Jackson County cannot guarantee the accuracy of its $7.3 billion in real-estate and personal-property tax assessments because of its flawed system, the county's former acting assessment director said Monday.

Ed Severeid was hired to fix the county's tax system but resigned last fall. He issued a report Monday that was the second in a series to the County Legislature.

Through the years, the county has had problems collecting taxes and properly assessing taxpayers. Proper assessments are critical because taxpayers' bills are figured on those assessments.

In the report and in an interview, Severeid said Monday that:

• He could find no records to back up assessed property value totals that were certified and given to 42 cities and school districts in 2000 for use in planning their budgets.

• In some cases, personal-property assessments for vehicles in 2001 were determined arbitrarily.

• The county's manager of finance, Troy Thomas, knew about problems with the assessment for vehicles but chose not to correct them until after the 2002 Jackson County election. County Executive Katheryn Shields is up for re-election this year.

• Shields' husband, lawyer Phillip Cardarella, helped make assessment decisions.

Thomas reacted angrily when asked about the report at the Jackson County Legislature's Finance and Audit Committee meeting on Monday. Thomas said he had denied Severeid's previous allegations about problems with assessments.

"I will not be a party to political machinations," Thomas said, before walking out of the chamber.

Shields was in Jefferson City on Monday, and her office issued this statement: "Phil Cardarella has provided public policy advice to county executives for the last two decades. Like my predecessors, I also call upon him from time to time for advice."

Shields' office said it could not reach her for further comment.

Cardarella laughed when told of the consultant's assertions about himself and declined to comment.

Victor Callahan, chairman of the Legislature, said the report further corroborated mismanagement under Shields.

"I don't think it's right for this administration to hide its head in the sand and pretend there is not a problem," Callahan said.

Meanwhile, the Missouri State Tax Commission is looking into Jackson County's assessment procedures.

Tony Stansberry, superintendent of the Lee's Summit School District, said Monday that the commission began looking into assessment procedures in early March at the request of the county's suburban school districts.

Stansberry said Shields had scheduled a meeting with district officials on June 14 to discuss the tax commission's findings.

Randy Turley, chief counsel for the commission, said he didn't know the details of the inquiry. The tax commission has supervisory authority over county assessors and could instruct a county to take corrective action.

Severeid, who has a real estate appraisal business in Prairie Village, was hired to oversee the assessment team in late 2000. He replaced a man Shields had fired because of earlier problems with tax bills. Severeid resigned last November, later citing interference from Thomas as a reason.

After a previous report by Severeid in February, which also was critical of the county, Thomas characterized him as a disgruntled former consultant.

But Severeid denied that Monday, saying he met with Shields and Cardarella at their home after he resigned to impress upon them the seriousness of the county's situation.

Severeid said individual tax bills may have been incorrect.

"I don't know where they came up with this stuff," Severeid said Monday, referring to assessment totals the county reported in summer of 2000. "There is no backup for anything." He said he never saw records to support the assessment totals.

Assessments may have been too low, he said. That would have given taxpayers a break but would have resulted in less revenue for school districts and other public purposes.

Severeid's report also noted problems with the 2001 assessment of personal property, which includes vehicles, boats and farm implements.

That year, many high-end vehicles were assessed far below what the accepted industry tables would indicate, he said. But Severeid said that Thomas ordered the mistakes not to be corrected.

"No one gets a raise (in assessed value)," Severeid quoted Thomas as saying. "We just have to get through the election."

Nevertheless, Severeid said, he believes the 2001 tax billings ended up being largely correct.

Underlying the problems were difficulties with the county's computer system.

The county bought new computer software for potential Y2K problems and has had trouble using it to calculate taxes. Previous data proved difficult to reconcile and could not be updated. The system is unwieldy and requires constant fine-tuning, Severeid said.

An earlier legislative audit said the fault might not have been with the software but with a lack of involvement by the county administration's highest officials.

Last year, suburban school officials raised questions about tax assessments and their impact on district budgets. Stansberry said Lee's Summit faced a $1.2 million shortfall from what it expected.

The latest report was disturbing, he said.

"I don't think there are too many people involved with this who would deny that there's a problem here," Stansberry said.

Jackson County has had a history of problems regarding tax assessment and collection in recent years.

In November 2000, the county sent out 82,000 incorrect tax statements and had to pay nearly $800,000 in refunds.

In January of this year, county officials acknowledged they were trying to collect about $3 million in delinquent business personal property taxes after doing nothing to recover the money for two years.

At the same time, officials said 22,000 people had received incorrect personal-property tax receipts.

Kasas City

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Answers

MO - Audit faults Shields, county Software glitch led to tax billing errors

Y2K Archives

MO - Acting Jackson County assessment director resigns

Y2K Archives

MO: Jackson County puts corrected personal property tax bills in the mail

Y2K Archives

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002