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From: BettyClarkWine
Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2010 10:45 PM
To: ‘Nancy Parish’
Subject: RE: Mike Parish, Betty. I owe you an apology – but I think you’ll like it…

Hello Mike,

My apologies for the delay in responding to you! I started to respond the first time I read this e-mail and was a bit overwhelmed and wanted to take a day or so to respond with the ‘right’ words. You’re right, this is, by far, the nicest apology I’ve ever received.

I was reminded of the saying that goes something like, “a word timely spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” Thank you so much for your kind words.

For awhile, I thought that not getting a lot of ‘feedback’ from the public meant that I was out of the loop, but recently I’ve found that silence may be more of an indication that things are generally going well. People tend to be more vocal when there are disagreements or strong opinions, but a good lively debate helps develop perspective (at least for the most part J ).

Thank you again and please stay in touch. While I follow your column, if you ever have additional input, feedback or advice (yes, even advice), please don’t hesitate to shoot me a line or call.

Betty

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From: Nancy Parish
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 6:59 PM
To: BettyClarkWine
Subject: Mike Parish, Betty. I owe you an apology – but I think you’ll like it…

Hi Betty,

If you’re wondering, I noticed your e-mail addy under Steve’s latest e-mail to me and it triggered me to FINALLY get around to writing you.

I’m honestly SORRY that it’s taken me *so long* to do this, but my problems with my continually declining health have left me scatterbrained (MORE THAN USUAL!) with highly decreased mobility and not nearly as focused as usual on things I should be focusing on.

I’ve been meaning to tell you for quite some time now just how much I have admired your work on the council! (Pretty good apology, right?) I fully understand what it means to go against popular opinion on occasion and my own columns have reflected that over nearly two decades with the Sun and the Mountain (Jackpot).

This is simply my way of saying “STAY THE COURSE!” We may not always agree – but THAT’S AMERICA ! Just my way of letting you know that you’ve earned my RESPECT with your continued hard work and common sense attitude. SALUTE!

- Mike Parish

The Mountain Jackpot

Taxes are your business and, while the Assessor does not set tax rates, the value of your property determines the taxes you pay.

(Results: Clark-Wine 2005 votes, King 1608 votes)

What are your top three priorities? Mine are education, information, and customer service. Not just education of staff (which is a priority), but education of and to the public, since next year is a ‘reset’ (re-valuation) year. Making sure our citizens have the resources, methods and information at hand to protest their valuation is a high priority. I plan to be out and about the community and visiting with homeowner’s associations, business entities, chambers of commerce, and real estate professionals. Providing the proper information, as well as easy access to that information is critical.

How would you handle a 10% budget reduction? I would start with travel and training. I personally paid around $625 for three online appraisal courses to obtain a Registered Appraiser license. The Assessor’s current budget provide for over $2100 travel and training expenses to take these same courses – multiply that times two people, that is a potential reduction of $3000 for those two employees only! And there are more potential reductions for travel and training. I have other ideas, too, but wasn’t given adequate time to discuss those. While the incumbent disagreed with me on training as he felt that online courses result in a high failure rate, he had no suggestions.

Other questions involving the importance of using the income approach for commercial properties, the ‘weighting’ of the various three methods used, and the flexibility of the Assessor were posed.

This event is an excellent way to compare the candidates side-by-side, click here.