===PAGE 1=== TOWN OF LUNENBURG BOARD OF ASSESSORS April 4, 2023 TOWN HALL, 17 Main Street and via Zoom Board of Assessors present: Kevin Fish, Christine Higdon, Richard Letarte (via ZOOM) Select Board Present: Michael-Ray Jeffreys, Chairman; Tom Alonzo, Vice Chairman; Lou Franco, Clerk; Heather Sroka Also Present: Heather Lemieux, Town Manager; Carol Archambault, Corrine Scouten, Donna Fortune, Sue Andrews, William Lakso, Jennifer Sanderson, Jacqueline Chabot, Christopher Sullivan Meeting was opened at 7:12 Mr . Jeffreys asked everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. He announced in accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that thi s meeting is being recorded and broadcast live over the Lunenburg public access channel and Facebook Live and it will be uploaded to the Lunenburg public access YouTube channel within 24 hours after the meeting. The agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at this meeting and are those reason ab ly anticipated by the Chair . Votes may be taken as a r es ult of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the Open Meeting L a w . PUBLIC C O M M E N T : Phyllis Luck, 50 Sunset Lane, inquired about the tax assessment in ves tigation, asking if Town Counsel had communicated with the Dept. of Revenue (DOR) regarding the mailin g dates of the tax bills as well as how the 135% assessment of the lake front properties was determined. Chip Gershew, Laurel Lane, reported he filed for an abatement , had an inspection but when he asked the BOA office what came next and if he could sit on his abatement r ev iew, he was informed he could not. He felt he h a d reasons for relief and wanted to expres s them. Mr. Jeffrey s stated those qu es tion s really s hould be addressed by the Board of Asses sors (BOA). Ms. Lemieux reported the company doing the abatement inspections has gone throu g h around 207 to date . They will be presenting their recommendations to the BOA possibly around April 23 rd . The conversation between Town Counsel and DOR resulted in finding there is a two part decision ; the date of the mailing, because the person responsible for the collection of tax es determines the date of mailing which determines when those tax bill s are due. The Treasurer/ collector has determined bas ed on the information provided there is enough doubt about the contradictory evidence between the postal service dates and the affidavit of ma iling from our billing company that she will be relying on the January 6 th date as the date of mailing. What that means in essence is that the third and fourth quarter bills will be due May 1 , 2023 an d no interest is due on third quarter taxes b etween th e period of February 1st and May 1 s t. Mr. Alonzo stated state law is silent on how abatement hearings are handled, so they are completely within the purview of the BOA about how they handle them and your desire to ===PAGE 2=== be in attendance is really up to their policy. But there's also no prohibition from the state that you can or can't be there for an abatement hearing. WORKSHOP: TAX ASSESSMENT INVESTIGATION R E V IE W Mr. Letarte called the Board of Assessors meeting to order. He reported 207 abatement applications have been reviewed . Discussion ensued about letters being sent to property owners by the BOA regarding extensions of their abatements and the time it would take for the BOA to review those abatement applications. Question was asked about public access to the BOA meetings. Mr. Letarte stated they would have to be limited to 20-30 minutes before the meeting due to the volume of applications . Our hands are tied currently because we are awaiting for site visit reports from the inspectors. Ms. Lemieux reported when she spoke with the owner of Municipal Finance Services today they said they've gone through 207 inspections so thus far; they're expected to do another 60 this Friday and Saturday. He's working on tables for recommendations and they're also working with Vision to create a dummy valuation table for those recommendations and those inspections. I think the expectation is the ones that have been done by April 23 rd . I want to make sure to clarify that versus the 400 applications; they haven't done 400 inspections so I wouldn't anticipate that they would have that done by April 23 rd . That's why extension letters are being sent out. So I think you're right they're halfway there. Question was asked in what order the inspections are being done. Ms. Lemieux stated they are going out in both order of receipt and mutual neighborhood areas. Mr. Alonzo asked for clarification on the question regarding property owners being able to attend the abatement hearings. Mr. Letarte stated it could be under a 30 minute public comment period at the beginning of their meeting. Mr. Alonzo stated he believed these owners wanted to attend the executive session portion that addresses their abatement application versus making a public comment. Mr. Letarte stated we had entertained doing that, but did not think it was possible due to time constraints. The BOA discussed the possibility of allowing property owners into executive session individually and noted even two or three minutes per owner, which is unrealistic, would amount to an additional 15 hours, thus extending time out needed to review all 400 applications. Their plan was to review 60-100 applications per week. Town Manager Lemieux advised whatever they decided to be consistent through the entire process. The Select Board concurred with her statement. Several scenarios were discussed on the abatement process according to the now assumed mailing date of the tax bills. The board moved on to the general framework of the investigation. Mr. Jeffreys read excerpts from a document detailing the investigation. Adjourn