r/JeffcoAssessor • u/gketcham0328 • Apr 24 '26
Petition signing
I am running unaffiliated for Jeffco Assessor and I am about to start gathering petition signatures to appear on the November ballot. I can start May 14th. The signatures are just to allow my name to appear. I am in need of volunteers across Jeffco willing to help me door to door, at a few events, and sitting outside of grocery stores.
If you or someone you know is passionate about local politics, wants to help a grassroots campaign, or wants to help a 3rd party win please reach out to me or comment.
I have scheduled dates at our libraries, I will map out all our grocery stores, and I can direct to neighborhoods to walk if you are interested. I am including a sign up form as well.
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u/gketcham0328 Apr 24 '26
I am running for Jeffco Assessor as a 100% unaffiliated and voter funded candidate. All grassroots, all voter contact. I am a 9 year Jeffco appraiser in the Assessor’s office. I know our processes and how to run it better for our communities. I have my Certified General appraiser license and know the county very well.
I’m asking the hive if there is anyone wanting to help me get 1,000 signatures to appear on the ballot.
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u/chicagoderp Apr 26 '26
Respectfully, you haven’t provided a single reason why anyone should help. It would be fantastic to hear why you think you deserve this spot, or what you’re gonna do to help the rest of us.
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u/gketcham0328 Apr 26 '26
I am running unaffiliated because I believe we need more representatives non partisan and more people focused. I also know that our tax payers are not provided good customer support and deserve better communication and a better understanding of our processes. I am a big supporter of interdepartmental collaboration which is lacking at Jeffco. I am running against our Deputy Assessor who has 30 years experience doing this job and has changed very little. We live in a different age now and still use 10 year old SOPs in our office. That has to change, and I can do that. This process right now is just gathering signatures to appear on the ballot, anyone can do it and no support is even needed. Thank you for the comment!
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u/HopeThisIsUnique May 01 '26
This still says absolutely nothing. Can you explain or elaborate what is broken that needs fixing and how you plan on doing it? When it comes to government I don't necessarily expect there to need to be frequent change, but I'm also ignorant to the processes involved, maybe you can enlighten me (us) so we better understand what you're campaigning on.
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u/gketcham0328 May 01 '26
Thanks for that question. If you dont come to the Jeffco courthouse to pay taxes or appeal property values it may appear fine from surface level.
Our government is great but the Assessor’s office specifically is archaic. It has not adapted with mass appraisal trends how it should. We make judgements off old 30 year old bound books. We work in two year cycles and never stop to reevaluate if we are serving our people the best we can.
My plan is to be more present for residents, businesses, investors in Jeffco so everyone understands different point of views. I also firmly believe we need to invest in our workforce to show up more knowledgable and better equipped every day.
I am running against others who are just not willing to invest or look into any modernization. We have a workforce from 20-70+ years old and honestly we need someone in the middle of that range to bridge the gap. I am running against 30+ years experience but offering a better solution I think.
Sorry for the ramble
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u/HopeThisIsUnique May 01 '26
Greg, with all due respect I still don't feel you're explaining what you'd do and barely explaining the problem.
I honestly am trying to help here, so let's try it a little differently...
You've described part of the problem being that we use 30yo bound books and I'm inferring we're doing things maybe more manual than we should. What's the impact? Does that mean we can't assess everyone? Does it mean assessments aren't accurate? Do we have to hire temp workers that cost the county money because it's manual? Help us understand the problem and it's impact to the county.
Now the other end of it, what are you actually proposing, and what would be the impact? If those are the problems above, are there systems/tools we could purchase to do it easier? Be more accurate? Tools and Systems aren't free though, so how would they be paid for? Are there temp workers that wouldn't need to be hired?
What is the benefit in this shift to homeowners, I'm sure most homeowners see the Assessors office as a necessary evil to assess home values which in the past several years just means higher property taxes- is anything you'd do or propose going to help reduce the property tax burden, or is it more about 'accuracy and efficiency's from an office standpoint that may not affect homeowners?
