2020 Triennial Audit

OVERVIEW

When Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinziano was sworn into office in March of 2019, one of his first commitments to the taxpayers of this community was to have an independent performance audit conducted for the 2017 sexennial reappraisal and for all appraisal projects going forward. To keep that promise to the residents and businesses of Franklin County, the Auditor’s office contracted an independent appraisal company and an outside statistician to analyze the degree of equity in valuation assessment achieved, the accuracy of valuation, and the overall quality of the 2020 Triennial Update of Franklin County.
 
The report(PDF, 2MB)  identifies two specific areas of note regarding the 2020 triennial appraisal:

1. Successful Neighborhood Delineation: The report concludes that breaking existing neighborhoods into small, similar subsets improved the valuation accuracy and property assessment consistency. The report also states, “breaking these neighborhoods down into smaller subunits of comparison enabled better overall equity.”
2. No Price-Related Bias: Price-Related Bias (PRB) analysis is a statistical instrument used to determine if equity has been achieved across a broad range of properties within a property class, like single-family residential properties. This is the first time Franklin County has had a PRB analysis conducted and it is an extension of the work done by the Kirwan Institute in 2021(PDF, 3MB)  studying whether historical assessment bias has existed in Franklin County. While the Kirwan Report concluded current Franklin County appraisal practices are not contributing to the furtherance of historical bias, the independent review of the 2020 triennial audit also confirms there to be no price-related bias in the county as well.

AWARDED CEAA CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE

The International Association of Assessing Officers in August 2017 honored the Franklin County Auditor's Office with its Certificate of Excellence in Assessment Administration, the highest professional honor an assessment jurisdiction can receive.

Franklin County became the first county in Ohio to attain this prestigious accolade and is one of just 36 counties or cities in the United States to receive this certificate. There are 88 counties in Ohio and more than 3,500 such assessment jurisdictions in the United States.

The International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) is the preeminent source for innovation, education and research in property appraisal, assessment administration and property tax policy. Founded in 1934, IAAO has over 7,000 members from government jurisdictions and business and academic communities.