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VAB Minutes 10/10/2016 October 10, 2016 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE VALUE ADJUSTMENT BOARD Naples, Florida, October 10, 2016 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: CHAIRMAN: Tim Nance, BCC Member Penny Taylor, BCC Member (Excused) Erika Donalds, School Board Member Rebecca Earney, Homestead Citizen Member Bill Poteet, Business Citizen Member Shawn Khan, Alternate Homestead Citizen ALSO PRESENT: James Morey, Esq., Counsel to the VAB Board Abe Skinner, Property Appraiser Jeep Quinby, Property Appraiser's Office Page 1 4 VALUE ADJUSTMENT BOARD MEETING AGENDA Board of County Commission Chambers Collier County Government Center 3299 Tamiami Trail E., 3rd Floor Naples, FL 34112 October 10, 2016 @ 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, PLLC; and Appointment of Acting-Chairman 3. Approval of Today's Meeting Agenda 4. Approval/Acceptance of Minutes into the 2016 VAB record A. August 1, 2016 VAB Organizational Meeting 5. Public Comment 6. VAB Legal Counsel & Special Magistrates' Contracts and request for RFP • Jim Morey, Esq. with Bond, Schoeneck & King – VAB Legal Counsel • Davia Mazur, Esq. –Attorney (Exemptions, Classifications & Portability) • Ellen Chadwell, Esq. – Attorney (Exemptions, Classifications & Portability) • Scott Watson, MAI (Coastal Consulting Group)– Commercial Appraiser and Residential Appraiser • Mark Pelletier (South Florida Valuations)– Residential Appraiser and Tangible Personal Property Appraiser 7. 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 8/18/2016) a i Page 1 October 10,2016 A. 2016 VAB Filings: 614 (34 untimely [as of 10/04/16]: 24 denied) *as compared to 635 petitions filed in 2015 (12 of those were untimely) *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. • Uniform Policies and Procedure Manual — Revised 08/2016 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.mvflsunshine.com/sun.nsf/sunmanual AND www.collierclerk.com) l • Uniform Policies and Procedures Manual (available at: www.mvflorida.com/dor/property/vab AND www.collierclerk.com) 1 • Reference Materials Including Guidelines (available at: www.mvflorida.com/dor/property/vab AND www.collierclerk.com) • Other Legal Resources Including Statutory Criteria (available at: www.mvflorida.com/dor/property/vab AND www.collierclerk.com) 8. VAB Dates of Importance A. Magistrate Hearings: Currently scheduled to begin October 13, 2016 through November 10, 2016 (more dates assigned, if needed, based on any good cause reschedules) B. Final VAB Meeting: March 6, 2017 at 9:00 a.m. Page 2 October 10,2016 4 (Changed from original date of March 13, 2017) (Please confirm attendance) C. Property Taxes are due to be paid by March 31, 2017 (For reference: http://colliertax.com/nronertvtax.html) 9. Staff and Board Member Comments 10. Adjournment Sine Die until March 6, 2017 at 9:00 a.m. ' I Page 3 October 10,2016 October 10, 2016 CHAIRMAN NANCE: I'll call the meeting to order. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Value Adjustment Board Meeting of October 10th, 2016. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance to be followed by the roll. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Can we have the roll call, please. MR. MOREY: Good morning. Citizen Member Rebecca Earney? HOMESTEAD MEMBER EARNEY: Here. MR. MOREY: Commissioner Tim Nance? CHAIRMAN NANCE: Here. MR. MOREY: School Board Member Erika Donalds? SCHOOLBOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Here. MR. MOREY: And Citizen Member Mr. Bill Poteet? CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Here. MR. MOREY: Okay. We do have a quorum. Good morning. Attorney James Morey with the firm Bond, Schoeneck & King, Counsel to the VAB. I wanted to also introduce some other folks that are here with us today. We have Property Appraiser Mr. Skinner. Welcome, sir. MR. SKINNER: Thank you. MR. MOREY: And also from the Appraiser's Office, Mr. Jeep Quinby. And we do have with us today an alternate -- we have an Alternate Citizen Member with us who's sitting in for the first time, and it's Shawn KHAN. Thank you, sir. MR. KHAN: Thank you. MR. MOREY: And we also have someone from the Procurement Services, Collier County, Ms. Herrera. Thank you for being here. And she'll be speaking to an item -- agenda item coming up. Page 2 October 10, 2016 So the first order for today would be to appoint an acting chairperson for the meeting, and it must be a commissioner. SCHOOLBOARD MEMBER DONALDS: I nominate Tim Nance. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Is there a second? HOMESTEAD MEMBER EARNEY: Second. CHAIRMAN NANCE: There's a motion and a second to nominate Tim Nance as chair. Any discussion? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. HOMESTEAD MEMBER EARNEY: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Aye. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Aye. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Any opposed, like sign. (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: I guess it's unanimous, Mr. Morey. MR. MOREY: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Wonderful. We'll let Mr. Morey -- are you going to continue with introductions? Do you have anything else? MR. MOREY: No, sir. CHAIRMAN NANCE: With nothing else, I'll entertain a motion to approve today's meeting agenda. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: So moved. SCHOOLBOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Second. CHAIRMAN NANCE: There's a motion and a second to approve the agenda as presented. Any discussion? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, all those in favor, signify Page 3 October 10, 2016 by saying aye. HOMESTEAD MEMBER EARNEY: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Aye. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Aye. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: All those opposed, like sign? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: It's approved unanimously. That brings us to approval of the -- and acceptance of the minutes into the VAB record of the meeting of August 1st, 2016. Is there a motion to approve? SCHOOLBOARD MEMBER DONALDS: So moved. CHAIRMAN NANCE: There's a motion to approve. I will second. There's a motion and a second to approve and accept the minutes and place them into the 2016 VAB record. Any further discussion? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. HOMESTEAD MEMBER EARNEY: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Aye. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Aye. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Any opposed, like sign. (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: All right. That's passed. Public Comment; is there any comment from the public on the agenda or items not on the agenda? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, why don't you carry us through No. 6, Mr. Morey. Page 4 October 10, 2016 MR. MOREY: Thank you. Yes. So I will read through the current people serving the Board in various capacities. Myself and our firm as VAB Legal Counsel; we have Attorney Davia Mazur, who is one of the Magistrates; Ellen Chadwell, an Attorney who's also one of the Magistrates; Scott Watson, who's an Appraiser Magistrate; and Mark Pelletier, a Residential Appraiser and Tangible Personal Property Appraiser, serves as a Magistrate. All of those folks, including myself, are under contract through 2017, through the end of this process for this year, this VAB cycle, rather. I think legal counsel contract is up. It was approved in 2013 for a two-year term and then with a two-year renewal option, which was exercised, and this will be finished in May. The magistrates, similarly, will be finished in August. I believe each of them, their contract term will be up in August. So going forward we are at that point where it will be necessary to go out to bid, and that's why the procurement services, Ms. Herrera's here to answer any questions. In your packet you can see -- and they're separated one by VAB attorney, then the RFP. What's in your packet is the RFPs that went out in 2013. It's really for information only. They will need to change, obviously, slightly, dates updated, maybe some statutory references. But the basic information and the basic format is in that packet. Kind of just thinking out loud, it's probably better to do this sooner rather than later because you will be convening again in March to finish up the season. It may not be a bad idea if we can get that -- if we can get this done and get the appointments done going forward, that would be great. If not, it could always be -- CHAIRMAN NANCE: Does that require a motion, sir, from the Board to go ahead and proceed with the RFP process? MR. MOREY: It would. Page 5 October 10, 2016 CHAIRMAN NANCE: I will make a motion for the Board to go ahead and begin the RFP process for the Legal Counsel and Special Magistrates' Contracts. SCHOOLBOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Second. CHAIRMAN NANCE: There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion or comments? MR. MOREY: Ms. Herrera, did you want to comment at all? MS. HERRERA: No. We'll go ahead and start the process. The first one would be for the one that will be expiring in May. We'll go out and start with that early January, the entire process, and then we'll come back to the Board with the final ranking. CHAIRMAN NANCE: All right. SCHOOLBOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Can you just confirm if there were any material differences from what are in the packet for what we'll be seeing in the RFP? Because, obviously, those won't come back for our approval before they go out. MS. HERRERA: We would need to confirm to see if there are any changes in the statute. That would be -- the only thing that would be updated would be any changes in the statute. Everything else would be the same. SCHOOLBOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Any other comments? Comments from the Board? CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Will we have a review of the current magistrates at the March meeting on their progress or their performance? I mean, we're talking about doing a vote then. CHAIRMAN NANCE: We're just moving the process forward. We're not confirming or making any selections or acting. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: I understand that, but I just want to make sure the data's there at the end. So if there were issues, I want to know about it before we vote. Page 6 October 10, 2016 CHAIRMAN NANCE: And the next meeting is when, Mr. Morey? MR. MOREY: March 6th, I believe. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Okay. Well, maybe we should have that -- MR. MOREY: That information? CHAIRMAN NANCE: You'll bring that forward and place that on the agenda for that meeting? MR. MOREY: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Good catch, Mr. Poteet. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: No problem. CHAIRMAN NANCE: All right. Additional comments from the Board? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, there's a motion and a second to move forward with the RFP process and bring back information regarding that process at the next meeting. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. HOMESTEAD MEMBER EARNEY: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Aye. SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Aye. