WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. By John F. Bailey. June 22,2009 UPDATED June 23, 2009 12:20 P.M. E.D.T.: With a single uttering of the word "Over," County Legislator Tom Abinanti delayed consideration and a vote scheduled this morning by the 16 members of the County Board of Legislators of establishing a Westchester County Assessment Commission to upgrade data and assessment standards, that county area assessors and city managers said could lead to considerable increases in county and municipal assessibles
Ken Jenkins, the Legislator and Chairman of Government Operations offered this explanation of the "Over" Rule to WPCNR Wednesday:
By rule, any Legislator can "lay over" an item. The motion is not debatable. There are no changes that I plan to make to the Resolution.
Clearly the State Office of Real Property Services, the Westchester Municipal Officials Association and the Westchester Chapter of the NYS Assessors Association support this resolution. The item does appear have enough support to pass when it appears as unfinished business at the July 7th meeting.
Lloyd Tasch, President of the Westchester Chapter of the NYS Assessors Association, said the Association did not have a statement regarding the "over".
Jenkins assured WPCNR that an item can only be "over'd" once so the item will be on the July 7 agenda for a vote. He also acknowledged some pressure from business groups may be being put legislators, in a written statement, Jenkins wrote WPCNR:
Legislators at every level get lobbied by interest groups all the time - so this is not unusual.
I believe that some legislators would like to move towards enacting legislation for county-wide revaluation. So they do not want to support what has been acknowledged by the real property assessment experts as a reasonable and responsible first step. Some may be feigning a better solution but are actually using procedures to delay.
As far as this legislation is concerned, my view as Committee Chair is that the delay in action until July 7th will not impact the goals of the resolution. I also expect that there is a set of best practices to develop a model for Westchester that will come quickly as we wait for the next available window to perform the photography (late fall '09 or spring '10).
The uttering of "Over," by Mr. Abinanti, with no explanation to the public by either Mr. Abinanti or Chairman of the Board of Legislators came after a succession of assessors from Ossining, Yonkers, and city managers from Scarsdale and Ossining, and a representative from the Department of Real Property Services had spoken praising the legislature in advance, under the impression the establishment of the Commission, with its attendent appropriation for conducting oblique photography of all propertyies, commerical and residential in the county would up date assessment data characterized as fifty years out of date.
Assessors sitting in "Assessors Row," expecting a passage of the resolution establishing the Commission, especially after a Board of Legislators' press release issued Friday touting the possible passage of the Commission, were stunned.
WPCNR has contacted Mr. Abinanti's explanation for the tabling of the resolution. Any legislator can prevent an item from coming to a vote by calling for an "over" which moves the resolution to the July Board of Legislatures meeting.
One of the speakers at the Citizens to Be Heard portion of the County Board of Legislators, the Assessor form the City of Yonkers, said Dade County Florida, found $1 billion of additional assessments based on a $1.2 Million expenditure of such a oblique photographic survey in $1 Billion in changes to property characteristics that were not on record."
The "Overing" of the resolution comes two weeks after County Executive Andrew Spano called for a revaluation of Westchester county as an answer to establish fair and equitable property taxes.
