Fouo Law, PLLC
121 Bay Street
Manchester, NH 03104
FOJO-
Robert M. Fojo
Direct/Fax: (603) 473-4694
rfoje@fojolaw.com
May 8, 2019
BY EMAIL
Mayor James Donchess
City of Nashua
P.O. Box 2019
Nashua, NH 03061
RE: Assessing Department/Greg Turgiss
Dear Mayor Donchess:
fam writing to you concerning Greg Turgiss, an Assessor III and commercial assessor
(and formerly a residential assessor) in the City of Nashua’s Assessing Department and
developments concerning his daily behavior that my client, Laurie Ortolano, recently discovered.
Greg is among the various individuals within the Assessing Department that Ms. Ortolano has
focused on during her recent, months-long campaign to identify deficiencies in the Department
and promote change and course correction within it.
Ms. Ortolano has raised concerns about Greg in the past, but the City has largely ignored
them. For example, Greg’s brother, Gary Turgiss performed the initial assessment of Ms.
Ortolano’s property, 41 Berkeley St., after she purchased it in December 2013. Gary informed
Ms. Ortolano of a sudden 50.3% increase (from $469,800 in 2013 to $706,300 in 2014) in her
property’s total assessed value after the sale. Ms. Ortolano thereafter requested a review of that
assessment. Greg visited her property to perform the review. During Greg’s visit, Ms. Ortolano
provided him with intricate detail concerning what she believed Gary had done wrong in the
initial assessment. Greg seemed disinterested, failed to answer any of her questions, and told her
he would get back to her.
In early March 2019, the Chief Assessor position in the Assessing Department was
eliminated as the result of an internal audit, and our understanding is the City intends to re-
instate the “Administrative Services Director” position to oversee the Assessing Department and
several other departments (subject to approval by the Board of Aldermen). That audit also found
several critical problems existed within the Department, including ineffective management, and a
lack of internal policies to guide its operations. Accordingly, after the Chief Assessor position
was eliminated, the Department had no one with any assessing expertise or experience
overseeing it.!
