The Fall River Board of Assessors convened on May 12, 2022, at 2:06 PM, with Nancy Heino, Rich Walton, and Rich Gonzalez present. The Board approved the minutes from the April 21, 2022, executive and open sessions, and the invoice proof list, both by a 3-0 vote. Dan Henley from Patriot Properties provided an update on the cyclical measure and list project, reporting 1,706 single-family homes and 307 commercial inspections completed, totaling 2,013 inspections. He noted the project is currently working in maps A through E, and now in F and G, covering streets like Whipple, Rodman, Warren, Palmer, and Montop. Henley also mentioned some public resistance to second visits for interior inspections, prompting the Board to emphasize the importance of cooperation to avoid estimations and potential appeal issues. Nell, a staff member, reported on a meeting with the Flint Neighborhood Association, conveying concerns about how increasing property sales affect assessments, leading to higher taxes, particularly impacting elderly residents on fixed incomes. The association also inquired about exemptions, suggesting an increase in exemption amounts and a decrease in asset limits to broaden eligibility. The Board discussed the financial implications of increased exemptions on the city's overlay account, noting that not all exemptions are fully reimbursed by the state. They also reviewed a recent local finance opinion from the state clarifying exemption eligibility for properties held in trust, specifically requiring the applicant to be both the trustee and residing on the property, with an exception for veterans under Section 22g. The Board considered holding future meetings off-site with community groups to address concerns directly and explore potential changes to elderly exemptions for Fiscal Year 2023 or later. The Board then moved into executive session at 2:19 PM to discuss abatements, exemptions, and Appellate Tax Board (ATB) matters, reconvening into open session at 3:41 PM. In open session, they approved Fiscal Year 2022 statutory exemption number 105 (3-0), denied Fiscal Year 2022 abatement number 46 (3-0), approved Fiscal Year 2022 omitted and revised personal property (3-0), and approved Fiscal Year 2022 personal property reassessment tax (2-0, with Rich Gonzalez abstaining). Two open meeting law requests/complaints regarding the May 2, 2022, meeting were referred to legal by a 3-0 vote. The next meeting was scheduled for Thursday, May 26, 2022, at 2:00 PM, and the meeting adjourned at 3:45 PM.
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pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible thank you sandra um roll call nancy hino here rich walton
0:28rich gonzalez here motion passes three zero we're here time 206. meeting is now open 206.
0:36item number three invoice proof list minutes uh a minute oh i'm sorry minutes i i that was item number two minutes thank you nancy thank you rich i don't know what i do without you guys we gotta keep an eye on you yeah no to approve the minutes is there a second second roll call nancy i know yes rich wilson wisconsin yes motion passes 3-0 to approve the minutes of the april 21st
1:112022 executive and open source item number three now it's the invoice proof list i had a chance to look at it a few minutes ago yeah sandra explained it all right motion to approve the invoice proof list roll call nancy i know yes rich wilson richard just motion passes 3-0 to approve the uh invoice proof list i'm sorry item number four mr chairman yes as part of the monthly report we could hear
1:47the report from patriot on the cyclical and i believe nell has a report on her meeting uh with the flint neighborhood association okay dan henley from uh good afternoon everyone uh dan lane patriot properties just given an update on where we are with the measure and list project it's ongoing um currently we've measured 1706 single-family homes and getting into about 14 and a quarter
2:20percent of the homes in the past couple weeks commercial inspections were at 307 for a total of 2013 inspections we've completed maps a b c d and e we're currently working in maps f and g which uh comprise the streets mainly we're working on is whipple rodman warren palmer and montop good so you're moving into the niagara area yes yeah that's excellent that's excellent has there been any resistance from any
2:57so there's been um so we're doing second visits on in the afternoons or the next morning and there's been a little bit of uh resistance that people are seeing them on camera or their video doorbells and they're wanting to know why they're coming back a second time when they didn't open the door the first time but they're you know we're just trying to get into as many homes as we can
3:18obviously to do the interior inspections but that's been the biggest resistance um of late mr chair you may want to explain to the public how important it is for them to allow the inspectors in yes it is rather important because uh two things um number one we don't want to have to estimate if that's the final alternative um because the estimation may be wrong or incorrect and number two in an event that
3:52there would ever be an appeal um at some point we need to get inside the property or the city could file a motion to dismiss because of the lack of entry at the appellate tax board and we don't want to really do that we want all the cooperation we can to get the job done done right any questions from the other board members no i'm glad it's going good okay
