By VICKI URBANIK

The Porter County Council released the funding Tuesday for the assessor’s office to purchase new software to replace the system purchased last year, but only after a debate reminiscent of the long-running feud involving several county offices.

By a 5-1 vote, the council approved an additional appropriation of $148,500 for County Assessor John Scott to purchase new software from the X-Soft company, replacing the Hamer system that the council authorized over Scott’s wishes last year.

County Council President Robert Poparad, D-1st, said the county lost about $42,000 by initially going with Hamer and now switching to X-Soft.

Poparad several times accepted responsibility for the loss, noting that he was the one who last year pushed for the Hamer software instead of Scott’s preferred vendor, Tru Automation. He and other council members not only wanted to save money, but also to have an integrated system in the assessor’s, auditor’s and treasurer offices.

Council member Jim Burge, R-at large, indicated that it wasn’t Poparad’s fault, since a host of county and township officials also pushed for the Hamer program last year and assured the council that it would work.

Exactly why the assessor’s office can’t use the Hamer system was the brunt of the discussion Tuesday.

Poparad said the bottom line is that the Hamer assessing software isn’t expected to win the required certification from the state until sometime next year. But the X-Soft system is expected to be certified this week, he said. Counties are not expected to be able to use assessing software unless it passes the state’s certification.

Porter County’s tax consultant, Beth Henkel, a former Indiana Department of Local Government Finance commissioner, earlier recommended the move to the X-Soft system, saying that Porter County’s need for new assessing software is critical in order to get the county’s long-delayed tax system back on track.

Both Scott and chief deputy Shirley LaFever assured the council that the X-Soft program will work successfully. LaFever said that once the office gets state approval, the system can be up and running in mid-August.

Scott strongly rejected a comment relayed by Burge, who said he was told by the county’s Information Technology Services that the main problem with the Hamer software was that Scott’s office didn’t want to work with it. Scott said that characterization was “totally wrong.” “I was hoping it would work,” he said.

Burge was the only council member who voted against the funding. He said that to switch assessing software is an injustice to Porter County taxpayers and that perhaps with a little more effort, the assessor’s office could have made the Hamer system work.

“To me, it’s just fundamentally wrong,” he said.

The new software was one of several funding decisions the council made Tuesday related to the assessor’s office. Another additional appropriation, for $25,000 for software support for the remainder of this year from X-Soft, also passed 5-1, with Burge voting no.

Another appropriation, for $25,000 for consulting services from the Crowe Chizek firm for the X-Soft and Hamer systems, passed 5-1, this time with Dan Whitten, D-at large, voting no.

Another assessor item, for $152,900 to contract out for trending and ratio studies, passed unanimously, as did a $14,000 appropriation for the assessing data to go on the county’s website. All the funding will come from Scott’s reassessment fund. Council member William Carmichael, R-at large, was absent.

Posted 7/23/2008