By VICKI URBANIK

The Porter County Assessor’s Office has hired all but three of the county’s elected township assessors facing the elimination of their duties under a new state law.

The three township assessors not hired by County Assessor John Scott in the transition were Jackson Township Assessor Janice Meyers, Pine Township Assessor Nancy Kolasa, and Pleasant Township Assessor Jean Oehlman. All three also serve as township trustee.

Under a new state law, H.E.A. 1001, county assessors will officially take over the assessing duties for most townships this coming Tuesday. The assessors not immediately affected are those in the larger townships with at least 15,000 parcels; in Porter County, these are Center and Portage townships, where referendums will be held in November to see if the voters want to keep their township assessor.

On Tuesday, the Porter County Council made the budget shifts necessary for the transition. The council basically eliminated all the township assessors’ budgets (except for Portage and Center), transferring their funds to the county assessor’s budget instead.

Hired to work in the county assessor’s office were the elected assessors from the remaining five larger townships that have had full-time assessors: Westchester, Liberty, Union, Porter and Boone townships.

Also hired to work in the county assessor’s office were two of the trustee/assessors – from Washington and Morgan townships.

In addition, Scott hired six other assessor employees on a full-time basis.

Accordingly, the county council on Tuesday created these six new positions, with salaries ranging from $19,493 for one deputy to $29,069 for a supervisor.

Under an opinion issued by Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter, counties must continue paying the elected assessors – both the full-time assessors and those who serve in the dual role as township trustee – their full assessor salary and benefits, even if they aren’t hired to work in the county office.

In Porter County, the full-time assessors this year are paid $35,991. The trustee/assessors get $22,170 for their assessing work. Carter’s opinion made it clear that all assessors will continue to receive this pay through the end of this year; less clear is whether counties must continue the pay after this year.

Carter’s opinion also found that assessors hired to work in the county assessor’s office could draw two paychecks – one from their new county job and the other from their elected township post. However, the assessors hired by Scott agreed to work at their current salaries, and not draw two paychecks.

Chief Deputy Assessor Shirley LaFever said that overall, eight positions were eliminated in the transition. These included two full-time assessing employees in two of the townships and the three trustee/assessors from Jackson, Pine, and Pleasant townships. The others are assessing staff who work part-time.

Scott, LaFever and the council agreed that all the salary figures will be in place for only this year, and the figures will likely change beginning in 2009. Scott said that ultimately, he would like to see all the assessing deputies get paid the same since they will all be doing comparable work.

The only council member who voted against the six new positions was Jim Burge, R-at large. Both he and council member Karen Conover, R-3rd, noted that Scott did not hire all elected township assessors. Burge said he feels that the county is losing some qualified assessors who weren’t hired by the county office.

Council member Dan Whitten, D-at large, also questioned the salary figure for the new supervisor post, saying that the job description shows that this supervisor will have many more responsibilities than the salary figure suggests.

Council President Robert Poparad, D-1st, said that one good thing about the assessor transition is that instead of going to a number of different assessors to get information, there will be just one assessor – the county assessor – in charge.

Posted 6/30/2008