KJZZ is a service of Rio Salado College,
and Maricopa Community Colleges

Copyright © 2024 KJZZ/Rio Salado College/MCCCD
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Winner Of Maricopa County Assessor Race Must Deal With Big Tech Project

Voters may have been hard-pressed to name the former Maricopa County assessor before his 2019 arrest for running an international adoption scam.

After Paul Petersen quit the job, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed Eddie Cook to finish his term. The Republican Cook faces a challenge from Democrat Aaron Connor on Election Day.

The keys to the Assessor’s Office came with a tech problem. The project to replace the 1992 system that holds decades of property data, and performs complex mathematical equations to value land in Maricopa County, fell behind under Petersen. The delay was expected to be costly.

Cook said he’s met the Canadian vendor working on the project, explained his own tech background, and told the vendor about another product he could use instead.

“They now know that I have expectations that I’m going to follow through with,” he said.

The company’s response has been positive, Cook said. He estimated the so-called MARS project could go live in early 2022.

Cook’s opponent, Aaron Connor, also knows tech. Connor thinks scrapping the project would be a mistake. And he wants to create an app so people can do everything on their smartphone that they already do on their desktop.

“Maricopa County being the fourth largest county in the nation I’m surprised that we don’t have a mobile app,” he said.

Connor is the first Democrat to run for Maricopa County assessor in this century.

More Stories From KJZZ

Tags
Matthew Casey has won Edward R. Murrow awards for hard news and sports reporting since he joined KJZZ as a senior field correspondent in 2015.