An unassessable value

Thirty one years, seven months and eight days.

That is how long Union County Assessor Gene Haner has served the county before he retires Dec. 31.

Union County Board of Supervisors regretfully accepted and approved Haner’s resignation at their regularly scheduled meeting Monday.

“Gene has been here long term, has been very faithful and great to work with,” said Union County Board of Supervisor Chairman Dennis Brown. “We are really going to miss him.”

Biggest change

The assessor’s primary duty and responsibility is to assess all real property within their jurisdiction except that which is otherwise provided by law. This would include residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural classes of property.

“I have enjoyed working with Gene for the last 25 years,” said Union County Auditor Sandy Hysell. “We worked closely with real estate, making it available online.”

When Haner moved into the lower level of the Union County Courthouse 31 years ago, there were no computers.

Instead, he worked with huge map books — similar to the one pictured above — and would hand draw any property splits.

“Computers have made things much easier,” Haner said. “The new GIS (Geographic Informational System) is the biggest improvement we have made.”

GIS is an aerial view of the entire county and allows Haner to zoom in on individual properties. The county updated their aerial pictures for the system in March.

“Before, we had to do it by hand,” Haner said. “It would take three to four days. Now it just takes us a couple of hours.”

Haner can use GIS to split a property, and it gives him a print out of the soil type, a rating of the property and the full value of the land.

An assessor is concerned with value, not taxes. The taxes paid are proportionate to the value of property compared to the total value of the taxing district in which the property is located.

“I think that is what I have enjoyed most, working with this new GIS,” Haner said.

What’s next

An examining board has been put into place with one representative for the county, cities and school districts.

“They are meeting Thursday night for their organizational meeting,” Haner said. “Then they will need to contact the (Iowa) Department of Revenue to get a list of all eligible people that have passed the assessors test.”

The examining board is composed of Curt Turner, Fran Bakerink and Phillip Waigand.

After the board receives the list of eligible people, they will ask for applications and conduct interviews.

“There are two types of appointments,” Haner said. “One is a provisional appointment where they have no experience in the office, but the (Iowa) Department of Revenue comes down for six months to help get them started.”

The other appointment is a standard appointment — which is how Haner was appointed — where the applicant has experience and the department does not come down.

If the examining board recommends a provisional appointment, funding for the Iowa Department of Revenue to come down for training comes out of the assessor’s budget.

“All the counties as far as the assessment field are similar,” Haner said.

The examining board’s recommendation goes to the conference board, which is the county supervisors, city mayors and school boards in the county. They each have one vote to approve or deny the recommendation.

Supervisor Ron Riley said he is encouraged by the experienced staff of Vickie Smith, deputy, and Joni Cook, assistant, that will be able to help give the new assessor a smooth transition.

As for Haner’s plans for retirement, he said he has a pretty good idea what he will be doing.

“I will do whatever my wife tells me,” Haner said with a laugh.

They are already in the process of planning a trip to Las Vegas in the spring to visit their children, grandchildren and new great-grandchild.