Congratulations 2022 ACE Awards Winners!

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  • Excellence in Business Process Transformation - Osceola County, Florida Appraiser’s Office

In the State of Florida, the local County Property Appraiser is responsible for administering the Homestead Exemption a benefit that reduces the Property Tax burden and caps future increases in Property Values. Each year, our office processes 7K 10K Homestead Exemption applications. The goal of this project was to improve the ease of filing the application, yet implement controls using Technology to prevent fraudulent filings. Our application design guarantees a consistent user experience and application support from our staff. We have redesigned the State’s Official application form to provide a consistent user experience, without compromising the data integrity. Once the property is purchased, the new owners automatically receive a letter, inviting and reminding them to file for this tax saving benefit. Home owners then complete the application in under 7 minutes and receive confirmation receipt. Next, they would then get notified when the application is approved. The average reduction in Property Value is $50K and the average property tax saving is $750/year. In the past, this process would require applicants to come in person to verify their identity and documents, and would take 4-5 months for the decision. We are happy to eliminate the need for in person visits and reduce the decision time by almost 75%.

 

  • Excellence in Office Leadership - Jill Smith, Kootenai County, Idaho

As a leader, she continually strives to lead by example and is committed to helping the team work smarter rather than harder. She communicates with the team regularly, even about things that don’t affect them directly but may benefit them to know. We have worked as a team and have established values and goals and are collaboratively creating a new mission statement. Within 3 months of working for Kootenai County, Jill was able to restructure our Organization Chart and reclassify ALL of our team members. This created an opportunity for advancement within the team based on skills mastered allowing us to retain talented team members and resulted in a raise in pay for all.

 

  • Excellence in Community Service - Canyon County, Idaho Assessor’s Office

The Canyon County Assessor’s Office has strived to overcome the multiple challenges of the past several years, instituting changes within their assessment office to better serve the public. From COVID driven concerns, to ongoing staff shortages due to COVID, to the real estate boom in the State of Idaho, Brian Stender has pivoted on more than one occasion to best serve his Canyon County, Idaho constituents & COMMUNITY with increased communication designed to provide further transparency as they navigated these challenges. Assessor Stender’s Mantra has always been to “Work Smarter not Harder,” but with the changing economic and workforce climate we must also “Leverage Technology to create efficiencies for our current workforce, we must be good a steward of Property Owner’s Tax dollars.” 

 

  • Excellence in Crisis Management - McCook County, South Dakota Assessor’s Office

On the evening the evening of Thursday, May 12, 2022, McCook County South Dakota was hit by straight line of 100 miles per hour winds, a natural phenomenon known as a Derecho. As soon as the dark sky cleared, and the winds calmed, residents went straight to work helping each other and ensuring that no lives were in danger. As news from the community began to be shared, it was evident that this storm was not isolated. The footprint of this storm was vast and touched each boundary of McCook County and causing over one hundred million dollars in property damage. The commissioners of McCook County declared a state of emergency/disaster on May 13, 2022. Many citizens still without power and multiple people displaced from their homes at this time. Property damage encompassed every community within the county borders and finding a way to move forward seemed overwhelming. Being the only assessor for the county, Cori knew she would be unable to do an equalized assessment of damages alone and requested a special meeting of the Commissioners on May 17th where she proposed spending American Rescue Plan funds for a fly over imagery capture of McCook County. Using the fresh aerial imagery provided by Eagle View, and in conjunction with her ProVal software, she has been able to provide fair damage assessments county wide that help to calculate the financial impact to the county. Cori was also able to share information from ProVal and aerial imagery with other entities that have aided their citizens in relief programs, and at the May 17th meeting she also proposed no fee building permits due to replacement or removal of damaged structures. What seemed like a very big and unmanageable task turned out to be an opportunity to connect and assist the people in a great time of need.

