The Assessor’s Office is no stranger to automation. The Assessment process was automated through Computer Aided Mass Appraisal (CAMA) systems decades ago. Over the last 30 years, computer use has evolved to support nearly every task in our office related to property appraisal and assessment.
While the level of automation per function was quite impressive, there seemed to be a discontinuity between the systems that were in place. Most of the systems or applications were developed independently in an effort to solve a very specific business process. The result of these independent efforts was a myriad of necessary, critical applications, but requiring support for multiple programs, platforms and software products.
In the end, much of the communication between these systems and the tasks they automate is still being managed on paper. People physically walk these pieces of paper from one critical point of our operation to another. We had basically trained ourselves to operate and see our operation within a technical environment with a report oriented, paper driven paradigm. While our automated operation included letters, spreadsheets, appraisal databases, maps, spatial analysis, mass appraisal functions and all of the general components of the assessment process, our paradigm reduced the integration of these systems to people pushing paper.
Almost one year ago, we set forth with NovaLIS Technologies to radically change our paradigm. We wanted to set a new vision for the Alachua County Property Appraiser’s Office with respect to use of automation. The mission of the Property Appraiser’s Office to establish fair market values for the real and personal property in the County did not change. The methods in which the mission would be achieved would be modeled, streamlined, integrated and evolved into a new operation.
The new paradigm or vision for the office is:
To develop a single computer application that integrates and supports all of the functions of the Assessor’s office.
This application includes the spatial environment. This system will migrate the electronic technology and resources of the office into a single integrated support and operational system performing all of the functions in the office.
The new vision encompasses 3 major shifts from traditional CAMA environments:
1) Migrate the GIS from a single function support tool to the heart and engine of an integrated assessment application.
2) Create a single, integrated data model.
a. Current data model of tabular data.
b. Geodatabase or spatial model.
3) Develop, implement and integrate a management model.
These 3 shifts addressed the major drawbacks to the current systems. Making the GIS an integral part of the solution at both a functional and data model level rather than a sideline technology used separately to ascertain and store certain information is a key differentiator between the new system and the old. The new system incorporates GIS directly into the daily business processes in an integrated fashion. People utilize GIS without really thinking about it.
The management model is the portion of the system that eliminates the task movement between systems. The management model provides electronic workflow tools to allow business processes to be defined, understood and automated. The management model provides for automatic generation, tracking and measurement of tasks in the context of complete business processes.
To understand the vision of this new system requires some definition of the core system components required for an overall Assessment Information System. The components in the new vision basically fall into 3 categories:
1) Assessment Requirements
2) GIS Needs
3) Management Model
The assessment requirements follow along well-documented processes for establishing, maintaining and supporting fair market values. The general categories of tasks to support the full assessment process follow:
1) Discovery & Maintenance of Parcel Information (Data Gathering & Maintenance)
2) Valuation
3) Listing
4) Appeals
Discovery and maintenance of parcel information is the first step in the assessment process. These important data gathering and maintenance functions establish the existence of property and several important characteristics in the assessment process. Discovery and maintenance provides ownership, location descriptors and physical attribute data about the properties.
Discovery and maintenance functions include mapping the parcel, providing legal descriptions, owner information and other descriptive data about the parcel such as slope, zoning, taxing districts, view, proximity to other geographic features, etc. The generation of much of this information comes from deeds or plats and the subsequent location analysis once the property is located in the context of other property.
Valuation is certainly a cornerstone of any assessment system. It is the portion of the system that establishes fair market value. Valuation models require significant data and provide various methods for establishing value. Most jurisdictions perform these functions on a regular basis (every 1 to 5 years) in an effort to keep values current with market conditions. Because of the frequency and usually the number of properties being valued, the data requirements to support the valuation models are dynamic and comprehensive.
Some of the data requirements for valuation include quantity and quality attributes for the property, selection criteria, location valuation factors, spatial valuation influences such as proximity, view, etc., and external valuation influences such as zoning, school zones, etc. The number of pieces of information collected about a single property to support the valuation is often several hundred. While many are descriptors of quantity and quality, like numbers of bedrooms or baths, amounts of square footage or lot sizes, age of construction or type of construction (brick, stucco, wood siding), there are significant location factors.
