Okay. Calling to order the board of assessors meeting of Thursday, January 8th, 4:30 p.m. at the Lakeville Public Library. Uh, other than Lake Cam, is anyone else recording this meeting? Not see anyone indicating so. We do not have any public here for public comment. We
do have some um invoices within our packet here that we can pass around and sign. And then we have um some meeting minutes from the 11th that I believe Linda had the ones Linda had already distributed to us. Um so if someone
would be so kind as to make a motion to approve those, I'd appreciate it. >> So moved. >> You have a second. >> Seconded. >> All in favor? I >> motion carries unanimously. Oops, I signed that in the wrong place. Okay, next agenda item is uh review and
sign motor vehicle and real estate reports for month ending December 2025, which I believe has and can we do? Why don't you start with John? We'll work that way. >> Sure. We have blue stickies here finding the right line. Uh then we also
have uh statutory exemption reports for vision and munice for the month ending December 2025 that we also need to sign off on. So, as we're signing away, uh I guess the next agenda item is we
need to discuss um and sign for some uncollectible taxes for personal properties that we need to get off of the roll because for well, they haven't been collected in a while and I believe they're for non-existent entities anymore. Correct.
>> Yes. So the specific uh entity you'll see on the form. >> Yes. So is this public information or should uh that we're waving not waving it but
we're signing off on it because it uh >> it's not really uh private. >> Okay. >> So we don't need to go in executive session. So basically what's happened here is the personal property for the what is now
the Back N Club LLC um its predecessor I believe two predecessors ago um had not paid taxes uh going back uh let's see
how far back does it go looks like uh 2006 was the commitment date and >> 20 years ago. >> Seven was the due date and we also have one for 2007 commitment and a 2008 due date. So
obviously these were assessed and build uh but not collected for um >> 20 years >> for over 20 years ago and that was two owners ago. >> Now we're trying to get it from the guy who bought it. >> Why would there not be an MLC that's found at closing on that? That's a great
question and unfortunately we can't answer that. So if they had gone to the collector's office, they would have told them, but I'm not sure. >> Part of the attorney's job, whoever close that deal to. >> I think that's a good project for someone to track down. >> I'm guessing a m municipal lean would never file,
>> right? Well, I think Dave's point is how could somebody let that slip through for a closing, >> right? >> So whoever the attorneys were at the two subsequent closings of this property, neither one of them picked up on it. But having said that, this is The point is if we never filed a municipal lean,
>> there would be no record. How would they pick it up? >> It's when they do a deed search, they find that stuff because it's filed against the deed. >> A lot of times they do check the assessors when they close. >> Well, this this would be personal property. So, >> Oh, that's right. It's not against So, there isn't necessarily a request for an
ML. Gotcha. >> Right. But I mean, >> we can we talking? >> We're talking about 1,000. >> It really doesn't matter. We We can't >> Yeah, it doesn't. I mean, it's it's
>> No, I think I'm reason I'm asking these questions is more is there a procedure in place to not have this happen again? Are there other >> instances? Is there a way to >> The problem with personal property is that um >> 6,000 >> the remedies for collection are very
limited. Really the only way to collect on a personal delinquent personal property account is to take the owner uh to small claims court >> civil court on that. >> No MLC's tend to not be uh requested or
even required on the sale of a of a business. Um, businesses typically convey on a villa sale um that may or may not be recorded. Usually not recorded. >> But the business usually has real estate with it. Real estate this way.
