Two accuse assessor of raising home values illegally

ST. LOUIS -- Calling for an investigation, two St. Louis County Council members have accused the county assessor of perhaps illegally raising property values -- and tax bills -- for 46,000 homeowners through questioned home inspections, according to a newspaper report.

Council Chairman Kurt Odenwald of Shrewsbury and Councilman Greg Quinn of Ballwin, both Republicans, say they will ask the council Tuesday for public hearings over the assessments and home inspections, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday.

"I have serious doubts that these inspections were done in a manner required by law," Odenwald said, as well as doubts that "homeowners are being taxed in a manner required by law."

Assessor Maurice Gogarty and Director of Revenue Mike McIver say the assessments and the inspections are legal. Gogarty said they "fairly represent what the properties are worth," and he welcomes an investigation.

Odenwald and Quinn are focusing on assessments that raised property values by 17 percent to 95 percent. While state law requires a "physical inspection" for every property that the assessor wants to increase by at least 17 percent, the law is unclear whether the house may be viewed from outside or whether a full interior inspection must be done.

46,000 properties

Assessor's records, presented by the two council members, show that 48 inspectors claimed to have inspected the 46,000 properties in a six-week period.

The records show that the inspectors physically inspected an average of 1,000 homes a day from April 2 to May 10; before that time, the inspectors inspected only an average of 100 a day. And the records show that 3,658 homes were inspected April 26 -- the most inspections ever claimed by county inspectors in a single day. If all 48 inspectors worked on just residential inspections alone, each would have had to inspect 76 homes that day.

One inspector claimed to have inspected 1,695 homes April 27. To do that, the inspector would have had to inspect 3.5 homes every minute during an eight-hour shift.

Gogarty said that number is misleading in that the inspector did that work over a two-week period. Still, that would mean the inspector would have inspected 169 homes a day for the 10 days worked over two weeks.

Gogarty defends the performance of his office, saying all the homes in question were properly inspected.

"We set the standard in terms of appraisal expertise, effort and providing good service to the taxpayers in St. Louis County," Gogarty said. "To make the claim that this office is not meeting its statutory duties according to the law is nothing short of derelict."

Previously undervalued

Gogarty said that the biggest jumps in home assessments -- largely in Richmond Heights, Maplewood and University City -- were because of improved market values and because the previous assessor undervalued those homes.

"What we are primarily finding is that when it's all said and done, the values are accurate -- they do fairly represent what the properties are worth," Gogarty said.

If the inspections are deemed fraudulent, the tax bills that just went out and are due to be paid in December will be invalid.

Odenwald and Quinn said that as soon as the preliminary county property assessments went out six months ago, they were flooded with angry calls. Quinn said it was the elderly, on fixed incomes, who he found most troubled by the increases.

An example: 74-year-old Dolores Doerr of Richmond Heights said the assessor set her home's value at $142,680, a 62 percent jump from the $88,000 it had been two years ago. She said that she didn't know anything about an inspection and doesn't know how she and her husband, living on Social Security and a retirement check, can afford her tax bill -- now more than $2,000.

"We haven't changed a thing on our house," Doerr said. "We can't afford this."

As part of the sought investigation, Odenwald and Quinn want to see records showing names and numbers of all inspectors, the actual inspection sheets, the inspectors' routes and their mileage.