Notes from the Town Board Meeting called Tuesday, August 28, 2007, at 5:00 PM, to discuss Town Assessing issues. The following Town Board Members were present: William B. Ferebee, Supervisor, Paul R. Martin, Robert M. Biesemeyer, Marcy A. Neville and Lawrence Jaques, Members of Council. Also present were: William Washburn, Assessor, Barry Miller, Director of Essex County Real Property Tax Service, Ron Briggs, Town Attorney, Martha Allen, Member of the Press and Ellen Estes, Town Clerk.

The meeting was called to order at 5:00 PM.
Mr. Briggs said the first issue to be discussed was possible litigation with the Au Sable Mountain Reserve’s assessment.
Ms. Allen and Mrs. Estes left the room during this discussion, and returned at 5:25 PM for the remainder of the meeting.

Mr. Ferebee explained that Barry Miller had been asked to come in to speak to the Board about the option of changing to a Sole Appointed Assessor. He said Mr. Miller would explain the NYS offer for Shared Assessors, which reimburses the Town for 2008 per parcel.

The first discussion was in regards to the resolution adopted on August 14th to change to a Sole Appointed Assessor adopted at the August 14th meeting. The text of which was “Be it resolved, that as of January 1, 2008, the Town of Keene change from an elected Board of Assessors to one (1) paid, appointed Assessor, if a qualified candidate can be found, if not, the Town go to one (1) paid, appointed Assessor, no later than 1 year from today”.
Mr. Biesemeyer said the Town Board has not passed a Local Law yet, that the Board of Assessors “haven’t been thrown out the window”, and that if a strong enough candidate is not found there will be no change.
Mr. Jaques said he didn’t agree with Mr. Biesemeyers’s understanding, he read the resolution and said the change had to be made by one year from now.
Mr. Martin agreed with Mr. Jaques’ understanding of this resolution, while Ms. Neville agreed with Mr. Biesemeyer’s.
Mr. Briggs said the resolution was “ambiguous”.
Mr. Martin said he felt that the problem with staying with a Board of Assessors was that the number of people interested in the job with the knowledge of the community was getting smaller and smaller. He said he did not want to fall back, that there has been too many uncertainties.
Ms. Neville asked “What if we can’t agree on a candidate in a year”?
Mr. Briggs gave the scenario that if the vote on a candidate comes down to 2 to 3 to hire, there will be no change.
Mr. Martin, Mr. Biesemeyer and Ms. Neville all agreed that if a strong candidate applies, they would hire him/her.

Bill Washburn asked what the Board of Assessors had done that was so wrong that they (the Town Board) wanted to get rid of them.
Mr. Biesemeyer said he was looking for a comfort level of candidates coming forward.
Mr. Washburn asked how the Board would feel if the Town decided to hire a Village Manager to replace the Board.
Mr. Martin explained to Mr. Washburn that the Board is looking ahead to making this a full time, well paid position with certain expectations.
Mr. Ferebee agreed with Mr. Martin, and said this seems to be the State’s feeling also, he said that was why the State is offering an incentive to share an Assessor with another Town.

When asked, Mr. Miller said that some elective Boards are the best in the State and some appointed Sole Assessors are the worst, he said he has mixed feelings.
He said the incentive to get people to run for the elective Board used to be to get their health insurance.
Mr. Biesemeyer asked how many Towns in the County have a Sole Assessor.
Mr. Miller replied 8 out of 18.

Mr. Jaques said he thought the Board was past this discussion.
Mr. Biesemeyer said he was not comfortable yet.

Ms. Neville asked Mr. Miller what makes the worst or the best of Assessors.
Mr. Miller said that some Sole Assessors take on too many Towns and overextend their workload in an attempt to make a living.
Mr. Martin said he would like to see a Sole Assessor hired who is only taking care of our Town.
Mr. Ferebee responded that the position of Sole Assessor would be for a day or a day and a half a week.
Mr. Miller addressed the problem with a Board of Assessors is that sometimes one Assessor carries the workload.
Mr. Martin asked if the Sole Assessors have an aide.
Mr. Miller said that the Towns of Ticonderoga and Jay have a helper.

Ms. Neville said she didn’t agree with all the “advantages “listed in the pamphlet. She said the major advantage was the sole responsibility to the Town Board.

Mr. Ferebee asked Mr. Washburn how many hours they spend in the office.
Mr. Washburn said he had seen two individuals today.
Mr. Ferebee asked how many hours the Chairman spends.
Mr. Martin said that’s not the issue.

Mr. Martin asked Mr. Miller if he could be any help in the recruitment of applicants. He responded yes, he knows most of them.

There was a brief discussion regarding the 6 year term and renegotiating the salary annually as part of the contract.

Mr. Martin asked if any of the newly hired Sole Assessors had also been the previous Assessors.
Mr. Miller said that Jay, Elizabethtown and Chesterfield had all hired their previous Assessors.

Mr. Biesemeyer asked if there were any elected Sole Assessors in the area, Mr. Miller said there is one in Hamilton County.

Mr. Ferebee asked Mr. Miller to speak about the Shared Services program offered by NYS.
Mr. Miller said this is a 10 year agreement to hire a shared Assessor which results in the Town being paid $12.00 per parcel plus an additional $5.00 if done in 2008. He explained that this is something that is only reimbursed once.

Mr. Jaques asked what is needed to advertise the position.
Mr. Briggs and Mr. Miller both agreed that a permissive referendum is not required, they said all that is needed is a job description to began the interviewing process.

Mr. Jaques asked if the present Assessors would be retained for the first part of the year.
Mr. Martin said if the current Assessors are interested in the position they should send to the State for their qualifications.

Mr. Ferebee asked what would happen if a “Shared Assessor” was hired and then did not stay to fill out the 10 year agreement.
Mr. Miller said the funds would have to be paid back accordingly.

Mr. Ferebee asked for clarification regarding the Town Board’s requirement to adopt a Local Law and about the option of having a referendum.
Mr. Jaques asked how long this would take.
Mr. Briggs said no longer than 45 days.

Mr. Ferebee asked what parcels are paid on in the shared agreement.
Mr. Miller said the agreement does not reimburse on wholly exempt parcels.

There was a brief discussion in which Mr. Biesemeyer spoke on his interest in having Mount Marcy assessed differently.

Mr. Ferebee asked what the Aged Exemption for the Town is.
Mr. Miller said the Aged Exemption for the Town is $16,600 and for the County is $22,000. Mr. Miller looked in the tax roll and said that at this time there is no one who would benefit from the Town changing to the County level.

Mr. Ferebee asked for clarification, he asked if the Board wanted to advertise the position of Sole Assessor and see what happens.
The Board’s response was yes.
When Ms. Neville asked about the job description, Mr. Ferebee said he had it.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:30 PM.

Ellen S. Estes, Town Clerk
September 6, 2007

William B. Ferebee, Supervisor
Paul R. Martin, Councilperson
Robert M. Biesemeyer, Councilperson
Marcy A. Neville, Councilperson
Lawrence Jaques, Councilperson