Chief Assessment Officer Richie McKeithen, who oversaw the Actual Value Initiative, is leaving the administration, Mayor Nutter announced today.
McKeithen said that he was proud of AVI, in which the city reassessed all 579,000 properties in Philadelphia, and that he is leaving the city to be closer to his family
After he steps down in June, McKeithen, a Washington, D.C., native, will become chief assessor for Petersburg, Va. He has family in Richmond.
He will be replaced by his No. 2: Deputy Chief Assessment Officer Michael Piper.
McKeithen was the first head of the Office of Property Assessment, created by Nutter as the city took property-assessment responsibilities away from the scandal-plagued Board of Revision of Taxes in 2011.
Asked whether the rocky rollout of AVI and the criticism OPA received in the past two years impacted his departure, McKeithen said no. He just wants to be closer to his wife and two daughters, who stayed in Virginia during his tenure in Philadelphia.