Allowing counties to enter into agreements to jointly appoint a county assessor

This bill allows two or more counties to enter into an agreement under Code chapter 28E to jointly appoint a county assessor, employ a deputy assessor and necessary professional and clerical staff, and provide such services as can be carried out jointly and will operate to the counties’ mutual benefit. The county assessor appointed under the agreement is the official county assessor for each of the respective counties. The agreement shall provide for the determination of the cost of the joint program and the manner of allocation of the cost to each board of supervisors for inclusion in the respective budgets. Current law requires each county having an assessor to establish a conference board, which consists of the mayors of each incorporated city in the county, a member from each board of directors of the high school districts in the county, and the board of supervisors, with each group constituting a voting unit. For counties that share a county assessor, the conference board shall consist of the same voting units but shall include all required members from each county that jointly appoints the county assessor. In the event that the county assessor position is vacant and there is no deputy county assessor, the voting units shall appoint a county auditor from one of the counties to act as assessor. The bill makes conforming changes throughout Code chapter 441 (assessment and valuation of property), including changing certain instances of the word “county” or the phrase “city or county” to the word “jurisdiction” in order to accommodate instances of a county assessor that serves more than one county.