Good evening.

I would now call to order the Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee to order for Monday, September 15th.

We'll begin our meeting with introductions of my colleagues on the first row.

Thank you, Madam Leader.

Uh Derek Cahill, District 23.

Thank you, Madam Leader.

Michael Paul Hart, representing District 20.

Thank you, Madam Leader.

Brian Mowray, District 25.

Thank you, Madam Leader Nick Roberts, District 4.

Thank you, Madam Leader.

Kristen Jones, District 18.

Thank you, Madam Chair Brienne Delaney, District 2.

Thank you, Madam Leader O'Ron Gibson, District 8.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

John Barth for attending Council District 7.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Councilor Jarrett Evans representing District 17.

Thank you, Madam Leader Lee Roy Robinson, District 1.

Thank you, Councilor.

Thank you, Councillors Maggie Lewis, District 5.

The first item on our agenda is proposal number 277 appoints Courtney.

And I apologize if I mess up your last name at Risman to the City Market Corporation Board of Directors.

And I apologize.

I can't remember how to pronounce your last name.

No, my name's Courtney Rissman, um, and I work for downtown Indy Inc.

Share a little bit why you're interested in serving this capacity.

Yeah, I've always worked downtown.

So I've been um a downtown worker for 25 years.

I worked for Pacer Sports and Entertainment for about 14 and now I'm with downtown Indy.

And I just have seen the the ebbs and flows of the city market and the vitalization that it you know it was so thriving when I first started, and just to kind of see where it's gone, and I'm really excited about the development that's to come and excited to be a part of that dialogue and and decision making and and just kind of helping to lead that that block forward.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Questions, comments from counselors.

Counselor Cahill.

Thank you, madam leader.

Uh the uh question I guess I think I've asked everybody involved with uh city market.

So if uh David wants to uh prepare himself for uh for the exact same question.

The do you uh have any vision of doing any benchmarking of our city market uh and the offer and how it's operated to those uh similar in other markets, and if so, which ones?

I think I'm not probably up to answer that question.

I think that's probably more of the board chair, um Craig Ments or um for DMD to decide, but certainly whatever they you know I'm sure that there are different benchmarks and things that they're looking to do and different markets they're looking at.

I know they've done you know significant research on other developments in other cities, and I'm happy to be a part of that, but I'm not sure that I'm the appropriate one to answer that question.

Okay, thank you.

Uh-huh.

Thank you, Madam Leader.

Um, I would just like to second Councilor Cahill's comment that I think as the board member, you know, sure you can get advice from the fo the other folks, but as the board of the city market, I would like to see the board taking the initiative to also look and see how they can mimic other cities.

Um I said last time I think it was I noticed you were at the Pacers, and we had Laurie Miser as well.

So apparently we have a lot of Pacer people going to the city markets.

Um I told her as well that uh I have family that lives up in Milwaukee area, and they have a city market almost the same footprint as ours.

And it is a thriving space.

I mean it it puts ours to shame, quite frankly.

There's hardly room to walk around in there, it's so full all the time, and they also have extended hours.

So I would encourage us to look at someone somewhere like Milwaukee's similar-sized city, similar kind of makeup, and um see what they're doing right because that's that's how we make this a success.

And we're obviously a few years off from opening city market again, but I think putting the plan in place now so that when the doors do open, we're ready to have that same type of success.

So I would love to see us really work with these other cities, similar cities that have had such success because it's been a huge miss in the past, and um excited for it to open back up and hopefully have with new board members on here to have a better, more fresh uh set of ideas.

So uh I hope you all welcome that and hopefully we can look forward to that.

Absolutely.

I'm I mean, I'm an event person at heart.

I do the events for downtown Indy, so I'm always looking at other cities and what they're doing for events and other things and how they you know get their downtown to thrive.

So I am all about doing the research, going to different cities and seeing how others do it and do it well, like not just doing it, but who's doing it right, and you know, kind of replicating that and making it our own brand.

You're welcome.

Counselor Delaney.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, looking at your resume, it looks like you're a great fit for the organization and um being on the board, and I just want to say thank you in advance for your service.

