Board of Aldermen 08-13-2019 Page 10
The purpose of the technical audit currently conducted is only to review practices and procedures of the
Assessing Department on behalf of City Management. The scope of work does not address any
recommendations for the Full Measure & List, that’s not his scope. It has also been stated that the City
should wait to move forward on the Full List & Measure until after the inquiry of the BTLA is closed. We'd
like to tell you that there is no telling what the Board of Tax & Land Appeals will order. However, it is
known that if the Board orders a Full Measure & List, it will limit the City’s input and most likely be
considerably more expensive. It has also been stated that the benefit of a Full Measure & List is a matter
of speculation; not true. In fact a Full Measure & List is a widely used tool that will provide the property
owners of the City of Nashua with an opportunity to help ensure that the assessment records are accurate,
up to date and provide equity among all.
The City should receive formal bids prior to approving the bond. The Mayor spoke to this, this violates our
City’s policies. Our Purchasing Policies state that you do approve a source of funding before you issue an
RFP. It has been stated that the Assessing Department needs to review and strengthen their contractor
oversight procedures. You've heard a little bit here tonight about a section of the contract with KRT. There
was a misinterpretation of Section 3.1.6 of that contract. But it does not in any way invalidate the results of
the 2018 Statistical Update. All sales were qualified or unqualified using MLS and many other tools which |
have a list for you here this evening.
The validity of $1.3 million dollars; the $1.3 million dollar bond that the Assessing Department will request is
an estimated cost for the Full Measure & List. The BTLA questioned if the bond is sufficient not whether
the Full Measure & List is necessary. After we choose a contractor, if more funds are required, a formal
request will come to this Board. There seems to be a lot of discussion about the entry rate into properties.
It’s is not true that you can only expect a 15% entry rate. So across the bridge in Hudson there are
conducting a Full Measure & List right now. First pass through — 24%. The rates that Mayor Donchess
quoted earlier were from the last 3 Measure & List that KRT presented and we also spoke with Mr. Gagne
in Manchester, got the 60% rate and | also spoke with David Cornell who is our expert. At his last class
that he had with assessors that he was training, he did a kind of informal survey; 20 to 35% throughout the
room. So it depends on what you put into it. But it is not 10 or 15 necessarily.
There has been a whole and | would like to leave, there are some copies of this out back, I’d like to give
this Memo to the Board. I’d like to stress that your Assessing Department is here this evening in the back of
this room, this is important to us. It is not very often that you find that they all come to a meeting. We are
asking you to vote for the Full Measure & List. Your City Department is asking you to vote for the Full
Measure & List.
There is a lot of talk about investigations and | would like to just get into that for one minute. | realize you
are close to the time. It’s not true that the City has expanded a scope of work conducted by Drummond
Woodsum to include an investigation of management, that’s not true. Also, during the 2018 update, it was
determined that the base rate for school colleges, what we call in the Assessing Code 72, was incorrect.
Correcting the table for Code 72 resulted in the bulk of the $24 million dollar adjustment that you keep
hearing about. This has been verified by KRT; it was done prior to the file capture; it was a correction. So
there is no further investigation of the $24 million that you keep hearing about. Neither is there any other
investigations ongoing into our technical data that is down there currently by the City. So you know
sometimes | think you are getting a lot of misinformation, | realize it is not very often that your City Staff
comes out. But it is important to us; it’s important to our staff to always make sure that we have accurate
data. So we are asking for the Board’s consideration. Thank you.
COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING FINAL APPROVAL
From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: Contract with Sapphire Digital for Smartshopper
MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAWS TO ACCEPT THE COMMUNICATION, PLACE ON FILE AND AWARD
THE THREE-YEAR CONTRACT TO SAPPHIRE DIGITAL
MOTION CARRIED
