'd go down to the basement and consult.  This particular secretary had been pretty prickly on the phone yesterday and she was the same in person, as I asked if it was all right to pull up a chair so that we could look at the documents together.  She made a bit of a fuss about her "personal space" so I tried to lighten the atmosphere by making a joke.  Big mistake.

Eyes bulging, she informed me that "they only pay me $18,000.00 a year and it isn't enough for me to take any (crap, I think she said) from anybody!" 

Okay.  I really wasn't trying to pick on her.  I was just asking questions about why the County had paid someone to create inaccurate maps to place on the County website.  So, we just went round and round with the Commissioner closely examining the survey and my color print outs of the G.I.S. map.  No one could deny that THEY DID NOT MATCH.

I went back up to the second floor and let the secretary know that.  I asked where the Assistant Administrator was and waited patiently while they tried to track him down.  Eventually he showed up and I asked three questions:  Who created the maps?  What did it cost?  What was the purpose of creating inaccurate maps and putting them on the County website?

I'll bet you can predict how many straight answers I got.

Anyway, I got two of the questions answered.  Here's the email I sent to the County Administrator when I got back home (with names redacted for privacy -- you in Botetourt can fill in the blanks:

Well, Mr. ---, the one question which did not get answered this morning, was "Why put inaccurate maps on the County website (with disclaimer or not)?"



I returned a phone call when I got home and shared a bit of my experience. The first thing she said was, "Why would you put inaccurate maps on the County website?"


So, I'm not getting an acceptable answer to that question. Mr. --- said that he "couldn't remember exactly what the project cost" but that it was probably around $300,000.00.


My other question is why did Mr. --- get a promotion to assistant County Administrator (with a pay raise?) on the basis of his expertise in G.I.S. mapping?


Instead of starting out with every current accurate survey filed in the Clerk's Office, he just used "some" of the surveys. (Ours is dated 1997, by the way.) Using the coordinates on the surveys and plugging them into the County grid, he should have then placed other parcel maps, which are actually placed on the surveys of adjoining land, and then finished the jigsaw puzzle by fitting in lands with old or non-existent surveys. That would have been the logical approach.

I do not believe his contention that it would have cost "millions of dollars" to have approached the project in that way. I have very low tolerance for B.S.

Did the County spend $300,000.00 for inaccurate maps for some practical purpose?


You did not address the problem of insufficient time for county residents who would like to gather information for making appeals of their reassessments. How about getting Wampler to extend the time for appeals and having them change the times so that working people will be encouraged to appeal? They are working as an independent contractor for the County. They should be at the convenience of the citizens, not at the convenience of the business.


Thanks for listening.


----- Original Message -----


From: ---

To: Red Hen


Cc: ---, ---, ---, ---

Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 8:27 AM


Subject: RE: G.I.S. Mapping


Ms. ---,


The GIS mapping was approved by the Board of Supervisors. It is common practice among localities as a way to provide information mapped in an efficient, convenient and cost effective manner. I will share your comments with those (copied) responsible for the mapping/data that you reference. I am also attaching a copy of a media release that explains the reassessment process and includes contacts for more information.












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