Board of Aldermen 02-26-2019 Page 8
| want to end this by talking about property card at 4 Rockland Street and | want to bring it up again
because | really think — you came out with the papers and said there’s no merit to favoritism and you
know it is all unfounded. | didn’t even know how you could make that statement and maybe the papers
misquoted you, they don’t do a — they don’t always get it right. Because my issues of favoritism | wrote a
pretty extensive letter to the Board of Assessors. They have not reviewed the letter. | didn’t really take it
anywhere else, | sent it to the Board. I’m sure it has made its way around City Hall. The Board of
Assessors has not addressed it so when | went to the meeting on Thursday | was surprised in the paper
earlier in the week that the Mayor had come out with the comments that Mrs. Ortolano’s findings are
unfounded or don’t have merit. Because then | sit there and say — 1) Did my Board of Assessors meet in
a non-public session to address this issue? Did they conclude it was unfounded and go to the Mayor
and say — She’s all wet none of this makes sense? Where are the conversations taking place and no
one said anything to me.
| approached the Board after the meeting, | said - Have you reviewed this? No. Have you spoken to the
Mayor about this? No. They were adamant that they had had no conversations. I’m not certain if your
role is really to not be involved in these assessing issues or to be involved, you certainly seemed very
involved in ours publicly. And when you make statements to the paper that these issues | raise are
baseless, | am trying to use a chain of command to take these issues to Board of Assessors because
they are the group that, the State says they are the ones who are supposed to address it. | am trying to
work through that avenue and you know it just seems like you are not making the right statements to the
press that maybe - Hey we’ve got an internal report that is going to be released soon, Mrs. Ortolano is
working through the proper channels with the Board of Assessors and they will make a determination on
her issues; whatever. But it seems like it comes from you and as a citizen or a resident | never get the
courtesy of somebody coming to me and telling me. | guess the newspaper has been a great avenue for
me because | seem to get my questions answered through the newspaper when you speak. But! don’t
think that’s the one we should count on.
So regarding your property card and | know it brought a nice big smirk on your face but here is an issue
when | look at that when it comes to favoritism, it is not about you personally, let it be known | don’t think
Jim Donchess had anything to do with the assessment of his property. This is all on the assessors and
how they are looking at any individual; not on the property owner. Jim, Vicky, they weren’t responsible
for this. It is all on the assessors, they are certified, they are trained and they are supposed to be fair.
But when | looked at your card, | went today and | printed two of them because the notes on the card
said the EYB was 1970 but the card, when | printed it out, the EYB said 1979. And | didn’t have time to
research it weeks ago and | said — What did they type 0 and they meant a 9 | don’t even understand this.
But | noticed your depreciation just didn’t change much, you didn’t pay much for the change in the house
because the depreciation didn’t change, hardly at all.
And so | went today and | said — Well print me the 2012 and the 2014 cards. Those were the cards, 2012
was when the file was officially closed, the EYB was done. And when | printed those cards, the EYB was
1970. And in 2014 it was 1970. Somehow in 2018 when | raised the question somebody changed it to
1979. And | am really curious who manipulated that data. And | am telling you that because there is no
note in the comment section that an EYB change as made. How did that happen? There should be
documentation. That file should have a marked up card that says their rules are their rules, pencil
marked up EYB was changed in 1979, the old card and the new card stapled and it is in the file. It’s not
there. There is nothing in the file. Who manipulated that card to change the EYB to 1979? And why
was that done? It is so curious to me. And really why | believe there is favoritism is because I’ve
compiled all this data and when | look at properties like yours, that went through a heavy demolition and
renno, Jim up in the north end | can’t find one that they kept at EYB at 1970 that was all done, where the
walls were opened up and plaster was taken out and sheetrock was put up. | mean | can think of Hall
Street went to 2000; Webster Street went to 1995 or 2000; Courtland went to 1999; Chester went to
1995; | went to 1994; neighbor went to 1994. You went to 1970.
