 Also to our monthly meeting, I'm Joanie as the board president and by the jar of years. We have a great lineup tonight. We have first Lynn Bobbage who is the executive director of the Breckridge Park Conservancy and she will discuss the new master plan for Breckridge. We have two gentlemen in the back that are from the Appraisal District and we're going to talk to us about the appeal process and answer any questions you may have about your property taxes. So without further ado, I'm going to do that next year and throughout the summer and fall. So thank you for inviting me to come. If you've been following the press, March 2nd, the city council adopted two strategies. Now the next step is to move forward with them. But let me back up for those of you who did not follow the process or am I telling you anything you don't? Is everybody in? Go ahead. In April 2015, the mayor requested $227,000 to update the 1979 master plan. And that was the only master plan for the park that had been adopted by city council. And the city council at that time moved forward by the Parks and Recreation Department recommended for architects, Iowa architects, Rialto, Jay Allen, and Jim Gray. And the city council had only allowed for two meetings. The conservancy became involved at the same time that all of the citizens did. And we were pleased that the council opened it up to an additional conversation. We agreed, too, that there needed to be more input from the community before things moved forward. So there were a total of eight public meetings and then five activity-based events in the park. One was here, actually. One was a movie at something garden and that was an archeological dig. So there were five different activities that would identify certain important parts of the park. And so after all of that conversation, the three strategies that were adopted included the restoration of historic structures and features, the restoration of the natural areas, our heritage trees, taking out invasives, and improving water quality. And then the third was the connection and we fled big part of that through the surrounding neighborhoods. San Antonio is rated 71 out of 100 by the trust republic lands on cities that have open-spacer parks within a 10-minute walk. Now, that will change a bit in 2017 when they get to report because a pier salt park has come on board. There is more acreage. So it's important, and you all know this, I'm speaking to the fire here about the importance of frontage park used by everybody in this city from all districts of the city, not just District 1 and District 2. So we were very pleased that the City Council would move forward with a portion of the plan. Many people were concerned about the circulation discussion and preventing traffic and access into the park that is off the table. Also, the use of a trolley system from a garage that has been taken off the temple. And so the three things that were adopted was what the community came together with for common ground. Now, in some of those meetings, probably most of them, many people stood up and said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And I began giving tours and I'm doing so regularly every few days and anybody who liked the tour of the park, I'm happy to do that. I'm happy for you all to gather as a group in the Market Park Association in the park because it is critical that we take action now. And so go bond. It passed. There was 21.5 million dollars allocated for the park. And I'll go into a bit more detail about that. These three pictures and you do think, oh, well, what does it mean? But this was interesting. We held a summit on March 3rd. Some of you may have come. It was held at Pearl. It was open to the public. The Conservancy sponsored it in conjunction with the Cultural Landscape Foundation out of DC. And we had been working with a consultant there, C. E. O. Charles Bernbaum. And when we showed him around, he said, this park needs to be raised to national discussion. Number one, if we do that, there is a way to get the National Funding Foundation and Corporation. At this time, we're now able to apply it to certain foundations because we are not designating the National Historic Landmark and one of those that we want to continue. But out of this meeting, I thought this was an interesting, you can read this. There are parks that are just green spaces and then there's a class of parks that soar above the commonplace. This is a place that represents the generosity of spirit of time and civic-mindedness with approaching the aspire to. But I can see the frayed edges, records of unfortunate decisions and muddled priorities that hobbled the park today. It's like with the love, vital, and sentient elder relative prematurely lodged in a nursing home. It needs love and release from the expedient care it's gotten. And this was the gentleman that came from LA toward the park of his own, he's from Olin Partners in LA. And so he noticed the cultural aspects of the park that all of us know about and want to maintain in terms of traditions, those things that are important to all segments of the community still, a part of the park but then find ways to make improvements and enhancements and then maintain all the things that are important to us. I don't know if you know, but we have 2.2 miles of the river that runs through the park and then our Potapha Persian ditch is 1.3 so that it lines outside the park and does grid barrier and something that is within the plan to discuss to you for the future. What has also been talked about is out of the 343 acres which includes the golf course, the first tee, the driving range, the witty and the zoo, there are only 113, 115 acres that are open and free to the public. That means the open space. So the zoo, the witty, they're doing amazing things. They have different missions. The witty has met their need for exhibit space and revenue generating maze center. So the conservancy is concentrating on now is the open space and the green space and how to revitalize it and to not just make you feel like you need to go to the witty and get in your car and drive to the zoo but how do you connect all of the partners, all of the stakeholders and make a day of the park that you want to be at the end of the park and enjoying it. I spent nine Easter. It's quite an experience. Everybody is really very nice but I have friends kind of remarked and we're getting there in terms of picking up trash 100% better than it was last year. But the more I'm there in the office every day meeting people, seeing what people like, what they need, we're all learning. It's a way of all of us including the conservancy keeping our minds open and thinking. The master plan, the three strategies for adopted, that's only the beginning. This is going to be a long, deliberate process with lots of continued input. We were talking about the blue hole earlier. Are all of you familiar with the headwaters of the river which are located on their corn and corn property at the top, the blue hole? They have been flowing since November but now they're driving up. Meaning they're not coming out of the walls. They're spewing out. And so it's about 520 yards from the blue hole over to the park. And we just met with Sister Nolanda, the Sisters of Charity, opening up that dialogue about how we might connect underpilled a brand to the blue hole so that we can discuss the, not only the interpretive connection but the physical connection of the spiritual reach that they are so interested in and are taking good care of all the way 13 miles on out to the missions. We are connected by the river. The history of the city is encapsulated within the park. Human habitation goes back 11,000 years and then moves on through the Spanish colonial period and Civil War period up to modern times. And what has perhaps served as well is that not a lot has been done. So the cultural underpinnings are still there. This really, as we have begun our conversations with people from throughout the United States who've come to visit, they are just amazed at the cultural landscape that is there. And so we've begun thinking of it as a landscape and how then do we make decisions based on what is there and not destroyed what is there but yet many bring additional activity improvements into the park. This orange area represents the first 199 acres of the park, which Colonel