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Auditor Fitzpatrick takes legal action to obtain data for audit of Jackson County Assessment Department
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick announced on Wednesday that he has taken legal action to obtain the missing link needed to complete the audit of the Jackson County Assessment Department.
Fitzpatrick filed a petition in the Circuit Court of Jackson County to enforce two subpoenas he issued on Feb. 24, 2025, to the Jackson County Assessor and to Data Cloud Solutions (DCS) – which is the vendor used by the department to house data that will help determine if drive-by assessments were performed in violation of state law.
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'From the beginning we knew this data was critical to the audit and mandatory to answer the questions of Jackson County residents who have serious concerns about their rights being violated during the physical assessment process,' Auditor Fitzpatrick said in a news release.
'We began requesting this data in the very early stages of our work and have been given the run around the entire time.'
He said the Jackson County Assessment Department claims they are unable to access the Mobile Assessor data created during the assessment of Jackson County property – and has placed the blame on Data Cloud Solutions, a third-party vendor.
'Data Cloud Solutions has been unwilling to provide the data to a client paying for their services, and has already ignored two subpoenas from our office,' Fitzpatrick said. 'Unfortunately for Data Cloud Solutions, we will fight until we have the truth for the people of Jackson County.'
Fitzpatrick said that he and the State Auditor's Office initially requested data from Tyler Technologies in November 2023. After three requests to Tyler Technologies were ignored, he said the State Auditor's Office requested the data from the Jackson County Assessment Department in January 2024—only to receive a response that the department would need to reach out to Tyler Technologies about the data.
After months passed and no data was provided, he said the State Auditor's Office issued a subpoena to the department on May 28, 2024, and again on Oct. 8, 2024.
A representative from Tyler Technologies indicated the company gave Data Cloud Solutions the necessary permission to share the data with the Jackson County Assessment Department. However, after the department's request to obtain the data directly from Data Cloud Solutions failed, Fitzpatrick said he issued a third subpoena to the department on Feb. 24, 2025.
From February 2024 through January 2025, he said Data Cloud Solutions ignored these requests.
According to Fitzpatrick, the State Auditor's Office also issued subpoenas to Data Cloud Solutions in December 2024 and February 2025 – both of which were ignored.
The audit of the Jackson County Assessment Department has been ongoing since Oct. 23, 2023. The audit was initiated at the request of the Jackson County Legislature, which passed a formal resolution authorizing the audit on Aug. 21, 2023.
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Auditor Fitzpatrick released preliminary results to the people of Jackson County in December 2023 after his office discovered up to 200,000 homeowners in Jackson County were the victims of a flawed and inadequate assessment process that failed to comply with state law.
He said his office 'continues to work to complete the audit of the department in spite of continued efforts made by the auditee to delay the process.'Jackson County likely to comply with latest order on assessments
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