Next time you can’t get through to the tax assessor’s office on the phone, leave your number and you’ll be talking to a human being within 24 hours. Count on it.
That call-back pledge came from city Tax Assessor William O’Brien (at left in photo) as he addressed 25 people at the Celentano School Tuesday. They braved sheets of rain to hear the assessor’s briefing on the ongoing property revaluation program.
They also heard repeated invitations to call or come on down to his office with questions or disputed assessments.
O’Brien’s invitations fell at a time when his office has been under fire for numerous tax screwups and poor customer service.
Click here for Betsy Yagla’s Advocate story on the latest round of complaints from taxpayers, including a biotech business whose taxes tripled.
O’Brien, who has been through at tempestuous aldermanic grilling sessions of late, rolled up his sleeves and appeared comfortable, candid, and at ease as he fielded questions on the reval and related matters.
Is it possible a new era of customer service is dawning at the embattled office?
O’Brien gave one reason to indicate the affirmative. He said he has cleaned house and shaken up his staff. Five contract employees have been replaced with new full timers with more professionalism, he reported.
He hired a new office manager, assistant assessor, title maintenance clerk, data clerk, and real estate property appraiser.
These are not new positions, but funded two budgets ago and just come on line, mayoral spokesperson Jessica Mayorga was at pains to point out. She accompanied O’Brien to the briefing..
Was the shake-up a response to the public’s recent volley of complaints about service and style in the tax assessor’s office?
“Calls have to be addressed. That’s one of the reasons to go through this exercise,” O’Brien responded.
The other was the need for professionalism, he said, because the city’s revenue depended upon it.
The basis of that revenue, the fair market property evaluation now underway, was the reason for the public meeting, the second of three scheduled around the city.
In June, the first meeting was held at the Nathan Hale School in Morris Cove. The last info session is scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 at the Edgewood School.
O’Brien said that the state-mandated, once-a-decade physical inspection of the city’s 24,000 structures has begun in earnest. The contracted company, Vision Appraisal of Norboro, Mass., has 12 to 14 people in the field, working their way north and west in the city up from the Annex.
Click here for a good summary of procedures and FAQs about the process on the city’s website.
The main anxiety permeating the hour’s worth of questions from people such as East Rocker Vivien Cameron (pictured) was whether the reval would automatically result in the raising of taxes in New Haven, which she already characterized as “appalling.”
“It may and it may not,” replied O’Brien.
He said the main concern was getting the number of rooms right, and tracking down additions. “At times people do work without taking out building permits.”
If there are additions, values well might go up. But regular maintenance, such as painting, should not contribute to increases.
Would a deteriorated condition lessen valuation? Someone asked. O’Brien confessed that was one of the flaws in the law. Yes, it was possible. He said another flaw was that a property owners’s final appeal, after his office and a hearing at the Board of Assessment Appeals, would be Superior Court. For that reason, filing an appeal often costs more in legal fees than the increased tax, he said.
Roger Colten (pictured) of Foster Street expressed concern about “comparables” — to determine a house’s value, appraisers look at the sale price of “comparable” homes nearby. Many of the three-family homes in Colten’s area are being turned into condos, so what was once a $300,000 house is now a $900,000 condominium, he said.
“How does that effect taxes on my house?” Colten asked.
“Uses are different,” O’Brien replied, explaining that values are based on comparable structures with comparable uses.
“Look at the market conditions in 2007 [the year after the last reval, which determined current assessments]. In a lot of cases, I expect values to go down.”
That didn’t quite allay the anxiety of Denise Acampora (at right in photo at the top of this story). She lives in a two-family home in East Rock with her 84-year-old mom, who frightens easily. Acampora has decided that she doesn’t want to let anyone in, even if there’s an appointment made with a Vision Appraisal data collector.
Vision Appraisal data collectors don’t make appointments but just come by over a 12-month period between now and the fall. If you know you’re not going to be home, you can call for an appointment.
Would a reval based on a non-physical estimate automatically be higher?
“No,” said O’Brien.
Letting data collectors in caused a big problem for Claudine Wilkins-Chambers (pictured) during the 2006 reval. Result: they assessed her for $27,000 worth of attic and additions that were non-existent. She said she straightened it out, but it took photographs and three weeks of work.
She told her story to O’Brien and suggested that for the current reval, “They should employ people who get it right the first time.”
“The [Vision Appraisal’s] company’s employees are tested by the state of Connecticut, whatever confidence that gives you. Six years ago, there was no training,” O’Brien replied.
Many others also had unfair assessments but were not willing to fight, Wilkins-Chambers countered.
The assessments will figure into the Oct 1, 2011 grand list, which determines the July 2012 tax bill.
O’Brien’s office can be reached at (203) 946‑4800. Vision Appraisal’s number is 1 – 800-628‑1013.