PORTSMOUTH — Since taking over as interim assessor in March, Janey Culpepper says her office slashed $41.2 million from the overall value for this year’s real estate assessments in the city.
The reduction followed a months-long review of assessments conducted by Culpepper’s predecessor, Patrick Dorris, with whom the City Council parted ways earlier this year. Culpepper previously said her office spotted inaccuracies with those assessments with the tools used and the values determined, and that she’s since worked to make adjustments.
Culpepper told City Council earlier this year that her office shaved off more than $182 million in overall residential real estate assessment value since she took over. She told The Virginian-Pilot this week that the overall reduced figure of $41 million, including residential and commercial value, was offset by the assessment of larger properties, such as the casino — meaning some value was added as other values were being reduced in the adjustments.
Since adjustments were ongoing during fiscal budget discussions, City Council enacted a one-time 5-cent real estate tax credit as a way to grant tax relief without permanently changing the tax rate, which is $1.30 per $100 of assessed value.
Even with the adjustments, however, the final land book value is on par with what was estimated in tax revenue in the fiscal budget. The total land book value, which includes final figures for citywide real property information, shows the total value for fiscal year 2024 is $9.9 billion, which represents a 13.2% increase from the previous fiscal year, according to Culpepper. That results in $124.3 million of tax revenue — about the same amount estimated in the adopted fiscal 2024 budget.
Additional changes have been filed for the land book as of Aug. 15, resulting in an additional $78,643 in revenue, according to Culpepper.
Overall, Culpepper said her office made adjustments to 81 neighborhoods across the city.
But Culpepper said she needs more resources to review hundreds more parcels to capture an additional $40 to $60 million of value, which could mean more tax revenue for the city. In a July email exchange obtained by The Pilot, Culpepper laid out the concern to City Council members and Interim City Manager Mimi Terry, stating that the backlog was due to insufficient staffing and funding for her office.
Culpepper told The Virginian-Pilot this week that more than 500 parcels, mostly commercial, are still in need of review — some of which have building permits that date back as far as 2016. Though it’s hard to know how much revenue that could generate, Culpepper said it can range from several thousand to several hundred thousand dollars.
She also said it’s time to conduct audits out in the field, something she said is due every six years. Audits involve a review of property record cards in each neighborhood to compare it with what’s actually there.
Culpepper said the pandemic played a big role in the backlog but that “we need to go out and capture all of this.”
But Terry, reached by phone Thursday, told The Pilot she can’t gauge how concerning the potential uncaptured value is for the city since it doesn’t say much about how much tax revenue that amounts to, particularly because it’s unclear how many of those remaining parcels are tax-exempt. About 40% of the land inside the city limits is unable to be taxed, which includes places like the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
The 2023-24 budget includes 11 authorized positions for the city assessor’s office — up one from the fiscal 2022 budget. Culpepper told The Pilot she currently has 10 positions filled but is working to hire two additional appraisers. Additional positions, however, would have to be authorized by City Council.
Terry stated in her email to Culpepper that the interim assessor had plenty of opportunities to request additional funding in the budget, including work sessions and a City Council retreat.
Terry and Culpepper are in interim positions that report to City Council. Members are looking for the the next permanent city manager, but no plans have been made to begin the same process for city assessor.
At a City Council meeting earlier this month, member De’Andre Barnes asked to begin the process of seeking a hiring firm for the appointment of a permanent city assessor, which Mayor Shannon Glover said would require further discussion and a closed session.
Barnes told The Pilot he’d like the Council to part ways with Culpepper and hire a permanent replacement, noting that she was the assessor while the Elizabeth Manor Golf and Country Club had its taxes abated for decades. Culpepper was promoted to city assessor in 2011 after working for the city for more than 20 years. She retired in 2017.
Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke told The Pilot it is the desire of City Council to have a permanent city assessor, but believes it’s best to focus on one hiring process at a time. She added that Culpepper knows she was brought back temporarily.
“But eventually, we do want to get permanent positions because interim forever and ever amen is never a good look for a city,” she said.
Lucas-Burke also said the backlog is a concern, but that it should be brought before City Council so it can better understand what’s needed in the office and how to move forward. She added that hiring staff has been an issue “in all fields.”
“(Now) that it is an issue on the table, whatever we can do as a council to help bring some resolve to it, we will certainly do, outside of sticking our hands into the day-to-day operation of city business,” she said.
Culpepper said she would like to stay on and see some things through, such as the implementation of a computer-assisted mass appraisal system that keeps property data and uses uniform valuations. Not having such a system in place was one reason cited for parting ways with Dorris, who previously said having it would have prevented the data errors spotted.
“I think she has the credentials and the track record and certainly the experience in being our assessor going forward,” council member Bill Moody, who led the votes in March to terminate Dorris and replace him with Culpepper, told The Pilot.
Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, [email protected]
