A long-simmering anger in Haines over property tax assessments has reached the boiling point. Taxpayers circulated a petition asking that the borough cancel the assessor’s contract. The petition gathered close to 600 signatures, and the borough assembly took note.
At the last assembly meeting, Haines Mayor Tom Morphet offered an apology to local taxpayers.
Morphet: “I’d like to make a formal apology to the public for the property tax situation. The borough has struggled with the assessment process for years, perhaps decades. We fell behind in getting values done, and this year we had an overwhelming number of appeals. There is no question that we are in a state of need. We appreciate the work that has been done and continues to be done by a group of residents who have brought forth issues, with and failings of our process.”
The Haines Borough assembly voted unanimously to not renew the contract of Michael Dahle when it expires at the end of the year. Dahle was hired about a year ago by the borough as a contract assessor. He was tasked with updating assessments of the town’s roughly three thousand properties.
At a February presentation to the borough assembly, Dahle showed a map of the borough colored in various shades of green. The darker shade indicated properties that hadn’t been reassessed in over 15 years. Meanwhile, some properties were reassessed last year, and also the year prior. Dahle said this has led to disparities, with some property owners shouldering more than their fair share of the tax burden, and some less. He proposed to use a system called Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal to correct the situation.
At the time, Dahle predicted many property owners would have questions about the new assessed values.
Some of those questions turned into over 200 appeals to the Board of Equalization, a borough entity composed of sitting assembly members, charged with hearing the appeals and ruling on them.
Taxpayers found issues with the increased values, with the lack of transparency in the process, and with the lack of proper notice of when their appeal would be heard by the Board of Equalization. They also claimed the board was pressured to side with the assessor.
They said the mass appraisal system is ill-fitted for Haines, where many houses are custom- built, often by inexperienced carpenters seeking to cut costs.
Some taxpayers started gathering to talk about the issue. Resident Brenda Josephson became one of the more prominent voices critiquing the process.
Josephson: “My biggest frustration was I filed the appeal, and there was no communication, there was no boots on the ground, come out, take a look for yourself. And I thought that was in bad faith.”
Josephson posted two long articles online. In them, she detailed her and others’ experience with the assessment process.
She says some changes in Borough code would make it more fair.
Josephson: “One of the things I would like to see codified is deadlines put into code. We the appellants have deadlines for everything we have to do. If I would have missed my filing deadline, I would have been told ‘Too bad, you’ve got next year.’”
The timing of the proceedings was sometimes difficult for the appellants. In one case, an appellant was issued her packet the day before appearing in front of the Board of Equalization.
The issue of inadequate preparation time came up repeatedly in interviews for this story.
Josephson says another change she would like to see is that the Board of Equalization be composed of volunteers. She says appellants are prohibited from speaking to members of the board while their case is pending. This can be a problem if the board is composed of assembly members.
Josephson: “As an appellant, for six months, I couldn’t risk having contact with my assembly members because of Ex Parte rules. So for six months I’ve been without representation of our elected officials.”
Another point she raises is the lack of a required state certification for assessors. She says code requiring a certification would serve two purposes.
Josephson: “And the licensing is valuable, because one, they usually require professional training requirement, continuing education, so you know they are current, two, there is usually a complaint process, if someone is displeased with something I do, there is a way that they can file a complaint against my license, I’ve got to respond to that.”
Michael Dahle’s license in Washington state is suspended, and some have claimed this means he may not be competent to serve as an assessor. In an email, a representative for the Washington Department Of Revenue denied this. He indicated that a ‘suspended’ status means the appraiser is more than two years late in submitting a renewal form, which he says is not unusual. He wrote: “Important to note that the suspended designation is not the result of punitive action or disciplinary in nature.” A database of appraisers shows Dahle has completed the required courses.
Some have suggested that Dahle’s contract at his previous job in Juneau may have been terminated amid controversy. A representative for City And Borough of Juneau, confirmed the dates of Dahle’s employment but declined to comment on the circumstances of his departure. Juneau Board of Equalization documents suggest the borough stood behind Dahle and his methods.
Haines resident Paul Rogers filed a request for assembly action at a recent meeting. He presented a petition signed by close to 600 residents, asking that the Borough cancel Dahle’s contract. He said a number of appellants reported feeling intimidated by the assessor. They received letters stating they could drop their appeal, or see their property assessment increase further. Rogers described it with strong words.
Rogers: “Mr Dahle used a tactic equivalent to extortion in my opinion to get appellants to accept excessive property tax assessments.”
Borough Manager Annette Kreitzer acknowledged the communication style might have been too cold for an issue as personal as the value of a home.
Kreitzer: “Maybe I’ve been in government too long, because when I look at things that say you have these three options, and these are the things that can happen if you take these options, I would say that’s a fault of mine for not seeing that as something where people felt threatened, that they felt to use Mr Roger’s words, they felt that that was extortion. That’s just a very strong reaction and I was surprised by that.”
After discussion, the assembly voted unanimously to not extend the assessor’s contract beyond the end of the year. Mayor Morphet read a list of the people he recommends to sit on an Ad Hoc committee that will look at potential changes to the Borough code.
They are Paul Rogers, Glenda Gilbert, Dan Humphrey, Kevin Forster, and Stacey Prior. Scott Hansen and Diane Lacourse would serve as alternates.
The group will discuss a way forward with assessments. The assembly will vote on approving the mayor’s recommendations at its next meeting.
You can find an interview with assessor Michael Dahle and Borough Manager Annette Kreitzer, from a few weeks previous, below,
And an interview with Brenda Josephson.
