Green Garden Township officials are on the hunt a new property tax assessor in the wake of Jane Bushong’s resignation last month.
They were scheduled to vote Monday night on hiring Joseph N. Kral, the Frankfort Township Assessor, as Green Garden Township Deputy Assessor for a period of seven months, or until the Board appoints or contracts with a qualified individual to fill the Assessor vacancy.
Bushong abruptly quit her position, effective Sept. 17, leaving Green Garden Township in the lurch for an assessor.
She announced her decision in a lengthy statement on social media, but did not explain why she quit.
The GGT board formally accepted her resignation, which she referred to in a post last week as her “retirement,” during a special meeting on Sept. 28.
There was no discussion and the board vote was unanimous.
Bushong was not present at the meeting.
During the 18-minute meeting, Township Supervisor Dean Christofilos explained the board’s options for finding a qualified new assessor.
“We posted on the website and Facebook the three choices that we have, at the township, to fill our vacancy,” he said.
“The first choice is to appoint a qualified individual who lives in Green Garden Township who has the CIAO certified Illinois assessing officers designation or its equivalent.
“The second choice is to contract with an assessor, contract with someone that has that designation and is already qualified.
“And the third choice is to turn over our assessing data to the county supervisor of assessments.”
Christofilos said that he had been in daily contact with Will County SOA Dale Butalla about the issue.
“We have not found someone in our township that has the required CIAO designation,” he added.
“So, the next step…is to see if candidates are available that are willing to get that designation, because it seems in our individual conversations that our goal and our highest priority is to find an assessor that lives in our township.
“Our last choice is to turn it over to Will County. That would be not only expensive, they have a plate full.
“We want someone, if possible, that lives in our township that understands our value, understands our property values. So that’s the direction we’re heading in. So, we’ve been in communication with two candidates right now. There’s a couple of interviews that are set up for tomorrow, and our goal is, at the October board meeting we will vote to approve (a candidate).”
Christofilos said that once a candidate is approved by the board, they would be asked to sign up for those classes immediately and complete the certification as soon as possible.
“Theoretically, it (certification) could happen in two months. So, it’s not as long as I originally thought it was. There are four core classes, all online, and then there’s two electives that could also be at the same institution, which is the Illinois Property Assessment Institute, IPAI. But there’s also electives that the Illinois Department of Revenue has that are free. The classes cost $400 apiece. So, there’s four core classes at $1,600. If this person takes the two electives from the same institute, I think it’s $4,410 or I think it’s $418 a class. Otherwise, it’s free with the Illinois Department of Revenue.
“The enrollment will begin at the end of October. I talked to the school administrator and she says that she will be emailing us to let us know when the enrollment actually is, and it sounds like it’s going to be right at the end of October. That’s why our goal is to vote on somebody that we want to approve to go forward with that.
“It’s going to either start at the beginning of January or the beginning of February. So, we’re anticipating that the process of getting qualified, a resident getting qualified and being eventually appointed as our assessor will take approximately three months.”
He estimated that “it would probably take through May” to complete the courses.