Opinion
During this election, I have refrained from reacting to inaccurate statements regarding the operations of the assessor-recorder.
I am compelled to address some key misconceptions about the office that have become unclear in this process. Please see below:
• Communication with title companies and Realtors: The Realtors and my office have established a liaison to improve communication. This has been in place for some time. My current liaison is Yvette Sloan. I have sent out different communications throughout the years. I recently sent a “white paper” to Yvette Sloan and Kim Hansen to be included in a weekly newsletter on March 19 regarding hours and title company appointments. We communicate frequently when needed with the title companies and the Realtors through the liaison or directly, regarding operational changes.
• Public records request made by Mary Benson to the Clerk to the Board and responded on April 18 by email: This request was made to the Clerk to the Board and the request questions were submitted as follows:
— Any progress reports submitted to the Lake County Board of Supervisors reporting changes in the pending number of property tax appeals, the number of months of delays currently in mailing out recorded documents, staffing vacancies.
— Any progress reports submitted to the Lake County Board of Supervisors reporting the extent of the current backlog in reassessments, if any, due to changes in property value due to market changes.
— Any progress reports submitted to the Lake County Board of Supervisors reporting the extent of the current backlog in reassessments, if any, due to property improvements.
My response and the clerk to the board’s response was the same based on the questions presented.
No response was provided because the Board of Supervisors, during my tenure, has not made any of these requests for this information. Department heads do not go before the board unless requested of the board or have business to conduct with the board, such as a contract.
In response to the 2014 Report to the California State Board of Equalization, or BOE. I submitted a final report to the Board of Equalization, on behalf of Doug Wacker, who was the prior assessor-recorder. The report relates to an audit performed by the BOE, during Doug Wacker’s tenure. Audits are performed periodically at random by the BOE. Doug did not respond to the report before leaving office. The report was then left for me to either respond on behalf of the office or not respond at all. I chose to respond on behalf of the office. The next audit from the BOE will occur, based on being chosen at random, and additional follow ups will occur at that time.
After responding to the public records request, I sent an email to all five Board of Supervisors members and the County Administrative Office on April 21 as a courtesy, providing an update on all 11 items relating to the audit. All 11 have been completed with the exception of one item, relating to performing audits, which will be completed this year.
• The assessor does not have the power to randomly reassess properties. The assessor will always be governed by the Revenue and Taxation Code of the state of California. The office is audited by the state to verify the rules were performed correctly.
• Office hours: The Assessor-Recorder’s Office is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Vital records (birth, death and marriage certificates): Requesting a copy of a vital record in person takes approximately 15 minutes. If you send the request through the mail, the turnaround time is one to three days at time of receipt.
• Sending out original documents: After we record a document, the document is indexed, verified and a control process must be applied to ensure the original document is within the recorders database. If the process is not followed, an original document might not be found in the database when needed at a future date (Example: Searching for a copy of your deed 10 years after recorded). Our turnaround time is consistent with recorders’ offices across the state. We currently have no backlog in returning original documents.
• Appraisers must issue an opinion of value: When an appraiser performs an appraisal, the appraiser working the property issues an opinion of value. The opinion of value is not a simple average. The appraiser is responsible for the opinion of value including calculations and/or documentation to defend the opinion under their license.
• E-recording: This process has been started and is near complete. As soon as the new recording system is approved, an e-recording module will be purchased. Contract for new recording system is in process now.
• Systems: Megabyte is the premiere property tax software package throughout California, with 36 out of 58 counties using this system. Megabyte is shared by the assessor, auditor-controller and the treasurer-tax collector. Attempting to change the system will be detrimental to closing the tax roll, especially without a deep understanding of the Revenue and Taxation code.
I hope this eliminates confusion about some key operations of the office.
Richard Ford is running for a third term as assessor-recorder of Lake County, California. He lives in Lakeport.
