Chapman Running For County AssessorGail Chapman has worked in the Kosciusko County Assessor’s Office for a total of 19 years, serving as the chief deputy assessor for the last seven.
She has announced she will seek the assessor’s position in the 2022 election, as a Republican.
“This will be my first time” running for county assessor, Chapman said in an interview Thursday, adding that there were a couple reasons she decided to run. “Susan Engelberth is going to retire, next year will be her last year. It normally follows in procession that the chief deputy is the next person in line to run. I think a lot of people just assume that, but I’m actually doing it because, honestly, I love my job. I love what I do.”
The property taxation process begins in the assessor’s office, which has 13 full-time employees and six part-time employees.
“We have to create the assessments for every parcel in Kosciusko County. It is a big task,” she said.
In order to run for county assessor, a person has to have certain qualifications, Chapman said. That includes being a Level I, Level II certified assessor/appraiser through the state. Chapman has been at Level III for about three years.
“Level I is basically a week of classes and a test. The same for Level II. Level III is a series of five weeks of classes and five tests,” she explained. “They’re tough. They really are.”
The assessor’s office has about six employees that are Level III. Chapman said she’s “pretty much trained everyone that is there now, so they’ve all received the same training.”
She said the part she loves most about her job is that there are many facets to it.
“There are many, many different areas of work that you have to accomplish,” she said.
The hardest parts of her job, she stated, are state deadlines and state legislative changes.
“I call them hoops to jump through,” Chapman said. “Just when you get something figure out, legislation sends something through and you’ve got to rethink. So it’s constantly a changing, evolving job.”
In her 19 years in the assessor’s office, Chapman said one of the most important things she’s learned and accomplished is that “every taxpayer that walks through our door is a person who has no idea how the assessment process works. So, I have trained all of the ladies in our office to put yourself in their shoes and put yourself on the other side of that counter and realize that you don’t know anything. Most of them, honestly, just want to understand why their assessment changed. So if you can explain it to them – they don’t always leave happy – but at least they leave our office understanding how the process works. And that is one of my biggest goals in my office, is that every taxpayer understands how assessment works and why it changes year to year.”
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Chapman moved to Wabash when she was about 6 years old. She met her husband, David, at a camp in Illinois, and they were married about 1-1/2 years later. She’s been in Warsaw about 35 years. They have two sons, Brent and Christopher.
One final thing Chapman wanted voters and taxpayers to understand is, “If they ever have questions on their assessments, instead of talking to their neighbors or some other person, our doors are always open and our staff is well trained and we’ll be able to answer any questions that they have. I would prefer for them to get their answers from the people who do the job every day. And if you don’t understand how it works, you can get your information confused. It’s just best to get it from the people who do the job.”
