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Jackson County Assessment Department seeks help to maintain records, data

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Posted at 11:28 AM, Jan 06, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-06 18:59:06-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Jackson County Assessment Department is requesting help to maintain records and data related to real estate tax parcels.

The county issued a request for proposal Jan. 2 for a 12-month contract “for the furnishing of services relating to the Maintenance of Assessment Records and Data for the Jackson County, Missouri [sic] Assessment Department.”

Anyone hired to fulfill the contract will report directly to the County Assessor Gail McCann Beatty and will be responsible for a range of duties, which include:

  • Review and evaluate 5,000 building permits, including water-connection records, annually;
  • Verification of 35,000 real property sales annually via the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and Certificate of Value (COV);
  • Verification of new construction and occupancy of 6,000 parcels annually;
  • Verifying previously collected information;
  • Review aerial photography and conduct physical inspections of buildings, including measurement and digital photography.

Preston Smith, a data analyst who represents the Blue Springs School District on the Jackson County Board of Equalization, has been a vocal critic of the County Assessment Department’s botched process for 2019-20.

Many property owners saw massive, often unexplained, spikes in assessed property values during the process, touching off anger and leading to thousands of appeals.

Smith plans to submit a proposal to the county by the Jan. 21 deadline.