I am compelled to address some key misconceptions about the office that have become unclear in this process. Please see below:
• Communication with title companies and Realtors: The Realtors and my office have established a liaison to improve communication. This has been in place for some time. My current liaison is Yvette Sloan. I have sent out different communications throughout the years. I recently sent a “white paper” to Yvette Sloan and Kim Hansen to be included in a weekly newsletter on March 19 regarding hours and title company appointments. We communicate frequently when needed with the title companies and the Realtors through the liaison or directly, regarding operational changes.
• Public records request made by Mary Benson to the Clerk to the Board and responded on April 18 by email: This request was made to the Clerk to the Board and the request questions were submitted as follows:
— Any progress reports submitted to the Lake County Board of Supervisors reporting changes in the pending number of property tax appeals, the number of months of delays currently in mailing out recorded documents, staffing vacancies.
— Any progress reports submitted to the Lake County Board of Supervisors reporting the extent of the current backlog in reassessments, if any, due to changes in property value due to market changes.
— Any progress reports submitted to the Lake County Board of Supervisors reporting the extent of the current backlog in reassessments, if any, due to property improvements.
My response and the clerk to the board’s response was the same based on the questions presented.
No response was provided because the Board of Supervisors, during my tenure, has not made any of these requests for this information. Department heads do not go before the board unless requested of the board or have business to conduct with the board, such as a contract.
In response to the 2014 Report to the California State Board of Equalization, or BOE. I submitted a final report to the Board of Equalization, on behalf of Doug Wacker, who was the prior assessor-recorder. The report relates to an audit performed by the BOE, during Doug Wacker’s tenure. Audits are performed periodically at random by the BOE. Doug did not respond to the report before leaving office. The report was then left for me to either respond on behalf of the office or not respond at all. I chose to respond on behalf of the office. The next audit from the BOE will occur, based on being chosen at random, and additional follow ups will occur at that time.
After responding to the public records request, I sent an email to all five Board of Supervisors members and the County Administrative Office on April 21 as a courtesy, providing an update on all 11 items relating to the audit. All 11 have been completed with the exception of one item, relating to performing audits, which will be completed this year.
• The assessor does not have the power to randomly reassess properties. The assessor will always be governed by the Revenue and Taxation Code of the state of California. The office is audited by the state to verify the rules were performed correctly.
• Office hours: The Assessor-Recorder’s Office is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Vital records (birth, death and marriage certificates): Requesting a copy of a vital record in person takes approximately 15 minutes. If you send the request through the mail, the turnaround time is one to three days at time of receipt.
• Sending out original documents: After we record a document, the document is indexed, verified and a control process must be applied to ensure the original document is within the recorders database. If the process is not followed, an original document might not be found in the database when needed at a future date (Example: Searching for a copy of your deed 10 years after recorded). Our turnaround time is consistent with recorders’ offices across the state. We currently have no backlog in returning original documents.
• Appraisers must issue an opinion of value: When an appraiser performs an appraisal, the appraiser working the property issues an opinion of value. The opinion of value is not a simple average. The appraiser is responsible for the opinion of value including calculations and/or documentation to defend the opinion under their license.
• E-recording: This process has been started and is near complete. As soon as the new recording system is approved, an e-recording module will be purchased. Contract for new recording system is in process now.
• Systems: Megabyte is the premiere property tax software package throughout California, with 36 out of 58 counties using this system. Megabyte is shared by the assessor, auditor-controller and the treasurer-tax collector. Attempting to change the system will be detrimental to closing the tax roll, especially without a deep understanding of the Revenue and Taxation code.
I hope this eliminates confusion about some key operations of the office.
Richard Ford is running for a third term as assessor-recorder of Lake County, California. He lives in Lakeport.
- Details
- Written by: Richard Ford
I’ve heard a lot about “getting back to normal,” but unless you have a time machine, there is no returning to a pre-pandemic world. The best we can do is to strive for a new normal.
As an educator, I have seen the incredible resilience of students. I know that eventually the challenges of the pandemic will recede into memory, but first, students need to readjust — and to heal.