Bracken which donated in 1899. He then donated another section over where the public field used to be. But this showed you the connection to the waterworks system which was a bit botanical for you all are. And this was just for me so that I could see some different dates that everything became part of the park and through some of this work. The park opened in 1901 and as I just mentioned, the 1979 master plan was the first one but in 1997 they tried to create another plan and that did not happen. But are you aware that in 2005 near Flores, which is right here, this is Hildegrand and Broadway, this is somehow referred to as a cemetery but it's not. It was created as a sculpture garden by Dr. DeRaria who came here in 1914. But in 2005 there was activity with the incarnate word and Mayor Cockrell at that time like the city of the painting, CEO of the Harris Foundation which is the foundation that you know raises money and parks throughout the city. And incarnate word wanted to use the property for perhaps parking in that name. And so the city did a switch and so the land at the top of Hildegrand and stadium where the bike pharmacy school is now was switched out from near Flores and the word also dedicated mitigation money to help the restoration of the wall and then the park near Flores became part of the park. It's four acres now. It's not open to the public right yet but within the next few weeks the walkway is going to go from the bridge just below Hildegrand entrance and go into the park and over to the gates that you see here on Hildegrand so that we can begin giving guidance to others. Do y'all have any questions? About me if you do. Here are the strategies that were adopted. Restoring or putting the natural features preserve and restore the cultural and historic features and increase the park visibility. The last two were reduced. We used the wrong word for grand plong. The service parking lot by the main depot the conversation that the architects put forward was if we build a parking garage over by the zoo can we begin reclaiming some of the asphalt in the park and turn it green? It did not mean that it was going to be something that was only sun and nobody would be able to use trees that you planted and buildings, whatever but this is now off the table for now. You're 200 feet of river running to a lawn there that you really can't even get back to. So at some point maybe that service lot becomes multi-purpose with the pervious part but right now that's not under discussion. We've been doing research about what other conservancies and other parks are doing and if you look at this slide the number of acres of freeze-basis is 113 20 acres of that maybe this asphalt not green space and estimated annual maintenance should be about $280,000 that's a year off in the budget and the current best part practice is for spending per acre should be $20,000 so you see what we actually do $2,282,000 we are way below what used to be done and so throughout the United States conservancies are coming are developing and farming partnerships with the cities so that we the private end can raise additional funds for the parks to do the maintenance that the cities cannot keep up with. There is no endowment fund for the park even the pavilion, the jockey pavilion the cable pavilion, the cyclist pavilion even though those rentals are minimal what is raised by them go back into the city's general fund not even into the parks budget and so we are beginning conversations with the city about what kind of revenue generation could be created to form an endowment for maintenance that could supplement what they are getting out of the general fund every year for the budget there are 24,000 acres of parks in the city this rapidly raises someone to consider one of the parks in the city so, you know, I'm exaggerating this but if you're a lightbulb and get in the line you know, it isn't that there is a dedicated force to recognize it's just one of the parks in the city but of course I think it is our second oldest park in the city but I do feel like there is wind in our sails but this is the final section of the San Antonio River to be improved you have the Mission Reach you have the Museum Reach and now you have the Park Reach and so we've begun conversations with the San Antonio River Authority since the master plan was adopted about how to improve the water quality somebody, yes, you were saying swimming in the river, that's not allowed now but you do see people doing it but there is an E. Coli from the E. Red Rd. Rd. that is near Lambert Beach I think you all are walking, you should go see them because they are there now and the babies are hatching and the buzzards are there I don't remember when they came last year and they like us they are there every morning pulling the trash out I toured with the assistant city manager one day and she was actually horrified and we got some new trash cans but they still have a hole in them and so they pull them out so that's something we are going to work on too but the bond proposal for parks was proposition 3 of 21.5 million this is the largest amount that's been dedicated to parking since we've been doing these recent bond issues 7.75 million is allotted toward the repair and restoration of the Depression era river walls and you can see over by Lambert Beach the deterioration and you see wood frames holding up the wall and they are actually concerned that that big beautiful tree is going to fall in the river that is not construction that's begun I started work in April 2017 and it's been that way ever since so that would be one of the first projects and then you come on around the bend to the 1877 pump house that was the precursor to the San Antonio water system and it will be stabilized the foundation and the roof and re-pointing the window frames it's the oldest industrial, intact industrial building in San Antonio then you come on further toward the entrance as you come from Broadway and Hilderang in the park and you have the 1877 up from the board dam in Asakia and we do believe it was started in July 4, 1776 the Spaniard had meticulous records it was finished two years later in 1778 and we have requested that it be designated as a tenial project and so we received that and what's that mean, no money but the goal we're looking but the goal is to uncover the dam UTSA has done the archeology over a period of years covered back over to the protected you can look down and see from modern times all the way down to the Spanish colonial rubble wall down below the Asakia is there exposed and up to about 600 feet of it all together running toward the zoo yes then we saw that people can go and see that park yes it is right here it's right about here so if you turn into the park on Hilda Brand into the park, come here it's all right up here before you cross into the roof doors along the park it's on the park side and so in saking a dam for the missions it was built to accommodate the Canary Islanders and the population increased from 1731 to 1776 period there needed to be more water for agriculture and grazing and household use so the Asakia and the dam on the winning property that they have interpreted was 1719 and that did supply the water for so we can tell the whole story the mission era as well then is the city development it's really very cool and then along with that development will be interpretation of the whole wall wax essentially this is the Merrick-Laure's gates on Hilda Brand and part of the mitigation money that I was talking about paid for the gates themselves and the walls that go along Hilda Brand the lights have just been repaired and so we're talking about what the possibilities are for it here you see the up and aboard dam the area just as you turn in the AT&T property over to the right this parking lot here backs up to Merrick-Laure's if you come in this way to AT&T you'll notice this circus lock backs up AT&T's all back to Mr. Hull's and here on the boardwalk and there is conversation he's talking about putting apartments here I spoke with Jonny we have heard that AT&T is back to rezone the property I have not been called I have not been called recently and will not be torn down because of now within the historic it has a historic designation so we're monitoring that but let me know whatever you do I have heard from Laura Green a few years ago a little