BAY MINETTE — A series of informal hearings, additional personnel and a “court docket” format for the Baldwin County Board of Equalization should resolve about 18,000 property tax bill protests by July, according to District Attorney Judy Newcomb.

Following a series of meetings with Baldwin County Revenue Commissioner Phil Nix, BOE chairman Al Thompson and state Revenue Department official Bill Bass, Newcomb outlined the review plan Jan. 15 during a meeting with the County Commission.

“The situation is that the state is reviewing 18,000 protest appeals,” Newcomb said. “When the appeals were filed, it resulted in a hodgepodge effect on how they were being dealt with and rumors circulating in the community. We hope to clear up the misinformation.”

Letters are being sent with a date and time for informal meetings with six county and 10 state hearing officers.

One-on-one meetings began Tuesday in Bay Minette. Informal hearings will begin Jan. 28 at the Foley and Fairhope satellite courthouses and the county annex and emergency operations center in Robertsdale.

Hearing officers will review math and data errors, property description errors and relevant sales which might not have been considered in the assessment formula, Newcomb said.

“If they are not satisfied, they can go to the BOE,” Newcomb said. “If property owners got the impression they were stuck with results from the informal hearings, they need to know they can still go to the BOE and docket their case.”

Newcomb also said the exchange of information during the informal hearings may help property owners in presenting their case to the BOE.

Newcomb said the informal hearing process will be completed in 90 days and “we agreed that all resources will be used to accomplish this.”

Tax bill protesters do not have to pay taxes until after BOE meetings. If they are not satisfied, the next step is filing a circuit court suit and paying a cash bond.

The majority of condominium owners will be referred directly to the BOE hearings, Newcomb said.

According to Nix, about 2,700 condo appeals are on record.

According to the plan, the BOE will docket protests filed in specific geographical areas. “They will group properties together, set appointments at the same time, then hear each case separately,” Nix said. “It will give them a better understanding during the review.”

The appeals represent $33 million in total tax bills, Nix said. “If you deduct all the tax bills on appeal from the anticipated collections, you would still have more taxes than what was collected last year.

“We are six months in the hearing process and not doing much on the hearings,” Nix said. “This should speed up the process. People are wondering what is going on. We told them not to pay taxes until the hearings are complete, but some want to go on and pay.”

Property tax bills mailed in October created a firestorm of protest from property owners and an unprecedented increase in appeals.

In October, the state Department of Revenue took over assessment procedures in Baldwin County, following a state report listing numerous errors in Nix’s computations of taxes and lack of staff training.

Nix has maintained his numbers are correct and that he has angered state officials with statements against annual property appraisals, which he said is a means to generate more money from property owners.

Newcomb told commissioners tax protesters should not address legislative issues during the hearings about how things should be done.

“We are not dealing with caps, annual reappraisals or formulas on how values are used,” Newcomb said. “Those issues involve law changes.

“Mr. Nix followed those regulations. But there were also two recent hurricanes and unprecedented fluctuations in property values.”

Before the meeting, Newcomb said the state thinks property tax bills are too low and county property owners think they are too high.

Nix said the use of state officers may be best during the informal hearing stage due a lack of trust in his department’s assessments.

“We made the appraisals,” Nix said. “If we are wrong, why are we doing the hearings? The state should oversee that.”

In another matter, a lawsuit electronically filed in Baldwin County Circuit Court by Lucy Baxley and James Smith, seeks inclusion of foreclosures into the assessment process and calculation of taxes.

Nix said state law does not include foreclosures in the assessment formula.

“Foreclosures are ‘distress sales’ and don’t accurately indicate what the market is,” Nix said, adding that state officials are reviewing the lawsuit.