Archive for April, 2009
Open Letter From Dan Ward
April 30, 2009 7:34 am
Fellow Citizens –
Please forgive me for not getting back to each of you individually to your many letters, emails and telephone calls. I have been overwhelmed by their number and we don’t have the staff to follow up on each of them. (The Town Board shares 2 secretaries between the six of us.) I am still outraged at the so-called reassessment program being run by the Town of Amherst. The more I have learned, the angrier I have gotten.
Thank you for all your correspondence. It has helped to create a record of maladministration. Thank you for coming to my public meeting earlier this month. Shame on the Supervisor, the other Town Board members, and the Assessor for either refusing to come (Weinstein, Mohan, Schratz), or for just listening (Manna, Marlette, KLW) and not really allowing themselves to be questioned or even recognized. I don’t know which is worse: arrogance or cowardice!
KLW tried to get me to divulge the names of the protestors – I refused. KLW claims it wants to resolve the problem – I say they created it. KLW says it wants only a fair assessment. I say they had their chance; they screwed up big time, and are only interested in protecting their $700,000 contract.
I understand an effort is now underway – directed by the Town Board at an illegal executive session (closed door) on April 20, 2009 between the Town Board, State officials, and KLW – I left after recognizing the illegal nature of the meeting – to “fix” the program so as to avoid litigation against either the Town of Amherst, KLW or both. Of course individual litigation by each property owner against the Town of Amherst is a statutory right, and cannot be prevented. But it is clear the other members of the Town Board want to stop this “taxpayers” movement before it gets any larger, or before it decides to serve the Town of Amherst in a class action, or even just by a joinder of many individual claims, or just an Article 78. Whether other actions or proceedings might lie, I do not know.
Clearly KLW wants to protect its contract and reputation. While it cannot be prevented, a taxpayers’ action against it might lie as well.
So I am sure if you have spoken out or in any way been identified as one of the “ring leaders,” KLW is or probably has reached out to you in order to stifle the movement. I am told the citizens with fractured foundations – as a group have already been treated differentially. The entire KLW strategy is simple here – to single out the leadership, those with the loudest voices, and stifle them with individual deals. This really only compounds the original sin – as it only further marginalizes the old, the poor, the ill, the timid, the out-of-town, or anyone else whose reassessment went higher, but for whatever reason, could not, or cannot, use the current challenge procedure.
The more citizens who can be made happy – as they should have done the first time – the less chance the Town of Amherst or KLW has to worry about a ruckus, a continuing public relations nightmare, or litigation.
Obviously the program has been accurate, or even benefited some – the non complainers. But I cannot sign off on a program that is inherently unfair, and has been maladministered besides. We can’t just unfairly over assess (and hence overtax) such a large component of citizens – even if some of their neighbors are marginally benefited.
Does anyone really believe that even though your assessment has gone up, your actual taxes will go down? What do you think will happen to all reassessed Amherst homeowners viz. other municipalities in Erie County that have not reassessed? Won’t Amherst’s share of the county tax go up?
I cannot, in my position, litigate this issue for you. You may well wish to seek legal counsel, not only individually but also collectively. I would urge you to all come to the Amherst Town Board meeting on May 4, 2009, en masse. Only by demonstrating your unity of purpose and strength in numbers can you convince the Town Board to stop this reassessment. Remind them who pays their salary and who will remember this treachery at the next election. Tell them, as in 1776, you will not stand for “unfair taxation, without representation!”
If you get picked off, one at a time, you will collectively lose. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “we must all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately.” There is strength in numbers.
I will reintroduce my resolution to suspend the reassessment program at the May 4, 2009 meeting. Last time, several weeks go, it did not receive a second. You must come to the Town Board meeting and each of you speak on the issue. I don’t care if we are there all night – and you should not either. You also must personally contact all the other members of the Town Board. (I love the letters, etc. but you are preaching to the choir, as they say.)
I will also be introducing a resolution, in anticipation of a taxpayers’ action for waste and fraud, to withhold any more payments to KLW, or demand them back, for their breach of contact in failing to do their job well, as contracted for.
I hope you all finally receive a just and fair assessment. However I also hope you stay united in purpose to stop an unfair and wrongful method of taxation. I will continue this fight on your behalf, as long as you want to battle this corrupt system too.
Down the road, think of other alternatives: a third level of income taxation, or other types of taxes in lieu of the current, inherently unfair real property tax. Check what other states do. Some communities in New York State elect their Assessor – should we?
See you on May 4th! Picketing starts in front of Town Hall at 6:30 p.m. Let’s show them we mean business!