And um, the last person that got appointed a couple weeks ago, we had the similar questions for her.

Um, and so I think there's a lot of interest as I'm speaking to you, and I see staff back there as well, and what's going on at the city market?

Um, I I hear from folks in my district as well about wanting to come back to that.

Lots of folks have memories being there.

Um, and so we're all looking forward to seeing it reopen again.

So thank you.

Yeah, sure.

And I am too.

I just want to say when I was in elementary, I would sing on the balcony.

So I have fond memories nearly my whole life.

So I'm excited to be a part of that and and to see that next, you know, the next chapter for the city market.

Additional comments from counselors.

Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak to proposal number two seventy-seven?

CNN, I'll entertain a motion.

So movement and second.

The motion properly moved and second.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, same sign.

Motion carries.

Thank you for served.

The next item on our agenda is proposal number two seventy-eight.

It points David Heron to the City Market Corporation Board of Directors.

If you would like to share why you're interested in serving in this capacity.

Yes, uh, good evening, everyone.

Um, so David Heron, uh executive director for business ownership initiative with the Indy Chamber of Commerce.

Um, for me, uh I've had over 15 years of just uh entrepreneurial entrepreneurship, working with entrepreneurs on different levels, uh, whether the the banking, financial literacy part of it, and I think that's kind of the some of the things that gets lost in the in the wave of the city market.

Like, of course, it's a place a great place to go, great place to grab some food, but also we have entrepreneurs that are trying to grow or scale their business.

So those are some of the the benefits that that I see from the opportunity.

Wonderful, thank you.

Questions, comments from counselors.

Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak to proposal number two seventy-eight?

CNN or entertain a motion.

So I moved by the chairman.

The motion has been properly moved and second.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Those opposed, same sign.

The motion carries thank you.

Thank you for your willingness to serve the next two items are under our budget hearing, Marion County Recorders Office, and then followed by the Marion County Assessors Office.

Okay.

Uh good evening, Madam Chair and esteemed members of the council.

I am Faith Kimbrough, your Marion County recorder, accompanied with my chief deputy J.R.

Writer, and we are here to present our 2026 budget.

The Marion County Recorders Office holds public records of property transactions, such as liens, D's, mortgages, and more.

Since 1821, the recorders of efficiently managed and has preserved over 11 million records.

At this time to talk about an age of staff need, I would like to turn it over to Chief Brighter.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Our first slide, which is dealing with our agency staffing.

So we currently have 17 positions.

We do have an opening for an executive assistant position, which will be filled either the end of this year or at the first quarter, uh during the first quarter of next year.

Our makeup is we we have African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, and also mix uh a mixed staff, so both frontline and also in leadership, and this enables us to serve uh a very broad ethnic ethnic population within our county.

Highlighting some of our strategic strategies to retain staff.

We have an annual incentive, and we also have what we call our high-fi recognition program.

And this program basically highlights um staff members who do a great job with customer service.

So we really strive to have excellent customer service and how we treat um the residents of Marion County.

These programs are approved by HR, and they do contain or they do have a financial and an edible reward.

We found that people love to eat.

So describing our investments in hiring and training.

Every person who, every member who comes along who comes on our staff is not only trained with an on-to-job training, but we also have videos that were professionally produced for every position within our agency.

I think we did that uh in 2023.

Looking at the next slide, I know you have this information in front of you.

Let me backtrack.

The takeaway on this slide is the very bottom where it says note any cost-saving measures or reinvestments.

So we have a new process that we're beginning in October of this year, and it's called Doc Numbers Up Front.

It's a recording process, and this is going to enable customers to now come into our office and receive their recorded documents the same day that they come in.

Currently, they have to wait 24 hours.

So this process is going to be huge for us.

And this will also eliminate some of the Epsom printers that each clerk has currently on their desk and will save with uh printer paper and also in cartridge costs.

Now we'll turn it over to Madam Recorder for the slide that's up on the screen now.

Thank you.

Um, community engagement outreach is really near and um dear to my heart.

And what we're doing right now to raise awareness for our agency is that we have a show called On the Record.

Um, and we partner with Channel 16.

