ICPR Recommends Panel to Determine Best Practices for Oversight of Cook County Assessor

Due to a lack of transparency in the Office of the Cook County Assessor, and troubling reports of inequality in assessment practices, ICPR recommends the creation of a panel to examine the current property tax assessment procedures in Cook County.

This panel will be charged with conducting a nationwide search to determine best practices among property tax assessors for internal controls, transparency, and accountability.

The panel will then make recommendations for legislative reforms to address these issues. Meetings of the panel should be open to the public, and members should include:

• Legal experts
• Tax experts
• Cook County Commissioners
• Representatives from the Office of the Cook County Inspector General

ICPR proposes that this panel be created through the Office of the Cook County Inspector General, or a committee of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Based on ICPR’s research, in order to bring Cook County up to basic national standards, oversight measures should include:

• Implementation of internal studies on equity within the assessment process
• Publication of summary reports on these internal studies
• Explanation of assessment methods for Cook County properties
• Acknowledgement of current inequity issues, and establishment of plans to address them
• Cooperation with the Inspector General’s oversight measures

Residents of Cook County expect fair and transparent assessments, and recent findings by prominent local news sources shed a troubling light on a process that has been opaque for many years. Basic movements toward a more transparent system would be a good first step to increase public trust in this important office.