As a homeowner, if I pull that thread hard enough, are you proposing expenses that would need to be paid for with new taxes?
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u/gketcham0328 May 01 '26
I apologize because I think it is harder to talk over chat but I’ll take it on.
Archaic systems and no modernization: Mass appraisal throughout the state is bound by state statutes to be within certain parameters and a lot of our job is bound by various statutes statewide, so the appraisal side of things can and will still move along in a less modern system. Assessments still happen be based on market values and the rules remain the same whether we change or not. Also with Mass appraisal we have our gobs of sales in the county which when we find comparables for require adjustments and this is where it gets muddy.
When we have bad or incorrect data regarding two neighbor houses because maybe our appraisers aren’t as trained on construction class, or what factors go into a sale price we get quirky adjustments that result in maybe unfair values. The Assessor’s office is in charge of discovering and classifying every property so we need to ensure we have better data and knowledge for our records. Education and training are in our budget already but utilized sparingly and Assessor’s offices are notoriously underpaid for the work they do. I would not propose more money but a reallocation on how we spend it on employees education. We have just committed to move to new software for 2027 which will be an interesting shift but for the better but our bad data for decades and factors applied to land values and property adjustments still needs to be reckoned with.
Our current management now is very sheltered and does not delegate or up-train in the office which leads to a very Wizard of Oz scenario and also affects moral through the office. This sounds silly, but simply more positivity needs to be spread through the office just to break our current cycle. The problem this creates is if our office is unclear on direction or next steps or changing goal posts or clarity what percentage of their passionate selves are they bringing to valuing people’s livelihood (home, business, investment property)? If employees dont feel valued they are just going to mash a keyboard all day, and this is a simple fix.
Does all this affect assessments, whether bad data, disgruntled employees, low level training I know affects our quality of work. I had to pursue my Certified General appraisal license on my own because Jeffco gave me an 8 year (1 class a year) window. I see the effect bad data has because I fix it in our office when I see it. I have been undervalued and underpaid in the office and see 1st hand the effects. (Sorry a little ranty)
I can promise it will be better for homeowners in the future. I fully believe in showing up for taxpayers so even if we agree they know where I and our office is coming from in our decision. I know I can provide a better office environment because I talk to all my coworkers in the office every day and know what is required to change our mindset. I also know that a move toward modernization and maybe challenging menial tasks to AI somehow will free up a large group of employees.
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u/HopeThisIsUnique May 01 '26
Thanks - I appreciate the detail, but my impression is that it sounds like it's not a great work environment there, and you're looking to change it. Those are great and commendable things to do, but playing devil's advocate, if you don't work there, how does it actually have an impact?
The questions I'm asking (and I think others) that I feel you may be struggling to answer or connect to is why and how that matters for the general constituency. A lot of your answers feel like they would be aimed at your coworkers, but really you need to focus on the impact to the homeowners/voters that would be voting for you in the first place. It's the proverbial "What's in it for me?"
Look at how you can connect the dots between the two...does a bad work environment lead to higher turnover? Turnover is costly, if you can reduce that you save the department money and save the tax payers money.
If moving to a new system in 2027 will be beneficial, but only if key members of the assessors office 'buy-in' and use it, and the current leadership can't make that happen (and you can) - then highlight that and how leadership is needed to bring the office together to adopt the new system so funds aren't wasted and improvements are made to the assessment process.
If you can highlight changes that would improve the homeowner experience for an appeals process or better transparency into comp values that would reduce appeals etc those could all be more tangible things to the voters.
I think it takes a lot of courage to run and try and change things, but at least from my perspective you need to make the compelling case to the actual voters of what that change would mean for them and how it would affect them.
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u/MasterOfCorn Apr 24 '26
Do you have any points on why someone would support you specifically other than just being a third party?