County Assessor Claims GIS Not Accurate Enough; Refuses to Apologize

Mississippi County Assessor W.R. “Bill” Thompson will not apologize to the county’s GIS vendor, Midland GIS Solutions, it was reported by the Standard Democrat:

Thompson said he never received mylars he was promised, according to [County Commissioner Homer] Oliver, and has noted discrepancies of 2 to 3 feet between maps and overlays. Oliver and Commissioner Martin Lucas agreed the discrepancies shouldn't matter as legal descriptions for lots are not affected. The map is just to assist officials with finding the lot in question and there are usually small errors when maps are digitized, they said.

“It’s a best-fit situation,” Lucas said. “It’s an image to see where the property is, period.”

New Madrid County’s GIS, which is supposed to be the same system as Mississippi County’s, may have fewer discrepancies because officials there are able to update aerial photography more regularly, commissioners speculated. “We don’t have the resources to do that,” Lucas said.

While the assessor blames the GIS consultant, in a previous story the Standard Democrat quoted the County Clerk as saying that shortcomings in the GIS were the fault of the assessor, saying:

Without cooperation from the Assessor’s Office to keep parcel information updated, however, “ours will never be completely up-to-date,” [County Clerk] DeLay said. “The (assessor’s) office doesn’t know how to use it because they didn’t take the training we paid for,” Lucas said. “You practice it, you learn it.”