The Miami Herald recommends
For Broward property appraiser
Posted on Mon, Aug. 04, 2008
The job of appraising property for tax purposes hardly seems like one to be tackled with gusto verging on joy. Yet this is how incumbent Broward Property Appraiser Lori Parrish treats it after one term. Broward Democrats should give her another term for her determined, effusive efforts to modernize a little-known but key office.
This is an office that ought to be in the hands of professionals in real-estate evaluation, but Broward, like other Florida counties, has kept it in the hands of politicians.
Republicans can't vote in this race because a write-in candidate has filed for the general election. Ms. Parrish's opponent is Sara Truini, 51, whose 18-year career with the office was terminated last year over dress-code and other violations.
Ms. Parrish, 60, is a political veteran well known to Broward residents. She served four years on the School Board and 16 on the County Commission.
She took over an appraiser's office that had been slow to adopt new technology or change its methods -- raw meat for a person who describes herself as fascinated with math and statistics. She worked hard to train and develop a professional staff, instigated investigations of homestead-exemption fraud and smoothed out the process for homestead applications and appeals of property evaluations.
For example, the appraiser's website allows property owners to easily find the details of nearby recent sales that the office used in appraising their property.
Further, she has harnessed efficient technology that allows calls to the office always to be answered personally. For Broward property appraiser, The Miami Herald recommends LORI PARRISH.
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