The Representative Town Meeting, after more than an hour of debate, Tuesday night approved spending $673,500 to hire a firm to conduct a full physical revaluation of all of Westport’s real property.
The 32-1 vote (Margaret McHenry opposed) endorsed a bid by Vision Appraisal Technology of Northboro, Mass., the largest New England-based supplier of revaluation services, over a lesser bid of $554,500 by Cole Layer Trumble of Dayton, Ohio, the nation’s oldest and largest mass appraisal firm.
William Gaffney, the town’s assessor who began work June 21 after being hired from Milford, said even though the Vision bid was higher, he favored it because of the combination of its software and services it offered.
Cole Layer Trumble is currently working for the town to clear up a backlog of almost 1,700 building permits, some dating back to 1998, which had not been added to the town’s Grand List by the assessor’s office. (See WestportNow, July 21, 2004)
During the debate, a number of members asked if there was a way during the physical inspections to identify which property owners had made improvements to their homes but had failed to apply for building permits, thus avoiding increased taxes.
Gaffney, who repeated his earlier assurances that he would be personally responsible for the accuracy of the reval, said comparisons could be made by inspectors between old field cards and the current property configurations.
But he said accurately identifying all properties which had completed work without taking out permits was essentially an impossible task.
“I am not the Gestapo,” Gafffney said. “I cannot go to a home and kick down the door. There’s not a whole lot I can do about it.”
The RTM acted after it approved on June 1 postponing the Oct. 1, 2003, revaluation to Oct. 1, 2005, if possible, but no later than Oct. 1, 2006.
(Editor’s Note: The editor of WestportNow is also Moderator of the RTM)
