BY KEITH LIPPOLDT

klippoldt@gbtribune.com

The State of Kansas requires a County Appraiser to be appointed, or in this case reappointed, every four years. Although she has been in office since 2020, current Barton County Appraiser Wendy Prosser was again appointed as County Appraiser by unanimous Commission approval of Resolution 2025-10.

“Just for bookkeeping, and to follow the state law, we need to have an official reappointment of our County Appraiser,” said County Counselor Patrick Hoffman. “And then as part of that, we have an employment agreement that we contract for that position, because it is a little special with the fact that it has to follow both state law in terms of how they do appraisals, but also follow county procedures in terms of how they conduct the office... 

“It’s not an elected position. It’s an appointed position. But the state law says every four years you have to renew the appointment, even if the same person did it for 40 years, every four years they have to be reappointed. So we’re asking for you to adopt both the Resolution 2025-10, and then, related to that, adopt the employment agreement.”

Prosser has been with Barton County in various roles since 2008 and was employed by Barber County for nearly two years prior. This experience dealing with the public in sometimes difficult situations drew praise from the Commissioners.

“I just want to say that we are one of the fortunate counties, because I know all counties aren’t as fortunate and don’t have appraisers right now, or have wanted to make changes,” Commissioner Barb Esfeld said. “So thank you, Wendy for doing a good job. She works with all the taxpayers well and does a tough job.”

Commissioner Duane Reif also commended Prosser.

“I would also like to thank Wendy,” he said. “She’s asking people to come in and understand how the taxes are done. And of course, Wendy does not have any control on raising taxes or not. But I just want to thank her, because she’s willing to talk to people, and also the individuals that have talked to Wendy in the past, they always felt very comfortable and not felt like she was talking over them. So I thank you, Wendy, for doing that.

In a tongue-in-cheek exchange, Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson asked Prosser a question that drew laughter from those in attendance. 

“Are you incentivized in any way to raise someone’s property values?” Hutchinson asked.

“Absolutely not. In fact, if I could drop values, if the market goes down and sell prices go below our county appraised values, I will be able to drop those values” she said. “And I will be glad to drop those values.”

“So it all depends on the market?” Hutchinson asked. “So you don’t make any more money if you raise somebody’s (appraised value)?”

“That is correct,” she replied. “It’s great that people are coming in and asking questions. I know they’re frustrated, but a lot of people that come in have never been in before. We go through their data, we explain how we come up with those values. The appeal process does end up being long when we have a lot of appeals, but at the same time, it’s also a good thing too, because people are feeling like they can come in and ask questions. And we want that to always be the case,”

“I’m glad that Commissioner Hutchinson brought that up, because one of the things that taxpayers, or people in general, don’t understand is they think that the commissioners tell the appraiser to raise values so that it helps us when we come to set the mill levy,” she said. “A couple things that I don’t think we can say enough is that the appraiser does not set taxes. They are just the part of the value - the mill levy. We’re going through the budget hearings right now. That’s where people need to pay attention to the budgets. That’s where the mill levy comes in, and that’s how a person’s taxes are right. But in no way could a commissioner ever tell an appraiser — it would be against every statute and every standards and ethics that there is to break if a commissioner was to tell an appraiser — to raise values.”

Hoffman then explained how Prosser is evaluated.

“I kind of reference that in the employment agreement. It’s a strange position, because their quality of their work, or their their market values are checked by the state in Topeka, not by us locally,” he said. “The commissioners are in charge of how they operate the office. So it’s like a lot of things in county governments, kind of a strange hybrid function. But Wendy does do a good job. She’s easy for me to work with.”

Hutchinson took the time for one more teaching opportunity.

“I always use any opportunity I get to remind the public that it’s the budget set by your taxing entities, and then the appraiser is just determining how big of a piece of that pie you your property is,” he said. “So really, if you believe your taxes are too high, it’s your taxing entities that are taxing you too much, not your appraiser’s office. This is so important, And I just want to thank Wendy, because we all know there’s a shortage of appraisers, so having a qualified appraiser like Wendy in our community is wonderful.”

“I’m looking forward to serving Barton County for another four years,” she said.

Hutchinson made the motion to approve the appointment. It was seconded by Esfeld and carried 5-0.

Commissioner Donna Zimmerman made the motion to accept Prosser’s employment agreement. The second was made by Hutchinson and it carried 5-0.