In this episode, we're joined by Board of Review Commissioner Samantha Steele (and her Chief of Staff, Dan Balanoff) from Cook County, Illinois to talk about being an elected official, best practices, as well as new trends in the assessment field:
We cover:
Introduction to Assessment Matters podcast 00:00
Samantha’s (and Dan’s) background 00:23
Samantha’s background in real estate brokerage, real estate valuation, tax representation, and elected office
Important innovations 6:19
Working with old CAMA systems and moving towards upgrades
Automation to handle high volume (of appeals)
Moving towards automatic evaluation models 9:08
The need for more consistently updated data
Difficulties and challenges when properties are not consistently (re)delineated and reassessed
What is uniformity and why is it important? 11:46
Vertical vs horizontal equity
Long term plans 13:30
Property appraisal is a long-term project
Developing a better culture for the office
What drives the high number of appeals in Cook County? 15:10
Attorney requirements
Profit in the appraisal industry — bad incentives and lack of transparency
Overcoming a history of corruption and lack of government trust in Illinois
Parting advice 17:05
Getting involved with IAAO
How to reach Sam
