OFFICE OF THE SELECTBOARD
Town of Whitingham
P.O. Box 560
Jacksonville, Vermont 05342
A Meeting of the Whitingham Selectboard was held on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 7:30 PM, at the Selectboard Office, Municipal Center in Jacksonville, Vermont. The following Selectboard members were present: Chair, Keith Bronson; Vice-Chair, Allan Twitchell; Selectboard Members: Mr. Robin Kingsley; Mr. Karl Twitchell and Administrator, Ms. Bonnie Jo Radasch. Guests: Jen Burnell, Lister; Stanley Janovsky, Road Commissioner, Fire Chief; Tyler Janovsky, Junior Fireman/citizen.
7:30 A motion was made by Mr. Allan Twitchell for Selectboard to approve the Payables Warrant dated February 19, 2015, in the amount of $67,887.20; Mr. Robin Kingsley seconded. All in favor.
7:32 A motion was made by Mr. Robin Kingsley for Selectboard to approve the Payroll Warrant dated February 19, 2015; Mr. Allan Twitchell seconded. All in favor.
7:34 A motion was made by Mr. Keith Bronson for Selectboard to approve the Minutes of January 28, and February 4, 2015, as written; Mr. Robin Kingsley seconded. All in favor.
7:38Ms. Jen Burnell, Lister, joined Selectboard at the table to discuss the tentative redetermination of equalized education property value and coefficient of disperson. Ms. Burnell noted when Listers enter sales, they are aware of non-valid sales, such as family sale, estate sale, distress sale… etc. She continued, “on the one particular sale that was Sugareski in 2013 (it was an S2), we didn’t know that owner had issues when he unloaded it. There are properties selling less than assessment. This one was extreme and in the computation sheet December of 2014 - which we appealed. When I suggested the appeal, Nancy Merrill agreed.”
“After we appealed, they dropped Sugareski’s property, but it didn’t affect CLA or COD. You have low inter-quartile values (low and high)… working with percents and formulas… Sugareski was considered an extreme sale already, and wasn’t in formula. Nancy wasn’t aware of it being extreme. This was already considered an outlier, (it was in there but it wasn’t)… if you know what I mean. So when they re-did it the numbers still came up as 17.35% COD.”
Chair, Keith Bronson: “So it’s a Kobayashi Maru… a test in which there is no win.”
Mr. Allan Twitchell asked about the rate. Ms. Burnell replied, “there are properties selling for less than our assessed values are. Do we need to have a re-appraisal? Our 2010 reappraisal got shifted; things went in another direction. Nancy is going to come in the day after Town Meeting… she indicated there are ways to go into your system and make projections. She is saying we are more on top of our transfers, sending out sales verifications, finding out from people whether or not it was arms length or some other kind of sale, like family, perhaps.”
Chair, Keith Bronson, “It is strange so few sales affect the whole town so radically.”
Ms. Burnell noted that Somerset had one sale (for a period) and went outside to another town to garner information. There’s no one else like Searsburg. In the area there are some with electricity and some without.”
Mr. Robin Kingsley, “You take a property value, until it goes to sale, you can set the value wherever you want… but once it sells, then it affects the books. So until it sells, it doesn’t matter, right?”
Ms. Burnell, “When we did the reappraisal in 2010, according to the sales study, we were at 100% by the time we finished. So you have informaiton coming in from sales, showing you something isn’t quite right with the way you are assessing properties.”
Mr. Robin Kingsley, “Do you think these numbers come up routinely, 3, 5, 7 (years)… whatever it is, so that we have to do a reappraisal?
Ms. Burnell, “I have heard comments about how it used to be. Now it is really micromanaged. There is so much need for data and the need to know where it is right now, mostly Towns get reappraised every three years. Rutland for instance, is on a 3 year rotation.”
Chair, Keith Bronson, “And it all affects real estate and what banks will provide for a loan.”
Ms. Burnell, “I check in with the District Advisor on occasion… she said let some of the high sales in 2010 fall off … when she comes in we’ll see where CLA lies…”
Chair, Keith Bronson, “So you will project COD…”
Ms. Burnell continued, “Looking at the sheet you can see an applied ratio column; I don’t think we need to ask the State to do a Statistical Reappraisal. The utilities appraisal was a portional reappraisal. Then the question comes: should we? And truth is, we might need to.’