>> Yes. So is it just one? >> No, it's two. So the total it's at 6161. So the total uh 61 and change 61 and change. So the total is 12,000. >> That's not that's not a small amount of money. >> 394 looks like is the total due. But keep in mind, part of the reason it's
not a small amount of money is because the interest acred over 20 years. It's and it's not I I'm not sure. Do you know off the top of your head what the interest rate is? It's it's high. >> I do know that. Yeah, it's 8%. >> Is it against the same entity? >> When you say is it against the same
>> You said two There are two separate bills that haven't been collected. Two separate personal property. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, are they against the same is it the same person we're trying to collect them from? >> Yes. Right now, right now it's under the current owner's name, but it's not the
current owner's obligation, right? So, it's it's it's it's any outstanding personal property, correct me if I'm wrong, has to do, you know, carries over to the to the new owner. Well, and because these go back uh some number of years, this is really just a housekeeping measure trying to get this
off the collector's >> book. I'm fine with that. But do we have a list of other uncollected personal property? Be >> interesting to see >> not as delinquent as that. >> So, usually I request from tax collector once a year a list of those accounts
they deem he or she deems uncollectible. Um >> I just recall I do recall maybe obviously not recently but in the past I do recall having we we've this board has voted to um >> I don't know what the correct term is. I
don't know if it's wave or just we vote them on collectible is what it is. So I guess it's >> the collector's it's the obviously the collector's job to track these suffers down, right? Not the assessor's job, >> right? It's the it's their job to collect, but if they don't collect tech, I think really the procedure is they
come to us and say, "Listen, these are uncollectible. We need you to >> take them off the the rolls." >> So how would the motion go? >> Well, this motion goes to deem these uncollectible. >> That's all I need to do. Correct. We deem these uncollectible.
>> Yeah. In effect, we're processing an abatement of those very old uh tax accounts, >> right? >> To get them off of the collector's books. >> So, an abatement for uncollectible taxes on personal property from commitment date 2000 71206
and 77207. >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Any further discussion? All in favor? I >> I. >> So to your point though, then I I I I think I'm assuming we're all on the same page. We probably need to have a conversation with the collector's office
to say, "Listen, can we put something in place, whether it's every year or every couple of years, to say, "Listen, give us a >> give us a list of what you got and tell us what you feel you're not going to collect and then we can take a look at it and figure out whether we want to get rid of it because obviously this just becomes a bookkeeping nightmare for a
lot of people if it's 20 years." >> I suspect that this all came to four uh during the town's last audit. auditors go through and say, "Clean up your books. Get rid of some of this stuff." >> My my bigger, it's not our it's not our perview because we're not the
collectors, but my bigger concern is making sure the town's >> gets the money, >> maximizing as much revenue as they can get to people that owe it. So, I don't know what their procedures are or what they're doing or not doing, but it sounds like this one just maybe fell through the cracks. But hopefully, we don't have a huge list of other >> entities that also owe that.
>> Linda, could you do me a favor? >> I think you probably know what my favor's going to be. When you get back to the office tomorrow, could you check with the collectors and have them let us know if there's anything that hasn't anything any other outstanding personal property that hasn't been collected over the past 10, 20, 30, 40
years? Anything they have on the books? >> And then, >> well, for that matter, what about real estate taxes that are that old? >> Oh, there there's a whole different process there. Those go into tax title at some point. >> We know about those. Okay.
So, >> end up going to auction. >> I'm pretty sure we know about those. >> Fair enough. >> These are the ones that slip between the cracks. Um, okay. So, we have that taken care of. >> The next agenda item is >> Did you sign all these? >> No, I didn't. I got to do this. Uh, do
we have any We each have to sign this. Do we have any old business to come before us? >> Do we have or >> No, I've got uh several uh exemptions under new business. >> Okay. Well, I guess then we can jump to new business since we don't have any old
business and I'll let you tell us about those. Uh these were handed to me to present to you. Uh there are three uh exemptions,
statutory exemptions. Um and Linda, you've reviewed these. These are good to approve. >> Okay. We're just looking to to get your uh to give it the once over and sign off >> and say >> yeah should be on each of the forms.
>> Do we need a motion on this or >> we normally don't motion those three signatures. So it's a posit it's an affirmative vote anyway. Your your signing is tandamount to >> fair enough that you under the weather.
>> I No, I'm actually getting over. >> Oh, okay. We're in the same boat then. Boy, it's been brutal, huh? >> Do we have any other new business to come to come before this board? >> Uh, yes. Just in the way of uh a brochure that
I'm working on, tax brochure. This is just a a draft. I couldn't find a draft stamp, but um >> So, don't hand these out, guys. This is a draft. >> It's a draft. Um
Sorry for the quality. We were down to our last toner in the printer and thought we would ek out another print out, but this is a I like this. Yeah, this is great. >> I think it's helpful for us to have uh
something to hand out at the desk when people come to the counter and uh complain about their taxes. Uh just having a sense of of the uh the town budget and how especially this uh this
analysis here breaking down the average residential tax bill by uh service category to show uh on that average bill approximately how many dollars go to fund um >> oh I mean this this is really
>> this is from our town obviously. Yes. I like the >> this is hot off the press went through the budget and >> I like the summary of appropriations and revenue. It really >> I think it'll open up people's eyes to a lot of >> you see right off the bat that education takes the biggest chunk out of it though.
