Sussex County Council Approves Tyler Technologies for Reassessment
The Sussex County Council has approved entering into a contract with Tyler Technologies to perform the real property reassessment for the County. The County received two proposals in response to a Request For Proposal (RFP). One from Pearson’s Appraisal Service, with a completion date of January 2025 and a base amount of $13.9-million. The second from Tyler Technologies with a completion date of February 2024 and a base amount of $9-million.
After evaluation of the proposals, ranking of vendors, review of interview answers and checking of references, the committee recommends Tyler Technologies based on the following:
- They scored the highest of the two vendors in Experience, Quality of Work, Capacity to
Perform, Methodology for Execution and Price. - They were able to provide a bid on all needs requested by the County.
- They are a stable company. They have more than 15,000 local government clients throughout all fifty states.
- Tyler’s Appraisal & Tax Division was established in 1938 in Dayton, Ohio and remains the country’s only national mass appraisal company.
- Tyler has completed more projects in more states than any other vendor in the industry.
- We already purchased and use Tyler’s IasWorld Assessment Software that will be utilized to perform the reassessment project.
The project will begin on July 1, 2021 and is expected to be completed February 15, 2024.
This reassessment, which will be done by all three counties, settles an education funding lawsuit brought against each county and the State in the Court of Chancery in 2018, alleging an inadequate and outdated model for valuing property shortchanges Delaware students and public schools.
The Council also heard from County Administrator Todd Lawson, Finance Director Gina Jennings and Manager of Billing and Collections Katrina Mears about collections and delinquent property tax and utility payments. This was brought up by a group from the Covey Creek Home Owners Association who are dealing with delinquent home owners in their development.
Finance Director Gina Jennings told the council that in 2009 there was no staff for collections, but by the following year – there was a staff of one – with 10,700 delinquent accounts. Today – there is a manager for collections, Katrina Mears, and three staff members. They also now use multiple methods to bring in the past due revenue. There are currently 6623 delinquent accounts. The oldest property tax delinquency dates back to a 1984 mobile home which is $13.8-million in arrears. The oldest utility service is an 1994 residential bill that is over $2.9-million delinquent. However the County has become very successful in its collection process.
The County Council dealt with two upcoming vacancies – one on the Planning & Zoning Commission and one on the Board of Adjustment. Councilman John Rieley reappointed Holly Wingate to the P&Z and Councilwoman Cindy Green reappointed Jordan Warfel to the Board of Adjustment. Warfel was recently appointed to fill the remainder of the term held by Brent Workman who recently retired. His reappointment today is for a full 3-year term.
The afternoon session had three conditional use applications for the County Council to consider.