hollywood and just rezoning you know I'd like to hear what some of you have to say but you know that is not bad I mean it's going to be a retail office but we need access into the park there so we're concerned of course whatever is going to happen close to the river this is an aerial of what's left of Merrick-Laure's the so much has been damaged since 2007 it's not secure really I mean it has been surrounded but yesterday I was over there so I couldn't walk across so the plan that was done in 2007 was to restore it to its full glory at the sculpture park very lush redo most of the sculptures that were there but we're reopening that conversation now to see just what is feasible and what is realistic so perhaps this is an opportunity that is left to be a meditative sculpture park where you can walk and fit back and learn about not only Spanish but Mexican Tejano and American culture Dr. Euridia fled here in 1914 during the Mexican Revolution and he brought his family here and acquired the property where the intercontinental building is now the old DW site at Funston and Broadway they had a current word we've seen the message there but that wasn't O'Neill Ford building and I'm going to count on he lost Dr. Euridia's house the property near a floor as he bought a little bit later after he built his house and so the heyday here was like 1920 to 1930s but it was not connected to that property at Funston and this is the location for many of the oblong obama rusticos that are relocated some of that has been destroyed there's a plop of it's been redone but there are some other significant pieces that are still there that Dionysio Rodriguez did as well as in the park so we have pieces stored at the San Antonio conservation site warehouse waiting to see what we can do I got the first brand of 15,000 from a family who originally came from Mexico who want to redo one of the pieces of sculpture we can't do it until we actually have a plan and it's protected this is a reflection of what it could be the idea of the trees when you drove in I brought some old historic photos of parts that I'll pass around to if y'all are interested but the trees met in the middle when you drove through that day you can see Dr. Euridia's statue that's there and that was sort of like a meditation room with bushes but it would be I wonder this is a pavilion that AT&T built the pine year retirement urbanization picnic there and they built huge working kits there that we're going to see if they work this is an aerial of the something garden theater we just had our special annual Spirit of Brackenridge Friday night and we held it at second garden and we Jason Davy our celebrity chef served dinner we served it on the theater itself and so what we've been trying to do each year is highlight a certain area of the park that many people are not going to remember or remember it from childhood days and theater is such a jewel it was originally built in 1930 and the dressing room is red in 1936 there is no amphitheater in this region the one on 35 right here we brought clothes and clothes this could seat up to 5,000 there is not that category of theater here now especially indoor outdoor since this auditorium was transformed Matt majestic holds 25 so Friday night is the same look at this jewel it needs our loving care and perhaps this is the next major bond request in 2022 there you see the opera opened in 1930 but the symphony played there on a regular basis there were all kinds of performance villains in Anna the head pirates of pin dance on the stage some of you may have attended and so this is an idea showing what might happen that is not proposed that is just okay this is the punk house this is on the Lambert beach side it is the 1877 building it was built not by Mr. Brackenmanage but by a gentleman named Mr. Lacoste there was no public water delivery at that time Mr. Brackenmanage was his banker and so eventually he acquired the business in 1883 pumped the water up to two reservoirs there and then it came down to gravity at this time it has no proposed use it has been empty for a long time to the left are the bow houses you need to take time to walk Matt behind there and look at the Spanish colonial decor they have the thing that looks like the outermost parapet it looks like a long house if you look all the way through it and so what could we all enjoy there there really is not a restaurant on that side of the river either and the water came out that hole it flowed out into the river and that's where the turbines were and first it was artesian with springs and then he dug a well and it was artesian and to all of you know that the water in the river now is the grey water it's the recycled water you see those purple pipes with the yellow on them throughout the right time of gravity there's a pipe that puts water in on a regular basis throughout the day to keep the level at a certain height and there's one well in the park that is not cat and that goes into the Edwards and that was left in case something happened and I laugh because there's a convention coming to town and you need water in the river walk downtown and you can turn open up as well and fill it up so one of the problems with the water quality is that this is the grey water it's treated they don't want swimming but the idea perhaps putting the paddle boats back I grew up with paddle boats some of you may remember there was the speed boat on the river one I'm not proposing that the speed boat come back but it would be great to have the paddle boat activity go at land or beach over to the zoo so we're talking to river authority about air rating and what would that mean how much would that cost but there is the conundrum about the ebred river and nobody's proposing moving them we do this this is the inside it's just one big room but that's the original ceiling beautiful wood flames and this is the view you would see from inside if you're looking down the river if you're looking just is it worth enough for it then it could be but with the back houses together and there's a little patio area behind that and if you notice even across there there is the old restaurant that is right about here one of these that is used for storage it's in 1920s there were two twins there's one right there for the Lambert softball field that is still a restaurant and this one is just storage so if you had those three buildings to have some function there it would serve the park well one of the items that the consultant Charles Birnbaum recommended to us after his self-form and I alluded to this in the beginning is to pursue a national historic landmark designation and or a national heritage area and in the beginning I thought we needed the national landmark before we went on to national heritage area but that's not the case I've learned right now the whole park is on national registered historic places that doesn't prevent particular uses but it does if you're going to use federal monies you wouldn't have to go through a 106 review and it would be approved but anything within the park now has to go to the Texas Historic Commission already as well as to our review board and so everybody dealing with the park is aware of that the good thing about the national heritage area is that there's not many taxes we could be the first understand it's very political it would take something lengthy in terms of process like creating the World Heritage Mission Site but there is no heritage area in the city and there are only maybe 30, 37 national heritage areas that have World Heritage sites within the district and this would all be tied together by the river the river running through it connecting us all and so it would be a necessity to form a steering committee with all of the very business interests, mission, national park service new all neighborhoods to start that process and we were told that the Getty Foundation is one of the major foundations that does fund national heritage development and national heritage landmarks this is the dam as you come in from Hildegren and you look down and you notice that pond it's lost so much water just in the last week but that holds the water the dam back to the it was a diversion dam, not an accounting dam and so it diverted the water into the lily pond and into the isekia and then out into the fields part of that isekia goes into the zoo and they've actually