Spikes in Plumas County property assessments continued to beleaguer the Plumas County Board of Supervisors Jan. 14 as citizens persisted in raising complaints about them.
In 2024, increases in property valuations rose as much as 70% over the previous year. The increases affected about 22% of the county’s 27,000 privately owned parcels, prompting angry objections at board meetings held in November and December. No discussion was scheduled for the supervisors’ Jan. 14 meeting, prompting several community members to bring it up during the board’s public comment period.
When will the supervisors resolve the issues raised, asked Janet Crain, a Meadow Valley resident. “The holiday is over,” she said.
County code 619
Craine specifically asked the supervisors to rescind Plumas County code 619, a 2012 resolution that allows the county assessor to announce large increases in property assessments on the county website. It explicitly exempts the assessor’s office from notifying individual homeowners by mail that their property taxes will be going up because of increased property valuations.
The resolution, which Plumas supervisors approved unanimously in 2012, was a focus of anger since it allowed Assessor Cynthia Froggatt to post the changes on the county’s website rather than sending individual notifications by mail.
The decision not to mail individual letters to property owners does not violate any county or state laws, said Interim Plumas County Counsel John Brechtel. The assessor’s office is fully in compliance with county codes, he said.
But the current board of supervisors generally agreed that the website posting does not serve the public well. At their Dec. 3 meeting, Supervisor Dwight Ceresola directed county staff to create a resolution to rescind the 2012 resolution and bring it to the board for action.
That did not happen Jan. 14. Board of Supervisors Chairman Kevin Goss said it would be discussed Jan. 21, the board’s next meeting.
“Good,” said Julie White, county treasurer and tax collector. Her office has been inundated by complaints generated by taxpayers faced with higher taxes generated by increased property values.
“We need a policy to make sure this does not happen again,” White said.
The assessor’s office website now prominently displays a link to a form for property owners to appeal their assessment.
Technology breakdown
The Jan. 14 board of supervisors’ meeting also generated public complaints about the video recording of the Jan. 7 meeting. The recording, typically posted automatically shortly after the conclusion of the meeting, was unavailable for much of the next week.
Two separate pieces of software work in tandem to provide both a livestream video and a video recording of board meetings, said Gregory Ellingson, the county’s information technology director. Zoom Rooms software is used to live stream the event; CivicClerk is used to mirror the live stream so that it can be viewed later as an embedded video within the county website.
When CivicClerk is functioning properly, posting the meeting video is an automated process, he said. After each board meeting, the software automatically posts the event without any human interaction. That didn’t happen after the Jan. 7 meeting. Something “disallowed the system from completing this automated process,” Ellingson said. He called it “an unknown issue,” the first in his experience with this software.
“CivicClerk could not provide a reason as to why the video had not posted automatically, but did respond with instructions on how to manually upload the video to the Clerk of the Board,” he said. Fortunately, the system makes a backup copy of the video that can be manually uploaded to the county website.
Plumas County has been using Zoom for supervisors’ meetings since early in the COVID era, Ellingson said. It is “an extremely valuable tool to us to allow for transparency and increased public participation,” he said.
The board’s Zoom system draws an average of between 15 to 20 live participants, said Allen Hiskey, clerk of the board of supervisors.
Relief from state taxes on fire settlements
The supervisors also discussed taxes levied on Pacific Gas and Electric Co. settlement payments to victims of the 2021 Dixie Fire. President Joe Biden signed legislation in December granting relief from federal taxes on those payments. California, however, has not approved similar relief from state taxes.
Plumas County Sheriff Todd Johns pledged to work toward that end.
“I’m going to do everything I can – make as many calls as I can – to make sure this issue gets into the state budget,” he said Jan. 14 at the board of supervisors’ meeting.
The bill SB 1004 was designed to exempt wildfire victims from paying state income taxes on fire-related settlements. It was unanimously approved on the state Senate floor May 24, sponsored by Sen. Scott Wilk of Santa Clarita. The bill then moved to the California Assembly, where it was approved. But California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the legislation Sept. 29. He has insisted that state legislators account for the loss of state taxes in California’s 2025-2026 budget.
Goss, who lobbied in Washington DC and elsewhere on behalf of federal tax relief, also promised to continue working to approve relief from California taxes for Dixie Fire victims. “Our goal is approval by April 15, 2025,” he said.
Supervisor Mimi Hall noted that legislative advocacy is a pathway for Plumas County to make its voice heard at the state level. “It’s high time we used it,” she said.
