Public needs answers on land sale

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published July 17, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Related content Despite questions, Pinellas buys land from county appraiser (7/3) [Scott Keeler | Times, 2004] Pinellas County paid $225,000 for 1.5 acres owned by Jim Smith, shown with wife Catherine Harlan.

New reports raise even more troubling questions about Pinellas County's recent purchase of land owned by county Property Appraiser Jim Smith. Why was Smith's property so undervalued on the tax rolls? And how much did Smith's implied threat of legal action against the county influence its quick decision to buy his property? The public deserves to know.

In late 2005, Smith complained that county workers had damaged a 1.5-acre undeveloped parcel he owns in the flood-prone Tarpon Woods subdivision in northeast Pinellas. A county report confirms that county crews, working under an emergency order issued by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, went on Smith's property without his consent to clean out debris clogging Brooker Creek, which runs through his property. The county apologized for any damage.

However, in March of this year an attorney Smith hired sent a letter to the county. He complained of even more damage that had "devastated" Smith's property and suggested the county should compensate Smith by buying his land. Smith said trees had been cut down that created an undesirable view of a nearby condominium complex, for example. Because the letter came from an attorney, there was an implied threat of legal action, and that's exactly how the county took it.

County officials developed a sudden interest in buying Smith's land for flood-control purposes, even though they had made no attempt to do so previously. In what seems an awful hurry, county commissioners approved the purchase at $225,000 - down $25,000 from the value given the property by an outside appraiser, but a big leap up from the $59,400 value assigned to the property by Smith's own office.

Was the property worth the $225,000 the taxpayers paid, or the $59,400 the land was assessed at for tax purposes? Amazingly, Smith shrugs off the question. "Nobody is going to sell their property for what we've got on the (tax) roll. We are so far behind the market," said Smith, the property appraiser.

This offensive statement shows just how disconnected Smith is from reality. Many people have sold or are trying to sell their property at prices well below the appraised value set by Smith's office. Maybe property owners should file appeals asking that their property be reappraised using the Jim Smith standard - one-fourth of its market value.

Owners of nonhomesteaded property throughout Pinellas have been complaining of soaring assessments during the last two years that resulted in high property tax bills. Yet the assessed value of Smith's parcel lagged far behind its apparent market value. Smith, elected to a position of public trust, should have made sure that his own property, if no other in Pinellas, was assessed at its true value. Voters should remember that it was not.

[Last modified July 16, 2007, 21:46:16]