Brockport board to change assessment process

Brockport board to change assessment process

As a way to eliminate duplication of a service, Village of Brockport officials decided to use the Town of Sweden's tax assessment roles rather than its own.

"If we use the town's assessor it will free up our code enforcement officer's time," Trustee Mary Jo Nayman said at the May 1 board meeting. "We still save about $1,000 to $2,000 a year and can free up our personnel and use them more efficiently."

Village Manager Ian Coyle said the village has utilized the town's tax assessment roll and accepts it with exceptions. "The exceptions have amounted to about $900 in tax value," he said. "We have used their rolls, and 99.9 percent of the time we use exactly what they give us so we will just be relinquishing our responsibility for grievances and paper work."

No exact figures have been calculated for a dollar savings, but Coyle said it will be more of a time savings with staff responsibilities.

Trustee Carrie Maziarz was concerned that by removing the responsibility from Brockport, the residents are now beholden to one agency. "By offering this service to our residents we offered them an additional avenue to grieve and for representation."

The town's assessor is certified, while the village's is not, Trustee Maria Castaneda pointed out. "Of the cases grieved in the village, two thirds of them were successful," Castaneda said.

The village's code enforcement officer was not required to be certified, Maziarz pointed out.

The motion was accepted by a three to two vote: Mayor Mort Wexler, Nayman and Castaneda voted in favor of the change, Maziarz and Trustee David Wagenhauser voted against.