4:22thank you thank you thank you dan have a great day keep up the good work mr chairs i understand uh nell had a meeting with the uh flint neighborhood committee association and you might want to hear from her on that so um they just wanted me to present their concerns to you and what they're concerned about is how the sales in the city are affecting the assessments and how those assessments due to the increase
4:50how it's affecting those that are elderly who have been living in the city for quite some time and that they are financially they're not able to be able to keep up with affording the property so i told them that i would bring that back to the board so that you know what their concerns are they did it also asked some questions on the cyclical um and i explained it to them and they understood the process
5:16so but their main concern was in regards to the assessments and how sales are having an effect on increasing the assessments therefore increasing the taxes they also brought asked a question in regards to exemptions maybe exemptions we could possibly present it to the city council to see if we could increase the amount and maybe decrease the the assets to open it open that to a more variety more
5:49quantity of applicants that it might help them with uh paying their real estate bill are we still on the original um incoming assets we have never been updated i mean we we have the um the cost of living that we get so security deductibles that increases of course every year a little bit so yeah i think that's a great start i think what we could have is invite uh maybe a couple of members from the
6:20administration down uh a couple of council members okay um the board as a joint board can come up with uh maybe some uh helpful um increase but we have to remember and i don't know if that was explained to him that the overlay does does get a hit when we increase these exemptions because the exemptions have to be paid from somewhere and that somewhere is the overlay so that's something that the administration and
6:56the council and us should be involved mr chair if i may just so that the public so what the overlay is when the budget as you all know when the budget's done there is an account that is funded known as the overlay and any exemptions or abatements are paid out of that on the exemptions we don't get reimbursement from the state on all the exemptions we get them on some but not
7:19on all some instances it's only partial so um that is that's the concern you're voicing about the overlays right and i think i think in in a case where we're going above and beyond the reimbursement we're not going to get reimbursed on that right somehow some way we would have to find the extra money to pay for the additional exemption and mr chief i also may um just to have people aware
7:46um with regard to exemptions when your property is held in trust the state has just issued a local finance opinion that clarifies how that works and i would suggest that maybe the staff could come up with a list of the exemptions that have been applied for and granted and that we just send them an informational mailing that lets them know exactly how it works when your property is in trust and
8:11that's not something we have control over that's the state the city council did pass and the mayor signed section 22 g that provides assistance for veterans who have property and trust but that's the only ones that really are exempt from this ruling from dor life estate deeds are not included in that and so we i think it might be helpful as you approach for next year this is effective next year but you
8:40might want to give them as much information as possible as soon as possible so that they can be aware of that what was the change so actually they but it wasn't really a change it was just reminding everybody that if your property is in trust in order to get the exemption you have to be the trustee and you have to be living there and that's the in the reason by living there that is
9:04um and we can assume from that the other beneficiary of the trust as well if you don't meet both halves of that we're not going to be able and they're going to be checking this to make sure that we're not giving exemptions the because you don't have the supreme judicial court has ruled you have to have both pieces the veterans are exempted because of 22g section 22g which the council passed in march
9:27and they may have signed it then and this doesn't affect life estate deeds where somebody would deed it to themselves for life in their to the remainder to their children so i think it would be good just to remind them that the state has issued a clarification to us and basically exhorting all the assessors everywhere in the state to make sure that they're enforcing this that way so
9:49that people don't get caught off guard by it um i just uh want to run something by i just thought of um that was just just with the flint right that was any other southern college carlos caesar was the one who contacted me he's the only one maybe we should take our meetings on the road and meet with some of these groups and we can have our meeting there and voice
