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

This bill allows two or more counties to enter into an agreement under Code chapter 28E to jointly share the services of a county assessor, chief deputy assessor, and professional and clerical assistants for the assessor.6 in all of the counties that the assessor will serve. The agreement shall provide for the determination of the cost of the shared assessor and staff and the manner of allocation of the cost to each county for inclusion in the respective budgets. The agreement shall designate one conference board to make payments for salaries and other costs, and that conference board shall be reimbursed by the other conference boards as provided by the agreement. The agreement may provide for the methods of abolishing the shared assessor agreement and the procedure to resolve a tie vote in any action taken by the conference boards. The bill states that a shared assessor shall have all of the same powers and duties, and be subject to the same restrictions, as a county assessor. However, an assessor serving multiple counties does not violate the duty to devote the assessor’s full time to the duties of the office or refrain from another occupation or business that interferes with the assessor’s duties by serving multiple counties that have agreed to share the assessor.