NEW SCOTLAND — Grievance Day at Town Hall ran very smoothly in New Scotland on Tuesday, while other nearby communities faced with town-wide re-assessment, like New Scotland, had people lining up for hours throughout the day.
The New Scotland assessor had suggested and organized meeting beforehand, "which especially helped," said Roselyn Robinson, a member of the board of assessment review. Appointments had been scheduled, and, over the last week-and-a-half, in three-full-day and two-half-day sessions, the board of assessment review heard about 190 cases ahead of time, Assessor Julie Nooney said.

The board serves as a safety-valve for residents who don’t think the assessor’s appraisal of their property is fair. The board reviews the evidence and can change the assessment. Board members receive a three hour training course from the state when they are first appointed to their post by the town board, and have to attend training again, each time their term is renewed.

A visit to Town Hall in mid-afternoon on the state-set Grievance Day, May 23, found the parking lot bare and nobody waiting for a hearing. Nooney was standing outside, grabbing some sun and a breath of fresh air with the board of assessment review chairman, Paul Nichols.

The days have begun to run together, Nooney said.

Other board of assessment review members were lingering around the meeting hall, and a few had gone home, leaving a quorum behind in case a resident straggled in, otherwise the board remained on an extended break. The afternoon saw only a very slow trickle of property owners with grievances. Over the course of an hour, only one person came in with a grievance request.

The biggest rush was in the morning. The doors opened at 8:30 a.m. and by10:30 a.m. about 40 cases had been heard, and the number of people waiting had dwindled significantly, Nichols said.
"A lot of credit goes to the people themselves," Nichols said. They came very well prepared for their hearings, so things moved quickly. People are more informed than they have ever been, Nichols said; they used their computers, found their own comparables on-line, and prepared Excel speared sheets.

Ten years ago, during the last town-wide reassessment, people were much less prepared, Nichols said; they often came in with just a few handwritten notes.

The Enterprise made a return visit to Town Hall after 6 p.m. for the anticipated after-work rush, but that yielded only eight residents with grievances through 8:30 p. m. The full board was in attendance for the evening session.
"There has been less than I expected," Nichols said.

By the end of the night, about 73 residents had came to Town Hall on Grievance Day. Adding that to the number of people who appeared at earlier hearings, a total of about 264 grievance applications were submitted.

People used to rely more on professional appraisers to make their case before the board, Nichols said; he is a 10 year veteran of the board. Nowadays, people know more about the process, and have the technical capabilities to do their own work, he said.

Board members

Nichols is a retired real-estate broker, which is a common field for members of the New Scotland Board of Assessment Review. The board’s newest member as of this year, Janna Shillinglaw, is a Realtor in Voorheesville. Roselyn Robinson is a real-estate attorney.
Shillinglaw, who has five years’ experience as a Realtor, said her profession helps her to attest to the "curb appeal" of a home, the subjective things that affect the value of a house, she said. Also she has a good sense of the market, as well, she said.

John McKenzie, of Cass Hill Road, just outside of Clarksville, has been on the board of review for 30 years, except for a three-year gap when he took a break. He is a lawyer, retired from working for the state. He started on the board in the 1970’s, he said, because as a resident, he was confused by the formulas. He wanted to be on the board because the whole system of waiting so many years between re-valuations was flawed, something that he agrees is still a problem today. Over time, he has come to learn that there is often not a black or white computation, and that there are a considerable number of factors, he said.
"This town has done exceptionally well communicating to people this is a human process," which comes with some flaw, and the residents have been well informed of their ample opportunities to correct those flaws, he said.

Nooney’s attempts to reach out to the public in preliminary hearings has given the board of assessment review a more meaningful position in the process now, McKenzie said.
With 30 years of experience, McKenzie said, he can tell by the numbers — such as total acres or amount of living space, or the number of bed rooms or baths — the value of a property. He has a better sense of what the numbers means, than someone with less experience, he said. After time, he said, "You can appreciate, too,"when someone presents a good case."

