As always, there are two sides to a story, and although I generally do not believe that elected officials of Porter County should air the dirty laundry in public, I am making an exception.

In an article, Porter County Assessor John Scott stated the software he chose won approval for certification is less than truthful. The fact is, XSoft was not even on Scott's list of vendors back in 2007. The possible integrated suppliers were True Automation, Hamer and Tyler and Manatron.

Hamer was picked by all three office holders early on because of the seamless transfer of information between the offices and other future benefits their system provided. Other than Manatron, which no one wanted, these were the only available choices.

The XSoft program was purchased, over a year later, at the urging of our hired consultant because XSoft was in the process of being certified by the state. The assessor's office had dragged its feet in relation to Hamer, after the previous assessor was hired as chief deputy. Neither Tyler nor True Automation had applied for or been certified at the time XSoft was chosen. Hamer was in the certification process.

Delays on the Hamer system, of over 10 months, came about when Porter County needed to get an assessing system in place before Dec. 31, 2008. The Manatron system we had was going black on Dec. 31, 2008. The auditor and treasurer programs were put on hold to implement an assessor software program.

The sad reality is, Scott was on board with Hamer until his chief deputy came back from a forced 90-day hiatus. Instead of working with the other offices, Scott has allowed his flip-flopped Republican-turned-Democrat to run his office. She has an axe to grind with every voter in the county who voted her out, which has caused an awful work environment for anyone who is forced to deal with the assessor's office.

The ongoing saga continues. There will be more blurbs about Acelor-Mittal, Burns Harbor and the Midwest Division of U.S. Steel.

I would strongly suggest that reporters do a little more research before they take as gospel what an elected official or his staff, with an agenda, have to say.

Porter County Auditor James Kopp