>> Yeah. Well, I mean the the thing that's really eye opening and probably will drive a lot of people crazy now that they can look at in front of them is you look at chapter 70 which is what we get from the state for education >> which is what $11,000 yet are appropriations from town meeting
a little heavier than that. So >> all hinging on the relative wealth of the community or a lot of it. >> Yeah. We subsidize other communities that don't have well supposedly don't have as much money as we do. So, in any event,
>> I wanted to uh just get your thoughts as well. You'll see towards the bottom of the uh back page, I have a little placeholder here. Um thought about pulling together a comparison of certain
tax metrics comparing Lakeville to neighboring communities. I don't know if you would like to see that or not. Or maybe you'd like to see the numbers before they get published or um how I I I love this. I really I think this is a
great little uh piece of information uh for people to have. So uh I guess I guess we could do two things, right? When we figure out what we're going to put in that last little spot there, we can print out copies um obviously make them available at the assessor's office.
I think we probably should leave a bunch of them at like the COA, Council on Aging, and wherever else we can and we can also make a PDF and put it right on >> on the website. >> But to your point about that, yeah, I'd
love to see what the the numbers are comparative wise and then also maybe I don't know if we have some time to chew on it. Maybe there's something else we would prefer to let people know about since we have a little extra space there. But >> I do like this too. This 20 year history
of showing >> the tax levy >> the amount of tax not collected but that's what we >> levy and you know when people >> see the valuations go up the tax levy
doesn't go up >> right >> proportionally necessarily >> right. You can see it's all moderated by the tax rate. >> So anyway, >> yeah, I mean, think about it, right? Our tax rate >> in 2026 is less than our tax rate was in
2010. So 16 years later, we're paying less taxes. >> Well, not a lower tax rate. >> Oh, you had to add that. >> No, I that's that's excellent as far as I'm concerned. >> Um, anybody else have any
>> No, I love it. I also like how it shows. >> I'm curious to see how many people are gonna >> valuation by property class is interesting as well to show that >> single family homes account for >> twoirds basically of the >> that's what happens when you run business away, right?
>> Y >> um I find uh I imagine that this would be really a really helpful tool at town meeting. um people have some knowledge base that they can come to the budget with and
sense of >> Yeah, >> that's great. >> But I like too you can take a service like this library for example and the average taxpayer is paying what is the figure? $70 or something like that a year.
>> Um puts it all in perspective. Um, $70 isn't all that much to squawk about to have a nice facility like this. >> No, like you said, the average taxpayer is paying $3,400 for >> education, even if you don't have
>> How does this in pretty cheap? That's a That's a good number if you have three children in the school, right? >> Yeah. How does this break down account for the overrides? Where does that show up? >> Uh, that's built into the uh the levy, the rightmost column.
So on this budget, how you tax dollars are spent. Let's say like the project for the new fire station is that >> um >> we have an override for that. >> So it depends on what kind of override. If you're talking about debt, uh there is a debt line here.