Mr. Robin Kingsley, “Do you think due to the low sales there’s a problem?”
Chair, Keith Bronson, “In real estate it is difficult to come up with an assessed value for a customer when there are no sales to compare.”
Mr. Robin Kingsley, “If you do the projection you’re talking about…. is that something that will help before this time next year?”
Ms. Jen Burnell, “If we need to do something, we should know ahead of time. We might pick 50 houses, do another appraisal on those 50 houses. I’m hoping we can either lie low and ride it out or she’ll say pick out some… go out into the field and set new values.”
Chair, Keith Bronson, “It is not cut and dried, I guess.”
Ms. Jen Burnell, “When someone comes into appeal, the appraisal company works from today, while we work from April 1st.”
Additional discussion.
Ms. Jen Burnell, “We are going to have to re-appraise at some point… hopefully it will only be a statistical re-appraisal where we can pick a few or one category. So for this particular situation… you can go to the meeting in April… it will be better explained… you’ll have a better understanding.”
Mr. Karl Twitchell, “She can teach us how to project or forecast into the future?”
Ms. Jen Burnell, “She mentioned it to me last year; and says we can look at where you are trending now.”
Chair, Keith Bronson,“I think you could do this every 6 months… or so.”
Ms. Jen Burnell, “True. After the class I went to today, it shows me how strong our system here is. I could be up there full time creating this data.”
8:22 A motion was made by Mr. Karl Twitchell for Selectboard to accept the revised results, having Chair, Keith Bronson sign for the Selectboard; Mr. Allan Twitchell seconded. All in favor.
Ms. Burnell departed.
8:24 Miscellaneous discussion. A question put forward by Ms. Johanna Robohm relative to the location of the Town Meeting. Selectboard noted that the Municipal Center location provides much easier access for the Senior population, not only for Town Meeting but for the lunch following. It was also noted that the auditorium in the new school is smaller than the Municipal Center space and that there have been a variety of issues related to the new gymnasium floor. A reference to an earlier discussion and a point made by Selectboard Member Greg Brown, also referenced the $120,000 school use fee, the majority of which Selectboard are focused on seeing removed from the 2016-17 Budget. In referencing that conversation, it was also observed that there is a somewhat different relationship with the school than there has been in the past… “it is no longer ours in the way that it used to be.”
Additionally, all agreed, the Municipal Center facility, with its new kitchen, comfortable chairs, easy access for Seniors and handicapped, that doesn’t require a lot of moving of gear back and forth between the Municipal Center and the School, and offers ease of access to Municipal Offices when needed is far easier on many fronts, than what is entailed in holding the meeting at the school.
It was noted in looking at detail from past Town Meetings (1999 forward) the numbers indicate a steady decline in attendance, with the exception of 2002, a year in which there were significant financial concerns. There was general agreement to consider placing an opinion box out at Town Meeting relative to the location for 2016, asking voters to provide their preference of Town Meeting at the Municipal Center or the School.
8:40It was noted that there has been vandalism in the new auditorium at the School with the kids who were responsible, caught and suspended. Discussion.
8:45 Town Report discussion / finalization.
9:00Sewer related discussion.
9:06Re-review Rutland Letter on siting of Solar Arrays; identification of Renewable Energy Vermont. Chair, Keith Bronson, “I’d be interested to hear what the Rutland Selectboard’s response was to the Renewable Energy Vermont letter.”
9:10 Additional discussion.
9:23 A motion was made by Mr. Allan Twitchell for Selectboard to accept the final draft of the 160th Annual Town Report; Mr. Robin Kingsley seconded. All in favor.
9:26 Mr. Robin Kingsley made a motion to adjourn; Mr. Allan Twitchell seconded. All in favor as at
9:27Chair, Keith Bronson declared the meeting adjourned.
These minutes have not been approved.
Respectfully submitted,
Bonnie Jo Radasch, Administrator,
Town of Whitingham