By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County hopes to hire its new appraiser this month.
"We had three finalists interviewed," said Reno County Administrator Randy Partington. "They're all in the running at this point. We're doing background checks, interviewing, researching their past work histories to kind of come down with the final recommendation, hopefully at the January 25 commission meeting."
The state's Division of Property Valuation also needs to sign off on an appraiser hire.
"PVD has a list of qualified appraisers in Kansas," Partington said. "You have to be on that list to even be an appraiser, or you have to get on that list if you are appointed an appraiser in a short amount of time and get PVD's approval. They kind of oversee all the county appraisers. Not management oversight, but they look at their work, do audits, reviews of the appraiser in each county to give scores of how they are doing."
The idea is for taxes to be assessed consistently across the state as much as possible.
"If a county wanted to get rid of a county appraiser for whatever reason and its before the four year appointment is up, the appraiser can file a petition, an appeal, with PVD," Partington said. "PVD has the final say of whether that person goes back into the job or is allowed to be terminated."
The reason for that is so that local elected officials can't use political influence to make an appraiser value property inconsistently with state statute.