It serves as an educational platform, and we talk about the things that's important, the legacy of their homes and how they can be taken from fraud.

So we'd just like to show you all just a little clip of the show on the record.

Hello and welcome to On the Record.

I am Faith Kimbrough, your Mary County Recorder.

So, based on what you've seen, what are some of the ways that scammers are actually stealing these properties?

Uh, there's the a big part of that scam, I would say, is forgery.

They're they're forgetting a lot of documents, the deeds.

They are turning that information into as their own property, as they're the owners.

We do thank you, Jason, for being our our guests today on the program.

Absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

I think this is a great thing that the office is doing, and uh educating people on how to be vigilant.

So that's just one part.

One uh part of what we're doing.

We also I also attend homeowner association meetings, and when I'm at these meetings, I'm able to answer their questions about what the office does because unfortunately they think we are the recording newspaper of 130 years.

So they don't know who we are and what we do.

And again, you know, the fraud awareness campaign.

I know if you saw them throughout, and especially in the underserved areas, uh, we do have uh yard signs that are being placed out so that people can call in and then protect their homes by calling the product a loan number that is free through my office.

Um also too to help reach um to help reach out and again to these underserved groups.

We are partnered with the law enforcement IMPD.

We we attend the National Night National Night Out.

This kind of expands our access to the residents who might not otherwise engage with government offices.

Um, and also too to uh address some of the barriers such as language and physical accessibility.

Again, with the show, we have a monthly newsletter and also our social media presence.

We're able to provide information to those who are uh through those platforms.

And the language barriers, we had already, I think about a year ago, we had translated our website into Spanish and English, and all of our handouts when we go out into the community is in both languages as well.

Continue on.

So some of the goals and priorities and outcomes from the funding is again, I want to educate one million.

I say we're about 987,000 parcels.

I say a million, sounds a little better.

Um, is to ensure that they understand what our office what we do, the critical uh role that we play.

Um, and again, that's through educating them through all of our platforms to the show through the newsletter.

Um, um another one of my main goals as transformative go is to continue to digitize the records.

Currently, we're back to 1960, and we want to go back to at least 1920.

And again, when it comes to addressing the unmet needs, again, we are out here with the initiative with property rights and fraud prevention, especially in the world and lawrence areas where it seems to be more rapid.

And what we decide, what we're going to do with the funding is that um we are going to again enhance the uh public knowledge, and we are going to uh continue to digitize and make sure those records go back to 1960.

And the biggest outcome from the funds is increased trust and confidence in the office.

We expect to build a greater trust and confidence in the Marine County Recorders office as a transparent, efficient, and community focused public institution.

So now I would like to turn it over to JR so you can talk about these revenues.

Looking at our revenue, we're fortunate for the past two years, our revenue has been relatively the same in 2024, and also if you look at year-to-date 2025, it's very close.

Our introduced budget for 2026 is just slightly under, but we're all still in that same ballpark.

Our revenue is derived from our recording fees, copy fees when customers come in to get liens, deeds, or mortgages, and also we receive search fees from our software vendor whenever someone goes in and does a public search.

So one thing that we're going to do starting in 2026 is that we're going to invest some of our cash perpetuation fund into a Trust Indiana account with the Marion County Treasurer.

And so this will enable us to receive between three and four percent interest on those funds, which is going to average around $3,500 per month.

We'd like to use those funds, that revenue for our property fraud and for our veteran honors outreach.

The benefit of that is of course it won't take up customer customer or constituent money to be able to do that.

So let's go on to the next slide.

So the big takeaway on this slide here, our total overall budget.

Two things I do want to bring something to your attention.

There is a typo on your sheet.

Not each character, we're going to go over the characters in a minute, but the overall budget increased by $4,787, and that's due to the COLA increase.

So if you look at character one, wage control.

Our character one increased by a total of $33,499.

That's directly because of the 2.9% cola increase.

Everything else will remain the same.

We'll still uh we'll still, you know, administer our wages and our health insurance out of this character as we always do.

So no, nothing real weird in this character as far as how we administer the funds.

Character two, which is supplies.

