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Letter to the editor

Despite questions, Pinellas buys land from county appraiser

Before a review of the appraisal was complete, the county closed on the property at a price nearly four times greater than its 2006 market value.

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published July 3, 2007

EAST LAKE - Pinellas County purchased a piece of vacant land last week from county Property Appraiser Jim Smith, despite several questions raised about whether the property had been overvalued.

The county's purchase Friday of the nearly 1.5-acre parcel bisected by Brooker Creek for $225,000 closed even before the county finished a review of the appraisal.

County Commission Chairman Ronnie Duncan expressed annoyance that the county moved before the review was complete. "It doesn't do us any good to have it today when we closed on it Friday, " he said Monday.

County staff defended the transaction, which the county commission signed off on a month ago.

But a review of the deal in recent weeks by the St. Petersburg Times showed:

• The county's Real Estate Division never obtained a survey of the land quantifying the amount of buildable uplands, the key piece of information for valuing the property.
   
  
• The county, in valuing the land, never formally considered water issues on the property, a substantial portion of which is in a flood plain, despite the outside appraiser's encouragement to do so before entering negotiations. None of the three comparison properties used by the appraiser to value the property have water bodies on them.
   
  
• The county's negotiations for the property - off Tarpon Woods Boulevard in the East Lake area - began in earnest only after Smith complained to County Manager Steve Spratt's office that without any notice, county crews had made damaging alterations to the property for flood control.
   
  
• The sum the county agreed to pay, $225,000, is nearly four times the 2006 Just Market Value set by Smith's own office for tax purposes, $59,400.

The tale of the site's proposed purchase has more twists than the creek that runs through it.

Smith, the county's property appraiser since 1988, fell in love with the property in 1994, viewing it as an urban oasis, and purchased it for $15,000. "It was what the Spaniards saw when they first came here, " he said.

A sculptor, he thought about building an artist's retreat with a view of woods, wildlife and the creek below. He found a house plan in a magazine and a site plan was approved about ten years ago. Because of water issues, the house would have to be elevated off the ground.

But a marriage put that plan on hold.

Then last September, Smith, 67, began reconsidering his plan. Smith gave his daughter Michelle Chapman, a new real estate agent, her first listing, telling her he would sell if she could get $400, 000 -- a number he said he pulled from thin air.

Smith said his desire to sell only grew early this year when he visited the site and found his would-be retreat was no longer so. Gone were trees and vegetation that had obscured nearby condominiums. There was a new channel cut in the creek and a boat ramp cut into the soil of the creek bank.

He complained to the county. "It was beautiful before, " he said.

The county's explanation: After the 2004 hurricanes, crews entered the property to clear trees, debris and silt that blocked drainage. They carved out a channel that they contend had existed before.

County staff said the boat ramp carved in the east bank of the main creek channel more recently is a mystery to them, too. Progress Energy removed vegetation along its easement on the west side of the property, helping to clear the view to the condos, the county said.

Smith's complaint landed on Peter Yauch's desk around March 19, his first week as an assistant county administrator. He oversees public works, which encompasses both the county's real estate division and the workers who would have cleared Smith's land.

Yauch said county staff told him the property would be a good acquisition for much-needed flood control in the area. But he acknowledged to the Times that Smith's complaint - and the fact the damage couldn't be repaired - was a strong incentive for purchasing the property.

From there, Yauch said the purchase proceeded according to county policy with the ordering of an outside appraisal.

But a Times review showed weaknesses in how the process was carried out.

The appraiser was given an off-the-cuff estimate of how much of the property's 1.466-acres were actually upland and buildable: 1.03 acres.

The estimate came from a county environmental management employee who'd walked the property in April and expressed reservations about its development value due to extensive wetlands and that much of the parcel was in the 100-year flood plain.

"This Department can provide a more accurate quantified assessment if civil survey support is provided, " said Stephen Robinson in an April e-mail to the county's Real Estate Division. His formal report in May expressed continued reservations about the property's development potential.

A survey was never done.

Also in April, the outside appraiser - McCormick, Braun, and Seaman of St. Petersburg - warned its $250,000 appraisal of the property didn't reflect any water issues and recommended the county consult an expert on such issues.

The county never investigated the water limitations further before negotiating with Smith.

The county offered Smith $200,000 for the property. Smith counter-offered at $225, 000. The county accepted in May.

"Since $225,000 was still 10 percent under the appraisal, I said, 'Well, let's go ahead with the contract, '" Yauch said recently.

Yauch said it seemed like a fair price, "and it resolved his complaint."

After the Times began examining the appraisal process and asking questions, Yauch last week ordered a review of the appraisal process and suggested the deal wouldn't close until the review was complete.

However, he said Monday he changed his mind on holding up the closing after the county's legal staff advised him to go ahead.

He stands by the original appraisal. "I think it's a good value, " Yauch said Monday, the same day the county's review of the process concurred minimum standards were met. However, the review did not address the county's uplands estimate or whether water issues impacted the property's value.

In Smith's office in the courthouse four floors down from Yauch's, the original county appraisal came as a surprise to Smith's deputy, Ron Anderson, who is tasked with valuing Smith's property for tax purposes.

In May, Smith shared the appraisal with Anderson, a state-certified general appraiser with nearly 39 years experience. The uplands acreage surprised him. He told his boss that with the increase in uplands, the property's taxable value would rise, from $59, 400 in 2006 to $147,200 in 2007.

"A 100 percent market value indication would be in the $170,000 to $175,000 range, " Anderson said.

It would also mean Smith's office has undervalued Smith's investment property for the past 13 years, saving the owner thousands in taxes over the years.

Smith isn't convinced that's true, saying he believes the county's alterations to the property may have expanded the buildable land. He said the county dumped fill from the new channel on wetlands.

The county contends it would have hauled the fill away.

Theresa Blackwell can be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4170.

[Last modified July 3, 2007, 19:22:48]