It is not too late to protest your HCAD home valuation. This year HCAD has set up iSettle.  According to HCAD, “Settle™ is Harris County Appraisal District’s new online settlement for homeowner protests. If your property is eligible, we’ll review your protest, check the evidence, and make you a settlement offer over the internet. iSettle™ makes it easy to settle your protest on-line.” I used iSettle and it only takes a few minutes. HCAD did not accept my offer of $82 and I have an informal hearing set for June 5. But if you think HCAD has set your value too high, iSettle is the place to start.

With iSettle, challenging you value is easier than ever. You have until tomorrow, June 1, to get your challenge on record www.hcad.org

I’m not buying the number. West University Place received the Preliminary Tax Roll.  According to the Harris County Appraisal District our taxable value increased 6.28% over the 2008 values. 

2009 - $4,254,216,197

2008 - $4,002,692,721

HCAD still has to hear protests; June 5 is the day of my protest hearing.   Keep in mind these are HCAD’s opinion of the values on January 1, 2009, not today. HCAD says my land was worth $95 a foot on January 1 and I think the value was more like $82 a foot. I will let you know how the hearing turns out.

The swearing-in the new city Council will be on June 1 at 6 PM. The event will take place at West University City Hall and there will be a reception right after the ceremony. All of you are invited. Please RSVP if attending by Friday, May 29 to Thelma Lenz the City Secretary at tlenz@westu.org .

I hope to see you there.

Why didn’t any women run for city council? This question was asked many times over the last few months. And I don’t have a good answer.
Maybe it is because females are underrepresented on the city’s six standing boards and commissions. It has been said that boards and commissions serve as the farm team for the city council. I have no prior West U board service, but the other four council-elects do.
There are 51 board and commission positions, and women hold only 13 of those seats. More stark is the fact there are no female chairpersons. Three statutory boards are required by state law: Zoning Board of Adjustment, Zoning and Planning Commission, and Building and Standards Commission. Two of these have no females in membership, and ZBA has only one.
We appoint new boards and commissions in August. In my view, we need to appoint a more diverse group. And we need new blood, both male and female. Please consider service on one of our boards and commissions. The six standing boards and commissions are: Zoning Board of Adjustment, Zoning and Planning Commission, Building Standards Commission, Senior Services Board, Recycling and Solid Waste Reduction Board, and the Parks and Recreation Board.
Click here for a copy of the application http://georgeboehme.com/docs/board_com_app.pdf Please complete the application and forward it back to City Secretary Thelma A. Lenz at tlenz@westu.org and please email me at george@georgeboehme.com to let me know of your interest.

Someone was passing this flyer out door-to-door on Saturday (5/16). http://georgeboehme.com/docs/handout.pdf. Thanks for whoever did it. They did the research, paid to print the flyer, and then passed it out in the hot sun. They have some sweat in the game. It is worth a look.

The flyer encourages us to all challenge our HCAD values as being excessive and gives some good data to support that proposition. We have until June 1 to protest and can do it online.

HCAD estimates our property’s market value on January 1, 2009. They value my lot at $95 foot. There is no way that was the market value on January 1. I thank the author of this anonymous authorship for alerting me to this overvaluation. And I will file a protest online with http://www.hcad.org/ . It is simple to do.

It might be worth a shot for you too.

I am honored to be your newest West University Place Council Member. I will regularly blog about issues in West University Place. I invite your comments and suggestions. Upgrading the 911 and other emergency services technology and infrastructure will be my first order of business after my June 1 swearing in. Our emergency services are running on an 8-track player, but we live in an I-Pod world. Early discussions with other council members-elect show they share my view these upgrades are a top priority.