All ready to assess

County Assessor Theresa Curren has proudly announced that every member of her office is now officially certified. While she and Bridget Helms are permanently certified, Tracey Jundt has achieved temporary certification and Todd Fritz has temporary certification and is expected to upgrade to permanent next year.

“There are two types of certification: temporary and permanent,” Curren says. “Both are through the Department of Revenue and you have to take so many hours of education in order to become either temporary or permanent.”

Getting the temporary certification under your belt, says Curren, involves classes on standards of appraisal practice – the ethical and moral portion of the job – and the fundamentals of real property appraisal. The latter is a week-long class ending in a test.

“If you don’t pass it, you can’t have a job. We do a retake at the end of the year, but if you don’t pass it, it’s kind of the make or break,” she explains. “It’s a very difficult test to take.”

With the temporary certification in hand, 90 more hours of classes are needed to reach permanent status. That can take several years, Curren says, because the class timings are limited and may not fit in with the county schedule.

It’s not actually a requirement from the Department of Revenue and this is the first time in a few years that the entire office has been certified, Curren says, but it is her goal to achieve it for every employee.

“It’s important for all of us to know what we’re doing when we’re assessing everybody’s property,” she says.

The Department of Revenue does, however, require any employee who will be making valuations to be certified, and Curren wants her team to be flexible for the sake of its clients.

“In this office, because we’re so small, everybody has to learn all aspects of the job,” she adds.

“At that point, everybody is going to be making valuation decisions.”

Once permanently certified, an employee must receive continuing education. While further testing is not necessary, Curren asks her staff to take the available tests to ensure their learning is on track.

“In order to defend the values we have, you have to be certified, so I’d rather everyone in here know what they are talking about,” she smiles.