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7 <br /> Indications are that the county real estate market has overall remained flat through 2009, <br /> and the revaluation values overall continue to be fair, equitable, and reflective of the current <br /> market. <br /> Commissioner Gordon asked some clarifying questions about the sales ratio, which were <br /> answered by Judy Ryan. <br /> Commissioner Gordon said that it is important to understand that the revaluations were <br /> fair and that they do reflect market rates. <br /> Commissioner Yuhasz reiterated what Commissioner Gordon said in that these numbers <br /> indicate that the assessed values do reflect the market values at least for the year going forward. <br /> Jo Roberson said that this revaluation was a good revaluation from the standpoint of the <br /> citizen's participating and giving feedback because it gives good data. <br /> Commissioner Jacobs asked how many properties were assessed and Jo Roberson said <br /> that it was just under 52,000 pieces of real property. Around 9% of this total had informal <br /> appeals. Compared to other counties that did revaluations, this was slightly lower. <br /> Commissioner Jacobs asked about the 1,953 property values that were unchanged and <br /> asked how many of those constituted the 1,656 property values that appealed. <br /> Judy Ryan said that it would be a combination because they sent out the notices of value <br /> change from the informal appeals a little later in 2009 than normal. The formal appeals were a <br /> combination of the people who received their letters and made a formal appeal from that and also <br /> the people who received a letter about the values changing 40%. <br /> Commissioner Pelissier said that she would like this to get out into the news. Jo <br /> Roberson said that she would take this under advisement and could work to get a press release <br /> out. <br /> PUBLIC COMMENT: <br /> Joe Phelps said that the Tax Office did as good a job as they could, but the Board needs <br /> to look at how they charge the Tax Office to do this in the future and maybe develop a different <br /> way to assess property. He said that he just pulled some valuations out today and he thinks that <br /> the way that valuations are close to sales value is by averaging. He said that there are a lot of <br /> properties that sold close to the value, a lot that sold a little above value, and a lot that sold a little <br /> below value. He listed some properties that had sold and some properties that are listed for sale <br /> now. He said that his point is that the highs and lows bring incorrect figures to the Board. <br /> e. Library Services Proposal — County Funding Allocations to the Town of <br /> Chapel Hill for Library Services <br /> The Board considered the County Manager's library services proposal regarding County <br /> funding allocations to the Town of Chapel Hill for library services and provided feedback to staff. <br /> Frank Clifton said that his indication has been that if the County wants to support this <br /> library, then there should be some basis to do that so that everyone agrees with it. He said that <br /> Orange County could fund the Chapel Hill Library 48% of what it funds the County's main branch. <br /> This would be about $500,000 a year. He thinks that there should be some type of formal <br /> agreement. He said that if there is an agreement, then Chapel Hill should not charge some type <br /> of fee to individuals who are not residents of Chapel Hill. <br />