FARMINGTON – In a bid to save upwards of $40,000 a year, selectmen cut the town’s full-time assessor position by unanimously voting to contract out for part-time services at their meeting Tuesday night.
Selectmen and a committee have been researching the most cost-effective option for providing the town’s assessing services since the town’s current assessor Mark Caldwell announced he is retiring at the end of the year.
The town’s assessing department budget totals $126,604 this year, employing a full-time assessor and a part-time administrative assistant. The department handles property tax assessing services such as yearly appraisals, data entry, document filings, market analysis, consults with property owners and an annual report.
Last week, a committee of some selectmen and a few residents interviewed three of four assessing firms that had responded to the town’s request for proposals to do the job. A fourth assessor was eliminated from consideration for lack of experience.
The proposals came back totaling between $45,000 to $63,000 for between 120 days and 150 days a year of assessing service time. It was generally agreed that the town would be losing about 1,000 hours a year from what its current assessing services department provides.
While a few other towns larger than Farmington with a population of 7,760, such as Skowhegan at 8,589 residents, contract out for assessing needs, “most communities larger that Farmington aren’t doing this,” said Dennis O’Neil, a committee member. “What do we lose? Accessibility,” he said, noting the firms interviewed were “all confident they can do the same job with 50 percent less time in the office.” O’Neil said he was against contracting out for services. “I don’t think this is the best way to go. Less hours than we’ve got now.”
Caldwell, said he, too, was in favor of keeping an in-house assessor and noted none of the firms’ proposals took into account revaluation costs that can run as high as $250,000. The town’s most recent revaluation totaled $30,000 because Caldwell, who has been the town’s assessor for 23 years, made adjustments on a continuous basis to keep property valuations updated as the market dictated. A part-time firm may not be able to keep up with updating valuations as the market trends, he said.
While committee members were split on which way to go after interviewing prospective assessing firms, selectmen were united in their decision to contract out.
“They all seemed very confident they could do the job,” Selectman Joshua Bell said. “This is what these firms do.”
Selectman Michael Fogg agreed. Required to follow all the state’s requirements, “I have to trust in them.” He added, “we’re looking at a savings of $40,000; that’s real money. I’m willing to give it a shot.”
Selectmen all voted to contract with a firm in order to save money.
This may be good for “today” but watch in 3-4 years how we will eventually pay for the lack of an “in house” assessor. Time will prove this to be a not so idea. How many of these selectmen will be on board in the 3-4 years down the road? Not a good decision.
It’s the RIGHT Decision, IF the rest of the staff in the town office do their jobs by providing building permits and change permits to the assessor’s office. And thank you for posting my other comment….