During the pandemic, many students faced hardships of all kinds, from the frightening uncertainty of parents losing their jobs to the heartbreak of losing a loved one. Still others watched their parents or other significant adults in their lives spiral into unhealthy coping mechanisms and become unable to provide the kind of secure, loving environment they needed to thrive.
Even for students who dealt with relatively minor issues, there were still plenty of unwelcome changes. Many were isolated from each other and lost the social skills to interact easily, and some were asked to give up their free time to care for younger siblings.
Prior to the pandemic, students were accustomed to being told when to work, when to take a break, when to eat, and so on. Structure was the norm. But when the pandemic shut everything down, families learned how to be home together in a different way and students enjoyed the freedom of setting their own schedules, and they appreciated not having to ask anyone for permission to use the bathroom.
Given all of this, is it any wonder that students are having trouble reengaging in school?
The idea that students would simply pick up where they left off after the pandemic is a little crazy. Of course, students need to be back in school and parents need to return to work, but if you’ve noticed, many companies have allowed a hybrid work environment or a phased return to the office. Employers realize their people need time to adjust. Yet for students, it’s been a different story.
Based on student behaviors during the last few months, it’s pretty clear that students would have benefited from a more gradual return to school. Since their return, many students have acted in anti-social ways, from violent and disrespectful to apathetic, including a total lack of engagement or interaction. Heck, we can hardly field a whole baseball team and the band is half the size it used to be.
The question is, what can we do?
At Konocti Unified, we know students do best when their schools, families, and communities work together toward a common goal. Right now, we have students with significant academic gaps, social anxiety, a troubling lack of motivation, and many other challenges. I’m talking about suicidal kindergartners and fourth graders who are self-medicating with vape pens in the bathroom. These are serious problems we cannot ignore.
We need to come together as a community to provide students (and others) with the resources and skills they need to re-center and make up for lost time. We also need to create a healthy environment in which to do so. To that end, there are some exciting things happening.
Konocti Unified has applied for a Community Schools Partnership grant funding to create wellness centers at some of our schools, in partnership with Adventist Health and HealthyStart via the Lake County Office of Education. We are also working with the Blue Zones Project, an initiative to make it easier for people to make healthy choices all over Lake County. Imagine if convenience stores had fresh fruit readily available instead of just candy and chips, for example.
Also, one of our school board members, Zabdy Neria, who works for Lake County Behavioral Health Services recently sent an email encouraging people to join a grassroots letter-writing campaign to advocate for the use of Mental Health Services Act funds to create more community resources for children in Clearlake.
More good news is that we are building a wonderfully capable team of administrators here at Konocti Unified.
Tim Gill, a well-respected administrator who has served Lake County students for more than 20 years, just joined us as our director of curriculum and instruction. As such, he’ll be working on the district LCAP (our planning and budgeting process), the AVID program (a systemwide approach to college and career readiness that we plan to implement at all grade levels), standardized testing, and professional learning for our employees.
Right now, he is in the process of developing and leading the LCAP process, which includes engaging the community to help us make sure we’re focusing our energy and resources in the right areas.
We invite Konocti Unified families and supporters to join us in thinking through how we can help our students thrive. Engagement meetings are ongoing: several schools have held staff and school site council meetings and we participated in a Judge’s Breakfast last month. If you’d like to get involved, we welcome your ideas! Please contact your local school or call the district office for dates and locations of upcoming meetings.
We are also about to launch a communication survey so our families can let us know how they want to receive information and share their recommendations.
I am confident that if we all come together, we can improve the situation, but it will take all of us.
Schools have become the de facto provider of so many services, and we are not always well designed or appropriately funded to do so. Our students need parents, teachers, counselors, coaches, advisers, youth pastors, and mentors to engage with them. And we may just find that when we step out of our comfort zone to help others, it is healing for us, too. Let’s all heal together.
Becky Salato is the Konocti Unified School District superintendent.
- Details
- Written by: Dr. Becky Salato
How to resolve AdBlock issue?