incorporated that into their exhibits and then it crosses St. Mary's goes into River Road and makes its way all down to San Pedro so it would be an opportunity to interpret once the dam was exposed how do we protect it from the windtime interpretive and have a walk down to it that's why you have to come and be there so I can show you all there here's the isekia exposed only part of the dam you can see here but there's the lily pond and then in Hildegren and then this pathway over here that's actually sitting pretty much on the dam so all along here is where the dam is and there was a Civil War tannery that came right before the war and continued during the Civil War years and they then put their stamp on the isekia and you can see the pretty cut stone and know that it's a different period than the rural stone down below the Spanish colonial and the Civil War was over they still get back to the Civil War there you see part of the dam on the top are the Civil War period stones and then you go on down you can see the rubble and the isekia has just completed their report actually you can get on their website and it's just built up and it talks about what they have found and the various relationships of the isekias and dams and then we'll end with the propositions in a quick year working with city managers, city council the various bottom committees some of you may have been all the bottom committees I learned a lot it was my first bottom process and it seems like all of them all of the propositions are going to affect different parts of every district I thought it was a very interesting opportunity and we're so excited about what can happen in the park the 7.7 million I mentioned is for the capital infrastructure it's not frills when you come and take tours you'll see it's deterioration it's something that we've got to do now we're going to lose the pump house we're going to lose the wall or it's going to cost us more as we go down the line the 11.5 million is for the parking garage on to Lita just up the hill from the zoo and it's on San Antonio Independent School District property and the zoo has a memorandum of understanding to build the garage and so it'll probably be a three way we're meeting with the city managers office today to get an update since the bomb passed and so it will be free to the public for special events that probably will be in charge but coming to the park there will be no charge there will be a connection from the top of the garage to walk over to something in the garden and then make your way down over to the theater and one of the assets now is when this is built to combat traffic at 90% of the theater we're going to have to be creative because there really is not enough space for huge garages throughout the park and do we really want to use that to build a more open space for garages within the primary park but this is the beginning and then there will be two more floors added to the garage on Avenue B that the witty operators will maintain and so there will be no more footprint of land taken it'll go on the top of that garage and so you will have additional parking and that's needed too it's an exciting time Chief Appraiser Michael and Ms. Miskita I want to come see you too I'm going to see Miskita we have a residential man Tom Allen they're going to talk to us about our taxes and real process specifically about property values we want to talk to you about something a little more global it's about time for us not to do anything seems like what we're going to do I've heard a lot of talk a lot of rhetoric about SB2 and limitations on cities and counties because they're a problem I'm not here to advocate I don't care what your position is I don't really have Chairman Vaughn and the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee which is a chief tax policy writing committee no tax bill gets passed unless it originates in the House in this committee said if we can't get them to do what we want to do we'll just shut down the throat usually chairmen have a little more outlook on how they approach problems it appears that they're willing to even take this to a special session if necessary so I just wanted to keep in mind because y'all have a very important district but for speakers for us this would be a real comedy show and it's not that darn funny they're talking about limiting two jurisdictions that contribute to the taxes that we all pay the city is about 16% the county somewhere between 13 and 16% depending on what part of Canada is in but the truth of the matter is the big elephant in the room is the 55% of our tax bill that is generally the school district and I'm not opposed to school districts we need free public school districts but you have to understand I'm hoping you'll understand a major part of the problem with public school finance in Texas and the courts have said that starting in San Antonio with Edgewood 30 some odd years ago repeated in the legislature none of them have dealt with it the fact of the matter is 55% of your tax bill is controlled by the state of Texas the state of Texas is the decision prohibits the state from imposing a property tax they don't impose it they just control all of the strings and I'm going to tell you very concisely how that happens number five by law and Tommy is to appraise property to 100% of market value what that really means is homeowners because that doesn't apply to commercial property in Texas, it just doesn't we start there but I've got $23 billion in litigation right now all commercial property that's just last year none of those properties are contending that we have over assessed their property like many of you will they're saying because they take a statute that was created 20 years ago in 1997 for homeowners so that people live on the same street with homes built by the same builder or remodeled by the same remodeler or essentially the same homes and the same central location should be value equal instead commercial interest are able to take this statute and compare the shops that lock our data for the quarry market to make their point or to the forum shopping center which is ridiculous there are no AAA tenants in any of those shelters other than the three primary and also one of the ladies who was here earlier a couple of years ago we talked about JW Marriott that's how the JW Marriott keeps them ever having its property on at market value it's just a fact they're not saying we're over apprising them they're saying that we're unequally apprising and all that equity statute requires you to do whether you're a homeowner or whether you're the JW Marriott is compare yourself to our handful of properties generally 6 to 10 quality and type of property so you want to find 6 other hotels is there another hotel in San Antonio better than JW Marriott? no, there isn't so you take the number one best property in San Antonio you compare it to a group 6 or 10 of comparable hotels you adjust them because they're not comparable and in no way the law provides can the best hotel be appraised about the median level which is the middle value between those 6 or 10 of all those properties so you take the very best property put it in the middle of the median or the median of those comparable you automatically have inequity created by the equity statute and that is because you now place properties that should have been appraised below the JW Marriott above the JW Marriott and guess what they're going to do next they're going to compare themselves to the JW Marriott the same make me less than that because they should be and so the median just spirals down you can't change enough residential value to make up for one JW Marriott you just can't and so I've instructed my staff we have a job to do in terms of arriving at market value but I believe that the real inequity in this system is the shell game that the state plays with these numbers and what they tell you and what they charge me to do I don't like lying to people and I'm not going to and I'm not going to allow my staff to Tommy's going to talk about the appeal process he's going to talk about getting our evidence packet that evidence packet is so critical to you I'm sure most of y'all have already done that but it ties our hands in terms of what we can produce at the review board if we're not able to settle it and by the way 80% of the population settles with