Village in uproar over property values

By Dave Fidlin

Correspondent

Waterford Village President Tom Roanhouse referred to it as one of the most challenging weeks during his time in elected office.

The week after tax bills were mailed to residents in December, Roanhouse said he received a steady stream of calls from residents. The calls continued for the next several weeks as property owners began paying their bills.

“They weren’t wishing me ‘Merry Christmas,’ let me tell you that,” Roanhouse said Jan. 11 as he and other members of the Village Board had a long-anticipated meeting with a representative of Associated Appraisal, the Appleton-based company that handled the villagewide re-evaluation last year.

After more than an hour of discussion – some of it heated – village leaders and Dean Peters, Associated Appraisal’s director of project development, agreed more work is needed on the re-evaluation process.

While the impact on the re-evaluation varied from one property to the next, Roanhouse said he has heard “horror stories” from some residents who were walloped with sizable tax increases that resulted from the re-evaluation.

In terms of Associated’s work, the board has consistently maintained it is disappointed in the incomplete nature of the company’s inspection efforts.

Peters said Associated performed exterior inspections of all village properties. However, the rub in the discussion has been the low number of properties that had interior inspections; it stood at 44 percent when the process was completed in late October.

Speaking on behalf of the entire board, Roanhouse read a position statement from the elected body that expressed dismay in the outcomes from the process.

“The Village Board is not satisfied with the re-evaluation … (and) the board believes we did not receive the re-evaluation services in the allowable timeframe.”

There are a number of variables with interior inspections, and 100 percent compliance is considered next to impossible since access needs to be granted, but Roanhouse and other board members said they fielded calls from residents who asked for interior inspections but did not receive them.

For his part, Peters said Associated performed a significant amount of work on behalf of the village throughout 2015. Efforts included digitizing and updating old property records and streamlining data pertaining to property improvements.

Additionally, Peters said the company developed a model that took current market conditions into consideration. The model, he said, is designed to remedy inequities that previously existed between older and newer housing stock, as well as condominiums versus single-family homes.

Another rub in relations between Associated staff and village officials is the length of the project. It was to have wrapped Sept. 30, but extended about a month later than initially projected. In some instances, village officials felt the work was rushed.

“We recognize that we did go later,” Peters said. “But what I want to stress is that the objectives of the re-evaluation were met.”

Throughout the discussion, Peters said 100 percent of the properties were inspected, though his comments were cloaked around exterior analyses. Peters’ assertion raised some sharp criticism.

“You did not do 100 percent of the properties to the specifications we’ve set,” Trustee Jerry Filut said. “I take exception to that.”

Based on a tentative timeline, Peters said he agrees Associated will make overtures to inspect the interiors of the 44 percent who did not have the work conducted. Additionally, the 56 percent who experienced interior inspections will have the opportunity to have the work done over, if requested.

Associated’s work in 2016 will be completed at its expense.

Plans call for a Board of Review meeting to be held by late June for residents who dispute details concerning the re-evaluation.