Town of Minetto

IN MINETTO, ASSESSMENTS AGAIN COME UNDER FIRE:

Twenty-eight residents crowded the Minetto Town Board meeting this week to complain about their home assessments hoping to find out what steps they could take to alleviate their woes.

Minetto resident Ron Benenek complained about the “massive inconsistencies” between assessments and the fact that the board was telling residents to wait before taking action.

“What are we supposed to wait for?” he asked the board.

Town of Minetto Attorney Doren Norfleet responded by saying there were two choices. One choice was to wait until September and ask for a public vote to change the voted assessors position to a board-appointed position. This would give the town board greater control over how future assessments are handled by being able to evaluate the performance of the assessor and possibly terminate them if needed. Currently, the elected assessor cannot be terminated.

The second choice was to wait for the New York State Legislature to vote on a new bill that may give town boards more control over assessors.

“I am not sure what is in this bill specifically, but if it passes in the next 30 days, I will certainly look into and report back to what this would mean for the town of Minetto,” Norfleet said. “There may be an opportunity for the town board to step in and appoint an assessor.”

One thing that was clear was that little could be done to change this year's assessments that have garnered complaints from many residents.

“Residents voted for the structure we have now and the assessments have been completed within that structure,” Norfleet said. “The town board can take no action. There is nothing that can be done about this assessment unless an individual resident wants to a file a small claims case.”

Bravo, Mr. Norfleet.