Appraiser Takes Private Clients County Employee Runs Private Business From Assessor’S Office, Commissioners Told

With the approval of the Shoshone County assessor, a county employee has long done private assessment business from his office in the courthouse.

The moonlighting activities of R. Casey Stoddard, even those done on his own time, are counter to professional standards of conduct.

Those standards, familiar to both Stoddard and his boss, assessor Duane Little, warn against conflicts of interest. Such conflicts are widely interpreted to include appraising real estate on a private basis within the same jurisdiction for which a government appraiser works.

Stoddard is the only county employee with a private appraisal license. Because of that, he has a good understanding of real estate values and that, Little said, “definitely” outweighs any potential conflict of interest.

“I would be real unhappy if he did an appraisal that conflicted somehow with his work,” Little said. “That has never happened yet.”

However, county commissioners informed of the moonlighting are bothered that Stoddard’s business number rings into the county courthouse.

Stoddard and Little acknowledge that Stoddard deals with private clients during county working hours. However, they say the practice is limited. Stoddard said he makes up any time spent on private work by staying late or coming in early. He said he gives out his office number because clients have to be able to reach him during business hours.

“It’s not like I’m cheating the county,” he said. “I go make a map or look up deed references because I have to do those when the courthouse is open.”

Stoddard has worked for the county for 20 years.

His annual salary is $31,595.

The conflict of interest issue, as well as the private work done on taxpayer time, was brought to light by Mike Dancer. He provided information to a reporter because, he said, the situation existed with Little’s “blatant” approval and he didn’t think the commissioners would do much about it. Little, he said, has free rein in the assessor’s office.

Dancer worked in that office from March 1997 until August.

Stoddard and Little portray Dancer as a man with a checkered employment history who did an inadequate job as an entry-level appraiser. By all accounts, Stoddard and Dancer did not get along.

“This is nothing but personal revenge,” Stoddard said. “Mike wants to live in the Garden of Eden. Mike doesn’t realize the world isn’t perfect.”

Dancer, a pilot, continues to live in the county but is in training for a corporate flying job. He said he did not speak out before for fear of retribution.

“I’m a Christian man and I don’t believe in this,” he said in an interview. “What’s fair is fair.”

Dancer contends that Stoddard has used not only an office, telephone, stationery, fax machine, copy machine and typewriter, but also a camera and truck owned by the county.

“I personally have been with Stoddard in the county truck and on county time when he conducted his private fee work,” he said.

Stoddard denies using any camera or vehicle but his own. He said Dancer used a county computer for correspondence relating to the East Shoshone Hospital District, for which he served as a board member, and for a fraternal organization.

Dancer’s concerns about Stoddard are shared by Greg Saylor, an appraiser who still works for the county.

Saylor spoke to a reporter despite fear of retribution. Little said there would be no reprisals, although he disagreed with Saylor.

Of Stoddard’s moonlighting, Saylor said: “It’s done on county time. It’s done during working hours. I’m a taxpayer. I’d be upset.”

He noted that the International Association of Assessing Officers prohibits accepting appraisals or assessment-related assignments “that could reasonably be construed as being in conflict with their responsibility to their jurisdiction, employer or client.”

In Kootenai County, the assessor’s office has interpreted that to mean that employees cannot do private appraisal work within the county.

The ethics rules for private appraisers are similar to those for government assessors.

Kootenai County Treasurer Jeannine Ashcraft wanted to know when she took that job whether she could continue doing private appraisals in the county. She sought an opinion from the National Society of Real Estate Appraisers. She was advised to end her private work.

Asked what kind of potential conflict could arise, Saylor mentioned that an appraisal done for a real estate loan could conflict with one done by a county employee for tax assessment purposes.

Stoddard said he keeps his private and public work separate.

“Let’s say I looked at your house and you had built in a swimming pool that you didn’t tell the county about. For a private appraisal, that is between me and my people (clients),” he said.

In other words, he would not tell the county. The same is true, he said, of something he might see if he were invited to a party.

In gathering evidence against Stoddard, Dancer made copies of private appraisals going back 15 years. He said the documents were in plain view in the office he shared with Stoddard, that he copied them and returned the originals. Stoddard accused Dancer of the theft of private property.

Dancer said he had no reason to believe that county commissioners were aware of Stoddard’s activities. When presented with evidence on Tuesday, they were upset. However, chairman Jim Vergobbi was angry that Dancer took copies of the private assessment documents.

“I’m really hurt by Mike. This is a kid I thought a lot of,” he said, concerned that public exposure of the issues would give the county “a black eye.”

Commissioner Sherry Krulitz was taken aback to see that Stoddard listed the Shoshone County assessor’s phone number on his business correspondence.

“I would prefer that Casey Stoddard get a phone answering machine,” she said, noting that she uses one to field calls for her personal business. “I don’t give people the number of the Shoshone County offices.”

The third commissioner, Ken Tilton, said that he was hearing about the allegations for the first time. “If there’s an internal problem in the assessor’s office, it’s Duke’s (Little’s) responsibility to take care of them,” Tilton said.

The county’s employee handbook prohibits using work time for personal business, including selling goods and services. Employees are also expected to “adhere to any code of ethics in his/her profession and avoid conflicts of interest or using his/her public position for personal gain.”