In one of the lengthiest workshops, The Rhea County Commission had two presentations, one dealing with the county going to a three-year reappraisal and another on the county’s computer system.
Property Assessor Debbie Byrd brought in Gabe Looney with County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) to make a presentation of the advantages of going to the three-year reappraisal versus the current five-year.
“With the five-year plan, you have two ratio studies done in the second and fourth years. The fourth-year ratio hurts counties by reducing any gain made and hurts the most," said Mr. Looney.
Mr. Looney pointed out it has been mentioned in Nashville that there is possible legislation being put forth this year to require all counties to go to a three-year plan. He also mentioned that some counties were looking at one- and two-year plans.
Mrs. Byrd said that with the three-year plan, appraisals will be closer to market value, and the county will not see huge losses in revenue as happened in 2024. She said due to the way the reappraisal was done, the county lost an estimated $1,014,428.
This loss also meant that those who qualified for tax relief received $150 for property taxes in 2022 and only got $107 in 2024 . “They have to make the difference up out of their pockets,” said Ms. Byrd. She also said that those who are in the Veteran Relief Program lost as well. “In 2022 they received $872 for property taxes and only got $590 in 2024 due to the ratio.”
The commission will take action on this proposal at its meeting next Tuesday.
The Commission will also take up a request from Sheriff Mike Neal to increase his salary.
He said, “I just recently found out that under the TCA I can get a salary supplement. I am able to get 10 percent of more of my salary for doing extra things outside the scope of my office.” He pointed out to commissioners that besides running the jail, which has now been declared a tier one workhouse, he also runs the Juvenile Detention Center and the Animal Shelter. He pointed out that at this time, the jail and juvenile detention are self sufficiently operating and are making money for the county.
Sheriff Neal said, “I’m not doing it for Mike Neal, I’m doing it for the future of this county. Doesn’t have anything to do with me. I’m doing it for the future sheriffs on down the line. If they make more than a Highway patrolman, then you’re going to get a whole lot better class of people running for office. You’re going to at least get some people in there that are going to run for office that can do a good job.” The commission voted to place it on the agenda for the Tuesday meeting.
Chad Mungin and Craig Rathbun from All Covered, a subsidiary of Konica-Minolta, recently did a survey of the Rhea County IT system and found that the majority of it was at the end of life and could not be upgraded. Mr. Mungin pointed out that the county was non-compliant with many federal and state regulations concerning computer systems. Finance Director Ralph Beck has been looking at a way to upgrade the county’s system for several months.
County Executive Jim Vincent said that he heard a presentation by All Covered at a recent County Mayors and Executives meeting in Murfreesboro.
“I would like to point out we could have got this meeting started 15 minutes earlier if the audio-visual equipment was working correctly in the Commission Room,” said Mr. Mungin. “You have to have seven remotes to run your system.”
Mr. Mungin pointed out that several Tennessee governments have recently been cyber attacked. “The city of Collegedale recently had more than 4,000 documents that appeared to have been taken from the city’s internal system and was posted on the dark web within two days. The city of Germantown was held hostage and had to pay $174,000 in ransom to get their system back. Half the Knoxville system was shut down for three days. And Henry County 911 fell victim to a ransomware attack.”
Mr. Mungin pointed out that All Covered could come in, bring the county’s system up to date and be running with new equipment within one to two months.
The County Commission took the information under advisement to be discussed at a later time.