my staff whether you do it online or whether you come into the office if you get that evidence packet it will give you the equity that we show your property and where it is in relation to all the properties in your neighborhood it will also give you all the market data ironically some maybe 10 years ago maybe 4 or 5 sessions ago I could give you sales information if I had it all you have to do is ask for it the legislature has forced us in these days of open government unless your property is under protest and then I can give it to you so not our policy that's just the statute back to that 55% the legislative budget board right before every session tells the legislature what you can realistically expect to spend based on the controller's estimate of revenue for the next biennium probably all know that everything the LVB total legislature is if you go to the controller's website www.windowsonstategovernment.ly you can find the 10 year history and I think it goes back several decades of what public school finance and the state's share of that public school finance has been I'm only going to go back 10 years 10 years ago the state funded to the tune of 60% which meant we paid collectively 40% today it's been turned on its head 55% us 45% the state and how where that gets compounded for you guys and for all homeowners is if you're not getting the same level of value treatment as that commercial property and I am sure you are not then you're being impacted disparately I've asked the Bear County's commissioners court to sue me in a friendly lawsuit so that I can give them the appropriate questions to get out there in the public so that people can see what this process is doing to them they bought I thought I had them ready to go I contacted Senator Corona who happens to own or I hope he owns it I think he manages or maybe is a partial owner of the largest homeowners association in the state which is an associate that's my homeowners association in the park at Bearfield I said would you consider suing me in a class action suit on behalf of any of your associations I'll tell you how to do this I had a three month conversation with this general counsel and they quit so nobody's going to pick up this torch and fight for you and every time I do they will closer to retirement they don't take it very well they don't like people being told the truth nobody knows more about what's happening to your property taxes than we do and while I can empathize with you if ten of you guys would complain to the legislature in person an email let Jess Rouse know let your senators know because we have senators that just come nuts usually it's the house that's nuts and the Senate is a little more decorum related it's completely flip flop but the current of the matter is you guys ten of you people would be ten just general people would be much more important to legislators than ten bureaucrats they don't care what I say I'm paid to get values out there that's what they say even though they have laws that make it against the law for me to be compensated but that's too much truth I don't want to take up all your time tonight I know y'all want to get on and watch the basketball game I'm going to let Tommy take over I'm just values in general I know we got some specific questions but we'll stay here and answer them as long as it takes and I'm going to stick around up here in case Tommy has something we can't deal with although I'm sure since he'll probably be one of the guys to replace me he can do that I was going to meet Comers hey guys my name is Tom Alice I'm the manager of the residential department I've been in the residential department now for 14 years I've seen the markets in its early stages in the early 2000s run up to the housing bubble I've seen it first I've seen it flatline I spend most of my time reviewing the numbers and trying to get that market level out there so if y'all receive an appraisal notice it's my fault so you can put a face to it so how many people did receive an appraisal notice this year? yeah about 9 out of 10 how many people received an appraisal notice this year I'm going to go over why but to get to the audience here is everyone here from Manning Park do I have any Westport? that's all very similar what's impacting Manning Park is impacting where a road is impacting Westport you're in this urban core now a revitalization phase every neighborhood goes through a life cycle and I remember many years Manning Park was in decline because it was flatline but then all of a sudden all of this redevelopment came in all of this added interest not to mention the traffic just keeps building we keep adding 20,000 30,000 new people to San Antonio area every year or so every month so we have just a lot of different economic activities going on that's leading to this rise in property values so I want to go over a little short history of that because we are now in our fifth year of expanding a real estate market where we see significant value in growth in 2013 the San Antonio board of realtors reported that the San Antonio housing market closed out as big as it sells here since 2006 that was in 2013 and the median average let's go over that the average price back then was 184,000 and the median price was 150,000 2014 comes along San Antonio housing market grew in all areas in 2014 we increased our average price to 193 and our median price to 160 2015 rolls around the total number of homes sold in San Antonio area reached all-time highs in 2015 our average price is now up to 208 and our median price is up to 170 2016 these are the sales that will impact you on your 2017 appraisal the momentum created by a record-breaking 2015 pushed sales figures up in 2016 the average price is now 218,000 and the median price is 180,000 where can we expect this to go glad you asked we'll report on that first quarter home sales 2017 showed increase in the San Antonio area market our sales figures this year continued to outpace flash gears that's the first quarter average price is right around 220,000 and median price of 184 and just this past month San Antonio area home prices rise as summer nears increased demand in low inventory and that's the name of the game right now the demand is far outpacing supply we're not building enough houses to keep up there's not enough new inventory coming out and the demand is just really outpacing supply creating that upward pressure on values it's to the point right now where a well-positioned house will sell within hours of input on the market especially in highly desirable areas that's just the market climate that we're in I just set in on a metro study economic webinar this week saying that they expect this trend to continue well past 2018-2019 they don't see really a correction or a moderate flattening of the market until about 2021 and they only expect it then because the inflated prices are starting to going to outpace the income and we have seen increases in income but those inflated prices are going to start putting pressures on buyers and affordability is going to go down so they expect sometime around 2020-2021 as to when we might expect to see a flattening of values in our market now that's not counting any type of outside activity any national event that might occur any international event that may occur that could impact our economy the San Antonio is very well positioned in terms of a diverse market population, climate, area there are a lot of that activity and we can expect to see this value grow for not only this year but continuing years so what does that mean for you homeowners that received that appraisal notice that appraisal notice comes with a notice of protest on the back so your appraisal notice will tell you what we think your home is valued at this year you can take a look at that number you can decide wow what were they thinking or well that might not be too bad or you know what I need to talk to them there's something wrong with my account that is what that protest was for and that's what we're there for we're there to make sure that we get the record right we have no interest in inflating values or inflating values or maintaining values we're there to make sure that the values are correct so as homeowners well let me put this back I have a staff of about 38 appraisers right now 38 appraisers to value 100,000 residential properties does that mean we