When someone comes in with a commercial appraisal, that is the best evidence, he can have to support his case, McKenzie said. The second best piece of evidence is an actual sale price of the home from within the last year or two, he said.
A more difficult scenario to judge is when someone comes in with what he believes to be comparables. "This is really a matter of an art rather than science," he said.
"People select so-called comparables that are favorable to them," he said and it’s his job as a board member to determine whether or not they really are comparables.
"Determining comparables is really one of the more complicated challenges we have had," McKenzie said.
"I’m often impressed with young people and their knowledge," he went on; they are more informed about the real-estate market than he ever was at that age.
Robinson said she reminds herself as she reviews each case that the law says, "The burden of proof is on the citizen." The assessment board of review has to believe that the assessor’s value is accurate until convinced otherwise.

People can have a very sympathetic case, Robinson said, such as they are suffering from an illness or can’t afford to pay more in taxes, but those kinds of things have to be disregarded when deciding on a person's property value, which at times can be hard to do.
Robinson and Andrew Barothy-Langer are both long-time New Scotland Republican Committee members. "We’re the only Republicans on the board," Barothy-Langer said. Robinson has been on the board for about eight years and Barothy-Langer for 15 years. This is his last, he said; he is 88 years old with a sharp mind.

Tuesday, he had brought with him to the board table a picture of his son in an Air Force uniform, and books illustrating the elite hotel, his other son manages. Barothy-Langer is celebrating is 50th anniversary of being an American citizen this year. He came to the United States 56 year ago after serving in the Soviet army doing World War II, he said. He now wears a small American flag pin on the lapel of his suit coat.

A native of Hungary, Barothy-Langer is retired from New York State’s Department of Transportation, where for years he did mapping.

Barothy-Langer and McKenzie reminisced together how the atmosphere in assessment board of review hearings has changed over time. There are more women on the board now, McKenzie said, and more women representing themselves in hearings as well, he said. Virtually half of the residents with grievances are women, which is a lot different from how it used to be, McKenzie said; in the ‘70’s it was rare for a case to be presented by a woman.

And often now, when a husband and wife come in together, it is the wife who speaks for the couple, Barothy-Langer said.

Property values have drastically changed over the years, too. Anything over $100,000 was a mansion when he first started on the board, McKenzie said. Now, he said, he can see why people are complaining about their numbers; there are so many houses that are valued at $300,000 and $400,000. There were definitely no million-dollar homes in New Scotland in the ‘70’s as there are now, he said.

A few hearings

Three hearings give a sampling of what residents were complaining about and using to prove their cases.

A man who owns a two-family home brought in sale prices of 18 other two- family homes as comparables to bring his assessment down to $201,033. The average value of the 18 similar houses, he said, was $226,033. But then, he was also subtracting $25,000 because of water issues; he has a very low yielding well, he said.

A single woman who lives on New Scotland Road discussed with the board how her building is in disrepair. The outside has never been painted, and the wood is starting to rot; no gutters were ever put on, so the water falls right off the roof and creates problem, and she needs to put a drainage system in her land to divert large puddles; and the dirt and gravel driveway needs $5,000 worth of repairs. Also, she pointed out, while she does have public water, her water pressure is very low.

A couple who live on Clipp Road, began their hearing by first pointing out that their inventory sheet listed incorrectly the number of baths they had — they have one-and-a-half baths, not two, they said. They had a hard time finding comparables for their residence since it’s a log cabin, so they compared it to a more luxurious log house and talked about why theirs was worth less. After they left the meeting hall, board member Robinson asked Nooney to pull up on the computer other log cabins in New Scotland, for the board to compare.
"We have quite a few log cabins in town, but they are set back from the road," Nooney said so people are not familiar with them. Nooney showed Robinson the pictures and inventory sheets.

Residents who submitted a grievance application will receive a letter in the mail from the board of assessment review with their determination by July 1, Nichols said.