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Interim assessor works to correct costly errors under former assessor [The Progress-Index, Petersburg, Va. :: ](Progress-Index (Petersburg, VA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 01--PETERSBURG -- Interim City Assessor Richie McKeithen has been cleaning up the messes made under former assessor Randolph "Randy" Rush, some of which included leaving a 32,500-square-foot medical office suite valued over $7.1 million off the books. The Southside Regional Medical Center Medical Arts Pavilion, which opened late last year, is just one of the estimated 500 buildings that weren't recorded on the tax roles under Rush. Only the value of the land was listed for the parcels. Other properties were also under assessed. As of May, 76 of the 500 properties remained to be included in the tax rolls. Rush was placed on administrative leave after the errors were found by Deloitte Consulting, a firm hired by the city in January to conduct an external audit. McKeithen briefed City Council on what he is doing to correct the books during the Council Advance on Thursday. The annual meeting lays out future priorities and objectives for the city. McKeithen, whose first day was June 16, said many of the issues are rooted in the fact that the office didn't appear to have a well-established relationship with the city's Code Compliance Office. In order to know which new properties to assess, his office must receive building permits and certificates of occupancy. Blueprints are also needed to aid in the valuation of the property. "Prior to my arrival, I wasn't sure that we were getting everything that we should have gotten," he said. "I can't value it until I find it, and codes and compliances through any city helps me find it." Not having these documents resulted in properties, such as the SRMC Medical Arts Pavilion, located at 210 Medical Park Blvd., now valued at $7,193,000, being left off the tax rolls. McKeithen said the new assessment of the parcel with the land and the building would bring the city as much as $96,400 annually in taxes. McKeithen was surprised that only the property's land was assessed. "This thing is up and you see cars out there and people walking in it and all we had was a land value," he said. Councilors attended the ribbon cutting of the SRMC Medical Arts Pavilion on Jan. 17. Tri-Cities OB/GYN Associates began taking patients in the new space on Nov. 6, 2013, and both the Women's Imaging Center and the Virginia Cancer Center moved in Jan. 6, 2014. McKeithen gave a second example of medical offices at 601 Old Wagoner Road being assessed incorrectly. The property is now valued at $1,201,800 and would bring in about $15,500 in taxes annually. McKeithen said a law firm is seeking to challenge the assessment and that may become a trend if property values increase as a result of reassessment. "As assessments get better and we get more accurate and assessments possibly go up, we will get more appeals," he said. "Right now we get few appeals." McKeithen added that he would work to correct real estate assessments by sending his office's staff into the city's neighborhoods to assess single-family homes based on conditions such as construction quality and size. "This type of analysis is done nationwide by well-run assessment offices," he said. "I can't speak to the fact that we weren't doing that maybe for every parcel in the past, but we are going to be doing that now." Another problem discovered under Rush is that his staff wasn't using assessment software properly. McKeithen said that in the first week of September, his office's staff would receive more training on the software. McKeithen will also mail out income and expense requests to property owners to assist in assessing properties. He said that while the office is on its way, it will probably take about two and a half years to get things running smoothly. "This is not something that is going to be fixed in a year," he said. "It's in bad shape, it's in rough shape, but it can be fixed." - Leah Small may be reached at 722-5172 or [email protected]. ___ (c)2014 The Progress-Index (Petersburg, Va.) Visit The Progress-Index (Petersburg, Va.) at www.progress-index.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |