Assessments bring questions in Suffolk

SUFFOLK

The day after receiving the annual assessment report, two City Council members said they have questions about the figures and want a better accounting of the math behind them.

Councilmen Charles Parr and Leroy Bennett said they want a more detailed explanation of the numbers in City Assessor Maria Kattmann's presentation.

"She didn't give me enough information that I was looking for last night to make me feel real good about it," Bennett said Thursday.

The analysis showed residential assessments will rise by about 4.4 percent overall, while a few neighborhoods will see median increases of 25 percent or more. At the same time, homes in dozens of neighborhoods will have lower assessments because sale prices nearby didn't keep up with past increases, Kattmann said.

"I've got some questions that I want answered, and I'm going to let them get answered before I comment on them," Parr said.

During her presentation Wednesday, Kattmann said her office tried to distribute the tax burden more evenly and to correct inequalities among similar properties.

Several council members said Thursday they hadn't reviewed the numbers in detail. The report will be available on the city assessor's Web site and in libraries. Assessment notices will be mailed out March 28, after which the appeals process will begin.

Parr said he would like to see a more comprehensive report for the public, so homeowners could easily track the recent history of assessments in their neighborhoods.

Councilman Joseph Barlow didn't see any immediate concerns in the new numbers, but he expressed lingering disappointment with the results of a recent review of the assessor's office by outside consultants.

The council ordered the independent review after Kattmann's office legally reviewed the proposed figures in three neighborhoods last year. The closer look turned up errors in city records, leading to lower assessments for many of the homeowners.

The consultants' report, which cost $60,000, concluded that Kattmann's office is well-run but short-staffed.

But Barlow said he doesn't believe the consultants addressed the problems that surfaced last year.

"That bothered me a little bit that they didn't look into it that deeply," he said.

Wayne Trout, one of the consultants, said the council did not direct them to scrutinize the neighborhoods at the center of the controversy.

"It wasn't in the scope of the report," he said.

This year, those neighborhoods saw little change in their assessments. In two - Pierce Park and Sleepy Lake - the median assessment didn't change.

In a third, Orlando-Pleasant Hill, the median assessment moved up 3.2 percent, to $46,100 - far lower than the median sales price there in 2007. Sixteen properties sold, with a median price of $94,750, according to Kattmann's report.

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com