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St. Louis County properties not added to tax rolls cost others money - TwinCities.com Page 3 of 6 "Everything was prepped for Rick to go out and do these assessments," Hintz said. "Here comes an assessor that still has the county brand on him. He has the credentials, and was willing to do it for less." By 2004, Vidmar was responsible for appraising more than 10,000 parcels throughout the county. The reason he got so much business, said County Commissioner Mike Forsman, was simple: He charged less than the county. "(Townships) said, 'Rick gives a really good deal, much cheaper than the county would give us,' " Forsman said. But with St. Louis County encompassing more land than any other county east of the Mississippi River, Hintz wondered whether Vidmar took on more properties than he could handle. "I'm not sure if it was humanly possible for the best assessor in the world to handle that workload," he said. Durward's report, which was provided to the News Tribune, alleged that Vidmar also missed more assessments than any other assessor in the county. She wrote that she and two other county employees, Clayton Breimon and Hintz, confronted Vidmar about the problems in early 2004 and told him he was "severely deficient" in several of his jurisdictions. (Disclosure: Mary Durward worked as a temporary news assistant at the News Tribune following her employment with the county but did not disclose to or discuss the report with News Tribune employees.) "You indicated that you were aware of the deficiencies, and we expected you to comply," Durward wrote to Vidmar. But a month later, Durward wrote that Vidmar still had not made "significant progress" on evaluating hundreds of properties. Durward's report documented millions of dollars in property allegedly missed by Vidmar: A car wash and bank in Cook, several new construction projects in Floodwood, cabins in Crane Lake, and numerous homes and cabins in Beatty Township. "One of our staff (members) in Virginia and I spent a day in Beatty Township," Hintz said, "and found over a million dollars in new construction that had been built under building permits, so it was right out there in the public arena but had not been added to the assessment." County or municipal officials would add properties after reviewing building permits or doing something as simple as driving past the parcels. In other instances, the report accused Vidmar of not reassessing properties that were assessed at too high a value or classified as a non - homestead when the home could be taxed at the lower homestead rate. The report also claimed that Vidmar didn't verify hundreds of property sales - a crucial measure in keeping assessments accurate. http:// www .twincities.com/localnews /ci_ 20264312 /st- louis- county- properties- not - added -t... 11/19/2012