LA County Board

15. Fighting Back Against Racial Bias in Appraisals\nRecommendation as submitted by Supervisor Mitchell: Instruct the Interim\nCounty Counsel, in conjunction with County Departments using consultant\nappraisers, to revise the standard appraisal services contracts to include the\nabove directives as standard provisions and incorporate such provisions into\nany amendment for existing appraiser contracts; and instruct the Interim County\nCounsel to report back to the Board in writing within 90 days once all standard\nprovisions have been revised with a timeline on when existing contracts will be\namended and on any issues with such contract amendments; and the standard\ncontract language for appraisal contracts should be revised to:\nRequire that all County consultant appraisers complete the Elimination of\nBias Training within 12 months prior to working on any County\nappraisals, rather than only at the time of license renewal, as required by\nthe State;\nRequire that all of the County’s consultant appraisers include a section in\nevery appraisal report that requires the appraiser to certify that they have\ntaken every lawful measure possible to eliminate bias in the preparation\nof the report; and\nRequire that, for any consultant appraisers that complete more than 10\nconsultant-prepared appraisals in any calendar year on behalf of the\nCounty, the County shall have a different appraiser, selected from an\noutside organization, such as the Appraisal Institute, conduct a peer\nreview of 10 percent of the consultant's County appraisals for that year;\nInstruct the Director of Economic Opportunities to report back to the Board in\nwriting in 90 days on strategies to strengthen and diversify the appraisal\nindustry in the County, particularly among firms that seek to contract with the\nCounty; and\nDirect the Chief Executive Officer, through the Countywide Communications\nOffice, and in partnership with the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisals, to share\nresources with the County’s property owners, in multiple languages, on\nstrategies and resources to fight biased appraisals. (23-0882)\nAttachments: Motion by Supervisor Mitchell\nPublic Comment/Correspondence