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Any opposed, like sign. (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Okay. So we're moving forward on those RFPs. MR. MOREY: Thank you. Item 7, A through C, really just General Business reporting. You might ask why do we -- we just met in August, and why do we meet now? Well, because statute requires us to meet no sooner than 30 days after the issuance of the TRIM notices and no later than 60 days, Page 7 October 10, 2016 so this is just a required meeting to touch base, to get going prior to the magistrate hearings. So far -- if I can give you a little recap on the filings so far. So far in 2016 there are 614 petitions; 34 were filed late. This was as of the 4th. Twenty-four of the 34 were denied as not substantiating a good cause for filing a late; 10 did. And usually there's no bright line as to what constitutes, you know, good cause for filing late, but basically anything that would take your time and attention away from that date. The most common one is medical emergencies, traveling, doctors' appointments, medical emergencies, illnesses in the family, and that was the case with several of these that were allowed to go forward. General overview of the VAB role and the tax system; the only comment I want to make there is the Uniform Policies and Procedure Manual was revised in August 2016, so it is updated. It's in your packet. It's also online. And I'll tell you the link to get that online, but it is -- it is a great source of information about the process. And those informational links, all of these, can be found online. With respect to Florida Government in the Sunshine, the Government in the Sunshine Manual is available at www.myflsunshine.com, also available with the Collier Clerk. All of these materials are available on the Clerk's website. I just mentioned the Uniform Policies and Procedure Manual. That can be found at www.myflorida.com/dor/property/vab, also on the Clerk's website, Collier Clerk's website, www.collierclerk.com. Any reference materials, including guidelines, including legal resources, including rules and regulations, the Florida Administrative Code, Florida Statutes, also all available online at DOR and Collier Clerk. Which brings us to dates of importance. Item No. 8. Currently, you're scheduled to begin this week, the magistrate hearings. They Page 8 October 10, 2016 are tentatively now scheduled to run through November 10th. More dates will be assigned if necessary based on rescheduling. Things happen, sometimes people can't make the hearing. There's either an agreement to continue or someone asks to continue, but so far it looks like November 10th is the outside date. And the final VAB Meeting for the year is March 6th, 2017, at 9 a.m., and we moved it back. It's the week prior to spring break. SCHOOLBOARD MEMBER DONALDS: Thank you. CITIZEN MEMBER POTEET: Thank you. MR. MOREY: You're welcome. Property Taxes; an important date to be mindful of. Property taxes are due to be paid by March 31, 2017. Any questions with respect to tax payments, you can look -- they can look it up at colliertax.com. And that brings us to any comments from staff or board members. HOMESTEAD MEMBER EARNEY: I do. MR. MOREY: Yes. HOMESTEAD MEMBER EARNEY: Where are the hearings, the magistrate hearings, going to be held? MR. MOREY: Okay. Good question. There's a hearing room upstairs on the fourth floor outside of the Clerk's Office. It's actually -- the door into the hearing room is just outside the doors into the Clerk's Office. HOMESTEAD MEMBER EARNEY: Okay. Thank you. MR. MOREY: Yeah. SCHOOLBOARD MEMBER DONALDS: There's a schedule in the back of the packet, too. MR. MOREY: And they are open -- they are open to the public. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Any other questions, comments, staff or the Board? (No response.) Page 9 October 10, 2016 CHAIRMAN NANCE: Mr. Morey, I guess -- MR. MOREY: I do have one comment, I apologize. I missed this one; missed it on my notes. There's two things. One, there's a DOR workshop for those of you who might be interested in tuning into it. It's a good workshop. It's at Tallahassee on the 13th. So it would be this Thursday at 10 a.m. And you can dial in and listen to it online, I believe. They stream it live. And the workshop is to talk about changes to VAB forms, basically ratifying some VAB forms. And we are actually using the provisional forms with those changes now, but they'll be talking about it and ratifying it. So that's the 13th at 10 a.m. And one other item. The assessment of our tax roll, both Real and Tangible Property, Form 488, which we submit at the end of the year, that's the final version as adjusted by the VAB. Preliminarily we submit one at the beginning of this process. It's a Form 488P. That's going to be voted on tomorrow, just to give you the heads- up, Commissioner Nance, tomorrow at the commissioners' meeting. CHAIRMAN NANCE: The extension. MR. MOREY: Yeah, whether to do the extension. And I would suggest that, while you're the Acting Chairman for today, we did appoint Mrs. Taylor as the Chairman of the Value Adjustment Board, so she should probably sign it if it's approved tomorrow. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Okay. MR. MOREY: Thank you. And I apologize for missing that earlier. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Okay. I'll get that done. All right. Additional comments, questions? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, I believe we will -- the Board will be in adjournment until the March 6th, 2017, meeting here Page 10 October 10, 2016 at 9 a.m. Thank you. * * * * * 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 1j hirm. C a � ATTEST: DWIGHT E. BROCK, CLERK rY b(1/ • A '0 Attest as b G i signature onty, These minutes approved by the Board on rno re.,h (4,, Dell as presented or as corrected TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT REPORTING SERVICES, INC., BY TERRI LEWIS, NOTARY PUBLIC/COURT REPORTER. Page 11