can get to every property that's why we have mass appraisal so are we going to know the specifics of every property of every neighborhood you know that's the purpose of mass appraisal that's why we're shooting at a median level of value as a median level of value everyone can expect an increase based on that median level so as a homeowner what I want to know is is my information correct we're we've started to be more restrictive on the data that we can provide to you because of the legislature has said what we can and cannot post on our website so if you go to your account online and you find out why can't I see that well there's something holding that back so come to our office find out what your record states find out if our records are accurate on your property the appraisal district was formed from the 1979 legislature and it's first repraised in 1981 there we go we had to gather all of our information from other entities at that time school districts, counties cities that had that information so if your house was built before 1980 which may depart there's a good chance that the characteristics might not be 100% accurate especially if it hasn't sold within the last 10, 15, 20 years so you want to make sure first off is your information correct second by filling out that protest you can request our enemies packet you can see the information that guided us in placing values for your neighborhood and you can get that information you say okay why did you increase my value, why did you increase the value of the neighborhood, here's our evidence this is what was indicating the value of your property review that information, compare that to your property if you're having if you want to know more information about it or how we interpret it or how we compare it to your property come visit with us we have an informal process where you come into the office, speak with one of our appraisers and go over that type of data to see how we arrive at your value again like Mike said we resolve about 80% of any type of dispute at the informal level but then there is that 20% that we don't, now part of that 20% people just don't come to the informal they just skip the informal process and go straight to the intervene, that's their throttle the appraisal review board, they're there to weigh the evidence between the appraisal district and the homeowner and arrive at a value now they set the value and that is the final value at that point you still have options beyond that if you feel that the appraisal review board review the information and they still didn't give you a fair shake and you feel that the value still needs reconsideration you have more options there too you have binding arbitration it does come with a binding fee with control it's $450 for homeowners now for most homeowners once it gets above a million dollars then we're looking at a little bit more but for most homeowners it's about $450 it's very similar to your appraisal review board process you meet in front of an arbitrator who could be a real estate agent an attorney who could be an arbitrator and like the ARB you present your evidence to this arbitrator and the arbitrator decides on a value now that's binding and then that's kind of like the end of the road other options for you or you could file in district to court now that's not a real reliable way for regular property owners because the fees associated with that filing fees, the attorney fees, the time spent hours it starts to become a cost-benefit ratio it's not in favor of the homeowner so that's where the binding arbitration process fills that gap so there are options for you to protest I could go on and get a lot of data but I do want to open it up for questions because I know a lot of y'all are going to have questions at this point so what can I help you along with in terms of value? I just got my appraisal taxes went up $8,000 I can live with that sort of but when you look at the particulars my actual structure value went down $40,000 yet my land value doubled and what I'm paying taxes on went up $32,000 so in reality my taxes didn't go up $8,000 they went up $32,000 how does the property cost a lot? that's the only question I have there's a reason for that which will not make sense it won't make sense but I can't accept it but it does make sense there are components to the overall value what we're interested in is the total market value do you feel like that total market value reverse is the value on your property yes or no if not please come in let's discuss it now the components yes there is an improvement component and a land component we are required by law to separate out the two the improvements and the land if you sell the property most likely 99% of the time you're not going to sell the house without the land but the land without the house it's going to go together as a whole now just a brief explanation on the improvement side for a lot like your homeowner's insurance on your improvements and then we appreciate it based on the age of the house and the condition of the house we have that set value then we have a land value when we add those two together that gives us a total value we compare that total value to what they're selling for so if your replacement cost on your house is somewhere around $150,000 and we appreciate it $50,000 because it's 78 years old so we're looking at an improvement value of $100,000 then we have $50,000 on the lot we have those two together, we have $150,000 we compare that to what they're selling for $225,000 how do we bridge that gap between our cost and land to what they're selling for that is the market adjustment and over time we add that market adjustment to those components to increase the value but at a certain point those components are distributed because they get out of balance either the improvements get out of balance the too high or the land gets out of balance because it's too low we have to rebalance those components to make sure that they are fair and reasonable to the overall market value the last time we made a major rebalance of the components effort was back in between 2006 and 2008 right there at the peak of the bubble for a bus because values had played so much to that point that some of the components got out of balance and we went through the decline we went into the flat market and so there for a while a few years it wasn't much to do but now we're in our fifth it's our eighth year in expanded market activity it's our fifth year in significant value those components became out of balance we had to redistribute those components so that's why a lot of you all are increasing your land values and redistribution of your improvement value and unfortunately being a disabled retired veteran and a what's the other one the homestead and all of that has nothing to do with my properties just to value my house correct? your exemptions to reduce your taxable amount so you get the benefit from your homestead and your disabled veteran your value will fluctuate as market value changes within the market your assessed value what you pay taxes on will include those exemption amounts and that's what you want to be looking at so my assessed amount I need to see all this because if what you're saying then there's because again my taxes went up $8,000 total taxes yet the amount I have to pay on from 2016 or 2016 till now went up $32,000 so how can I go from here $8,000 and now I'm paying $32,000 more overall so I was assuming just based off of it it was because the land value my house decreased my land value skyrocketed and my exemptions did not cover that change your exemptions won't cover that change if they were in place in the prior year and you carried it over and you may not remember what's your property your assessed value like their praised market value is always your combination of those two the law requires the law requires we never would say $132,000 $8,000 $240,000 the law on portrayal has always required a priceless to separate the land from the input the sum total of those two must still equal market value just because we came up with some theory about what the redistribution or the reallocation of those two components should be that doesn't resolve this or resolve the fact that the total is more than that that's why you want our evidence back and then we'll talk about your exemptions because any exemptions you have