Board of Aldermen 08-13-2019 Page 2
| did want to mention Madam President a couple of the Resolutions that are before us. One will require a
bit of discussion, that being R-19-159 which is calling for the funding of the full measure and list that we
would conduct over the next several years. Now the City has not done — a Full Measure & List means we
make an effort to go out and see every property. The last time a Full Measure & List was done in Nashua
was in 1991; which was actually when | was Mayor before. Over the last 30 or 28 years, the City has not
done a Full Measure & List; this is unusual. Manchester, for example, did a Full Measure & List in 2006,
2011 both. There’s NH NHAAO which is a Board of Assessors that makes recommendations regarding
best practices; they say that a City should do a Full Measure & List every 9 years at a minimum. So these
28 years have gone by and Steve Bolton, the City Attorney, can fill you in on more of the details, but at
this point, as a result of the events which have transpired, at both the Department of Revenue
Administration or the so-called DRA and the Board of Tax & Land Appeals have expressed the very
strong desire that we undertake a Full Measure & List and cite the fact that there has been almost 30
years since we did it.
Now a year and a half ago or more when we were discussing the revaluation with the DRA were they as
interested as they are now in the Full Measure & List? No; | mean their position at that point seemed to
be “well we would prefer it, but it is kind of up to you”. But there has been a campaign on-going for what
a year now, claiming without basis, but claiming that the Nashua records are full of inaccuracies and
there are all kinds of inequities and problems. That campaign has been conducted here, before the DRA
in Concord, multiple complaints. As a result of that, both the level of priority for both agencies at least in
our perception has, their priority regarding this has been raised considerably. Now they are very
interested that we proceed.
Certainly there is a legal argument that they could maybe not order us to do this but that is a legal
debate. In addition to that there are many things they can order us to do; many of them unpleasant. So |
think that the approach we need to take is to work with, cooperate, and attempt to maintain a strong
working relationship with the agencies that regulate our assessments; those being the Department of
Revenue Administration and the Board of Land & Tax Appeals. In order to re-establish or establish their
confidence in the Nashua operation and the information that we have in our property files, the way to do
that is to comply with their desire and to proceed after 28 years with a Full Measure & List.
If a Nashua citizen genuinely believes that there are issues that need to be corrected within the Nashua
Property records, the only way to really address that in a comprehensive way is to undertake a Full
Measure & List. If you actually believe that there are errors and that these are fairly widespread, now
these are beliefs that | do not hold after reviewing many property files and looking at many different
accusations and complaints and the like. But if you really believe that then the way to find out and to
make corrections is to undertake the Full Measure & List and to maintain the confidence of our agencies
at this point who have heard over and over and over about all the problems. None of that has been
verified by them; the DRA has not been here in a long time. The current examiner for us has never even
visited the office downstairs so they have no independent knowledge beyond what they have done before
which always verified the accuracy of the Nashua record showing us to be in good standing.
| have seen these letters that make various statements which are again not accurate. This idea that we
would get only a 15% or even a 5% or 10% entry rate, there is no basis for that opinion. And for KRT
that is not their opinion. For example, it is stated here that some assessors at the recent BTLA Hearing
think there is a 10% entry rate; well one of the assessors up there, probably the most senior one was Mr.
Gagne from Manchester. In 2006 Manchester did a Full Measure & List in which they made vigorous
efforts to reach out and contact people. They got over a 60%, that is 6-0 not 16, 60% entry rate. Now
they did follow up calls and things like that but that’s what they achieved in 2006.
In 2011 they undertook to do one again; this time they did not undertake as much of an outreach, after all
they had just did done 5 years before. But they got somewhere between 25 and 30% entry. Recently
KRT who we used for the assessment that we did in 2018 did Saco, Maine, 55%; they did Long Meadow,
Mass it was over 40% and they did Brunswick, Maine, over 60%. Now these high 50%/60% ranges, |
don’t think we probably are going to achieve here but Manchester did. If we want to put the money into
making sure that we get into as many houses as we can with the kind of follow up that was made in
