SUN CITY – Last Wednesday, the Civics Committee held the Forum for Sun City Assessors in the Drendel Ballroom to discuss and explain property assessment to Sun City residents and community members.
Presentations were made by Grafton Township Assessor Bill Ottley and Hampshire Township Assessor Rose Letheby. Rutland Township Assessor Janet Siers was unable to attend.
The meeting had an educational angle, meant to inform residents about how property assessment works.
“It’s a very hard system to understand,” Letheby said. “I feel so sorry for some of these people because they don’t understand the rates or they don’t understand the multipliers.”
Not all attendees were looking to learn from the meeting, however. Some, like Arthur Ruffino, Chairperson of the Sun City Property Assessment Council, were interested in hearing what residents had to say.
“As a resident member here in Sun City, I was just looking to see how the assessors from each township responded to questions asked by the other resident members who may not have been as informed about assessments,” he said.
Ruffino added that he attended the meeting to get an idea of how to tailor SunCPAC’s services to the community’s needs.
Ottley presented a slideshow that explained mass appraisal, the process of assessment, data collection, and more. Letheby also gave an outline of her method to the audience and added that she wanted residents to be aware of things like exemptions given for age and income.
“The taxpayers should use these exemptions because that’s what they’re there for,” she said.
After their presentations, the assessors participated in a question-and-answer session with the audience. While the intent was to allow residents to learn, some questions were not permitted.
“We very specifically excluded questions related to taxes because the assessors do not determine taxes; they only determine assessments,” Hermann Faubl, Chairperson of the Civics Committee, N. 18, said.
Sun City is unique because it sits on three townships: Rutland, Grafton, and Hampshire. This creates challenges for property assessment. Faubl said this was a big part of the discussion.
“People ask questions related to the differentials between the three townships for the same kind of model homes in Sun City,” Faubl said. “Because, after all, a Buckingham in Rutland should be assessed the same as an Adler model in Grafton, assuming they were a similar kind of lot and comparable amenities.”
Ottley said that meetings such as this are an important way for assessors to stay transparent with residents and to open dialogue.
“Taxes always seem to be a big issue; it’s true no matter where you’re at,” he said. “And trying to understand where [taxes] come from, you want to be as fair as possible in what you do, so it’s important that assessors do spend time trying to be as fair as possible.”
