Abigail Salas:
Can you tell us about how your background has prepared you to serve as assessor?
Shannon Reynolds:
I have a lot of experience in leadership and managing organizations. As a matter of fact, I used to have an organization I managed with like 30 people in over $130 million budget and some experience in, you know, leadership of people and budgets and policy and things like that. So, I have, and I also have about 30 years in the industry doing that. So that's where my experience comes from that allows me to do this.
Abigail Salas:
And why are you running for a county assessor?
Shannon Reynolds:
I'm running for county assessor because there are some challenges that as a commissioner, when I was on the commission, we identified some challenges in the office that weren't being completed. One of those is the need for us to, and a requirement by the way, for state-by-state statutes to do revaluation of the property every two to four years. The last time we were able to do a complete revaluation of the property in the assessor's office was in 2008. So, we're really a couple of years behind in doing that. The county assessors who have actually served in the last three or four terms haven't been able to accomplish what's been required by state statute. So, one of the first tenets of being elected as an official in the office is to meet state statutes. I'm going to go in and using the experience I have of being a change agent and a manager in business, I'm going to try to pull together the team and actually get the reevaluations done. So that's my first challenge. My second challenge is to hire people so we can actually get them done. Because we're short-staffed by about 13 people. And the last thing is we have the state auditors going to present us with some information that we need to work to as well. So that's the reason I'm doing it.
Abigail Salas:
What are the top issues in the county? And how would you successfully address those issues?
Shannon Reynolds:
Well, mainly, well, like I said, the main issue is just reevaluation, but there's also state statutes. But hiring is pretty big also, policy. Currently, the policy allows for us with individual property. Once we do the revaluation and we get the property values up, they only have to increase their taxes by 3% a year. That's what we're able to do with state statute and law. One of the things I really want to do is go in and try to support the legislation that's currently being considered as a state. To give the same kind of break to small businesses and companies because they're the ones that actually create jobs. And two major challenges that we have in the community is affordable housing and jobs. And I think the assessor, with the right policy at the state level, can actually make that something that's positive for everybody. So, I think that's one of our major challenges. Other than that, just getting the people the tools they need, the information they need, the training they need, in order to serve the public appropriately.
Abigail Salas:
What else do you think is important for voters to know about your campaign?
Shannon Reynolds:
Well, the thing about my campaign is, I believe I'm, well, I obviously, like most candidates, I think I'm the best qualified candidate for the position. I'm also dedicated to making sure and do what's best for the public in every case I can. This is the policy I was talking about with the affordable housing and the commercial property. Since the reevaluation could actually increase those properties by as much as 500%, because we haven't done it in a while, I think we have to be fair to the public and try to do our best to make sure that the impact on them doesn't impact our ability to raise the quality and standard of living for everyone else. The other thing that I think is important is outreach. Right now, if you go to the website and you try to look at your property, it's really difficult to use the assessor's website to find the information you need. I would like to make a portal, create a portal that allows everyone to go in, put in their address and get all the information they need to understand exactly how the assessment is done for the property, exactly what we're looking at, and also to be able to look at things like the neighborhood, where the property lines are, and things like that. So doing more outreach to the public, getting them more involved in the process, making them more aware of what's going on, I think is also something I want to make sure that I get done. And as far as my candidacy, just vote for me, you know, and let's get it done. Once the June 2nd election is over, there's no one running in general. So, this is actually the election that's going to determine who's going to serve for the next four years.
