Commissioners heard about a continuing lack of property revaluation resolution from Bob Deaton, the town's self-appointed county revaluation watchdog, who has conducted extensive research into the process Mecklenburg County uses to reappraise the value of homes and land in Cornelius — a process that appears to be as murky as Lake Norman itself after a heavy summer downpour.
"Cornelius got hit, and it got hit hard," Deaton concluded. Saying he had much more to show commissioners when there is more available time, he added, rubbing his head, "Folks, trust me. You give me the time and you are going to be as bald as I am. You're not going to like what you see."
Cornelius lakefront homeowners, Deaton said, are paying artificially inflated property taxes simply because of a value arbitrarily assessed on something as subjective as the homeowners' view. They are paying extra, in essence, for their quality of life, and not for the actual value of the property.
For some others in Cornelius, quality of life has a different meaning, and the evening's first speaker, Ada Jenkins Center volunteer Rodney Short, said the facility is bursting at the seams of its historic black school site near downtown Davidson.
"As a Cornelius citizen, my quality of life, and perhaps your quality of life, is directly affected by the quality of life of our fellow citizens," Short told commissioners.
Invited to speak to the board by Commissioner Chuck Travis, who admitted he previously knew little about the multitude of services housed at the center, Short said the non-profit always faces the challenge of raising money. It is funded, he said, by the United Way, churches, individuals, companies, civic organizations and local government; the latter to the tune of about five percent of the total, with no funding provided by Cornelius. Ada Jenkins augments its budget with three to four large fundraisers per year.
It also has about 100 volunteers, 90 percent of whom are Davidson College students. The problem, Short told commissioners, is space, particularly room to expand its after-school program, which is now at capacity with 60 students in grades 1-5. Along with a teacher and teacher's assistant, each child has a tutor. That puts 22 people in each of six classrooms; a full house. The goal is to make certain at-risk students advance.
"I'm only aware of one student who didn't advance to the next grade," said Short. "The success rate has been very high and it's been around long enough that we're getting kids in high school coming back and crediting the program for putting them on the right path."
The program, though, ends after fifth grade. "When kids get into middle school," said Short, "we lose track of them. And that's not a good time to lose track of them."
Short didn't ask for anything specific of the town, but Travis felt the message was powerful enough to be presented to the board. And there's one other reason: the number of Cornelius residents being helped at the Ada Jenkins Center.
"This is a great story about a service that's being provided," said Travis. "Even though it is in a town next to us, when you look at the numbers, its primarily serving residents of our town."
Along with the child development program, the Ada Jenkins Center serves as a hub of several social services activities for northern Mecklenburg and southern Iredell counties. United Family Services uses space there, it is a Loaves and Fishes food pantry site, and it houses free medical services, adult job training and more.
Unclear and
present value
Deaton offered a different kind of sobering message to the board, mainly the continued dissatisfaction he and many other town residents have with their 2011 property appraisals by Mecklenburg County, and the lack of communication and cooperation from the county tax assessor's office in getting their disputes resolved.
He cited the phrase "stigma adjustments" in the state law that guides the revaluation process as being abused by the county. One such "stigma" is a lakefront property owner's view, which is purely subjective. Some lakefront property owners saw their taxes more than double at a time when the sale price for real estate continues to plummet.
"I want you folks to see enough to get comfortable enough to realize you are setting a tax rate for us on information that absolutely is flawed," Deaton said. Municipalities adjust their own property tax rates based on the county's revaluation of property within their limits.
Deaton asked for the town's help in pressuring the county to be more responsive and equitable, and an informal poll of town staff by commissioners indicated they, too, are getting very little tangible data from the county. Commissioner Dave Gilroy suggested a formal letter to the county signed by the mayor, but Town Attorney Bill Brown said the structure is such that the process is one-on-one, property owner to tax assessor.
"At the end of the day, the only real relief you have is getting the folks in Raleigh who write those statutes to look at the possibility that there could be methodology and systemic errors in the process, and write in some relief." Brown said.
