Finance Committee - 02/03/2021 Page 8
Mayor Donchess
Now I’m not disagreeing with you | am just trying to find out what — you know — make sure | understand the
point. | think you are saying that the name of the party owning the property to whom the abatement benefits,
whom the abatement really benefits in substance, should be, that name should appear in the Record of
Expenditures in addition to the payee of the check if those are different, correct?
Alderwoman Lu
| don’t personally think, | don’t know what is legally required but | mean the way | am reading this it says, “the
name of the person to whom the account or claim was allowed”. That’s not their mortgage company. And |
have directed this to Legal with no response. The only response | have gotten is “it would be inappropriate”.
And | just want a better understanding of why that is not appropriate.
Director Kleiner
Mayor, if | may?
Mayor Donchess
Go ahead.
Director Kleiner
So the name in the Record of Expenditures is the name that the check is written to. And | think there’s two
different things here. So when an abatement goes to the Board of Assessors and is approved for payment by
the tax office, there is a record, a list that goes to the tax office signed off by the Board of Assessors which lists
the property owners. And that certainly is a public document, that is the official list of approved payments to
property owners for an abatement. So that would actually have the property owner's name. And | think we
provided those. That’s the official record of approved abatements. The Record of Expenditures is not a list of
approved abatements. That’s a record of who checks were issued to. So | really think the two separate things,
both of which are certainly public documents, and both which can be provided only the list of approved
abatements would be found in the Board of Assessors and the Record of Expenditures would be found in the
financial documents.
Mayor Donchess
| mean | follow that but what you just explained raised this question in my mind. So if there is a mortgage
company that is handling a group of abatements and let’s say they have made payments on behalf of three
parties that got an abatement, does one check go to the mortgage company to cover the approved abatements
or is it three separate checks.
Director Kleiner
So let’s think of it this way. The name that the tax bill goes to, the name on the tax account is who tax would
issue that to. So when tax bills are issued, many get banks or mortgage holders receive the tax bills for
different residents. So you can think of it that way. I’m not sure Mayor, | would certainly want to look at it. |
believe they are all separate, but | would verify that for you. | believe they are separate amounts and separate
checks, which is why you see them listed quite often multiple times.
Mayor Donchess
Alright well | think | understand Alderwoman Lu’s question and | would be glad to inquire further on that issue.
You are just saying that the name of the taxpayer should be in the Record of Expenditures, right, basically in
addition to ...
