Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/11/2019 - P24
Board of Aldermen 06-11-2019 Page 24
know, the one at 41 Chandler Street, the exemption property that the letter was written to the Board of
Assessors, there is no documentation on that property card that the assessor was there. Why? That
should be an updated documented card. There were two mobile home properties visited, OK? And it was
written up in the report that they had exterior inspections only. The assessor went there for exterior
inspections only. Well when | looked at the property cards, they are blank, there’s no building there
because they are cleared lots and there was nothing on them. | drove out last week and there were
mobile homes on each lot, on the trailer beds. When | called the mobile home company and | said, “Hey
how long have these properties, have these mobile homes been here?” Well the lady said, “They are on
the beds, they just got pulled in a week ago”. | believe that.
So when | read on the report that | did an exterior inspection, how do you do that? | don’t think there was
anything there. And you did it while it was up on the bed? And the one property that is going to be taken
off the bed is actually having a garage added that hasn’t been done yet. So | look at that documentation
and | say that assessor is telling me they went and inspected a property that was physically there. And
when | look at a property card, | should see a drawing of a building there. There is no drawing, just a
blank piece of paper. What that tells me is that it is a new property that’s being established that nothing is
on it yet. And in fact that is what it was. So as | am cross-checking these cards, I’m seeing a fair number
of errors. And that concerns me because | don’t see that with other assessors.
President Wilshire
Mrs. Ortolano, we have one minute left for our Public Comment period, can you wrap it up?
Ms. Ortolano Sure.
President Wilshire
Thank you.
Ms. Ortolano
| gave you an example of a property card up in Kessler Farms that is an example of everything done
wrong. The permit was left open for 6 years, this is current, the assessor goes out, he says, he writes on
the form “Went to the property in April, captured the permit”. This was a year ago. The property owner
ends up very upset, calling saying “you never came out and you raised my taxed $900.00 for a basement
refinish that | only finished a media room”. So the assessor, after leaving a permit open for 6 years, never
went and checked the permit file to see that the full basement wasn’t finished. If they had checked the
permit file they would have seen 1,500 feet wasn’t finished, only 600 was. So they went and taxed them
for the whole basement. The homeowner calls, fixed income retired people, outraged because their bill
went up like $900.00. Nobody came to the house. The assessor says “Oh I'll come out, I’ll come out”.
Comes out then he looks at the property, then he writes on the card “Went to visit”. Then he changes the
whole drawing on the basement, but guess what? It’s too late and they have to file an abatement. That
took, you know, 16 months to clear up and meanwhile they had to pay the full amount. When you are on
fixed income, | can tell you, these people were not happy at all. And | look at a property card like that and
| scratch my head and | say why does it say you went and visited? There is no indication that you ever
went to that property and if you did, how could the drawing be so wrong, how could you not know if walked
down the stairs that only a little portion of the basement was done.
President Wilshire
Ms. Ortolano, our Public Comment Period is over.
