The Scurry County Hospital District board of directors would like to know how a clerical mistake on mineral values was not discovered earlier by the Scurry County Appraisal District or the company that sets the values.
The board asked the administration to have Scurry County Chief Appraiser Larry Crooks attend the October meeting to discuss the situation. The miscalculation cost the district $245,000 in property taxes this year.
With the budget and tax rate already set, the district is waiting to hear if Thomas Y. Pickett, the company which sets mineral values in the county, files a claim with its insurance company.
Cogdell Memorial Hospital Chief Executive Officer Ella Helms said Pickett does have an errors and omissions policy, but has not filed a claim before.
“I am highly disappointed the value was not caught. The sloppiness is disappointing,” board chairman Russell Riggan said. “There needs to be something in place to check for mistakes.”
Riggan suggested the hospital district ask the appraisal district to take 10 percent off its charges for 10 years to recoup the loss. The district pays the appraisal district $112,000 per year.
Chief Financial Officer John Everett said Pickett officials have been cooperating with the appraisal district since learning of the mistake in August.
“They were not trying to hide anything,” he said.
The miscalculation also affected Western Texas College, Snyder ISD and Scurry County.
Snyder ISD officials are pulling money from reserves to cover the lost mineral values while the county, which did not set its tax rate until after the mistake came to light, increased its tax rate to cover the loss.
The college has frozen hiring non-essential personnel and eliminated all non-essential travel.
Crooks said Stephen Campbell, president of Thomas Y. Pickett, informed him of the mistake in late August, after the school district, college and hospital had adopted 2016-17 tax rates.
“While Stephen was training a person, a wrong value was entered into the system,” Crooks said at the time.
Crooks said when notices were sent out to companies, “Oxy did not pay attention (to the values) and it could have been caught.”
Also today, the board tabled action on a $10 million construction loan because the paperwork was not complete. The money will be used for long-term construction.
Temporary privileges were approved for Dr. David Kerr and physician assistant Vanessa Arnwine. Helms said their paperwork was not complete. Privileges for Dr. William Winn, Dr. Frank Saunders, Dr. Carla Soler and physician assistant Lorrin Scott were approved.
Several policies for the hospital’s pharmacy and nutrition services were also approved.
After a nearly one-hour closed session, the board voted to allow Helms to continue looking at options of expanding the hospital’s lab services. No action was taken on her evaluation.
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