Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Training And Process Metrics topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County officials ask BOE to set metrics, expand training and separate complex appeals from routine calendars
Summary
Assessors and clerks told the BOE work group that clearer metrics, higher board member qualification standards and separate tracks or dockets for complex commercial appeals would reduce delays; Santa Clara and other counties described local best practices.
County officials and clerks urged the Board of Equalization to develop standardized metrics, expand statewide training for board members and consider separate tracks for complex, high‑value commercial appeals so routine residential hearings are not delayed by multi‑day cases.
Lawrence Stone, a county assessor who advises Santa Clara County’s AAB practices, told the BOE, “what gets measured gets done,” and recommended standardized time metrics for each stage of an appeal to identify where delays occur. Stone described a local appointment standard in Santa Clara that raises board qualifications (for example, preferring MAI appraisers, real‑estate attorneys and certified public accountants with commercial experience) and credited those higher standards with improved outcomes when dealing with complex property valuations.
Panelists and attendees proposed several operational steps: issue a BOE LTA (legal/administrative guidance) expanding existing effective administrative practices, develop scalable training for board members and clerks, and permit counties to adopt local rules or statewide guidance for “high‑value” or multi‑day tracks so those cases do not clog mixed agendas. Paul Waldman (CADAA) and others also suggested docketing systems that would allow parties to schedule prehearing steps and reduce serial continuances; some clerks opposed a rigid statewide docket requirement but supported interoperable, optional docketing tools.
Speakers cautioned that Los Angeles County is an outlier in scale and capacity and that any statewide recommendations must be scalable for medium and small counties. Officials asked the BOE to compile local rules and practices that have worked as potential models and to consider issuing a state‑level best‑practices LTA to guide counties of varying sizes.
