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VAB Minutes 10/05/2015 October 5, 2015 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE VALUE ADJUSTMENT BOARD Naples, Florida, October 5, 2015 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Value Adjustment Board, in and for the County of Collier, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in REGULAR SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: ACTING CHAIRMAN: Tim Nance, BCC Member Tom Henning, BCC Member (absent) Erika Donalds, School Board Member William Poteet, Citizen Member Rebecca Earney, Citizen Member ALSO PRESENT: James F. Morey, Esq., Counsel to the Board Abe Skinner, Property Appraiser Bruce D. Stephens, Property Appraiser's Office Clyde Quinby, Jr., Property Appraiser's Office Page 1 VALUE ADJUSTMENT BOARD MEETING AGENDA Board of County Commission Chambers Collier County Government Center 3299 Tamiami Trail E., 31.d Floor Naples, FL 34112 October 5, 2015 @ 9:00 a.m. 1. Pledge of Allegiance and Roll Call 2. Introduction by VAB Legal Counsel: James F. Morey, Esq. with the Law Firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King 3. Introduction of the VAB Participants: Value Adjustment Board Members (and Alternates) • Board of County Commissioner Tom Henning — Absent • Board of County Commissioner Tim Nance • School Board Member Erika Donalds (or Alternate) • Citizen Member William Poteet (Business) • Citizen Member Rebecca Earney (Homestead) • Vacant (Homestead Alternate) 4. Approval of Today's Meeting Agenda 5. Approval/Acceptance of Minutes into the 2015 VAB record A. August 3, 2015 VAB Organizational Meeting 6. Public Comment 7. Special Magistrates • Davia Mazur, Esq. — Attorney (Exemptions, Classifications & Portability) • Ellen Chadwell, Esq. — Attorney (Exemptions, Classifications & Portability) Page 1 October 5, 2015 • Scott Watson, MAI (Coastal Consulting Group) – Commercial Appraiser and Residential Appraiser • Mark Pelletier (South Florida Valuations) –Residential Appraiser and Tangible Personal Property Appraiser 8. VAB Attorney Report/General Business 194.032 Hearing purposes; timetable.— (1)(a) The value adjustment board shall meet not earlier than 30 days and not later than 60 days after the mailing of the notice provided in s. 194.011(1); however, no board hearing shall be held before approval of all or any part of the assessment rolls by the Department of Revenue. (TRIM mailed out on 8/14/2015) A. 2015 VAB Filings: 629 (9 untimely(as of 9/22/15): 9 denied) *as compared to 388 petitions filed in 2014 (4 of those were untimely) *as compared to 616 petitions filed in 2013 (30 of those were untimely) *as compared to 766 petitions filed in 2012 (15 of those were untimely) *as compared to 892 petitions filed in 2011 (12 of those were untimely) B. General overview of Value Adjustment Board's role in Florida's property tax system and any VAB process updates/changes from the Department of Revenue/Property Tax Oversight Division. C. Informational links available on the Department of Revenue's, My Florida Sunshine and the Clerk of the Value Adjustment Board's websites: • Florida's Government in the Sunshine – Government-in-the-Sunshine Manual (available at: www.myflsunshine.com/sun.nsf/sunmanual AND www collierclerk.com) • Uniform Policies and Procedures Manual (available at: www.dor.myflorida.com/dor/propertylvab AND www collierclerk.com) • Reference Materials Including Guidelines (available at: www.dor.myflorida.com/dor/property/vab AND wwH.collierclerk.com) • Other Legal Resources Including Statutory Criteria (available at: wwH.dor.myflorida.com/dor/property/vab AND wwH.collierclerk.com) Page 2 October 5, 2015 9. VAB Dates of Importance A. Magistrate Hearings: Currently scheduled to begin October 12, 2015 through November 24, 2015 (more dates assigned, if needed, based on reschedules) B. Final VAB Meeting: March 7, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. (Changed from original date of March 14, 2016) (Please confirm attendance) C. Property Taxes are due to be paid by March 31, 2016 (For reference: http://colliertax.com/propertytax.html) 10. Staff and Board Member Comments 11. Adjournment Sine Die (Tentatively March 7, 2016 at 9:00 a.m.) Page 3 October 5, 2015 October 5, 2015 CHAIRMAN NANCE: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Value Adjustment Board meeting, October 5, 2015. Would you all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Thank you. At this time, sir, would you like to start us off and carry us through the agenda this morning? MR. MOREY: Yes, I would. CHAIRMAN NANCE: I guess we're going to have introductions first. MR. MOREY: Yes. Thank you very much. Good morning. For the record, Attorney James Morey with the law firm of Bond, Schoeneck, and King, and current VAB Counsel. If we could, just from left to right, Citizen Member Earney? CITIZEN MEMBER EARNEY: Here. MR. MOREY: Commissioner Nance? CHAIRMAN NANCE: Here. MR. MOREY: School Member Donalds? SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Here. MR. MOREY: And? CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Poteet. MR. MOREY: Mr. Poteet? CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Here. MR. MOREY: Thank you. CHAIRMAN NANCE: So we've established a quorum; is that correct? MR. MOREY: That is correct. The quorum requires three members, two -- to be present, two of which must be one of each of the governing boards, School Board, Commissioner, and one citizen member. We have four. We have a quorum. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Okay. MR. MOREY: We also have with us today some members of the Page 2 October 5, 2015 Appraiser's Office. We have Mr. Abe Skinner, the appraiser. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Good morning, sir. MR. SKINNER: Good morning. CHAIRMAN NANCE: And we have Bruce Stephens, and we have Mr. Jeep Quinby. MR. STEPHENS: Good morning. MR. QUINBY: Good morning. