The brief attempt at a “rolling reassessment” in Hoboken moved decisively toward a close at this past Wednesday’s City Council meeting, with nearly the same unanimity but considerably more debate than had occasioned its original approval. By an 8 to 1 vote, the council passed a resolution expressing its disapproval of annual property revaluations and supporting Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s decision to terminate the city’s contract with Appraisal Systems to conduct the program.
The following day, Zimmer said that she has told Appraisal Systems to stop all work and would soon send a letter fully effectuating the termination of their contract.
The City Council also advanced a Zimmer-sponsored ordinance requiring that Hoboken conduct a property revaluation at least every six years and creating a civil cause of action for taxpayers to sue if it does not.
In 2013, Zimmer initiated the first property revaluation in Hoboken since 1988. After 25 years of appreciation in the residential market, many long-time homeowners saw their property values triple or quadruple, with concomitant increases in property taxes.
“Members on this Council will question two dollars on paper clips, but there’s a half million dollar contract on the consent agenda and that doesn’t raise any red flags to anyone?”– Jen Giattino
____________
She intended the system to soften the blow that revaluation delivers after a long lapse without any maintenance. Once the plan became public, however, homeowners who had been stung by the recent reval spoke out against it, pleading for a respite from the uncertainty of revaluation.
Changing her mind
After The Hoboken Reporter wrote a cover story about the new reval a month ago, the paper received several letters against it.
Two weeks ago, Zimmer announced in a letter to the council that her position on the 2014 revaluation had evolved after “many members of the community expressed strong reservations about the impact that the rolling revaluation might have on their taxes going forward.”
She promised to terminate the contract and leave property values at their current levels if the City Council passed her ordinance establishing six year intervals for revaluation.
The Appraisal Systems contract for “rolling reassessment” had been proposed by Zimmer and passed unanimously by the City Council on Sept. 3.
In her recent letter to the council, Zimmer defended the move even as she abandoned it, calling its incremental adjustments in property value a solution to the “extremely burdensome single year tax increases” that resulted from not conducting a revaluation for 25 years. She characterized six-year intervals between revals as achieving the same goal while taking public concerns into account.
Zimmer’s City Council allies echoed her sentiments on Wednesday, saying they knew what they had voted for in September but were willing to compromise now.
“We were all for it before we were against it,” joked Councilman Ravi Bhalla.
However, the four council members generally in opposition to Zimmer accused her administration of failing to adequately inform them of its rolling reval plans. They said they believed the contract was a continuation of the revaluation undertaken last year.
“I didn’t feel I was fully informed about how this process was going to work,” said Councilwoman Beth Mason on Wednesday.
Why did they say yes in the first place?
Hoboken’s plans for a rolling reassessment first entered the public domain when the city posted a bid request for “revaluation/reassessment services” some time during the summer of 2014. Of the firms that replied by Aug. 27, Appraisal Systems was selected as the best bidder, and the administration submitted a resolution awarding them a $500,000 contract for four years of “reassessment services” at the Sept. 3 council meeting.
The reassessment resolution was one of several passed that night on the “consent agenda,” a bundle of typically uncontroversial items that are voted on at once and without comment. Any council member has the option to remove a resolution from the consent agenda for further discussion, and will often do so merely to receive a more full explanation of its purpose. But none of the nine council members elected to do so.
The resolution itself did not contain the words “rolling” or “revaluation,” though it did state that it was for “reassessment services for a four-year term.” The city’s bid request was more specific, seeking help in “updating and making current the…revaluation program put in place for the 2014 tax year.”
Later in the Sept. 3 meeting, during the discussion of a resolution asking the New Jersey Legislature to consider giving property tax breaks to long-time homeowners, Council President Jennifer Giattino stated inaccurately that the council had just hired “Appraisal Systems for the five year term…to do a revaluation of a quarter of the city every year,” after which Business Administrator Quentin Wiest chimed in to further explain the program and its purported benefits.
Their comments elicited no reaction at the time.
After receiving approval for its rolling reassessment program from the Hudson County Board of Taxation in late September, the city began sending letters requesting income and expense information to commercial property owners, according to Wiest. The letters triggered enough questions, including from The Hoboken Reporter, that the city and Appraisal Systems decided to give an official presentation to the City Council at its Nov. 5 meeting, followed by a community meeting on Nov. 12.
Public comments at both events made clear that, at the very least, a vocal minority of Hoboken taxpayers were strongly opposed to further adjustment of property values so soon after the 2013 reval.
Who dropped the ball?
On Wednesday, several council members appeared to suggest that the Zimmer administration tried to pull a fast one on the council by not fully explaining its rolling reval contract prior to seeking its approval.
“The business administrator didn’t warn us,” said Councilman Tim Occhipinti. “I think in the future something that is so significant, with such a large city-wide impact, even if Council members miss it and it starts heading towards consent agenda, somebody should say, ‘Hey, guys, I think you should have an explanation on this resolution.’ ”
That characterization didn’t sit well with some of Zimmer’s allies on the council, who suggested it was each council member’s personal responsibility to understand every resolution before they voted on it.
“Members on this council will question two dollars on paper clips,” said Giattino, “but there’s a half million dollar contract on the consent agenda and that doesn’t raise any red flags to anyone?”
“I knew what it was about,” she continued, “I knew what I was voting on, and I voted yes.”
Councilwomen Mason and Theresa Castellano also accused Zimmer of seeking and receiving state approval for the rolling reassessment program without notifying the City Council. Business Administrator Wiest reiterated that Hudson County and state approval for the plan did not come until after the council had approved the contract on Sept. 3.
However, Wiest displayed his own confusion over the timeline, stating that the presentation by Hoboken Tax Assessor Sal Bonaccorsi and Appraisal Systems President Rick Del Guercio had taken place before the council voted on the rolling reval contract, when in fact it had taken place two months afterwards.
“It’s not like [the rolling reval resolution] was number 35 on some agenda and nobody said anything about it,” said Wiest.
Protecting the elderly
One note of consensus among the Council members was the need for a statewide “homestead act” granting tax exemptions to property owners who live in the home that they own. Many state legislatures have enacted such a law, though not New Jersey’s as of yet.
We need to “ensure that we do not force long-term property owners to sell their homes that they have been here for their entire lives,” said Occhipinti, whose comments were echoed by Councilman David Mello.
Zimmer has promoted the state’s current “Senior Tax Freeze” program as a way of protecting these homeowners from large property tax adjustments.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.