Public Hearing Concludes Termination Process For Former County Assessor

The termination process for former Mills County Assessor Christina Govig concluded with a public hearing last Wednesday afternoon, one day before her termination became effective.

The Mills County Conference Board, made up of Mills County school board members, mayors, and county supervisors, voted to terminate Govig’s employment following closed session discussions on Jan. 30.  She was immediately placed on paid administrative leave until the Feb. 19 termination date.

Last week’s public hearing took place at Govig’s request but was somewhat of a formality since the conference board had already voted to terminate her employment. The hearing included testimony from Govig’s attorney and comments from members of the public. Conference board members did not participate in discussion and took no action after comments were heard, except to adjourn the hearing.

There is no process in the Iowa Code for Govig to appeal her termination, according to Assistant Mills County Attorney John Pfeifer.

“The Assessor is appointed by, and serves at the discretion of, the County Conference Board and once removed there is no procedure provided in the Iowa State Code to appeal the decision of the board,” Pfeifer said in written statement to The Opinion-Tribune. “Since the board voted to remove her, there is no administrative procedure provided for appeal. Ms. Govig would need to address any grievances she believes she may have through the courts.”

Ryan Daisy, Govig’s attorney, said neither her nor his client would speak to the media regarding the hearing or what, if any, action they would pursue in the future.

Daisy did speak for about 20 minutes during the hearing, addressing alleged “accusations” made against Govig in a letter she received from the conference board regarding her termination. Daisy questioned if conference board members understand the duties of the assessor and how the assessment process in Iowa works, according to state code, noting that many current members were not on the conference board until recently. He suggested some board members had not met Govig until recently and probably didn’t know what the conference board even was.

“When we’re looking at Chris and her time, the 22 years she’s been the Mills County Assessor, have people understood what her roles are?” he asked. “Has this board understood what her role is on the conference board?”

Daisy said the “first charge” brought against Govig concerned the manner in which conference board meetings were being conducted. He said the assessor’s role isn’t to run conference board meetings, but to serve as the clerk and take notes. Running the meetings is the responsibility of the  conference board chair, who is also the chair of the board of supervisors. This year the chair is Richard Crouch. In 2025, it was Lonnie Mayberry.

“If there is an issue with the voting or how things are conducted or who is present, that falls upon the chairperson, not the clerk of the conference board,” Daisy said. “From just talking to people in the community, it sounds like the conference board was run in a totally different way until recently. I think Chris was just recording what she thought she was supposed to be recording and taking down notes of the meeting that was conducted.  Now, if the meeting wasn’t conducted properly, that’s not on the person taking the notes.”

Daisy said the second accusation in the letter centered on the improper way votes were being taken at meetings. Under conference board guidelines, each voting unit (mayors, school board members and supervisors) count as one voting block.

“To my understanding, until recently, the chairperson of the board wasn’t conducting the votes correctly,” Daisy said. “The question is then, is that on the note taker to say the votes aren’t being taken correctly or is the note taker - the clerk of the conference board - just someone who is supposed to take notes?

“I’m asking you, how confident are you that in the accusations alleged against Chris is actually her role at all for the things that you’ve complained about or is it truly the chairperson and in a larger situation, the conference board itself that were supposed to be making sure the conference board meetings were being run in accordance with the conference board rules?”

Daisy said it isn’t unusual for citizens to be unhappy with their local assessor when assessments and property taxes rise, but said Govig had “no discretion” in doing her job and was required by law to follow state guidelines for assessing property.

“They go to schooling. They’re given a manual and then they apply that manual,” he said. “They can actually get in trouble if they don’t apply that manual properly.”

Daisy said county assessments are sent to the state every year for review and the local assessments must be within 5% either direction – high or low – of what the state comes up for the same properties. He added that public anger toward the local county assessor is often misguided. Assessors don’t set property tax levies or collect taxes.

“Chris doesn’t decide what your taxes are – that’s a whole different side of the county,” said Daisy. “She decides what you’re assessed at based on the manual assessment she’s given. The big reason is this is a hot topic right now is not only that home values increased very recently, but also that manual was updated in 2020. So, there was a big clash of two major changes and now properties are assessed differently in Iowa.”

The next Mills County Assessor will have to follow the same manual and guidelines as Govig did when assessing property, Daisy said.

“If anyone in this room, the conference board or otherwise, is upset that Chris, the assessor, is assessing your property differently than you think it should be, the idea is whoever takes Chris’ spot is going to have to assess it the very same way,” he said.

“She really is just a cog in the machine.”

Several audience members spoke during the public comment portion of the hearing.

Lloyd Bergantzel expressed concerns how the asssessor’s office had handled the tax assessment of a tree reserve on his property and Mike Bowden disputed Daisy’s claim that assessors have no discretion in doing their jobs, specifically when it comes to what classification a particular piece of property falls under – agricultural, residential, multiresidential, industrial and commercial. Bowden said disagreements on what classification a property was being assessed under was a  common issue during the six years he served on the Mills County Board Of Review.

“There are many properties out there that are currently ag, that in no way, shape or form should be ag,” he said. “She does have discretion at assessment – classification. Obviously, she could look and see what the property is used for. She came out to my property once where she saw cattle and then still claimed it was not ag.”

Mills County resident Tad McDowell, who has been outspoken about the assessment process and property tax rates in Mills County, said the county assessor has a responsibility to be equitable when assessing properties,  a responsibility Govig wasn’t fulfilling, in his opinion. He noted that he’s aware of some property owners who’ve had their assessments increase by over 60% and 70% since 2021, while his has only gone up 28% over same time period.

‘Why is that? I’ll tell you why, she’d never admit it but the way the assessor has adjusted my property compared to everybody else is a clear admission of guilt,” he said. “When an assessor fails to maintain equitable assessments, and subsequently makes large adjustments to assessments, this leads to tremendous swings in property tax bills.”

McDowell encouraged conference board members to understand how an assessor has a direct and significant financial impact on the lives of people.

“This board, the conference board, you are in charge in making sure that we all have equitable taxation. The buck literally stops with you all,” he said. “In America, we should all expect and demand to be treated fairly by our government – everyone of us.

“You’ve done the easy part, which is to fire Christina Govig. Now, the hardest part and most important part remains. As Mills County and the conference board actually learn from this experience, will they hire a competent assessor and public servant? Our county should have equitable assessments.  Other counties have them and we can, too.”
One audience member spoke favorably of Govig and her performance as assessor – Beverly Hardy, a former employee under Govig in the assessor’s office.

“During that time I was working for her, she was a good boss,” said Hardy. “She, as far as I know, did everything that she was supposed to do as an assessor with the rules and regulations that she was given by the state of Iowa. A lof of the assessment increases were not just done by Mills County. They were done because she was mandated by the state of Iowa to make those assessment value changes.”

The process of replacing Govig has begun. The Mills County Conference Board has appointed three Mills County residents – Phil Warren, Sharon McNutt and Theresa Romens – to the Mills County Examining Board. The three members of that board will interview potential candidates for the job and report back to the Mills County Conference Board.

“They’ll make a recommendation to this board,” Crouch said. “That candidate should come from the state registry of assessors.”

Crouch said the hiring process could be lengthy, noting that on Dec. 31, 2027, 55% of Iowa’s existing county assessors are expected to retire.

Until an assessor is hired, Mills County Auditor Amber Farnam will serve as interim assessor, as mandated by Iowa Code.