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Kootenai County assessor presses for five personnel changes; commissioners approve several conversions and progressions
Summary
Assessor Veil Kovacs urged the commissioners to keep five requested positions and career progressions in the FY26 budget; commissioners agreed to several conversions (including a business intelligence analyst and appraiser promotions) and discussed downgrading a planned commercial appraiser grade from 3 to 1 to limit near-term cost.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho ' The Kootenai County assessor briefed the Board of Commissioners on a package of staffing requests and career progressions during the July 11 FY26 budget deliberations, and commissioners agreed to retain several personnel progressions while asking for follow-up on timing and fillability.
Assessor Veil Kovacs told commissioners his submitted budget is "an extremely lean budget" and that the five full-time equivalents (FTEs) he requested are priorities. Kovacs said the assessor's request totaled about $6,800,000 for his office in the proposed package and described the request as roughly $139,000 lower than the current year in his calculations.
Commissioners voted informally (no recorded roll-call vote in the transcript) to keep career progressions for appraisers in the FY26 package and to approve a conversion of an appraisal technician 2 to a business intelligence analyst (BIA). Two commissioners expressed support for the BIA conversion, saying it should reduce routine clerical work and improve data processes for appraisers. "This position's operating so far above what I would classify tech 2 work to be... There's some... Excel mastery and mastery over the various systems," an assessor representative said of the person proposed for conversion.
The board also discussed converting several appraiser two positions to appraiser three as part of routine career progressions; the assessor said these movements are prorated to anniversary dates and are based on training, competency and tenure. Commissioners asked whether the progressions were contingent on state certification and on individual performance; assessor staff said they had reviewed individuals and identified those likely to qualify within the next fiscal year.
On a new commercial-appraiser request, two commissioners asked the assessor to lower the grade in the proposed budget from a Commercial Appraiser 3 to a Commercial Appraiser 1 (keeping step placement higher within the lower grade) to reduce near-term costs while preserving the position in staffing counts. The assessor said the office will attempt to recruit someone with income-approach experience but would consider promoting from within or downgrading if market candidates are not available.
Why it matters: assessor staffing affects appraisal workload, timeliness and fairness across property classes; commissioners flagged the risk of shifting workload onto residential taxpayers if commercial valuation resources are insufficient.
Ending: Commissioners left the personnel items largely in the proposed FY26 budget with instructions to the assessor to continue recruitment, to provide documentation on timing/prorating of progressions, and to return with updates if market conditions require grade or step changes.
