MAAP Update

By Amanda Lee 2019-2020 MAAP President amandalee@co.mower.mn.us

“Ever notice the word ‘rough’ in ‘through’? There is truth to that, though the way may be rough, we are still able to get through it.” ~Anthony Liccione

As with everything else, Covid-19 has changed our plans for our MAAP Conferences. We elected to cancel both conferences in 2020 and will resume again next year! I hope that you and yours are staying healthy and looking at the positive things during this time.

~Amanda Lee MAAP President

meet holly

Holly Soderbeck, SAMA Newest Member of MAAO’s Editorial Committee

Holly has worked in the State Assessed Property Section at the Department of Revenue for over 8 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in Economics and minor in statistics from St. Cloud State University, unitary appraiser certificate from the Western States Association of Tax Administrator, and Foundations of 21st Century Finance Award from Colorado State University - Global Campus. She lives in North Branch, MN with her husband and two daughters (2 ½ years and 4 months old).

Holly joins us with experience in publishing The Minute, MAAO’s newsletter. She will also be working on the publishing end of Equal Eyes as our teams join forces to produce quality periodicals to our members. Welcome, Holly!

We’d love to hear from you! Please send us your ideas for Equal Eyes and The Minute. Contact editor@mnmaao.org

COVID 19 IN THE ASSESSMENT WORLD

Sponsored By:

Written By Jason Jorgensen, SAMA Wadena County Editorial Committee Associate Editor

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This year has definitely been a year of turmoil and uncertainty throughout the entire world. Covid-19 has grabbed ahold of many areas of our lives and has changed life as we know it. The normal that we once knew is now gradually being replaced with a new normal, and may forever change the assessment world.

As we venture into this new normal, we will find a way to adapt to a new way of property assessment, at least for this year and maybe going forward into the future as well. Some areas of Minnesota have obviously been impacted at a higher level than others, but the response throughout the state has been similar, to protect and coordinate a proactive plan to help eliminate the threat to not only employees, but to the public as well. A recent survey was sent out statewide, and 35 out of 103 responses were recorded from county and city assessor’s offices throughout the state. The results compiled reached basically all four corners of the state, as well as, several large cities, including the twin cities metro area. At the onset, many counties opted to send all, or part of their employee’s home to work remotely, some on a rotational every other day in the office schedule, while others are working from home indefinitely.

However, none of the offices that completed the survey have had any down time up to this point, a few offices did have to hold off on hiring any new staff until this is under control. Many offices are utilizing Zoom, Web X, Skype, and other forms of web cam communications to hold office meetings, and interior inspections of properties. For the counties that are doing in the field quintile inspections, some are only doing inspections from the car or sidewalk, while others are door knocking and maintaining a safe distance from the taxpayer when they answer the door. Approximately one third of the offices that responded sent out a notice to the taxpayers prior to doing property inspections letting them know how Covid was affecting this year’s quintile. Appraisers are taking this seriously, as they encounter people in the field, they are being cautious and avoiding contact with the taxpayers. Appraisers and office staff alike are wearing masks, using hand sanitizer, and communicating with taxpayers through Plexiglas windows, in hopes that the virus won’t spread.

Some assessor offices are choosing not to do field inspections, but to use their new aerial photography and the MLS information to meet quintile quota for the year, and only do property inspections for new construction. Others counties have sent out questionnaires to the properties with improved parcels to get needed interior information. Assessors have become creative and have had to put a lot of extra thought into how this year’s quintile is going to get accomplished. Overall, most of the assessor’s staff have had a good attitude toward the situation, with only one person deciding to retire. As we move forward many things are going to change, as we walk into this new normal in the assessment world.