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Property appraiser seeks AI tools and nearly $500,000 in pay adjustments to retain staff
Summary
Chief Appraiser Calvin Hicks told the FAB committee House Bill 581 and market pressures are pushing the Property Appraisal Department to invest in AI for valuations and to correct pay inequities, citing a $497,561 in-grade adjustment request and a multi-year AI cost estimate.
Calvin Hicks, chief appraiser for the DeKalb County Property Appraisal Department, asked the Finance, Audit and Budget Committee on Feb. 13 to consider two major items for the 2025 budget: a proposed computer-assisted appraisal tool that would use artificial intelligence, and $497,561 in in-grade pay adjustments across about 69 positions.
Hicks said the AI tool would augment the department’s existing computer-assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) models, speed processing for residential and commercial valuations and help the office meet new timetable requirements established by House Bill 581. He presented a five-year cost estimate for the AI application and said that when spread across DeKalb’s roughly 245,000 parcels it would add only “maybe $2” per parcel; the five-year projected total cost he cited to commissioners was about $3,000,000.
“AI applications also will be utilized to support the values that are determined from the market activity,” Hicks said, adding that Cobb County already uses a similar system and that the department is studying vendor performance and implementation options.
Hicks said the second request — about $497,561 — would be used for in-grade adjustments to fix pay inconsistencies among appraisers and other staff without changing existing classifications. He told commissioners that Fulton and Cobb counties generally pay more and that DeKalb has been losing trained staff to neighboring jurisdictions. Hicks said the department currently has 70 authorized positions and one vacancy.
Commissioners asked whether AI would reduce staffing needs and how the department would validate AI-generated valuations. Hicks replied that no internal analysis of staff reductions has been completed yet, though vendors claim efficiencies; he said human review would remain part of the process and that adoption would be tracked to measure realized efficiencies. He also noted statutory and administrative changes tied to House Bill 581 that complicate timelines for assessment notices and could require faster appraisal production.
Hicks said the department already recalibrates market models each year and that the state’s audit and revenue divisions review appraisal results for statistical uniformity. He offered to provide commissioners with more detailed salary comparisons to Fulton and Cobb counties upon request.
The requests were presented for committee consideration; no funding decision was made on Feb. 13.