This is a flat line budget, so it did not increase or decrease.

It's going to remain the same as last year.

And again, we will use these funds and encumber what's needed at the beginning of the year so that we'll have room to be able to meet all of our supply needs.

Character three, other services and charges.

Character three did decrease by a little over 28,000, and that's just because of the agency-wide budget cuts.

So uh there was a four percent budget cut, and we were pretty close to that.

Our funds again will be used the exact same.

This won't have any kind of impact on our ability to pay our our land vendors or contract or other uh what am I trying to say, our vendor for our land service software and the contracts that we have with those.

So we will simply encumber those funds at the beginning of the year so that we're able to meet those.

And character four, again, this is another flatline budget for capital outlay.

It's gonna remain the same as it did last year.

And that is our budget overview.

Are there any questions?

Any questions?

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Questions, comments from counselors, counselor Hart.

Yeah, just one quick quote comment and uh a question.

Uh first, you guys make an awesome duo.

You guys are back and forth, and it's awesome, and it was a great message.

Thank you.

Well, I'll let you know that.

Um beyond that, the I remember you guys came back here, maybe it was last year, maybe it was sometime mid-year, it all kind of blends together.

We don't see very often.

Um, but we moved, I think 300,000 or something along those lines for you guys to do some record digitization.

Uh I'm just curious, yeah.

How that effort went.

You were going to yeah, great question, and good memory.

We did.

We we I believe it was originally 200,000.

Yeah, uh, between 150 and 200,000.

So that process was completed, so we did increase another two years on digitization.

So now we are digitized back to, excuse me, we are now indexed back to 1961.

So it's a process, but we're we're not gonna knocking it out a couple of years at a time.

Well that yeah.

Good question.

Council Gibson.

Thank you, madam chair.

Uh Madam uh a recorder, uh thank you very much for our excellent presentation and thank you for your deputy as well with information.

Uh I I was very impressed with your e-certification, uh, meaning that we can get uh deeds and stuff uh electronic.

That's that's that's that's uh being current.

I really I really appreciate that.

And just could you break that down for me a little bit further as far how we'll get that?

Because I would like to get a copy of my D, but I don't know how to how can I personally know how to get it online?

Great question.

And so you no longer have to wait on us to mail that out.

That's wonderful good news thank you both for being here and uh your budget appears to be well in line and I look forward to supporting it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Additional counselor Delaney thank you madam chair um I just want to say I think your outreach efforts are very visible I I noticed your emails that you're telling us about whatever's going on in your office your newsletter the off the record show and so I just wanted to say thank you I know it's difficult for it for two countywide elected officials and that's um not necessarily part of the job duties and so I just want to recognize that you're doing a good job.

Thanks thank you additional questions from counselors is there anyone that has uh questions regarding the budget presentation thank you so much thank you thank you the last item on our agenda for the evening is the Marion County Assessor's office I just left that up good evening good evening madam chair and committee members uh my name is Joseph O'Connor I'm the Marion County Assessor here with me tonight is uh my uh director of assessment Gabriel Deaton as well as my CFO and director of administration Theresa Bates uh tonight we'll be presenting our 2026 budget for the Marion County Assessors Office first slide will just it's just our mission statement and values I'm not gonna read it um I will say I'll highlight the the last sentence we treat everyone with respect dignity and compassion to deliver impartial and accurate assessments for the citizens of Marion County and some of our values are fair and equitable transparency and positive customer experience this next slide just shows our agency over overview which is the four main functions of the assessor's office with the uh majority of staff dedicated to real estate um which would be the assessment of all properties in Marion County as well as uh the data which if you if you've ever uh filed a conveyance document or a deed in Marion County you're gonna come to the assessor's office where we will uh stamp it for taxation and record for the sales disclosure before you head down to the recorder for final recordation another big uh area is personal property which um right now is the same it it will there will be changes starting next year with uh SB1 but we have um a handful uh 10 or 12 uh employees dedicated to uh carrying out the statutory duties of business personal properties which is a self-filing tax um kind of like your federal income tax on business personal property which would be anything not uh related to real estate uh as you're operating a business of tables chairs computers of that nature so the next uh slide just goes into our staffing the is the assessor's office we have 93 full-time positions we currently have 75 filled with 18 positions vacant um we have a 65 percent minority female employed at the assessor's office with management comprising 58 percent minority female uh we we pride ourselves on career advancement we have a high number of our employees who are promoted from within um we also dedicate or uh are dedicated to educating our employees with in-house training and as well as uh uh teaching in-house for continuing education which our employees are required to have either a level two or a level three uh we also have voluntary overtime and we've continued the telework policy which is two days of work here with the city um so it allows our staff to work from home two days a week the next chart just shows our uh overview our org chart uh just a couple uh fiscal successes um just in handling gentrification um

