This year, the Polk County Property Appraiser's office has implemented an innovative solution, the “baby checker”, that has significantly improved the efficiency and accuracy of our data entry process. By integrating the Department of Revenue’s data edit checklist into our CAMA WinRDE/WinTDE applications we have:

• Reduced research time: The baby checker provides instant feedback on errors, allowing data enterers to quickly identify and correct mistakes.
• Increased productivity: With fewer errors and reduced research time, data enterers can process more data entry tasks with greater accuracy.
• Improved confidence: The instant gratification of receiving a “NO ERRORS FOUND” message promotes confidence and assurance among data enterers.

The baby checker is a subset of the DOR data edit checklist. This feature is integrated within our CAMA WinRDE / WinTDE applications and allows a data enterer to launch the baby checker instantaneously.

Once the baby checker is launched it cross references the recent data entry against DOR level 4 edits, in the event errors are found, a detailed error message pops up. This provides the data enterer with key details of the error allowing them the opportunity to investigate and promptly correct the error.

The Polk County Property Appraiser prides itself on submitting one of the cleanest tax rolls to the Department of Revenue (DOR) at each Tax Roll event. The implementation of our “baby checker” has contributed to this success.

Our commitment to innovation and community engagement during 2023-2024 year, has significantly enhanced our services and outreach efforts to the public.

Our journey began with the complete overhaul of our existing website, aligning it seamlessly with the modern design and feel of the Santa Fe County platform. This strategic update not only enhanced user experience but also brought a fresh, user-friendly interface to our online presence; ensuring continued high-quality customer service to our community. During this time, our pursuit of innovation led us to revamp our chat system. We were able to reintroduce our newly upgraded after-hours chatbot, equipped with an advanced knowledge base feature. Our chatbot's automated, intelligent responses have empowered users to access information and complete tasks efficiently, outside of regular business hours.

In November 2023, we began another massive undertaking as it relates to property valuation. This was the implementation of the Short-Term Rental Project. In the State of New Mexico, there are two types of classifications for properties: residential or non-residential. Our job is to determine what the predominant use for each licensed short-term rental is, we accomplished this goal by mailing out a questionnaire, and requiring a response from the property owners. Despite the challenges we encountered through this process, our thorough approach in determining property classifications and educating the public through several outreach initiatives has been instrumental in the overall success and completion of this project.

Finally, it was important for us to come together and build better relationships with Santa Fe County, the Board of Santa Fe County Commissioners, our fellow elected offices, the New Mexico Counties Assessor’s Affiliate and the Property Tax Division (PTD). Our efforts included training sessions, where we made it our initiative to teach others about the roles and responsibilities of the Assessor’s Office. These sessions included collaborative educational discussions on radio platforms, office gatherings including meeting with the Santa Fe Realtor’s Association and tile companies/realtor firms, and participation in Santa Fe County's podcast "Beyond County Lines". 

These initiatives have strengthened public trust and transparency. In addition, we created an informative video with the Santa Fe County Manager’s Office for the community that explains our process from picking up a newly built house to mapping, assessing, and mailing out the Notice of Value (NOV). Additionally, we worked with PTD and the New Mexico Counties Assessor’s Affiliate to collaborate and reconstruct our official NOVs in order to become more consistent across New Mexico.

Mendocino County has come a long way since our go-live, and this last year marks a real tipping point in the way we collectively address challenges. Work on the Corrections, Supplementals, and Escapes (CSE) project alone was a massive endeavor that provided Supplemental tax revenue to the County, and important refunds due to taxpayers. Our Auditor optimization project is in progress and is yielding positive results. Mendocino County, with Aumentum, has really come together to tackle complex problems collaboratively through stronger partnership. 

The Aumentum Professional Services Team worked closely with Mendocino staff to help them process their corrections, supplementals, and escapes to catch up on this work. That resulted in large tax revenue to the County and overdue refunds finally getting to taxpayers. This effort took a good portion of the year to complete everything. We hit some challenges along the way, on both sides, and worked together as a cohesive team to overcome them. It was a huge success. After the CSE project ended, the County asked for additional PS assistance for the Auditor’s Office, which was called the Auditor Optimization Project. That is still ongoing and is another example of Mendocino and Aumentum Technologies partnering to ensure their success. We have formed a great partnership with these two projects.

Under the guidance of the CAMA / Tax Roll Oversight Director, Mr. Srini Kommineni, leads a team of only four members, who are responsible for managing all customCAMA applications, including WinRDE, WinTDE, and Lookup Maintenance, which serve the constituents of Florida's fastest-growing county. The County's rapid growth has resulted in an unprecedented surge in deed transfers, exemption filings, and residential new construction, making it crucial to minimize interruptions to these applications and meet statutory deadlines.

The team took a deliberate and meticulous approach to upgrading to customCAMA Version 5X, recognizing the potential risks and benefits. To mitigate potential disruptions, they:

• Conducted in-depth testing of departmental business practices
• Reproduced and resolved reported issues
• Documented procedures and reported concerns/bugs
• Implemented resolutions and workarounds

The team demonstrated exceptional teamwork and communication skills, working closely with each department to:

• Monitor known issues and report roadblocks
• Provide timely resolutions and hot fixes, often working weekends
• Collaborated with Aumentum Development Manager, Mr. Stephen Dunagan, to ensure rapid issue resolution

Their dedication and perseverance enabled Polk County to become the first to deploy customCAMA Version 5X, showcasing their pioneering spirit and commitment to excellence. Through active communication and transparent progress updates, the team built confidence with senior management, addressing concerns and presenting the benefits of upgrading, including enhanced security features and compliance with the Florida Information Protection Act.

Kevin is our go-to guy whenever we need any assistance with our County Works program through Aumentum. He is a very pleasant person to talk to and work with, always very diligent in getting back to us in a timely manner and pays a superb amount of attention to detail. If he cannot personally contact us, he has others in touch to get those details and relay back to him. 

It is very reassuring to know that being rural America out here in Southwest Kansas, we have someone we can rely on to provide us the customer service we expect to receive. There have been some obstacles the past couple years and hurdles to jump regarding the County Works program and at times has created some frustration in our workplace, but we can always count on Kevin and his team to handle our matters with the utmost professionalism, respect, clear communication and just down right desire to solve any issues we incur. 

There has been an ongoing process of merging County Works with Patriot and some Aumentum reps seem to know the Patriot program and not much about County Works. Luckily, Kevin is very familiar with the County Works program so he is literally our life line when questions or issues arise. He never leaves us hanging with outstanding tickets, and will dig in and make sure there is resolve with everything we present. We highly recommend consideration of this individual for this very deserving award, as he is a tremendous asset for our County and other surrounding Counties!

Nominated By: Amy Rich – Deputy County Clerk, Stevens County Clerk's Office/Southwest Kansas

Connie played a critical role in working with the Mendocino team on the Corrections, Supplementals, and Escapes project. Connie acted as facilitator for the project, ensuring the team was all working toward the same goals. Connie and the Aumentum team worked closely with Mendocino staff to help them process their corrections, supplementals, and escapes to catch them up on this work. That resulted in large tax revenue to the County and overdue refunds finally getting to taxpayers. Connie worked with the team to manage through some challenges along the way, and the project was a huge success. 

Nominated by: Mendocino County for her pivotal role in managing a highly successful CSE project.