The location factors in valuation require appraiser’s to study the area where property is located and the influence of information that is generally mapped and maintained by other organizations. An appraiser can spend a significant amount of time pouring over zoning, land use, school zone boundary, city-limit or topographic maps ascertaining the required information to support a particular valuation engine.
Valuation builds upon the plethora of data components and utilizes calculations to produce values. Valuation methodologies include cost, sales comparison, income and statistical approaches. While these valuation methodologies differ in approach, popularity and applicability, they do represent the cornerstone for an assessment system and require significant data to run.
Listing is the process of taking fair market values established in the valuation component, applying any special circumstances to the fair market value and then notifying the citizenry of assessed values upon which their taxes will be calculated. In many jurisdictions the extension of the taxes are calculated on the assessed value and distributed as part of the assessment process.
The special circumstances that may affect fair market value and create adjustments in the appraised value before the tax or mil rates are applied include exemptions, special districts, special assessments or abatements. All of these circumstances are typically legislated locally or by some part of the hierarchical scheme of government (city, county, state, municipality, province, nation, etc.).
The listing process usually involves the application of tax rates to the assessed value. The assessed value differs from the appraised value in that the assessed value includes the adjustments due to the exemptions, abatements and special assessments. The citizenry is typically notified of all of these various values including the eventual tax owed as part of the listing process.
The final portion of the assessment cycle is the justification of fair market values. The justification of these values is typically questioned during the appeal process. The appeal process allows citizens to question the values established for their property and entitles them to some type of process to reach agreement on how, why and what the value calculation is performed and set.
The appeals component must have a mechanism for tracking the requests from the citizenry. Who is requesting an appeal? What portion of the process are they in? Does it need to go to court? When is the court date? These are all questions that an appeals component must be able to answer. Of course, those questions are more on the administrative side.
The justification side of appeal processing generates another set of requirements. There needs to be the capability to create exhibits to explain the methodology and information used to support the established value. Much of this information is collected and maintained during the valuation component. It must, however, be retrieved during appeal processing.
An important aspect of value justification is the use of relational comparability. Relational comparability means the subject property of the appeal is compared to similar properties to show that the value is indeed justified. The relaying of this information is often accomplished through reports illustrating similar characteristics for the subject and comparable properties.
However, the most common question regarding appeals with residential properties involves a citizen asking about the sale of a neighbor’s house that involved a large discrepancy from the appraised value of the appealing citizen’s home. During the appeal process, it is extremely useful to be able to locate that particular sale and compare it to the appealing citizen’s property and explain why the comparable properties chosen do not include that particular sale.
The GIS needs for an assessment system are not a new discovery. There have been discussions of GIS requirements for assessors for many years and many GIS projects began in the Property Appraiser’s Office because of the applicability of GIS tools to the assessment process. In fact, we have created systems that produce most of the spatial tools that we needed, but they were done in isolation of the assessment system linked only by people and paper.
The basic GIS needs of the system are:
1) Spatial or Map Data.
2) Annotation and Cartographic Output.
3) Spatial Analysis Particular to the Assessment Process.
All of these needs are reflected in the Assessment Requirements components. GIS is simply the best tool set for performing the functions or building the data to support the system.
Spatial or Map Data
One of the first basic steps in the assessment process is the placement of property on a map. Because the valuation process involves utilizing the shape, size, topography and location of a property, it is essential that information be known. GIS has long been used to assist in establishing these characteristics but the results were usually translated into some tabular equivalent for use in the assessment system.
Automated parcel maintenance routines using GIS tools continue to be a requirement. These tools include the performance of splits, combines, subdivision input, resurveys and other parcel map maintenance functions.
In addition to the parcel maintenance, there are many other spatial data sets that can be maintained using the GIS tools. Data sets such as city-limit boundaries, school zones, taxing districts, topography, addresses, neighborhood boundaries, physical features and many other location-based data sets contribute to the assessment process.
