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they wanted to drop out of the district and they went to the County for <br />assessing services. The West Hennepin District disbanded at that <br />time. The OronoCounciIdecidedthatOronowanted their own assessor. <br />We hired the assistant assessor of the West Hennepin District in late <br />summer. In the fall of that year he resigned as Orono assessor to <br />accept an assessor's job in another city. Being so late in the <br />assessing year the Council Noted to sign a contract with Hennepin <br />County. We signed a 4 year contract with the understanding that we <br />could break the contract after one year. During the first year the <br />County increased the lakeshore property. It was at this time I <br />discovered that we had nothing to say about who war, doing our assessing <br />and Orono had given up all control. At the conclusion of that year the <br />Council was truly unhappy with Hennepin County. We tried to break the <br />contract and were told that we could not break the contract. At the end <br />of the next year we passed a resolution stating that at the end of the <br />3rd year we wanted to advertise and have an assessor on staff to be ready <br />and work with the County with that last year so that at the end of our 4 <br />year contract we would be ready to go with our own assessor. That has <br />never happened. I would like to give you my view of the situation. <br />Picking your own assessor, whether it be an independent contract or by <br />hiring your own employee, is one of the very few powers a City has left. <br />Th6t is very important to me because we have such unusual property here <br />we want to rave continuity of an assessor. <br />Don Monk stated that Milt Hilk, Chief Appraiser, has been very <br />closely associated with the community and the appraiser that has <br />worked in Orono has not changed over the 4 year perio6. It is true that <br />Orono is very complex and it is important that those consistencies be <br />maintained and that we know a lot about your ccmmunity. It is for that <br />reason that we have not changed our staff. <br />Councilmember Grabek stated because we have our own assessor does <br />not mean that we can go below a certain level of taxation in our area. <br />If we do go below a certain level of taxation the county then has the <br />right to step in and reassess what has already been done. In other <br />words just because we have our own assessor does not mean that <br />everyone's taxes will go down or they won't go up as fast <br />Donk Monk stated Orono has a median assessment ratio of 94.5 and a <br />mean of 93.2 and the coefficient of dispersion, which is an <br />equalization measurement, of 8.3%. The lower the percentage the <br />tighter theclustering of your equalization within the City. When we <br />entered into the contract with Orono the coefficient of dispersion in <br />the City was 16%, we brought it down to 8% in the very first year. <br />Bill Sime stated to Don Monk, that he had sales ratios from the <br />investigative staff of John Burgers office and the State of Minnesota. <br />They are the 1983 Gales ratio studies, sales analysis for Minnesota tax <br />court, county wide ratios by property type, based on sales f rom January <br />1983 through September 1983. 1983 sales are compared to 1983 market <br />values. These differ a great deal from what you have just given us. <br />Don Mont stated that Mr. Sime's information was not correct since <br />►`e was mixing the years of statistical information. The statics I <br />pdge 2 <br />