Springfield Business Journal_2021-02-22

SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL · 3 FEB. 22-28, 2021 NEWS by Emily Cole · ecole@sbj.net Delays in receiving tax statements in Greene County stemmed from technical er- rors as one county office changed software systems, leading to late and sometimes in- correct statements and the resignation of the Greene County collector. It all transpired in a matter of five months. In November, Greene County Collector Leah Betts announced there would be de- lays in sending out personal property tax statements due to software issues between her office and the Greene County Assessor’s Office. Betts said the cause of the delay was issues in communication between the assessor’s new program by an outside vendor and the in- house program used by the collector’s office. Greene County Assessor Rick Kessinger said his office updated its software program at the beginning of 2020 to a new apprais- al and tax software by Tyler Technologies (NYSE: TYL). “We had been using a personal property system that was old, it was antiquated, and it couldn’t do the things we needed it to do to give better service not only to the individual taxpayers but also to our taxing entities,” Kessinger said. “The old system just wasn’t meeting our needs.” However, the necessary work to make the new and existing programs work seamlessly together was not completed in time to send out the statements, Betts said. “The county (information technology) department had to make some changes to interpret the data from the assessor’s new program,” Betts said. “They underestimated the size of the project and al- though they thought they were on track all the way up until the end … when it was time to launch and test, I found that to not be the case. That’s why the state- ments were late.” Betts said the program should have been functioning properly by the beginning of October in order to meet typical deadlines of sending out tax statements by the end of the month. They were sent out in mid-December instead. Once forms were sent out, residents be- gan contacting both offices about errors in their statements. “I don’t know what the percentage would be, but we were inundated with calls from people reporting on their own that they had issues with their bills having the wrong ve- hicles or the same vehicle twice – various is- sues like that,” Betts said. County officials say those errors were caused by the transfer of data from the asses- sor’s old program to the new one. Kessinger IN THIS ISSUE A bakery’s new shop is dishing up sweets in Nixa. PAGE 5 Attorney Corey Kilburn is building a niche in legal services for artists and entertainers. PAGE 10 Vol. 41 No. 31 Web Editor Geoff Pickle calls for more simplistic v erbiage in marketing. OPINION PAGE 23 “When you’ve built something and worked at it all of the time, it is you.” —Becky Thomas of Third Street Sportswear Manufacturing, on growing up in the family business PAGE 6 QUOTE OF THE WEEK Eco devo group makes moves amid pandemic Show Me Christian County organization adds staff and plans to double annual budget through five-year plan Programming issues cause delays for county tax statements by Mike Cullinan · mcullinan@sbj.net The staff, budget and office size for Show Me Christian County are all poised to increase this year as the economic de- velopment organization is aggressively working to increase its impact. SMCC just hired Ozark Chamber of Com- merce Executive Director Anna Evans, and she plans to start March 22 as its vice presi- dent of business retention and expansion. Evans follows in the footsteps of SMCC President and CEO Andrea Sitzes, who led the Ozark chamber prior to taking the countywide eco devo role in 2018. Evans will become SMCC’s third employee. At the chamber, Evans has collaborated with SMCC since its inception. She cur- rently serves on the 10-mem- ber Show Me Strong Business Council, which aims to retain and expand existing Christian County businesses. Sitzes said Evans was hired among three finalists out of 26 applicants for the job. “The knowledge and the background that she walked into the interview process with just really made it a no-brainer deci- sion,” Sitzes said. Setting goals A primary responsibility of the position is oversight of the business council, Evans said. The volunteer group comprises busi- ness representatives from Nixa, Ozark and areas in the county. Councilors agree to serve two- or three-year terms. Sitzes helps lead the meetings, but Ev- ans said she will serve as the contact per- son for the councilors. The position’s goal is to either conduct or help the council facilitate 120 business retention and ex- pansion interviews with busi- nesses in a calendar year. “That is, of course, 10 inter- views per month,” Evans said, noting she will participate in most of the interviews and set up logistics. “We have our volunteer council of folks who are all working professionals in their own right, so this is an additional volunteer responsi- bility that they take on.” Sitzes said 120 interviews might be feasible this year, but certainly by 2022. Only around 10 were conducted last year before the pandemic arrived, she said. “If we don’t have at least 80 or 90 on the books by the end of the year, something has gone awry,” she said. Evans is also tasked with researching and launching Fortify Christian County, a busi- ness retention and expansion program. See SHOW ME on page 24 See TAXES on page 21 Leah Betts: Delays in tax statements could have been prevented. Anna Evans plans to exit Ozark chamber’s executive director post next month.