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By VICKI URBANIK The lack of a state-certified vendor handling Porter County’s tax billing computer software has revived a dispute between county officials that began nearly two years ago over which company the county should retain. Porter County Auditor Jim Kopp has submitted a Voice of the People to three newspapers critical of the role that County Assessor John Scott and his chief deputy, Shirley LaFever, played in the decision-making over a software vendor. Kopp’s letter to the media comes in the wake of the news last week, when officials at the county and state level confirmed that the tax software in use by the auditor and treasurer offices failed to win state-certification by the Dec. 31 deadline. If the vendor, Hamer Enterprises Inc., does not achieve certification in the coming months when the county proceeds with this year’s tax bills, the state could withhold approval of all budgets in the county. Kopp, however, has pointed out that no other vendor achieved the certification on their first try and that he is confident the Hamer system will win certification. Meanwhile, the assessor-related software in use by Scott’s office -- which must also achieve state-certification -- has been certified. When county officials delved into the issue of what software vendor to select, Scott opposed the Hamer system, while Kopp, County Treasurer Jim Murphy and others favored it. The dispute prompted the Porter County Council to intervene and effectively require that all three county offices use the same software. But then in May of last year, Scott won approval to use a different vendor, X-Soft, based largely on a recommendation from the county’s tax consultant, Beth Henkel, who said that the most critical need facing the county was to get new assessing software without delay. At the time, the state had not yet certified any of the software vendors. But as of late last month, all but three counties using a vendor have certified software for tax billing, while the majority of Indiana counties do not yet have a certified vendor for the assessor-related software. In his letter, Kopp said that Scott originally favored the Hamer system but changed his position when LaFever, the former county assessor, came back to work as Scott’s chief deputy. The assessor’s office then “dragged their feet” in using Hamer, he said, in turn causing delays for getting the system in place in the auditor’s and treasurer’s offices. “Instead of working with the other offices, Mr. Scott has allowed his flip-flopped Republican turned Democrat to run his office,” Kopp’s letter says, referring to LaFever. “She has an ax to grind with every voter in the County who voted her out, which has caused an awful work environment for anyone who is forced to deal with the Assessor’s Office.” Kopp wrote that Scott is being “less than truthful” by saying that his preferred software won certification. Initially, the county had only four suppliers to choose from, and X-Soft was not among them, he said. Scott and LaFever took strong exception to Kopp’s letter, both saying that Scott never endorsed Hamer. Initially, Scott said he felt the system would be acceptable, but that was only an initial reaction before he conducted any research. “I wasn’t going to just take somebody’s word for it,” he said. Scott said if Kopp feels that LaFever was instrumental in urging county officials not to use Hamer, then LaFever should be praised, not criticized. “Thank God, she came to look at this,” he said. LaFever lost her bid for re-election as county assessor in the Republican primary in 2006 and then campaigned for Scott, who, along with Kopp, is a Democrat who won election that year. LaFever said she wasn’t gone at the start of 2007 due to a “forced 90-day hiatus” as Kopp wrote, but because of retirement fund rules that required her to take a leave before she could return to work. LaFever said when she did return, the assessor’s office had begun researching the software options and that she was directed by Scott to help in the research. She said she did her job thoroughly and found other counties that had a problem with the Hamer software. “I checked out companies very well,” she said. “I was not out to get anyone.” LaFever questioned why the auditor and treasurer’s office do not have a certified vendor nor been able to get out the 2008 tax bills, even though the assessors completed their portion of the work and rolled the information over to the auditor’s office in July. Scott expressed a similar sentiment. “We’re up and working and they’re not. So you tell me who’s doing their work for the county,” he said.
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