Schuylkill County Commissioners extended the consulting and training contracts for Anthony Alu and Virginia Murray at Wednesday’s meeting.

By unanimous vote, the contracts were approved to June 30, 2022. They will continue to provide services for the tax assessment office. Both will be involved to consult in anticipation of a court-ordered countywide reassessment. Pay rate is $40 an hour.

The county has been sued by the Community Justice Project, a nonprofit group in Harrisburg. In November 2020, the county hired Joan R. Price and the firm Eastburn and Gray, P.C., Doylestown, for “the purpose of evaluating the county’s real estate tax assessment procedure and processes as it relates to pending countywide reassessment litigation and to such other matters deemed necessary by county administration and the office of the county solicitor.”

The last reassessment was done in 1996.

Chief Assessor Kent Hatter said reassessment is possible but could be years away, taking two or three for the approximate 96,400 properties. He said Alu and Murray will consult on the selecting of software and re-evaluating company for county properties. The office has a two-year contract for its current system that has 2004 software.

“The opportune time to do it is when there is a reassessment or right before,” Hatter said of updating the software.

Alu and Murray are not always in the office. “They don’t work many hours a month,” he said, although he didn’t provide how many hours they do work.

In September, the contracts were extended to Dec. 31. At that time, the vote was 2-1 with Commissioner Gary Hess voting no because he is against the restructuring of the tax assessment and tax claim offices.

Previously, he also mentioned the ongoing litigation of Commissioner George Halcovage Jr.

Commissioners voted in April to bring back Murray, who had been the chief assessor until her retirement in 2019. She had been hired under a consulting contract to help with the procedure, policy and timeliness in the assessment office. She was to help with assessment appeals. Alu was hired previously on a consulting contract to provide oversight to the tax assessment office, employee training and assist in transitioning to a new assessor. Alu was then brought back for phone consultations.