We also have voluntary overtime, and we've continued the telework policy, which is two days of work here with the city, so it allows our staff to work from home two days a week.

The next chart just shows our overview, our org chart.

Just a couple uh fiscal successes, just in handling gentrification.

You know, we take policies to soften gentrification within our neighborhoods.

Uh we've also we've got all of our commercial appeals assigned at this point to an analyst to work.

Uh we continue to a timely work residential appeals.

We met all our statutory DLGF certification schedule.

Uh, and like I mentioned before, we have a assessor university which allows our staff to do continuing education in-house.

Um we've also critically review agency needs when filling vacancies based on workload duty consolidation and other gain deficiencies.

Next, we have our community engagement and outreach.

Uh I attend many neighborhood meetings around the county.

Uh we also have a homeowner's information pamphlet that we hand out our all our all of our field specialists when they're out in the field, we'll uh leave the homeowner a pamphlet to let them know we're there and what we were doing there.

We've worked with ISA to increase our online services.

Um we utilize appeals data to improve neighborhood delineation.

And we we have what's called CATOCOL hearings where we're trying to drive these appeals that we have outstanding to a uh to adjudication or uh finalize these.

Sometimes people will file an appeal, and it's sometimes hard to get in touch with them.

So what we do is we just send out notices and ramp up staff to make sure that we have adequate staff to handle anyone who shows up to this hearing and hopefully get that uh appeal done at the informal level, which is with our staff.

Just some of our goals for 2026.

Uh SV1 is forced the opportunity to evaluate our current processes and departments and call consolidation.

I've already reached out to the city controller to let them know just you know what bills have, you know, what this bill specifically has changed just in terms of uh some of our statutory duties going away so that we can plan to move those people into some open positions that we have so that we're not laying people off that we're actually moving in and into those positions where we will no longer lead need them just based on statutory changes and you know those uh duties going away.

Uh there are a few of commercial appeals with large assessments, and they will require an appraisal, especially our our hotel, our large hotels, uh multifamily or the large office buildings that we have.

So we utilize greater GIS functionality, improve historic neighborhood delineation problems and identify changes during cyclical reassessment.

We're currently on a cyclical reassessment, so we're gonna do one quarter of Marion County every year and then conclude that in four years.

So we've covered uh all of Marion County or re-assessed all of Marion County, a little different than what we call annual adjustments or annual trending, where we're using 12 months of previous sales to look at or analyze neighborhood factors and and basically change assessments on a neighborhood level.

Whereas when we're when we're speaking to uh reassessment, we're changing those on a parcel level.

And so what we're looking at is has this parcel changed, have they torn down a garage and didn't file a permit?

So we may have to remove an assessment or add an assessment like a deck or an addition.

Um we continue to ensure assessor processes are available to the taxpayer online.

We can do a hundred percent of the assessor business online.

We have very few people nowadays coming in in live in person, but we do have a live in-person on the first floor of the city county building, um, which we can handle.

It's mainly for our deeds, so people who are gonna file a deed will come in and start that process before they had to recorder.

Uh but we can handle you know any business with the assessor on that first floor.

So it just keeps people more of a one-stop shop versus traveling the city county building.

So we'll get right down into our budget breakdown.

Um so we have four funds that we utilize, uh, obviously the county general, but we also have a dedicated cumulative fund reassessment fund as well as sales disclosure and endorsement fee fund.