Annotation and Cartographic Output
While we have made great strides in reducing the dependence upon cartographic output, the requirement to serve the public still mandates the need for hard copy maps. GIS tools can be utilized to create standard and custom maps to support the assessment process.
Some of these outputs are required simply because the citizens do not have access to the electronic data. There are a number of other reasons for the hard copy outputs. Those reasons include carrying paper maps into the field, display at public meetings where electronic viewing is impossible, distribution in letters and archival purposes.
Spatial Analysis Particular to the Assessment Process
There are a number of assessment processes that require spatial analysis. Establishing the characteristics of properties requires the most significant use of spatial data. There are also requirements for determining a properties proximity to a subject property in the comparable sale or appeal process. The ability to simply locate a property is extremely important.
Determining spatial characteristics is one of the most important contributions of GIS to the assessment process. Figuring out the neighborhood code, zoning designation, tax district, soil composition, land use composition, proximity to subject property in comparable sales studies and other spatial determinations are time consuming without the use of GIS.
The other contribution of GIS in the assessment process is the visualization aspect. Using 3D visualization tools, an assessor can look at the values of properties in an area and quickly find anomalies. Using other 3D tools, cost surfaces can be generated to apply to statistical models for establishing fair market value.
The management model requirements are basically aimed at streamlining the use of the system components. The recognition, that too many dependencies were placed on paper and people in the previous iteration of technology, led to the definition of the management model. The management model consists of the following:
1) Business Rules
2) Workflow
3) Query and Reporting Functions
Business rules are a key component in making sure the quality of the data and actions performed are carried out within the Property Appraiser’s office. Business rules will include data validation, valuation approaches, security, and other functional requirements and will work with the workflow tools to provide a robust, integrated assessment environment.
The system will include a Visual Design Tool (VDT) that will allow for the easy application of these business rules. The VDT will provide the ability to make changes to the system to meet legislative or business process changes that occur over time. The VDT is aimed at providing long term flexibility in using and modifying the system.
The workflow tools will be utilized to streamline business processes through automating the steps of the entire business process. Most tasks carried out in the Property Appraiser’s Office currently involve the use of technology. However, the movement of information between the various people and systems to perform the end-to-end business process is dominated by paper. The workflow tools are really aimed at those points in the business process between what in the past were separate systems.
The workflow tools provide an electronic description of the end-to-end business process. Workflow defines the path that is taken to complete a business process. Workflow documents electronically who or what starts the process, all of the steps required for completion, the assignment of tasks, the variances that may be encountered, the contingencies that must be followed and the end result. It streamlines the operation significantly by automatically generating the information that was previously contained on the paper forms that shuffled the business process along.
Workflow also provides two significant benefits by automating the flow and path of work. Workflow provides tracking and measurement tools for monitoring business processes. The tracking component allows fast response to questions about the status of a particular piece of work. By modeling virtually every business process in the office, we are able to respond quickly to inquiries about the status of appeals, new parcel processing, exemption processing, permit information and other frequently asked questions. Workflow tells us where in the process a particular piece of work is.
Workflow also provides a mechanism for measuring business processes. As each step is time and date stamped, we not only know where it is in the process, but we know how long it is taking to make it through each step. We can now build averages for processing based on real experience and set goals for the amount of time we want processes to take. These types of measurement were simply not possible with the paper driven system. Utilizing the electronic data that is captured as part of the workflow process, we can generate these measurement reports very easily.
The overall success of the system is many times evidenced by the ease with which someone can get information on which to base a decision. The emphasis on query and reporting functions highlights the need for the system to be responsive. The goal for query and reporting was to allow users to utilize any piece of information in the system for inclusion in either reports or queries. This, of course, was subject to the security of the system, but provided ultimate flexibility for users.
Users are able to utilize any screen to fill in pieces of information to make up a query. Complex queries that involve multiple fields and expressions are permissible as those are the types asked in the real world.
Reporting is equally flexible. The users may choose from any of the fields, create groups based on values, provide counts or sums of information and print complex forms all in a friendly manner.
