Board of Aldermen 09-12-2018 Page 14
strong legal counsel and | am too that helps with the management of our City. Patricia Klee has been a
wonderful Alderman for me because she is a smart lady who understands data and that has been super
for me. But | think some people within your office are not as data oriented and | think your Assessor’s
Office, it’s just critical that the integrity of that office be solid. They create the equalization within which
we all pay and contribute to the budget or the money for this City. It has to be done fairly and equitably.
So the permitting is a huge issue for me. | have certainly have uncovered I’m going to say 40 permits
cases of significant amounts of money not captured that | questioned and the City is looking into it, the
Mayor’s Office and now the counsel are looking into this. The second thing and | am opposed to this is
the use of MLS verifications on properties that change property assessments. | came from a town that
did not do this practice, we do here in the City, the problem that | have is that these MLS verifications
are being done randomly and not to all homes sold. So when you target certain homes and you don’t
do it to others, you create big discrepancies and this is where your disproportionate assessments occur.
And | have had, | must tell you as Aldermen, some difficulty in communicating with City Hall- that we
shouldn't be talking about our tax rate oh Mrs. Ortolano your taxes are going down. That is immaterial.
What is so important to all of us is the assessment because it is that assessment data that sets the
equity and determines what we all should fairly pay. The reason we have an appeal process in this City
on appraisals and assessment data is because of that equity. | do not get to come over and complain
once you set the tax rate. That’s the end. You have good questions about KRT, | think it is a difficult
process. My husband and | have talked to them, awesome, there were many people from my
neighborhood that came in, but | don’t think the City has done a good job or the letter is particularly
helpful in knowing how to present data and | think Mr. Mayor has over-simplified what you need to do to
go in there. We were certainly confused and we are two educated people and | don’t know, I’m not
even certain we presented ourselves correctly. That’s that.
My concerns with this Assessor’s Office run deep and it has been four years of significant frustration
from me of trying to get through to people and | am really thankful that this assessment data came out. |
am completely opposed to accepting KRT’s assessment in the City or appraisals, because you are
creating significant disproportionate assessments because of the poor practices in your assessor’s
Office. | have run a lot of data to get to try to get to this. So | am just sharing that with you and | want to
put it on the record. It has been very challenging working with my City element and some people like |
said Patricia Klee was wonderful, Steve Bolton understood the questions to ask. And | am appreciative
of that but | think we have a ways to go. Thank you.
REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Alderman O’Brien
Yes thank you, | didn’t want to do it earlier but | did yesterday go to a couple of wards and | too want to
extend my thanks to the City Clerk and all the people that worked on the polls, they did a fantastic job.
It was great to see a lot of people show up for a primary and congratulations to all the winners and to all
the losers, you came out and you did a great job too. You showed us what democracy is and that was
good to have those choices. Thank you.
Alderman Schmidt
Thank you, first | would like to apologize for being late but had a very good reason. The Hillsborough
County Delegation just tonight voted to bring $8 million dollars back to our IDN in Nashua supporting all
of the programs that help people leaving prisons and hospitals and | am so glad to have brought that
back. Thank you.
