Board of Assessors

Minutes of the Board of Assessors Meeting of February 20, 2014 A meeting of the Board of Assessors was held on Thursday, February 20, 2014 in Room 208, 2nd floor of City Hall. The meeting was called to order at 8:15 AM by Acting Chair Daniel Gagnon. Members Present: Robert Earley Daniel Gagnon Assessing Staff Present: Angelo Marino Andrew LeMay Gary Turgiss Greg Turgiss Cheryl Walley Minutes of the Meeting: The minutes for the meeting held on February 6, 2014 were approved. Abatement Requests Presented: A complete list of abatements presented is available in the Assessor’s Office. At the last meeting, Mr. and Mrs. Fiore addressed the Board regarding their 2013 abatement being recommended for denial by the Assessing Department and Mr. Robert Earley wanted to table the Board’s decision on this abatement to allow him more time to look into things further. Mr. Earley said he was able to review the data as well as look at the subject property and the sale comparisons provided. He feels the assessment is fair and the abatement should be denied. After some discussion the following motion was made: MOTION BY Robert Earley to deny the 2013 abatement filed on the property located at 15 Melissa Drive as the evidence presented by both parties indicates the assessment is fair at $262,400. SECONDED BY Daniel Gagnon. MOTION CARRIED. An abatement on a property at 36 Raymond Street is before the Board and the recommendation from Residential Appraiser Greg Turgiss is to approve it and lower the assessment because it was realized the “neighborhood code” was listed as “early good” and should have been listed as “new good”. After this change in the coding the assessment lowered. Mr. Earley asked what the difference is between the two types of neighborhood codes. Chief Assessor Angelo Marino answered that our system breaks down the area into two categories, early and new. The cut-off point is roughly around the end of World War II. Neighborhoods built before that would be listed as early because it was in that era that houses were more or less built one at a time. The new properties built after World War II was when developers started building tract houses and building at a faster pace. There are sub-categories such as poor, fair, average, good, excellent, superior which differentiate or fine tune between those broader categories. It’s a way of breaking them into different categories to better reflect the market level of that particular neighborhood. 1 of 2 AFP-105 Corp owns the property located at 11 Tara Blvd (Radisson Hotel) which had an appeal pending at Superior Court for tax years 2009 through 2012. Superior Court rendered their decision for these appeals which was appealed to Supreme Court by the City of Nashua. The Supreme Court affirmed and each year’s abatement is being processed based on the court ordered assessments equalized for that year. Mr. Gagnon and Mr. Earley asked questions regarding the case and Mr. Marino offered his explanation but said that Attorney Bennett had sent Alderman Siegel an email addressing similar concerns so he asked that the Board members be sent Attorney Bennett’s response for their review. Deputy Assessor Drew LeMay said that the property has had extensive renovations recently and these are reflected in the current assessment. Appointments: none Staff Items: Mr. Gagnon asked overall how much money does the city typically give back to taxpayers due to abatements being filed and he was told that number varies each year. Mr. Earley asked if the budgeted amount takes into consideration the various pending appeals and he was told yes there is an estimated projection made and that is used to set the budget for the overlay account for each fiscal year. Mr. Marino explained that the overlay account is used for the payment of abatements as well as related expenses, such as outside attorney fees and appraisals of appealed properties. Mr. Marino told the Board that right now we have approximately 45 abatements but he does expect that to at least double before the March 1st deadline next week. MOTION BY Robert Earley to adjourn at 8:45 SECONDED BY Daniel Gagnon. MOTION CARRIED. Transcribed by: Cheryl Walley Department Coordinator 2 of 2