MO - County fires assessment chief over billing errors

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By DARLA McFARLAND The Examiner

Bob Boley, director of the Jackson County Assessment Department, was fired Friday over his "failure to accept responsibility" for property tax billing problems. County Executive Kathryn Shields announced Boley's departure to the Legislature Monday.

"He never came to accept that the problems in his department were his responsibility," Shields said.

A problem in the Assessment Department resulted in about 84,000 incorrect personal property tax bills being sent to taxpayers in November. The error was attributed to a glitch in the new computer software program installed last year.

Because of the confusion, the county extended the tax payment deadline for personal property taxes to Jan. 31. The county also must send refunds to approximately 10,500 people who paid an incorrect bill before a new bill was sent to them.

Shields and Boley both had previously told legislators that they thought there had been enough testing of the program before the billing cycle. Shields had a different view Tuesday.

"I think they (Boley and the Assessment Department) very clearly knew they had not performed due diligence on the personal property taxes," Shields said.

She also said she is negotiating to hire Ed Severeid to take over the department. Shields hired him as a consultant to the department last month.

"I think he is a real detail person," Shields said, adding that Severeid is already working on solutions for the department.

Chairman of the Legislature Victor Callahan said he was encouraged to see some action to the address problems.

"Clearly, there are problems in that department that the county executive needs to address, and if this is a part of that then I am glad to see her act immediately," Callahan said.

Prior to Shields' announcement, Callahan called on the Legislature's auditor to perform an audit of the Assessment and Collections Departments.

"We have to get to the bottom of (whether) whatever (software) systems we bought are working and whether the management decisions are working," he said.

http://examiner.net/stories/012301/new_012301006.shtml

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), January 24, 2001


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