Um as you can see, we have uh are adopted and are introduced, introduced, and then the the variance of each fund.

So, like I said, we have a few sources that we use for revenue.

Uh these endorsement fee and the sales disclosure fee are are directly tied to the conveyance process.

So when you are filing a conveyance document, whether it be a deed or an affidavit that requires a sales disclosure fee, um, that's where these funds are uh, or that's how they are funded.

So this next slide just shows the budget comparison by character.

So we just have character one are adopted, introduced, and then the variance for each fund.

So next, just going into the budget breakdown.

Character one, our total is five million four hundred and eighty-four thousand five hundred and ninety-three dollars.

This is an increase of two hundred and fifty thousand and one dollar due to funding the current staffing levels with COLA health insurance, adbacks, and benefits.

Character two, we have a total of twenty-seven thousand six hundred and one dollars, it's a thirty-six dollar increase from last year.

Character three, um we have a $14,502 uh dollar decrease from last year.

Uh character three, it deals with our professional services, our parking security, and all our subscriptions that we subscribe to.

Lastly, character four, uh total nine thousand.

We have no variance from 2025.

And with that, I'll conclude our presentation.

So if there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Questions, comments from counselor, counselor Roberts.

Thank you, madam chair, and thank you to assessor and uh your team, obviously, for all this work.

Um selfishly, I probably utilize maps.ne.gov and all of the information you guys put out probably every single day.

Um even just this weekend, I was working on a project, a national project with a different firm, and they're help having me help with some of the Indiana stuff.

And quite frankly, uh Marion County is number one in the state.

I always think in my experiences with GIS information online.

There are a lot of counties with nothing online, and having to contact every single other county there uh whether it's their GIS department or um the assessor's office to get that information is a hassle.

So I give you guys a lot of credit for that.

Um the questions I always have is where does that responsibility break down in terms of you guys versus ISA?

Because again, we have a lot of information out there, it's housed on the city's website.

Whose responsibility is it to maintain a lot of that online interface?

Thank you.

Sure.

Uh, thanks for the question.

Um so GIS is a pretty collaborative uh endeavor.

So you know, we have we in the assessor's office maintain the um the ownership lines, so any deed or or re or plat or anything that changes uh the ownership or the line, the boundary line.

We're gonna, you know, RGIS GIS handles that, so we're sort of the keeper of the cadastral maps, as they say, it's the ownership maps.

So that's really our main layer, and you know, a lot of that goes into it.

It's not that it's not that simple, but you know, so you know, our layer is pretty much dedicated to that, and you know all the other agencies who feed into that will will add their layers so that it becomes a uh kind of a living uh usable one place uh shop, like you said, um so do you guys maintain the like maps to any.gov, or is it only mainly ISA that maintains like there's a lot of maps on there, and I think honestly, quite frankly, even some of us don't really look at those enough because there's such a wealth of information.

Um do you just send those over to ISA when they're ready to be published, or you guys have like direct access to publish all of yourselves?

How's that work?

Well, we have direct access to edit and change just the layer in which we are responsible for, which would be the ownership or in the easements that are on the map, or anything that's dealing with ownership or changing of ownership lines.

So if you think of the GIS as layers, I mean we're gonna feed that layer, and you know, DPW has right-aways and you know whatever they deal with from a city right-of-way standpoint where there's sewer lines.

Um so everyone's sort of feeding their own data, and then that's downloaded and then combined.

Um I I can't I don't know the technical way, but you know, ISA is a partner, but we do maintain it.

So our employees are the ones that are drawing the new lines.

I mean, they're reading the legal description, and if that line changed from last from the last owner, you know, they're gonna redraw that line and make sure that they're taxed accordingly.

So if they sold a piece of their parcel to a neighbor, you know, that's gonna create a new ownership line, and we're gonna have to tax them accordingly and tax the new owner additionally because they've added land to their parcel.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks.

Additional questions, comments from counselors?

Counselor Delaney.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

As you were talking about your um reassessing Marion County properties, um specifically.

Are you using drones?

Are you you I know you talked about it a little bit?

Are you using humans to go like how do you know if somebody with the deck example or a garage if they didn't file the permit to tear down or rebuild?