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Mr. Morey, are there any changes to the agenda other than what we have written and delivered to us? MR. MOREY: There are no changes or additions or deletions. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Okay. All right. Unless there is an objection, I would suggest we unanimously approve the meeting agenda as printed. Are there any objections? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, the agenda is approved by unanimous consent. Also the meeting minutes. Have all members had a chance to look over those minutes? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Is there any objection to approving those? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, we will call the minutes approved by unanimous consent for August the 3rd, 2015, VAB organizational meeting. Public comment? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: I see no members of the public, unless Mr. Skinner would like to make any comments? MR. SKINNER: No, sir. Page 3 October 5, 2015 CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, all right. That will take us to, I guess, No. 7, sir. MR. MOREY: Number 7. Thank you. Special magistrates each year are required to be approved and ratified. We approved them at the August 3rd meeting. Perhaps today when I'm finished with just a little summary, we could ratify their appointment going into the hearing process. Each year the special magistrates are required to take training with the Department of Revenue and then to provide their Certificate of Completion. And each of the -- in your board packet, each of the magistrates have completed their special magistrate training for the year. These folks have been with us for several years; very experienced, very familiar with Collier County. And I think the recommendation would be move to ratify their appointment for this next session. CHAIRMAN NANCE: So we are looking to ratify Special Magistrates Mr. Mazur (sic), Ms. Chadwell, Mr. Watson, and Mr. Pelletier; is that correct? MR. MOREY: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Is there a motion? CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: So moved. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: So moved -- second. CHAIRMAN NANCE: There is a motion and a second to approve the special magistrates. Any discussion? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. CITIZEN MEMBER EARNEY: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Aye. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Aye. Page 4 October 5, 2015 CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Any opposed, like sign? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: All right. The special magistrates are appointed. MR. MOREY: All right. Thank you very much. Number 8 on the agenda is just a quick kind of general business and report. In terms of timetable, some -- the question might be, why are we meeting today? Why do we meet in August? It's basically because of statute. We must meet for an organizational meeting before the TRIM notice is issued, then we must meet no later than 30 days -- I'm sorry -- not earlier than 30 days, not later than 60 days after the mailing. So this is kind of our second organizational meeting. We're ratifying the appointments and then going into the -- going into the hearing process. So, so far for 2015 VAB filings, we've had 629 petitions filed. Nine of them were late after the filing deadline. Each of those nine have been reviewed for good cause as to whether there was good cause for filing late, extraordinary circumstances, illness, emergency, et cetera. None of those nine constituted good cause, and none of the reasons given constituted good cause for those nine. And you compare this to years past; 2014 we had 388 total, and four of those were untimely; 2013 we had 616 petitions. Thirty of those were untimely; 2012, 766; and 2011, 892. So there appeared to be somewhat of a trend from 2011 to 2014, a downward trend in the number of filings, which that trend was then bucked this year with an increase in filings at 629. So that's the current status of the number of petitions. Just a quick general overview. VAB's role in counties where we have more than 70,000 population, which is the case for Collier Page 5 October 5, 2015 County, the VAB is really a role of oversight. The special magistrates conduct the hearings, make their written findings. The determinations must be in the proper form. And the role of this board is make sure -- is oversight. Make sure everything is in place. Make sure the magistrates are put in place. Make sure good cause determinations are assigned to counsel or assigned to someone. And it's a very important role, oversight, to make sure everything goes smooth and to assure that taxpayers' rights are followed in the process. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: On the nine filings that were timely -- MR. MOREY: Yes, sir. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: -- or denied, is there an appeal process for that them? MR. MOREY: They can. They can appeal -- they can appeal to the Circuit Court if they want. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Okay. MR. MOREY: The statute -- it's interesting. The language in the statute in terms of what constitutes good cause is fairly broad. It does leave some discretion, and typically it's the things -- emergencies, illnesses, just some extraordinary circumstances would make a reasonable person not be able to get it in on time. So it really is fact specific. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Okay. MR. MOREY: In terms of informational links available, all of this information about the VAB process is available on the Clerk's website, Collier County Clerk's website. That would be www.collierclerk.com. All of this information is also available on the Department of Revenue website, which is DOR.myFlorida.com/DOR/property/VAB. And all of this information -- this would be Uniform Policies and Procedural Manual about the VAB process, reference materials, Page 6 vim. r October 5, 2015 including guidelines and other legal resources in terms of all the statutes and statutory criteria. Also what's very important, this process is subject to the Sunshine laws and so -- Florida's government in the Sunshine. That information's available on the Clerk's website, again, but also www.myFLSunshine.com. Again, very important. All of the information -- any information that comes into the Clerk's Office, it's public information in terms of this process. Dates of importance: Coming up, the magistrate hearings will begin soon. They'll begin on the 12th, one week. It's anticipated they will run through November 24th. Dates may be assigned, if necessary, for rescheduling. Again, that's -- if we look at the trend, we have, you know, approximately double the petitions from last year, so there could be some rescheduling, some juggling around. But currently it's anticipated to be taken care of by November 24th. We would have our final VAB meeting on March 7, 2016, at 9 a.m., and that would be to review all -- everything that happened throughout the hearing process and to vote on and accept the determinations. And do we -- you may not have your calendars available, but if you would put that and check that on your calendar and let Ms. Morgan know, Trish Morgan in the Clerk's Office, if you might be available. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: I can tell you now I'm good. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Yeah, I'll be here, too. MR. MOREY: Oh, fantastic. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Yeah. Because we had talked about it. It was on spring break before, and if we could move it, so we're good with that week. Page 7 October 5, 2015 MR. MOREY: Fantastic. Thank you very much. Property taxes, March 31, 2016 -- it's always March 31. March 31, 2016, the property taxes would be -- that's the final due date. And the next is any staff comments or questions. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Mr. Poteet? CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: I have a question. On the -- on the legislation before the Florida House and Senate, I know there's some discussion going on VABs. Do we have someone that tracks that for us? MR. MOREY: We do. Thank you. The Department of Revenue issues memorandums on a regular basis to all appraisers, all clerks, all VAB Clerks of any pending legislation that might affect the process. So there are informational memos coming up oftentimes. And, in fact, we had one rule change, slight change -- it was more of a clarification with respect to homestead and portability of homestead -- this past legislative session, and a new -- a form or revised form. So we do get those memos. And we can share that at any time and get you on the list if you'd like that. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: I'd like to see that. I just happened to be in a meeting where we were talking about VAB legislation coming down, and apparently Miami-Dade has major issues on being able to go through the entire process and get it done/completed before March 31st. And I don't know what their problem is, but that's what's driving the legislation is what I was told. MR. MOREY: I don't know for sure for Miami-Dade, but I must -- probably would make the assumption that it's volume, sheer volume. It's just the number of -- and, remember, there's also -- this process is not simply residential valuation. You have commercial valuation questions, you have tangible personal property, you also have entitlement -- the homestead entitlements or classification Page 8 October 5, 2015 issues/questions. So you have a broad scope of potential petitions that could go before the Board, and Miami-Dade is just a, you know, kind of bustling place, particularly with the commercial. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Ms. Donalds, questions or comments? SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Yeah, thanks. I'm glad you asked that question, and I would be interested in the information as well. Does the Clerk or the Property Appraiser get involved in any of that from a lobbying perspective or -- at all, or we just kind of -- you only go there if you need something, I know, but -- MR. MOREY: I can only speak to the Clerk. We do pay attention. Any of the workshops, when the workshops -- I have dialed into these workshops and listened and participated in questions. I know that the Clerk's designee to the Board, Ms. Morgan, she pays very high attention to these issues. In terms of lobbying, I'm not sure exactly how much, and I would leave (sic) the Appraiser's Office, if they have comment. But the issues are always on the -- they're similar. They may be different in terms of the attentiveness. MR. SKINNER: We always monitor that, my association, statewide. We monitor that every year. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Okay. Thanks. MR. MOREY: Thank you. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Ms. Earney, questions, comments? CITIZEN MEMBER EARNEY: Not at this time. CHAIRMAN NANCE: I have no questions or comments. I will check my calendar for the March 7th date. Any additional comment from staff; Mr. Skinner or Mr. Morey? MR. SKINNER: No, sir. MR. MOREY: No, sir. Page 9 9 October 5, 2015 CHAIRMAN NANCE: Well, hearing no other comments or issues, no further business for the good of the county, we will call the October 5th meeting of the Value Adjustment Board adjourned. Thank you. MR. MOREY: Thank you. Page 10 400.0. October 5, 2015 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 9:14 a.m. VALUE ADJUSTMENT BOARD ACTING CHAIRMAN 776 ATTEST: DWIGHT E. BROCK, CLERK • Attest as to Chairman's Signature only. These minutes approved by the Board on -511- 111,0 , as presented ✓ or as corrected TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT REPORTING SERVICES, INC., BY TERRI LEWIS, NOTARY PUBLIC/COUT REPORTER. Page 11