10:19they can voice their concerns it's not a bad idea and then come back uh the mayor can set up a joint committee and um because i i i don't have a problem with the elderly i think for years and if you look at the actual exemptions uh your veterans exemptions all your other exemptions are increasing and and the elderly is staying flat and it's been flat for quite a few years um
10:47but again we know that there's a cost to that we don't know what it's going to cost us right we could start working on those costs um to get an idea it may not cost us as much as we think right um especially if we went the route of uh assets i think i think if we start increasing the amounts given by taking what we've already given plus right uh on the
11:12assets uh we might we're just limiting to the ones who never got it before and and that could be a smaller group yeah i think and i think too what now spoke about was the income a lot of these older people who retired years ago are still getting the same you know eight hundred dollars social security that's not increasing and so um that's yeah i mean i think it's a great idea if we can uh
11:39get the members of these uh organizations give us a call uh we can set up a meeting yeah let's go off site there to where they meet you you could notice it as a you'd have to notice it as a public meeting of these sessions right and you could work towards maybe 20 fiscal 23 which begins july 1st right or even the following year it won't affect it's not going to be able to provide relief
12:03for the fiscal year that's ending in in two months but um but moving forward yeah how do you feel about it i think that's a good idea yes okay okay you need a motion to accept the monthly report may i have a motion to accept the motherboard so move
12:293-0 to accept the monthly report thank you now you're welcome thank you
12:51once
13:11item number five executive session can i have a motion to go in can i have a motion to go into executive session to discuss abatements uh exemptions per submitter let's pursuant to glc 38 21a7 and glc 59 section 60 review atv matters pursuant to gl 30a section 21a3 since discussion in public would be detrimental to the city's legal position we will reconvene following the executive session move to go into
13:43executive session second second roll call nancy heino yes rich wilson yes miss gonzales motion passes three zero time two nineteen two nineteen and exec again we will reconvene thank you everyone welcome back uh into open may i have a roll call to go back into open nancy heino yes rich wilson yes mr contest yes 3-0 time 3 41 3 41 an open session next um mr chairman i make a motion to approve the following fiscal
14:2222 statutory exemption number 105.
14:26second motion phone call nancy heino yes rich wilson yes rich gonzalez yes motion passes three zero two prove the exemption that was written mr chairman i make a motion to deny the following fiscal 22 abatement number 46 second in ocean tonight roll call nancy no yes rich wilson wisconsin yes motion passes to deny what was right mr chairman i make a motion to approve um the fiscal year 2022 omitted and
14:58revised personnel hold on a second you've got to call that you've got to go to the next item number six six oh yeah yeah i'm sorry item number six fiscal uh year 2022 committed and revised personal property moment make a motion to approve second investigation roll call nancy heino yes rich wilson is rich wilson sorry rich consoles yes motion passes 3-0 to approve the admitted revised personal property tax award
15:32item number seven fiscal 22 property personal property reassessment tax i'll make a motion to approve second roll call nancy heino yes rich wilson rich gonzalez yes no which gonzalez is abstaining abstaining that's right thank you thank you i forgot about that one thank you i abstain thank you item number eight open meeting law requests re regarding may 2nd 2022 board of assessors meeting received may 3rd refer
16:05to uh legal second item number nine open meeting complaint regarding making vote vote oh we gotta vote all right um nancy i know yes rich wilson rich gonzalez yes 3-0 item number nine open meeting law complaint regarding may 2nd 2022 board of assessors meeting received may 4th refer to legal make a motion to approve second second roll call nancy i know yes rich wilson yes yes rich condoles yes mission passes 3-0
16:45item number 10 all other relevant business not known in 48 hours is there any good item number 11 schedule next meeting
17:03i think there's still eight or nine abatements sitting out there but those are going to probably be denied all right so uh and next week the week after that's the week of memorial day is it that's the 26th yeah what do we got anything you want to go to thursday when uh what time during the day i'm open all day i'm open well i'm not i shouldn't say i'm moving
17:34i have an atv hearing in the morning as uh atv status conference in the morning um on another community but i could uh do anything in the afternoon yeah all right well we wanna do the afternoon yeah two two o'clock sounds good and what date is that again that is the 26th okay okay thursday on the 26th two o'clock all right
18:12second roll call nancy hi now yes rich wilson wisconsin yes moshe passes three zero time 3 45. listen to it 3 45 thank you everyone have a nice day thank you