As in the implementation of anything new, there were several aspects of the organization that posed challenges in migrating to a new vision. Many of these factors had simply been a way of doing business for decades and had been engrained in people’s minds for a long time. Some of the factors were more recent in learning but the lack of integration among the systems made it difficult to see a better way.
One of the most interesting inhibitors to change involved the view of the map data and GIS tools. We called it the “1 mile grid myopia.” Because everything in the shop to relate maps and data was driven by the section, everyone had a view of the spatial data in 1-mile squares. People had a hard time adjusting to the fact that you no longer needed the section-township-range-subdivision-block-lot number to find a parcel. People had a hard time adjusting to the fact that you could now perform analysis in an area that covered multiple sections.
The business processes among the non-integrated computer systems had generated an abundance of duplication of data entry, lack of data sharing and a myriad of formats for the data. The real inhibitor from this legacy aspect was that people had gotten used to doing things a particular way with complete independence and control of certain pieces of information. It is a struggle to get people to change the way they have done things for years and more difficult to get them to rely on other people for information to perform their duties.
Because most of the computer systems had evolved independently to solve a specific task instead of an entire business process, there was a lack of system integration and data distribution. While people would often realize the complexities and difficulties of answering questions that involved more than 1 of the agencies systems, this issue really boiled down to technology and how to attempt to resolve this inhibitor. It was extremely difficult to provide adequate data distribution because of the numbers of platforms, data formats and disparate systems that had evolved.
The lack of systems integration also led to a lack of intuitive functional integration with the systems. People resisted learning some of the newer technologies in the agency because they were not integrated with their core business function. GIS provided a prime example of the lack of use because it was not functionally integrated into other systems. Everyone could understand that GIS could help provide answers, but the GIS was not intuitively integrated with the system that needed the input.
Because our agency requires input from many other County Departments, we also ran into challenges between the Property Appraiser’s Office and other departments. Security, turf issues, ownership of data, requirements for formal agreements are just some of the inhibitors that were present.
The new vision as stated before is:
To develop a single computer application that integrates and supports all of the functions of the Assessor’s office.
To realize this vision required significant change on the technology side of things, but also required some change on the people side. It is not clear which will pose the biggest issues. While both the people and technology are ready for this vision, it is new and will reveal stress points not yet realized.
The following are changes that will lead to realization of our new vision:
1) Incorporation of the Geodatabase into our data model to provide a single, integrated, spatial and attribute database for use in the assessment process.
2) Build a data model that was open to facilitate sharing of data with multiple applications whether internal or external.
3) Use Esri’s tools in conjunction with other programming tools to build a CAMA application.
4) Creation of an environment which allows the ability to combine SQL, mathematical and logical functionality along with any GIS functionality in any combination to initiate functions required in the assessment process.
5) Provide a more robust data distribution mechanism both internal and external to the organization.
6) Document end-to-end business processes for inclusion in the workflow tools.
7) Build more intuitive forms and data submission mechanisms for the public.
The core changes from a technology standpoint that will allow the realization of this vision are the migration of the spatial data to a widely used relational database format and the ability to provide full GIS functionality in a widely used development environment. The ability of ArcSDE to write data into Oracle (and SQL-Server) coupled with the ability to utilize ArcMap functions in a Visual Basic (VB) and C++ environment.
These technology changes solve what were undoubtedly the two biggest technical challenges in reaching our vision. Those challenges were the nice integration at the database and functional level of spatial data formats and functions with the traditional CAMA environment.
The Geodatabase now provides the ability to create a single integrated data model that includes both spatial and attribute information. As many of the business processes in the Property Appraiser’s Office require both spatial and attribute information, the integration at the database level provides a much better environment for getting answers.
The requirements to integrate with other agencies and departments to complete entire business processes created the need for an open data model. The use of Oracle provided an easier environment for integration with other departments. Because we were able to now combine the spatial and attribute data into Oracle, other departments were able to more easily use and contribute to the required information.