>> Yeah, you're he's talking about the debt exclusions. What in other words, are they getting built in? Are we >> So debt retirement covers both short-term and long-term debt obligations? >> Does that include though that the fire? would include any debt. >> Any debt we've started taking on. We started taking on the fire station debt
though yet. >> Doesn't look like it, but it shows 28. >> Well, yeah, that very likely. >> That's that's not in there yet. >> So, that debt retirement the $45 like next year when we did this when we start paying that down
>> put in the I guess it's this time >> because it's from >> Well, I modeled this on the town's actual budget. The categories line up with the actual town budget. Um it would be hard to do but if you could some that debt retirement some of
it's for library some of it's for department some of it's for police station >> but that's separated by >> No you can't do it but I'm just >> Well you could do it I think it's it's getting into the weed but my guess is in other words when that comes online and all of a sudden that $45 turns into 175
let's say you have two debt exclusions going on at the same time I'm guessing what you're saying is can We say all right 45 of that is for whatever we had going on and then a 100 of that is for the fire department and 75 is for some other project. We you could you could
break it down to that extent. I mean anybody you could but >> yeah I mean there is some granularity that can be introduced here. General government for example uh funds a number of departments including the assessor's
office. I don't know if we want to break it down to that level. >> It's too crazy. Yeah. >> No, but I I guess I kind of I think if this is why you brought it up, Dave, or not, but almost like put it out in front of people so they know every year >> that fire station,
>> it's been up there for 10 years, but just so you know, you're still paying $175 every year for that fire station. So the next thing so the next the next override that comes along you got to >> I mean every I'm not saying anything isn't needed but you need to fiscally make sure you can handle it right and
remind us that we already have stuff we're paying for. Good news is right now we only have $45 in debt retirement. So >> yeah that's remarkable actually for a community this size. >> Well >> we have 25 million coming up for
>> well And that doesn't include old old whatever they end up doing at old column. >> Nothing old colony gets voted down. >> Well, they did. They got to do something. >> Yeah. Yeah. So I have a document to share with you. Um
we had discussed at an earlier meeting or even couple of meetings a um staffing solution that would potentially have uh me and others on staff come and tra up a new assessor.
Um, this is a I I didn't print a document for each of you, but it's basically a >> application. It's >> You don't need to fill >> It's a work in progress describing a mentoring program. >> Oh. >> Um, >> okay. >> It this this is hot off the press.
>> It needs um a lot of editing and formatting to pretty it up a bit, make it a little bit more readable. It's uh >> Is this a copy for us to for you through? >> Um yeah, I if you want I can send you the uh >> How about if you send us the PDF the
word doc and then we can look at it and then we can >> have you got to the point on uh costs yet or >> Well, there are some costs that just those are just very preliminary. >> All right. >> Um
>> okay. I don't know where HR stands with respect to advertising. >> Uh well, we kind of I think we wanted to get a sense of this first so we know where we're going. So I think this hopefully this gives us some sense of that and then we can
>> look at it and engage with HR and um >> we haven't done anything yet until we got this. So that was going to be one of my questions. But yeah, if you could send that out to all three of us and then we can we can share it with HR. And also uh delighted to report we have four
abatements uh that have come in baitment applications and I guess Linda's handed out a few more but doesn't appear as though we have a ground swell. >> So you mean you're delighted to report we have four? Are you delighted to report we only four?
>> Okay. Yes. Well, let's not encourage anybody to unless they I'm sure we will. We'll we'll get a few the last week of January. So, >> um All right. Anything else to come before the board? >> Anything additional we need to know,
Harold? >> Uh chapter um I've worked with it to get Microsoft Access installed on uh my workstation here. uh worked with Marina
on staff to to um she's our chapter specialist and has this really sweet uh chapter ad admin program and u she helped me install that today. It'll help with the better uh administration of
chapter accounts tracking of those. So that's in place. Um when I come down next time, I'll be going through the uh chapter applications and u looking to tie out uh those those applications, the
land parcels uh shown on those um accounts with vision and and this database. Um >> really I think we're in pretty good shape. Um anything come to mind, Linda? No.
>> Well, that's good. I don't You don't need to make stuff. We're good. >> Don't belabor it. I'm sure >> we all have other things that we need to get done. So, um if we do not have any other business and we have no reason to go into executive session, correct?
Then I will entertain a motion to adjourn if anyone so inclined. There is a executive session here. >> Yeah, John just mentioned that. Oh, well, wait a minute. No, I know what you're saying. Look at the >> Do you have an update on journey?
>> Do you have an update? >> Oh, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. Well, then here's the deal. We're going to go into executive session uh pursuant to general law 38, specifically general law 5960
to review and discuss uh uh assessment of a piece of nonprofit property. So, we're going I'll entertain a motion to go into executive session, not to return to open session. So, we will close open session. >> Second.
>> All in favor? Roll call vote. Oh, LeBlanc. Yes. Lamro I >> I Okay, we're journed from regular session and we're entering into executive