are not affected by the value your value is affected by the exemption or the tax is affected by the exemptions so our refinance my house in November had the appraisal November wasn't very long ago in May low and behold when I get my valuation it's about 30% more than it was in November that's a good information to bring in for us to exempt it, yes it's a very valid couple of things guys remember the protest deadline is May 31st the evaluation date as a matter of law, a matter of policy is January 1 every year now the state comptroller's office when they study our level of value which this goes back to the funding formula and the purse streams that you are they want to make sure that we have you guys on top of that you guys collectively as us homeowners act as close to 100% of value as possible and this determines how much state aid your school district receives if you're in a chapter 42 school district like most or if you're in a chapter 41 school district how much you will or you won't repay and recapture now here again the state tests us every two years by law I have to dump all of my data although it pays me about 10 times because they don't have a computer system that will take all of my data but I have to give them about 10 zip files of all of their family it's 4 terabytes of data the problem is once they have all this data then they do this juggling act and the criteria within the this school district and that school district and then they apply things like back when we had a lot of foreclosures if foreclosure would affect the value in a school district if there was more than 20% foreclosure in a school district I think as a standard then we have to consider foreclosures we don't have foreclosures virtually anymore and so in some cases we were able to use our own laws against them to help us get our school districts because if you don't then they either withhold money from your poor school district or they soak your school district if you're a paying school district for more money so there's a lot of pressure for us to get that value as close to 100% as possible mathematically the number is 95 to 105 that weighs 10% at least 5% of the population can expect to be over assessed to make sure that we get those foreclosures brought back into the fold the ones that are below you know good for you if you have a current appraisal that's helpful the data set that you need to look at and be concerned with is generally 6 months before the appraisal day and 6 months after the appraisal day that's the 12 month window that the state looks at if we have an escalated market we can time adjust the June sale that's the January one because we know what the growth rate is per month it's published by the Texas A&M that's the number we rely on if you sold 6 months earlier in the first year we can time adjust that sale forward because that's a published number it's not a made-up number it's a known number and so that's something that we can share with you that was the third party figures it's not a published number there's a lot of ways we can get around to work these things out with you guys that's all I was saying it's just math we're in San Antonio ISD has San Antonio ISD here with Chalice the control of evaluations I just did in 2014 because out of 12 schools the state control failed me and we're kind of at the 12th school while telling me I passed in Alamo Heights BS but I did I happen to know from a very well personally both when he was a senator and when he was a house member and when he was just a lawyer in the life department but he's probably the last statewide elected respectable politician that I know I knew I could call in if I had to instead we sat in the room about this size because the state requires everything come to them in paper intricate no less and I did that for 10 school districts and it took me 10 months of fighting them but we did challenge and we did win I've never not beaten the state can you go over in terms of fashion how market value is determined in terms of location sure given the neighborhood it has boundaries it is a general location we collect sales information within those boundaries sales prices will range you'll have a low and a high you'll have everything in between we're looking at all those sales we're comparing those sales to what our values are and we're shooting for a middle value the median value for park goes from 200 to 220 essentially that's what we're trying to aim for that goes for any neighborhood we're collecting sales within any neighborhood boundary and evaluate that to the values on our product so we're adding both commercial and residential just residential and with a better residential we can even narrow it down because I know you all are seeing a lot of a new construction activity in your neighborhoods you're getting town houses new houses, things like that we can separate that out to where we're just looking at the old properties of the 1930s and 40s or we're looking at the new town homes or we're looking at a new constructed house we can isolate all of that to try to find the best comparable for that group of properties so a residential property would always be compared to the other residential properties all that family is also pretty heavily in the residential section of the main department we realize that so we separate out the multi-family from the residential as well very good question we have to see the house for the notification so we're putting go up there shhh it goes on eCAP.org we're including everybody's value it shouldn't have gotten a notice or if you have an exemption last year that you don't have this year by law I have to give you a notice so if you happen to see one best thing to do is contact our office or you can look online actually now we can print their notice on and then we can track the ARD and their informal sales I don't think we can see a notice yet but one more point on it do you can find the notice you can print out your value and you can actually remember folks one thing we haven't said whether you get a notice or you don't get a notice this year, next year, or any year you can always protest your value whether the value went up, whether the value went down whether the value stayed the same state of fact just doesn't care you can protest on that form you can protest on a napkin I don't care well I'm going to identify your signature identify the property here's my signature here's my date there's a date stamp the purpose forms are available online and one thing we haven't said and I'll answer your question one thing we haven't said is we start our informal schedule on May 25th so anytime between now and then that is the 24th office from 8 to 5 fill out your protest request the evidence packet review it we have a nice area where you can sit at the desk and look at our if you're comfortable with that if you need more time but you want to come back next week before the 24th and have an informal you can get that done and be done with it that's totally up to you electronic protest we now have the option of electronic protest through the informal process fill out a protest online have informal hearing online and most cases result out of these ones these guys sort of, you know they're not followed by the format of the form that's on the front line I'm sorry you're not followed by that format that may be with the form on the line I'm just asking, you're not actually followed by the format for which the protest form the protest form? not for the form not for the form itself but for the online protest we have to have a signature and so you have to follow your protest whether it's generally through snail mail or coffee or whatever when you get your appraisal notice from us you're going to have a pin number on your appraisal notice so the vicinity of your legal if I'm not mistaken on the upper right hand corner that pin number enables you to log in to the website which also has a kind of tutorial on how to use that protest form how to use that protest electronic protest where you can share and receive data from us and then we can make offers to you if there's an offer to be made a lady came to mind at the gym this morning and said, well I got online and I did this and I did that and all they offered me was going to change and I said, because I told you there's no reason to change your value that's not a really good