MONTGOMERY, Ala. — State Department of Revenue officials met with Baldwin County officials Monday to air concerns over the accuracy of ad valorem property values and to address the record number of appeals to the Board of Equalization, prompted by a $35 million increase in property taxes countywide.

Those attending the meeting were Baldwin County Revenue Commissioner Phil Nix, the Baldwin County Legislative Delegation, a majority of the Baldwin County Commission and two of the three members of the Baldwin County Board of Equalization.

Also in attendance were about eight concerned property owners.

Addressing the group was Tom Surtees, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Revenue, and his staff, who presented a procedures and staffing analysis of the Baldwin County Revenue Commissioner’s Office.

Surtees said the meeting was not to find solutions for a particular problem — that would be left up to the Baldwin County Board of Equalization — but to find long-term solutions and to go through the department’s analysis.

“What we are dealing with is almost unprecedented,” said Surtees when discussing the record number of appeals that have been filed by property owners. He assured everyone that each appeal would be handled properly.

One member of the Board of Equalization assured citizens attending that the board would take the time to do their homework on each appeal. It is still uncertain how many appeals have been received, but Nix said his office would have those totals by Friday.

Nix said Tuesday that 4,200 appeals had been received and identified, but his staff is still counting and sorting through multiple submissions.

The analysis identified some critical issues that require immediate attention. Most importantly, these include appraisal maintenance, annual 25 percent incremental review, compliance ratio studies, building cost index studies, land valuation studies, trending analysis, appraisal of commercial properties, utilization of field appraisers and a working relationship between the county and state revenue departments.

The report also determined that the field appraisal staff is suffering from a lack of direction, supervision, information, tools and equipment. Many of the appraisers have not been adequately trained, the report stated.

Foley resident Georgia Bankston asked Nix if his office would follow the recommendations suggested by the state.

Nix danced around the question before saying, “We fall within the guidelines already.”

Bankston then asked Surtees what the state was going to do, and he responded that the “state should not go in and take over Baldwin County,” but will help fix it.

Bankston said the “blame lies with each of them,” referring to the numerous elected and appointed officials in the room.

Because the meeting was held in Montgomery and not Baldwin County, it was difficult for those residents affected to attend and the meeting was not highly publicized. Rep. Steve McMillian, R-Orange Beach, asked what could be done “to resolve the problem today.”

Surtees said he was not prepared to recommend legislation, but that appeals would be resolved.

“We will work with Phil (Nix) to fix it,” Surtees said. “The stakeholders are in the room.”

McMillan said Tuesday he has discussed legislative action with other members of the legislative delegation if a proposed three-way agreement between Nix, ADOR and the County Commission is unsuccessful. Under that proposal, McMillan said the county would provide funding for training, higher pay for staffers and additional staffers.

State Rep. Randy Davis, R-Daphne, wanted to address the issues more specifically.

“Let’s bring this meeting back into the center and find a remedy.”

County Commissioner Charles Gruber said he was willing to stay all day.

“We owe this to the citizens of Baldwin County to sit here and figure it out.”

A few minutes later, the two-hour meeting was adjourned, but not before Surtees promised to have drafted a “memorandum of understanding” by the close of business Tuesday to be signed by Baldwin County Commissioners, Nix and the legislative delegation. The memorandum would include time frames and goals of completion.

Nix said Tuesday he is drafting a report in response to the state document.

“We are addressing issues, coming up with a plan in which the state can help us out,” Nix said. “I am not sure why there is a memo of understanding being prepared. The Alabama code says the ADOR is supposed to direct and assist us. We already have that.

“We will have to wait and look at it.”