Attorney's letter prompts open discussion

A matter of etiquette for all county employees came to light during last week’s Kimball County Board of Equalization Meeting, Tuesday, May 17, following a letter addressed to the Nebraska Department of Revenue.

Kimball County Assessor Sherry Winstrom received a copy of the letter, written by Village of Bushnell Attorney Robert Brenner, which addressed the 2016 Property Assessment Reports and Opinions put forth by Winstrom’s office.

“I am writing concerning the above reports provided to Kimball County to address a couple of errors, whether of significance is for your determination, in that report,” Brenner wrote. “The Village Board of Trustees noted that an erroneous statement is provided in the above report which directly bears upon and incorrectly states that the Village of Bushnell municipality has zoning which it does not and has not had at any period of time. I refer you to the portions of the report labeled “C. Zoning Information.” The significance of the misstatement will mislead the public to potentially their detriment and may damage public trust.”

The attorney for the village concluded his letter to the State by asking that the information be corrected by the county, or that the county take into consideration how the error might reflect on the values of the Village.

Kimball County Commissioner Tim Nolting, who also serves on the Village of Bushnell Board, addressed the Board of Equalization on the subject of the letter.

“The Village of Bushnell is under a lawsuit over the nuisance abatement of that lumber yard,” he explained. “One of the arguments that the lawyer is putting forth is that portion of Bushnell was zoned commercial, therefore he could do whatever kind of business he wanted to do there. The Village of Bushnell is not zoned. Never has been. The State’s records indicate that it (Bushnell) is zoned and that could have been a contested factor in the law suit. So I requested that Mr. Brenner have them review that.”

“Commissioner Nolting, on your letter from Mr. Brenner - is the expectation that you will hear back from these people that they will make the correction, or does the local assessor make the correction?” County Clerk Cathy Sibal asked.

Kimball County Zoning Administrator, Sheila Newell, said that she believed that the assessor should correct her records to state that Bushnell is not zoned and Commissioner Daria Anderson-Faden questioned the length of time that the county records showed the zoning error.

“It has been in the Reports and Opinions records since the Reports and Opinions began in 2006,” explained Winstrom, “I did research that after I had received the letter. I believe that Ruth Sorensen (Nebraska Property Tax Administrator) will be addressing Mr. Brenner (in regards to) this letter.”

“I am just really disappointed,” directed Winstrom to Commissioner Nolting, “that, as elected officials, Tim, you couldn’t come to me and talk to me and say that this was an error that was in my Reports and Opinions. I was unaware that this was in there. I just feel that if there was a mistake that was in our records that somebody could have came to me. I was shocked to have received that letter.”

Nolting responded that he did not address it in that way because the matter was under litigation

“I haven’t been to all of the meetings,” began Kimball County Attorney Dave Wilson, “but it appears to me that there is friction between some of the elected officials. I don’t understand it. I’ve never seen that before in all the years I’ve been County Attorney. When we get a letter sent to the county, like this, I’m sure the assessor is thinking, ‘Why wouldn’t I know about this?’.”

Attorney Wilson expressed to Nolting and the board -- that he didn’t believe there was any intentional malice on Nolting’s part, but that he was concerned with the public’s perception of the situation.

Nolting explained that none of the process was intentionally done in a manner to cause ill will toward anyone in Kimball County, and then apologized for the process and the way in which it was handled.

“Just for a matter of record,” offered Nolting, “the letter also references that there appears to be an error in Dix, as well.”

The second paragraph of the noted letter from the attorney for the Village of Bushnell states, “Only as an aside as well, I would also advise that, based upon information and belief, the Village of Dix likewise does not have zoning and, per some residents, never has.”

Winstrom questioned the attorney for the commissioners, Matt Turman, on his knowledge of that reference, to which Turman replied, “Well, I don’t want to get into a discussion on that. Those are things we can look into.”

Winstrom then asked the board to entertain a proposal for a third party county-wide assessment from Darrell Standard of Standard Appraisal at a cost of just under $100,000.

“As you all know, this year I was supposed to come up with my new 2013 cost tables. I was working on the market depreciation and with that market depreciation – it was off the wall with all of the homes in town,” Winstrom said. “I was the one who chose not to implement that because there was no rhyme nor reason why some (valuations) went up and some went down.”

She further explained that Standard would come up with a market study based upon all of the recent real estate sales in Kimball County and then use that data to bring Kimball County “where it needs to be at”.

“We need a third-party to come in and help with assessment. I would like to see if we can put him on the agenda,” she said. “One way or another, it has to be done this year.”

Winstrom explained that if the county did not complete the 2013 cost tables the state would come in and do it.

“I got that letter last year, that said Kimball is out of compliance because we were running 2006 cost tables. I have to bring that cost tables current,” she said.

The county-wide assessment would consider all the buildings and houses in Kimball County, according to Winstrom, who added that although the cost of the complete appraisal, at nearly $100,000, seemed excessive, Morrill county recently spent $400,000 for a complete reappraisal.

“They would go out there and they would review the exterior of the homes and do a little bit of an interview with the home owners,” she said. “That would (include) your ag houses, that would be Dix, that would be Bushnell, that would be Kimball, and commercial.”

Commissioner Anderson-Faden questioned whether other counties, with the exception of Morrill County, were completing similar appraisals.

“They have their markets set. It’s been since 2006 since we’ve had a new market depreciation that has been done for Kimball County,” Winstrom explained “I was in the process of doing that this year, but it was so off the wall that I was not comfortable having one house drop $20,000 and the house right beside it go up $99,000 based upon the sales that had happened.”

Engstrom said the board needed to have a proposal on the actual cost of the appraisal before giving the okay to having the task fulfilled by the company. To that end Nolting moved to contact the company for more information.

Standard Appraisal is expected to submit a proposal at the June 21 regular Kimball County Board of Equalization meeting.