North East deals with criticism regarding its reassessment project

NORTH EAST — The Town Board held a special meeting Thursday, April 28, to discuss recent criticism regarding the townwide reassessment project led by Assessor Katherine Johnson’s office. Following the notification of property owners of their newly assessed values, the town has been logging complaints that the values are too high and unfair. Setting up appointmentsAt last week’s meeting, Johnson told the board although property owners can no longer get appointments with the consultants who did much of the data collection for the reval, they can still talk with her personally about their concerns.“People can call and make appointments,” Johnson said. “I am here and will be available until people are taken care of.”In fact the assessor will be available up until Grievance Day, set for May 25. At that point property owners can take their complaints to the Board of Assessment Review (BAR), also called the Grievance Board, but at that time there will not be the opportunity for discussion. On Grievance Day property owners may only register complaints, following which the BAR renders a decision.Johnson recommended residents with complaints try to speak with her prior to Grievance Day, so that their issues can be hashed out in more detail. She also said property owners need not get their own appraisals before seeing her.“Yes, it’s good proof [of one’s property value],” she said, “but residents do not have to put out that kind of money. Getting an appraisal is not required.”She said the BAR relies on the town’s sales book, which, she added, property owners are welcome to use as well when researching neighboring property values.“Those are the properties used for comparable values?” asked town Supervisor Dave Sherman. Johnson responded in the affirmative. The Town Board then addressed complaints that residents made regarding not only lack of resources, but lack of time.“People spoke that they did not feel they had adequate time [to prepare their cases for deserving lower reassessments],” Councilman Carl Stahovec said. “Have they been back to talk to you?”“No,” replied Johnson.“If they do call you, do they have time to talk to you?” Stahovec asked.“Absolutely,” Johnson said. “In fact, about 30 people called originally to [consultant] Debbie [Whitten’s] office, but they never made an appointment.”Whitten, of Equitable Assessments, then said the window of opportunity to see her is now closed.“Every person who was told that an appointment was not available was given information that the assessor was available, and that Grievance Day was May 25,” she said. “I never indicated that this was their last chance. People are still calling in and I’m taking their information and calling them back and giving their information into Katherine.”“And I would like them to come in and be specific,” Johnson said. “We’ve done our work, and now it’s up to property owners to say their reasons [for being unhappy].”Complaints about the process“I’m having trouble with all of this,” resident DeLora Brooks said. “I can understand everyone being very defensive because they feel under attack. I’m with the Zoning Board of Appeals and found dealing with this office [troublesome]. I don’t want to add gasoline to this fire, but I have a lot of problems with the information coming out of this office; I feel it’s not acceptable and not fair. On my parcel card I found at least five errors.”Johnson said that her office sent out data mailers in August of last year, at which time property owners were requested to correct any mistakes that would otherwise appear on their property assessments.“I don’t know if you corrected [your card] at that time,” she said.Brooks didn’t reply if she did or not, but said she took umbrage with the way she was treated when calling the assessor’s office with questions.“All of us should be able to question authority,” she said. “And anyone should have the right to do so without feeling threatened, without any type of reprisal. It was a bad conversation; it was not professional nor should it happen to anyone. And, I don’t think I should be told that I’m not entitled to meet with the assessor.”Sherman then asked Johnson about residents not being able to access her directly.“If people came to your office, I was wondering whether they were told they need to see the consultant and not the assessor,” he said, adding his main concern is that residents have enough opportunities to get answers to their questions about why their assessments might have changed so drastically. “I’ve heard different things.”“If their appointment was with the contractor, they had to see the contractor,” Johnson said. “At the time I was still working on other things on the roll, so they had to see the contractor. I advised [property owners] to see Debbie Whitten.”Complaints about valuesResident Jackie Drexel then spoke from the audience; she complained about a spike in her property values.“I’m on McGhee Hill Road, and my assessment went up $1 million since the time I bought my property in 2000,” she said. “There’s been a recession. It seems odd to me that the assessed value has gone up that much. I don’t see why we should all be in the position for property values to go up in 2011. My taxes were $7,000, now they’re $34,000. That’s a huge jump … after a recession, why should they go up at all?”“There’s a recession for the overall economy,” Johnson responded. “I’m working on a real estate market, and we did not see a decline relevant to the economy.”“Brokers don’t agree with that,” Drexel said.Justifying the results“We analyzed sales from 2006 to 2010, and when we did the analysis we found things had flattened out from 2008, but they did not go down yet,” Johnson replied. “Sales prices have not dropped yet.”She added that her office does not have any control over taxes, a common misconception among property owners. Another issue, she said, is that her office is trying to equalize inaccuracies from previous years’ assessments, which is why this year’s reval may seem so out of whack to some property owners.“We’re trying to correct what was not correct,” Johnson said.Toward the end of the discussion, Stahovec made reference to the last reval project, undertaken by contractor John Watch of MJW Consultants in 2004; Watch’s contract was ultimately severed by the town as it was unhappy with the service he provided.“I’ve been a little amazed and a little disappointed,” Stahovec said. “After the last reval we hired a data collector to go to every property. We thought this would be a breeze and this would be correct, and here we are, and it hasn’t been that smooth.”“My contention is that this has been correct,” Johnson countered. “In some cases it wasn’t and those have been corrected. I’m sorry if people aren’t happy, but based on the data we have, I have to believe we’ve done a good job and I will stand by that.”A last requestJohnson then asked the Town Board to rescind the resolution it passed two weeks ago requesting her to forestall filing her assessment roll and instead submit last year’s roll to the county while the town works out the kinks associated with this year’s project. Sherman said he would leave that request “open for the board to consider” at its business meeting in two weeks. Stahovec agreed with his suggestion, and added it would make sense to get Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky’s input as well.Contact the assessor’s officeAnyone with questions is urged to contact Johnson at 518-789-3663 or to stop by her office at Town Hall on Maple Avenue in Millerton.Complaints for Grievance Day, meanwhile, can be made in person on Grievance Day, May 25; they may also be dropped off at Town Hall at 19 North Maple Ave., or mailed to PO Box 516, Millerton, NY 12546.