Agenda - 02-07-2017 - 4-a - Presentation of the Joseph E. Hunt Distinguished Jurisdiction Award

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3 Page 2 (Application for NCAAO 2016 Joseph E. Hunt Distinguished Jurisdiction Award) COUNTY NAME: Orange County You may submit one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with single spacing with a font size of 12 for each criterion. 1. Description of the program or project and time frame of implementation: Briefly summarize the project's history, motivation,purpose,timeline and budget. For our 2017 revaluation,we wanted to garner excitement, involvement and collaboration with the public at a new level. One of the foremost goals of any revaluation is to adequately communicate the revaluation, its methodology and findings to the public,but for 2017 we found a way to improve this effort. Orange County, like other North Carolina counties,has a desire for full transparency and total collaboration. Knowing that,we developed a comprehensive educational academy for our public with a reward at the end. Our program is called 2017 Revaluation Partner. Through this program,the public reviews information on our website that includes: • Basics of a revaluation, including applicable laws and standards; • Full qualified sales bank allowing taxpayers to review all qualified sales being used; • A sales comparison grid with instructions on how to evaluate a property's value; • A Learn and Share revaluation video series; • An interactive and educational quiz As one begins the journey to become a 2017 Revaluation Partner,he or she can review our website narrative, proceed onto the Learn and Share video series and finally take part in the 10-question, interactive quiz. As a way to further the program's purpose,when a question on the quiz is answered incorrectly,the user is provided the correct answer and feedback as to why that answer is correct. Once the quiz is successfully passed, a Certificate of Achievement is awarded. Moreover, since the quiz taker registers before taking the quiz by inputting name and email address,this contact information is stored in the online database and is fully accessible by the tax office. This allows us to use our 2017 Revaluation Partners as a pilot group,knowing they are educated and have volunteered their time towards learning more about the revaluation. Through this effort, our Learn and Share video series has garnered 523 views. In addition,we now have a total of 34 Revaluation Partners that have completed the entire program. This effectively allows us to extend our office through a more educated and involved community. Perhaps more importantly,within the online quiz database we are able to see, among other things, statistics by question. This has been a tremendous help as we can see the one or two questions most frequently answered incorrectly by the public and surely address those in community presentations and other public relations efforts. While the program was designed to create a collaborative effort and partnership with the community,we have found that it also has gone a long way with governing boards. It has shown the county commissioners and town councils that we want community involvement through the design of this program. We want input upfront rather than later.