How do you know that somebody's done that?

It's kind of where I'm going about are you using humans' drones?

Like, how do you collect that information?

Right.

We we do not have drones.

I I see that as probably a possibility one day.

But when I when I first started as assessor, um, I think we had around 120 employees, and so now we're down, you know, as you see, under a hundred.

And and I it's just based solely on technology.

Um, you know, so we we can just do more with less based on technology.

So we do have boots on the ground is what we call them, um, but we utilize uh desktop review and and more specifically we'll we'll utilize aerial photography that will you know, we have aerial photography from year to year, and the software will you know overlay each other and then highlight a change, and then we can zoom in and say, what is that purple highlight?

Oh, it's where they you know was a garage and now there's not, and there was no permit taken, so we can pretty much do a lot of the work from the desk because you can measure from your desktop as well.

Some areas, you know, it's not so easy to do desktop review, and a lot of our inner city neighborhoods where you know you have close lots together, so you can't really get a good view of all the sides of the house.

You know, a lot of times in those areas we're gonna have to send boots on the ground.

Um thank you for sharing that information.

Um so I wasn't aware that there is technology that, but I as you're talking, I remember you know, I've had contractors out that talk about that software that they use to for the I got a new roof a couple years ago, and so they would talk about that software that would well we can just use our you know, the aerial photos that they're pulling from wherever to get an estimate of their roof size, and so um I I think that's great.

Um could you say again how often you're reassessing the county and then is that similar to other counties?

Are they on a are on a similar schedule as us, or are other counties maybe of a better you know, staff to property ratio and they're able to do it faster or more often.

I I'm just property taxes are a huge this is why I'm asking, there's such a huge discussion, and you know, my certain sects of my district are asking for information on how it how often they you know get assessed and how that we come up with the values, and um, and so I just was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about how often.

Yeah, sure.

Um so the simple answer is the assessment should be a hundred percent of what market value or what the home is worth.

And you know, we're a little bit behind because you know, just behind based on state law.

So every everything we do is is by statute or state law, and every county is subjected to the same state law.

So they're on the same cyclical reassessment.

So there are you know, a lot of counties don't do in-house work, they will hire a third-party vendor to do the assessment part of it.

Um, but you know, obviously in Marion County, we do 100% of that, and staff dedicated to that.

And so I think a lot of times reassessment in our terms are confused with maybe annual adjustments or trending where we're just looking at sales.

So we're assuming you know that reassessment is captured everything correctly with your property.

So, you know, uh what you're standing there looking at matches what's on your property record card, and then we just use the 12 months of preceding sales to analyze the entire neighborhood to see what that neighborhood has done, whether it's gone up or when it's gone down.

And I think you know, obviously what we've seen is historic times.

I mean, when I started uh in this business, in this business of being the assessor, um, just give me an example.

I mean, I think we had 15 to 18,000 surplus properties in Marion County where someone didn't pay the taxes for a number of years, it goes into county control.

We're down to a handful, 2,000 or so of those.

So I think what we've seen is just historic uh value uh increase, especially in the residential sector.

And and there's lots of reasons to cause that, right?

I mean, there's private equity that's buying it.

Um there's just uh there were a high number of buyers, you know, at that time.

Um I mean, we are seeing a slowdown in in activity.

I can't say we're seeing a slowdown in value.

I mean, I think values have slowed down in a sense of they aren't escalating to 30 30 percent a year in appreciation, which uh which we have seen, and not just us.

I mean, a statewide study, we didn't even come in as the highest in Marion County.

Other counties saw larger increases from a average bill or assessment increase.

So, you know, it's not a Marion County issue, it's probably a national issue where we've just seen just huge from year to year, and it really started in 2017.

Um, but I would say, you know, right after the pandemic in 2020 is where we was not see, you know, maybe 10 to 15 where we would see uh large increases uh, you know, 20, 30 percent just over a course of a year.

Additional questions, comments from counselors.

Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak to the budget presentation?

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Is there any other business before this committee this evening?

CNA entertain a motion for adjournment.

We are adjourned.