argument so people do overwrite the property that should be a possibility we need to look at the other sales and see what everybody's doing just because we have a, you know we try to throw out outliers both on the high side and the low side we don't have a dog in this fight in terms of trying to get the highest value I just need my school districts to look as poor as possible so I don't know statistically that the state is giving me that assures the maximum amount of state aid with the least amount of money out of your pocket or if you're now on the high to the northeast ISD and you're sending recapture money back you send back the least amount of money the most amount of money stays in their county and the state can go do whatever the whole state does yes sir probably if you want to reverse yourself in 90 dollars that's not the worst case I've seen for Manning Park for Manning Park just a vacant park it's 90 dollars more than Manning Park I'm not going to tell you we have 10 vacant lot sales in Manning Park the problem is we're still looking at a composite value a total value if, you know we do have size investment factors because they're different size levels in every neighborhood that may be one we need to look at I had this discussion with the folks in Manning Park last week it seemed like yesterday because we do have two or three of these a week but because they have a big reshop where they have their main value we have three main sales in there each one of them in every category a quarter acre, a half acre and nearly an acre was around 30,000 to 40,000 million that also is not necessarily the best indication of value in my neighborhood there are only three vacant lots left out of 250 lot bankrupt so whoever wants to live in there is going to pay a premium for those lots and we recognize that that's why we didn't hit that number but there still is a desirable percentage and generally it's 25 to 30 percent land value to a total value and so usually you can look at a 75 25, 25 split between the improvements and the land value sometimes that number doesn't fit so well particularly in older neighborhoods because there's less reliable vacant land data I can't just compare it to the next level but generally that's what we're shooting for okay protest your value, come in, see this, get our data I just want you to imagine a home with an aquarium on it weekly there will be land on it it's part of the drive you can go from $600 to $2,500 ouch okay if you need a question we're going to have to grab up this portion I have a question so if you're going to determine the median value how far back are you going as far as sales prices are there the most previous three six months in here the cost for the first is better so we want to make sure we're comparing apples to apples to make sure we have the right numbers could you take a moment to ask the question specifically about land how far back are you going to have to could you take a moment to talk about what's happening with the rose, dark store leves home centers nationally, in about 2008 when Michigan started to be populating they had a lot of big box stores that went dark for empty you know at 410 and 281 the target sat there empty for a long time and trees were only being re-developed that's what they were talking about leves thinks that there are $110 the first work that's for should be valued at 20 bucks a foot in their county irrespective of where they are there are income approaches to valuing those types of commercial profits there's a direct sales comparison approach to valuing those kinds of profits and there's a cost approach that you can use to value those kinds of profits the land value at Blanco in 281 near where I live I know it's going to be relatively high for that leves also noted when they compare to the one on southeast military that's going to be not as high but the fact of the matter is each of those leves ranges from 135 to 137 thousand square feet in their own home state in North Carolina where leves was based on it they tried this story and they lost the supreme court quarter amount and put them on 110 bucks a foot they sued me here in Barra County allegedly 20 bucks a foot they sued Harris County, they sued Travis County they sued Williamson County, they sued Globop County they sued Dallas County all those guys settled they settled with numbers that were much higher than what they offered me I don't know why they thought Barra County was a good crash test dummy but I've been at this for 22 years as a chief 36 years as a human and I know BS when I see it fortunately the arbitration panel consisted of Judge Peoples and George Bryn local arbitrator, mediator all picked by opposing counsel we spent a week of trial with these guys I spent $300,000 at one time I had $1,600 an hour just on attorneys on my side of the test they brought in the experts from Michigan that had been successful in nine other states in getting their values slashed in half to 75% off of what they were previously assessed at the problem with Texas is other states don't have an equal and uniform appeal system like Texas does so you only need one Lowe's to go down once that Lowe's is devalued every other big box can be too often that's what that does to you you don't get that treatment and so we fought it wrong we fought it hard my board made up its mind I visited with every taxing jurisdiction every school district I told them all I know y'all are all used to getting money back for me at the end of the year because by law I can't keep what I don't spend and we don't spend it just because we have it I will be encumbering funds from now until the cows come home because even though I prevailed at the non-binding arbitration which essentially costs for the same things a week long trial they now are pursuing we're trying to reinstate equity tomorrow morning I'm meeting with my attorneys and I also hired Wallace Jefferson's brother I can't remember his name for the last time to co-counselors because he's a very competent trial lawyer and he's also very well known in this community and I thought it was important that we have a competent appraisal representation a competent community representation it's a community state my pay doesn't change the district doesn't change but what happens to the community changes dramatically if this happens I'll wrap this up I had a member of a house a chairman who was willing to actually remember the Ways and Means Committee the chairman Bonner had asked because Comptroller Haver asked that a bill be drafted I drafted a very simple bill he was only a paragraph long the business community came on board essentially the guy that was carrying the bill got hired by a tax consultant slash tax attorney group and the bill's dead so now the rest of the state taxes them possibly the school finances in Texas now rests on how well we did a trial the next March it was expected that if I lost this cost it would cost San Antonio schools about $850 million over to Miami over a two year period a city that wouldn't stop the letters and then moved to the parking complexes and the retail and offices and letters are institutional properties they're bought and sold by real estate investment trusts they don't own just the letters they own every category of property on the planet other than the residential so the possible impact to the state the controller back in September I went to arbitration in October he said that Bear County schools make up 10% of the wealth in the state of Texas so an eight and a half million dollar loss in Bear County for the biennium was an eight and a half billion dollar loss to the state of Texas because the state of Texas has to hold schools which is harmless when we lose a trial but there's only one trial and we only lose a few hundred million dollars the other ones are just everyday fees and I can't afford to go to trial with everybody at one point I looked at my docket and I just stopped paying everybody that works for me and I didn't pay the water in line and I didn't pay anybody anything I had about $10,000 per case I had to spend that would get me and Lamont Jefferson for about four days and I should have gotten Charlie to the right so that's just the way it is it went very well back I think now we're on a different chapter so I still can't shop at most so I still can't shop at most so I still can't shop at most