Cook County Assessor’s Office Transformation
The Cook County Assessor’s Office sets the values for 1.8 million residential and commercial properties, playing an important role in ensuring the fairness and accuracy of the County’s property tax system.
In August 2017, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and then-Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios asked Civic Consulting Alliance to analyze the County’s residential property tax assessment system. Together with pro bono partner Skadden, we found that the County’s assessment system is less fair and far more variable and regressive than industry standards, transferring wealth from owners of lower-value homes to those of higher-value homes. Following the study’s release in February 2018, Civic Consulting Alliance and our pro bono partner Protiviti began working with the County to resolve these issues. Upon his election in November 2018, current Assessor Fritz Kaegi turned to Civic Consulting Alliance to develop a 100-Day Plan to continue reforming the system, guided by three principles: fairness, transparency, and ethics.
The 100-Day plan we helped develop includes 30 initiatives, ranging from improvements in policy and valuation, to employee training and community outreach. When Kaegi took office in December 2018, we helped his team implement the Plan, building an agile project management structure to manage all initiatives.
Additionally, we provided tactical assistance on specific initiatives, including:
A sales ratio study of the 2018 assessment of the Chicago Triad (eight Cook County townships including Chicago) which revealed marked increases in uniformity but significant remaining potential for further improvement;
Market research to understand the needs of Chicago’s commercial real estate market participants, including feedback on their interactions with the Assessor’s Office and suggestions for improvement; and
An audit by the International Association of Assessing Officers to evaluate the Office’s performance relative to industry best practices in order to guide improvements going forward.
“Since I took office, Civic Consulting Alliance has been instrumental in implementing my vision for reform of the Cook County assessment system, guided by principles of fairness, transparency, and ethics.”
Outputs
Better modeling practices for Cook County’s 2018 assessment
Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s 100-Day Plan outlining 30 reform initiatives implemented
Market research report on potential improvements to commercial assessment system
Outcomes
Since 2018, Cook County Assessor’s Office reassessed 420,000 residential properties using the new, more accurate and fair assessment model