Of course, getting the data into a single, open data model only helps if the tools to access the data can be integrated into a common environment as well. The Component Object Model (COM) architecture of ArcMap provides the toolset to incorporate spatial and tabular functions into a single programming environment. All spatial functions can now be accessed from a single application environment.
The ability to combine SQL, mathematical and logical functionality with GIS tools in any combination revolutionized many of the business processes in the organization. An abundance of our processes required the use of location-based data, but the lack of integration made those determinations difficult. With the combined capabilities of the database, programming environment and spatial functions, we were able to change the nature of business processes.
The distribution of data was greatly facilitated by the integration at the data model level. By eliminating so many disparate systems and formats, we were able to use ArcIMS to provide data distribution at a much-improved level. Users both internal and external to the organization can now view and utilize the spatial and attribute data in combination.
The documentation of the business processes proved very interesting. The beginning of the use of the workflow tools is the modeling of the entire business process. We found that often people do not think on an organizational level when it comes to business processes. They are often only thinking within the department or worse yet only the small portion they perform. A typical description of a business process included, “When I get this piece of paper, then I know I have to do this. When I finish, I fill out this piece of paper and send it to Joe. I’m not sure what goes on before or after the pieces of paper.”
People were made much more aware of business processes from an organizational standpoint. People realized the amount of time and effort in duplicative work by seeing the processes from this viewpoint. The inefficiencies of the previous systems had to be explained in a light that allowed people to want to change. Changing people to think of the whole organization instead of a small subset is a significant challenge.
Because of the increased level of distribution of data, we faced changing the some of the methods in which we interacted with the citizens. We will be able to provide them more interactive information on the web and, therefore, will increase services provided through the web. The new interaction required us to look at the forms and methods we used to collect certain types of information. Forms for the collection of information such as exemption requests, financial data to support income valuation methods and appeals are just a couple of examples of information and services that may be offered via the web.
As with any new endeavor that involves changes as significant as replacing the technology that performs the core business functions, you hope that the rewards outweigh the costs. We have identified many rewards from our new endeavor. They include:
1) Elimination of duplicative tasks
2) Increases in communication, data sharing and security
3) Decreases in cycle times and costs
4) Land based, location based, spatially oriented decision making
5) Graphical equity analysis
6) Increased knowledge of what is being done, by whom, when and how long it is taking
7) Better distribution of information that simplifies and quickens service to the public
Efficiency contributes the most to the overall rewards envisioned for the new system. Business process change in task responsibility, communication styles and levels, overall time required and data access are significant.
One of the most dramatic changes will be seen in map maintenance. Parcel maintenance can now be incorporated directly into the CAMA application so that spatial updates to the maps will contribute to the single, integrated data model and utilize the same business rules that were present in the tabular predecessor.
People will also be able to utilize the GIS tools in a seamless environment that will allow them to use GIS without really thinking about it. The biggest challenge we faced with our old system was that GIS was a separate entity and required additional learning. With the integration of the CAMA and GIS into a single system, they will be learned and used together. GIS will be part of our mainstream business processes.
The incorporation of the GIS tools will also make our evaluation of fair market values a visual process. We will be able to utilize the land, improvement or any other value to visualize the equity of our valuations. As the unchanging portion of our corporate mission is to create the fair market value of real and personal property, these visualization capabilities will be extremely helpful.
From a management perspective, the ability to monitor and measure performance is a tremendous improvement. With the workflow tools providing the capability to assess workloads and processing time, we will be able to make better resource allocation decisions. We hope to significantly improve the level of service we offer to the citizens by being able to evaluate how and what we are doing.
As public servants, we are also pleased with the ability to offer easier access to information and services through the use of the web and integrated database. The new technology allows us to reach citizens in different environments and should also reduce the amount of staff time to handle public requests for information and service.
Edward Crapo, CFA, ASA
Alachua County Property Appraiser
Alachua County
12 SouthEast 1st Street, Room 213
Gainesville, Florida
32602-3817
Phone: 352-374-5230
Fax: 352-374-5278
Email: ecrapo@co.alachua.fl.us