By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
EL RENO – A company has been hired for a software upgrade aimed at providing Canadian County property owners with better on-line access to detailed information about property values and related data.
The Canadian County Assessor’s Office will convert to a new Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) system.
CAMA is a foundational system the assessor’s office uses to collect data about all property in Canadian County to establish market value.
“We haven’t changed CAMA systems during my tenure in office,” said Matt Wehmuller, who has served since 2011 as Canadian County assessor.
Canadian County commissioners on April 10 approved an agreement with Patriot Properties for the new CAMA software. Patriot is a division of Catalis Tax and CAMA, Inc. in Salem, Mass.
First-year contract cost is $345,000, with an annual $36,000 software support and maintenance fee through 2026.
“We believe that this is the right system for us,” said Wehmuller, who noted the conversion will take about a year to complete.
“This new system is going to enable us to do a tremendous amount more online filings on mobile field applications.”
The Canadian County Assessor’s Office has been using its current system (Landmark) since 2009.
Having recently started his fourth term as Canadian County’s elected assessor, Wehmuller believes the Patriot system will be more user friendly for taxpayers.
As an example, Canadian County property owners will be able to file for homestead exemption on-line instead of mailing an application.
When county commissioners advertised for CAMA software bids last fall, Assessor Wehmuller said his office was “looking for proposals for a new system that is more robust and integrates with more applications.
“We’re looking at something that’s more sequel based that offers more mobile applications and overall better support to establish market value for properties throughout the county.”
Canadian County now has 78,339 real property and 8,238 personal property (includes oil and gas, manufactured homes, businesses, and farms) accounts.
During Wehmuller’s 12-plus years in office, Canadian County’s net assessed valuation has more than doubled and has climbed to $1,937,123,319.
‘STRUGGLED WITH SUPPORT’
Canadian County, the fastest-growing county in Oklahoma, is now the state’s largest county on the Landmark system.
“We’ve always struggled with support, to be quite honest with you,” Wehmuller told county commissioners.
Historically, larger counties use CAMA systems with more integration applications to offer more to their taxpayers. Oklahoma, Cleveland and Payne counties also are on Patriot’s CAMA system.
Canadian County property owners are reminded to check out the Assessor’s link (under “Departments”) at www.canadiancounty.org .
There people can view the assessor’s web tool, “Community,” which provides data about property values, sale prices, permits, and population. Property searches may be made by address or owner name.
