Reval Discussion Turns Stormy at Township Council Meeting

When it comes to Township Tax Assessor Eric L. Zanetti, the key word is "ask."

Township officials have asked Zanetti to take a second look at property assessments in certain neighborhoods and to develop a maintenance plan to update assessments on a regular basis.

But  municipal officials have no direct authority over the tax assessor, who answers to the Ocean County Board of Taxation, not to them.

"Unfortunately, our tax assessor, he's in his own fiefdom," said Samuel Cammarato, president of the Berkeley Township Taxpayers Coalition.  "It seems that no one can direct Mr. Zanetti to do anything."

That was one of Cammarato's milder statements at the May 10 Township Council meeting.

Cammarato blasted Mayor Jason J. Varano for a statement he issued shortly after Lawrenceville-based Martin Appraisal Associates released its review of the controversial revaluation last month. The Township Council hired the firm for $20,000 back in late 2010.

"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," Varano said in his statement. "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."

"You seem to be so interested that this revaluation be done fairly," Cammarato said at the council meeting. "If I had received a $1,200 decrease  in my property taxes the way you did, I would probably say the same thing."

Certified Valuations Inc. performed the recent revaluation according to industry standards, but the firm hired by the Township Council to review the company's work found some areas of concern, Richard Carabelli, president of Martin Appraisals, said in the report.

Before the revaluation, properties in Berkeley were assessed at between 40 percent to 50 percent of true market value. After the revaluation, most were close to 100 percent of true market value, Carabelli said.

But he also said in the report that some sections of the township deserved a second look, particularly areas in South Seaside Park and the Landings condominiums, which may have been overassessed. Carabelli also noted a lack of uniformity in sales in the Holiday City Sarasota and Yellowstone models and the possibility that certain models in the Holiday City and Silver Ridge communities could have been underassessed.

"This is not just a small amount of waterfront owners," Cammarato said.

Varano said the revaluation was "on par."

"It is good," he said.

Zanetti will review the report and formulate a compliance plan, Varano said.

Varano said he told residents who were upset with their assessments from the beginning to file an appeal, since elected officials  have no authority over the tax assessor's office or property assessment.

Varano said he pays $7,000 in property taxes on his inland home.

"I can tell you right now I am overassessed," he told Cammarato.

The mayor said that Cammarato's newly renovated home overlooks Barnegat Bay and has 175 feet of bay frontage.

"Before the revaluation, you were paying less than me," Varano said. "I overlook a junkyard. You overlook the bay."

Varano said he had been approached by several people who were upset that with the BTTC's advice that property owners who planned to appeal their assessments should consider hiring an appraiser and lawyer to handle the matter before the Ocean County Board of Taxation.

It would cost residents with homes valued at $500,000 and under $25 to file a tax appeal on their own, the mayor said.

"You told people you had to hire an appraiser...and that's not true," Varano told Cammarato.

"What you are saying is not true," Cammarato said angrily.

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.

The full report can be viewed on the township's website at www.berkeley.nj.us.