Graham, Donna
From: Laurie Ortolano Gay
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2021 8:35 AM
To: Mayor's Office Email
Ce: Board of Assessors; Board of Aldermen; Vincent, Richard; Turgiss, Gary; Mandile,
Michael; Turgiss, Greg; Dame, Douglas; Gerry, James; Stepp, Lindsey; Graham, Donna
Subject: Process Abatements
CAUTION: Thuis emai] came from outside of the organization. Do not click links/open attachments if source is
unknown.
Ms. Graham,
Could you place this in a board of aldermen packet as public communication.
Good Morning,
I am disappointed with the Assessing Office response to processing abatement
applications. The Department has a new Chief and there has been no communication on
how he manages abatement processing.
Once again, Iam asking the City to remove Greg Turgiss from the Assessing Office.
Citizens’ applications to have their properties be reviewed are being disregarded and
ignored. There is simply no urgency or care within the department to make these
applications a priority. Given the very high tax burden property owners shoulder and the
deadline associated with abatements, these applications should be given a priority.
Greg Turgiss has processed 0 abatement applications in 2021. I learned from
numerous property owners who contacted me over the last week that Mr. Turgiss is on a
two week vacation until June 30, 2021. June 30, 2021 is the date of the next Board of
Assessors meeting and it is the "deemed denied" date for all applications that have not
been processed, This means that property owners that did not have their application
reviewed and processed, will receive a letter from the city explaining that their
application has been denied and the office might have time to process it by August 30,
2021. By September 1, 2021, property owners must file a lawsuit with Superior Court or
the BTLA. Why did we allow Mr. Turgiss to take 2 weeks of vacation during such a
critical time when he has produced no work on these applications?
This is outrageous, So far, 2 assessors out of the 4 assessors have processed 35
applications. Mike Mandile has done about 25 and Gary Turgiss has done about 10. As of
June 17, 2021 there were about 58 more residential applications to process and no
commercial applications had been presented to the Board. The total number of
applications filed was about 185.
What is more outrageous is that Vision is doing all the 2021 sales data reviews and
permit processing so our assessors do not have that work responsibility. All of the
residential applications should have been processed by now.
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