Supervisors to consider new process for appealing assessments

Bee Staff Reports

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The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors today is scheduled to:

Create a new process for property assessment appeals. Hoping to clear a backlog of 382 cases within a two-year deadline for hearing appeals, the county wants to establish the position of assessment hearing officer. Current members of the three-person Assessment Appeals Board could hear uncomplicated cases individually, as is done in 10 others counties, and continue to handle complex cases together. In 2007, 1,540 property owners disputed their assessments. The assessor's office recently lowered assessments on 62 percent of homes, reducing values a combined 7.7 percent to $37.3 billion.

Seek operators interested in running a huge solar farm on county-owned land next to the Fink Road Landfill. A farmer and a rancher pay the county a combined $143,000 per year to lease 1,800 acres designated for landfill expansion in future decades. But their leases expire Nov. 3 and county staff members think a solar farm would bring more money. "Several parties" are intrigued because major transmission lines at the adjacent garbage-burning plant could conduct power generated by solar panels, according to a report. An evaluation panel could review proposals after which the top contender would have a year to negotiate with the county. West Side communities could host informational public workshops during that year, the report says.

Sell retiring sheriff's K-9 Zeus to his handler, Deputy Jesse Grogan, for $1. The 9-year-old Australian shepherd's failing health has produced more than $1,600 in veterinary bills the past two years. Zeus has worked for the department since March 2005.

Accept $2.5 million in a federal Community Oriented Police Services grant, as announced in late July. The grant will preserve jobs of two deputies in Riverbank and two in Patterson, both of which contract with the county for law enforcement, and allow the department to hire four more to patrol Empire, Denair, Salida and Keyes. The grant covers salaries and benefits for three years and requires that agencies keep officers on the job at least for a fourth year. By then, their annual compensation will have grown to a combined $908,000; Riverbank and Patterson agreed to pay $227,000 each, or the full amount for their officers that year.

Give $40,000 in redevelopment money to the Monterey Park Tract Community Services District, to attract a $200,000 state safe drinking water grant for a study. The neighborhood's two wells produce water of questionable quality. Officials want to drill a test well on a parcel acquired by the county after a home burned in 2001 and could drill another close to the tract if the first doesn't produce good water. An option might be to hook the tract's 38 parcels to Ceres' water system.

Approve a $5.4 million budget for the county's redevelopment agency. Some projects can't be done because the state will take most of the agency's money, $2.8 million, for its own fiscal crisis, according to a staff report. Of the rest, $1.3 million would cover payments for past or ongoing projects, including sewers in south Modesto's Bret Harte neighborhood, storm drains in Salida and Keyes and downpayment loans for home buyers in need.

Pay $350,200 for a new storm drain cleaner. Also known as a "suction truck," the Florida-made machine would unclog storm drain inlets and could be delivered in February.