04-26-1995 Council Minutes Board of Review

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i* iVIINUTES OF THE BOARD OF REVIEW MEETING HELD APRIL 26, 1995 ROLL The Orono Board of Review met on the above date with the following members present: Mayor Edward J. Callahan, Jr., Councilmembers J. Diann Goetten, Gabriel Jabbour, Charles Kelley and JoEllen Hurr. The following represented City staff: City Administrator Ron Moorse, City Assessors Rolf Erickson, Dave Wilde, Gail Navratil, Lisa Mott, Tom Haller, Tom Carrol, Hennepin County Senior Appraiser Tom Scherer and Recorder Lin Vee. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Callahan at 7:06 p.m. Mayor Callahan explained that the Board would be reviewing tax values as of January, 1995 for the 1996 taxes. Rolf Erickson is retained by contract with the City to do Orono's assessing. Mayor Callahan stated the powers of the Board are limited, noting the reductions in assessments when added together cannot exceed I% of the total valuation for the City. Hennepin County approves the recommendations of Orono's Board of Review and appeals are made to the County Board if a property owner is not satisfied with Orono's recommendation. The City Assessor will review appeals by property owners and forward recommendations to Orono's Board of Review. The City is divided into four quadrants with one quadrant being physically appraised each year. Erickson explained that the law does not require valuation notices to include a message to contact is an assessor before the Board of Review. Hennepin County has had an overwhelming number of appeals and found it helpful to have some of these appeals and questions addressed by the assessor prior to the Board of Review. He also apologized for the late delivery of the notices due to problems at the post office. Erickson continued with an explanation of the valuation process. The City has much data gathered on each house in the City maintained in the Hennepin County mainframe computer. Assessments are compared to homes that have actually sold and an assessment ratio is applied. The median assessment ratio of all sales in the City must be at 93% for Hennepin County. Increases ranged from 2 -25 %. Mayor Callahan noted that in order to appeal the property valuation it is necessary to appear before the Board or submit a written appeal to preserve the right to appeal to the County Board. He stated that those property owners who were present and did not want to actually appear before the Board but have the assessor review their property could leave their name and property identification number with the assessors and they would be contacted to set up appointments. Erickson asked for Board approval to physically review only those properties that had not already been seen this year. Mayor Callahan asked that those owners be contacted and the position of the assessor be explained. Erickson noted that prior to the Reconvened Board of Review a recommendation letter is sent to each property owner who has appealed stating what the assessor's recommendation will be. The Board may or may not accept those recommendations. is 1