 

  • Jurisdiction of the Year - Riverside County, California

When the pandemic started in 2020, Riverside County ACR was able to quickly transition to a new paradigm where most of our workers worked from home. Our work with Aumentum Tech to move to a web based system made this possible. Riverside County is the 10th most populous county in the country, but in spite of our size, we moved with speed and agility. ACR served as a model for the rest of our county. As our workloads have increased, we have continued to respond to new challenges. For the 2022 tax year, ACR’s workload increased by about 20% from 2021. We currently work 38% of our transfers using a program called Direct Enrollment. Direct Enrollment uses predictive modeling to compare a property’s sale price to the predicted sale price without any human intervention. Using the Data Analysis and Processing tool developed in partnership with Aumentum Tech to meet our business needs, we worked 128,000 annual reviews for declines in value. In 2022, we instituted a new process to finalize our annual roll. Prior to 2022, the process last 48 hours straight through and, to minimize risk, we ran the process weeks prior to our actual deadline. In 2022, due to the increased workload, we needed  extra time to close the roll. Again, working with Aumentum Tech, we instituted a new process which allowed us to stretch our processing over 2 weekends. We were able to give our field offices an additional week to finish their work and close the roll. In total, Riverside County’s roll increased 9.26% from 2021 to 2022 without an increase in our staffing levels.

 

  • 2022 Jeff Watkins ACE Award for Professional Services. For Excellence in Project Milestone Delivery - Dan March, Sutter County, California

  • Dan was awarded the 2022 Jeff Watkins ACE Award for demonstrating the following qualities:
  • Teamwork & true partnership
  • Positive demeanor
  • Focused on solutions not problems
  • Going above and beyond
  • Bridged the gap between data and process
  • Decades of knowledge with County legacy system, data and county process
  • Quick to research, analyze and find root cause of data issues / legacy nuances
  • Helped users through change (old way vs. new way)
  • Promoted confidence in the state of the project

 

  • 2022 Shane Concepcion ACE Award For Excellence in Customer Service - Chris Jones

Chris is excellent at supporting our customers. She takes the time to get to know the people and provide them with support, which includes digging in, understanding their processes, and understanding how Aumentum fits into those processes. She is an excellent collaborator internally too. She does whatever she can to assist R&D and other teams to be successful for the customer. She is friendly and knowledgeable and really displays the positive Harris values that make for a top-notch performer. Chris has the best leadership skills I have ever seen. She goes above and beyond to make sure everyone has what they need to move forward. I am proud to be able to learn from her every day. She will never ask her people to do anything she isn't willing to do herself. To top it all off, her customer service skills are bar none. Advocating for the customer is second nature for her. 
 

Categories
Excellence in Business Process Transformation

Evaluation criteria:

  • How has implementing a new or unique business process transformed the way your nominee’s office functions day to day? How has this impacted their ability to service the community? Examples may include, but are not limited to, new process implementation, updated technology deployment or change management.
  • Applicants should demonstrate how increased levels of quality have been realized and list the business benefits. Include any key performance indicators to track results. Examples may include, but are not limited to, efficiency gains, resource savings or shortened processing times.
Excellence in Office Leadership

Evaluation criteria:

  • How has your nominated individual displayed high levels of leadership and accountability within their office in order to deliver excellence in servicing the community?
  • Applicants should demonstrate ways in which the individual has increased levels of quality or has improved community outreach within their office in the last year.
Excellence in Community Service

Evaluation criteria:

  • Do you know an Aumentum customer who is an outstanding member of your community, either as an office leader or a community leader? This person may have demonstrated tremendous dedication to an office, a social charitable group or a community board, such as for education or fire services. 
  • Applicants should describe the nominee’s cause: how long have they been a part of this cause, and what impact has this individual had? The more detailed, the better. As an example, any information about the impact and outcomes on affected individuals’ lives, or about any achievements that stemmed from the nominee’s efforts will be a help to the evaluation committee.
Excellence in Crisis Management

Evaluation criteria:

  • How has the nominee stepped up in a time of need to provide critical services and outreach to your community?
  • Applicants should describe a critical moment or event that impacted the community — for instance, a natural disaster, significant change in governance structures or a community response to a policy decision — and explain how the nominee effectively responded to and managed this crisis.
Jurisdiction of the Year

Evaluation criteria:

  • How has this jurisdiction overcome significant challenges or pioneered innovation to vastly improve services for its constituents? 
  • Applicants should describe how the jurisdiction demonstrated innovative leadership to overcome obstacles to better serve their community.