Auditing Firm to Present Findings on Reval on Tuesday

Township Council members will be just guests at a meeting Tuesday when the firm they hired earlier this year to review the recent revaluation presents its findings.

Richard Carabelli of Lawrenceville-based  Martin Appraisal Associates will chair the meeting, which gets under way at 7 p.m.  in the Central Regional High School auditorium.

The meeting was advertised as a public meeting only because the township administration and council members will hear the audit results at the same time as the public, Councilman Carmen J. Amato Jr. said.

"No action will be taken," Amato said. "It's Mr. Carabelli's forum. He and his staff will present the report  and then allow a question-and-answer period."

The controversial revaluation lead to the creation of the Berkeley Township Taxpayers Coalition last year. Residents with waterfront homes on the mainland and in the South Seaside Park section of the township saw their property taxes skyrocket when the new assessments came out in 2010. The township's last revaluation was in 1990.

Coalition president Samuel J. Cammarato contends the revaluation was faulty and that terms of the contract with Certified Valuations Inc. were violated during the process.

Council members on Dec. 31 also unanimously agreed to hired Philadelphia-based Dilworth Paxon for $20,000 to review Certified Valuations's contract to determine if there have been any contract violations.

Cammarato asked Township Council members in January to send a four-page letter he had written about possible contract violations and 31 pages of  documentation to the out-of-state attorney to help in his review.

He then asked that the council send the letter and information to the state Attorney General's Office. Council members voted unanimously to forward the information to both the legal firm and the state Attorney General's Office.

Cammarato has said that the Certified Valuations contract may have been violated because township Tax Assessor Eric L. Zanetti's brother-in-law, Fred Milman, is an employee of the firm and had done work in Eagleswood Township.

He has also questioned why the revaluation contract terms were extended beyond the original contract and why resumes of some of the firm's employees were not available.

The Township Council approved a resolution at the Jan. 20, 2008, meeting giving Certified Valuations more time to complete the revaluation by extending it to 2009.  That meant the new assessments would not go on the books until 2010.

Township officials have said that the firm had a number of employees leave over the past few years and that new employees had to be brought on board, which resulted in the revaluation delay.