Mayor Faults Council for Spending Money on Revaluation Reviews

It may be a hot time in the old town Tuesday night.

You can bet the cost of the revaluation reviews will come up at the April 26 Township Council meeting. Democratic Mayor Jason J. Varano recently criticized Township Council members for agreeing to hire both an outside auditing firm and a special attorney to review the results of the controversial revaluation.

And you can bet your bippy that Sam Cammarato - the vocal head of the Berkeley Township Taxpayers Coalition - will have a few words to say. Make that more than a few words, since Cammarato usually hits the microphone at council meetings at least twice.

Varano quietly issued a statement several days after Richard J. Carabelli, Jr., president of Lawrenceville-based Martin Appraisal Associates, said his firm had concluded that .

"I find it extremely disappointing that the Berkeley Township Council has spent taxpayer monies to hire a special attorney to investigate the revaluation process and the tax assessor's office as well as hire Martin Appraisals to tell us that the revaluation was done properly," said Varano, who is .

Then came the paragraph that won't sit too well with anyone who has a South Seaside Park zip code or lives in the Bayville waterfront communities:

"These expenditures of taxpayer money were done solely to appease a small percentage of waterfront property owners whose assessments had not gone up in some cases for 19 years," the mayor said. "When the assessment doesn’t change for that long a period of time in a waterfront community, the new assessments will have a dramatic impact on property owners’ tax bill."

Republican Township  Council Vice-President Carmen J. Amato, , said the township spent nearly $1.5 million on the revaluation.

"They should have done an excellent job, not an adequate job within industry standards," Amato fired back. "Hundreds if not thousands of residents were severely impacted by higher property taxes as a result of this revaluation. Many will end up losing their homes because they just can't afford to pay the increase in property taxes. It was our obligation, our responsibility to all taxpayers, to audit the results of the revaluation to make certain it was done and done fairly."

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.

Property owners in the township's oceanfront and waterfront communities saw their tax bills soar last year,  the township's first revaluation since 1991.

Carabelli's 32-page report found that Certified Valuations Inc. had performed the revaluation according to "generally accepted" industry standards. The firm examined data from the township tax assessor's office and sales data for 300 properties in the township chosen at random. The survey found an accuracy rate of 84 percent. But Certified field inspectors were unable to gain access to some of the properties and had to estimate assessments. When that was taken into account, the revaluation accuracy rate rose to 87 percent, he said.

"However, there are some neighborhoods that we feel are outside the parameters stated in our report and require a closer review by the tax assessor for possible adjustments," the report states.

Those neighborhoods include the South Seaside Park oceanfront south of 20th Avenue,  South Seaside Park north of 20th Avenue and the Landings condominium development, which may be overassessed, Carabelli said.

The report found a "lack of uniformity" in current sales for the Holiday City Sarasota and Yellowstone models.

Carabelli also singled out the Holiday City Carefree, Holiday Heights Madison, Silver Ridge Park Glenridge, Silver Ridge Park Yorkshire and Silver Ridge Park West Yorkshire models.

"The sales study of the balance of the remaining neighborhoods indicates these properties could be underassessed," the report states.

Varano said taxpayers' anger over their new assessments is  "understandable."

"This is not a result of any bad intent or negligence on the part of township officials," the mayor said. "It is the unfortunate result of the passage of time between township-wide revaluations occurring at the same time as a dramatic upswing in the real estate market."

Amato said the revaluation reviews were money well spent.

"Because of this audit, our tax assessor now has the research to ask the Ocean County Board of Taxation for approval to complete a maintenance assessment to lower the high assessed areas in his report," Amato said. "And lastly, as stated by Mr. Carabelli, the township should have undergone yearly reassessments. If this had been done the waterfront community would have seen their assessments rise gradually over the years. This would have allowed them to prepare better. Also the areas of town which have been overpaying for years would have seen their taxes reduced."

So why did the township go without any sort of revaluation for nearly two decades? Municipal officials in general hate the word "revaluation." It comes with unwanted expenses and some angry taxpayers.

Varano noted in his statement that state law has changed several times regarding maintenance assessments.

"At one time, periodic maintenance assessments by tax assessors were permitted," the mayor said. "Then during the period of 2001 to 2009, such maintenance assessments were prohibited. Now, once again, the law has been amended permitting maintenance assessments. In addition, New Jersey’s system of having a tax assessor in each municipality whose supervisors are the county Board of Taxation and State Director of Taxation as opposed to the local elected officials needs to be changed because of the uniqueness of each municipality. It makes no sense to have a tax assessor who is appointed and paid by the township, not subject to any supervision by the local mayor and council."

Carabelli recommended that township Tax Assessor Eric L. Zanetti develop a "compliance plan" which would update assessments in the future.

"Currently it is good business practice to review assessments annually, especially following a revaluation," Carabelli said in his report. "We do not believe there will be a large number of changes, and any reduction should not be significant."

The full report can be viewed on the township's website at www.twp.berkeley.nj.us. For more information on the Berkeley Township Taxpayers Coalition, go to www.bttcnj.org.