Published: October 06, 2009 12:36 pm      

CCAD to collect for three additional taxing units

Board members voted 4-0 to approve the collection contracts during the Cooke County Appraisal District (CCAD) board of directors meeting Oct. 1.

CCAD Chief Appraiser Doug Smithson said CCAD will be collecting this year for three additional taxing units, the Collinsville Independent School District, Muenster City and Muenster Water.

Smithson said that CCAD handles the “collection contracts” for all entities and then distributes the monies to the entities.

The contracts were signed by board members during the meeting.

Smithson reported the 2009 tax statements are scheduled to be mailed out Tuesday, Oct. 6 by the CCAD.

Valley View Independent School District is having a rollback election Nov. 3. and opted not to have the school listed on the original tax statements and will wait until the election takes place to send out their tax statements.

Board members voted 4-0 to approve the 2010 Texas Municipal League (TML) insurance contract for CCAD’s health, auto and building insurance.

TML was revising their contract for clarification. All clients with an anniversary date of October 2009 needed to update their contract.

Following discussion, board members voted 5-0 to settle the lawsuits of Gainesville Joint Ventures and Parkridge Apartments out of court.

Board members discussed the Appraisal Standards Review/Methods and Assistance Program.

The Texas state comptroller is required to review appraisal districts and provide checklists for them to govern how the districts appraise. This includes the appraisal district’s governance, taxpayer assistance, operating procedures and appraisal standards and methodology.

The Methods and Assistance Program (MAP) review is to be conducted in accordance with Tax Code Section 5.102, effective Jan. 1, 2010, and related Comptroller rule 9.301 (proposed).

Board members discussed possible new members for the 2010 Appraisal Review Board.

Board members received evaluation forms to assist them in evaluating the CCAD chief appraiser. The evaluation will be a future agenda item.

Smithson distributed an example of a public comments card to board members to use for meetings when citizens come to make comments before the board. The card includes the name of the citizen and the agenda item they wish to address and informs citizen of a five-minute maximum comments time-frame.

Board members said they will use the public comments form.

Board members approved the minutes of the Aug. 13 board of director’s meeting by a 4-0 vote after making one revision to the wording. The motion to approve the 2010 budget with a two percent raise across the board “failed,” not “abstained”, due to no second.

Board members reviewed the consent items, which were the payment of bills for CCAD’s day to day operations and the financial statements.

Dean Mendenhall attended part of the meeting and did not vote on all items.