These things are not new issues; hiring, assessing, residency requirements, setting salaries. As Patches points out, you don't start someone without experience out at the highest salary in private industry. Good point. You don't start someone with no experience out at the highest salary in government either. Gary McCarthy cannot be that ignorant, it is simply not possible. Even if he were, there are plenty of educated and experienced people around to clue him in, he just needs to ask. But no, we go through this ridiculous sideshow, poor Gary McCarthy, these are special extreme circumstances that no one ever faced before, he will just put on his thinking cap and come up with a brilliant solution that he invented all by himself. Schenectady apparently has been going along for hundreds of years without any kind of policies, procedures, rules, and laws, and it is up to Gary to invent some. He should take this show on the road.
OMG!!! NO WAY!!!!
the government has to guarantee it's COLA's/wages/salaries for the budget's sake.....much like national grid will NEVER lower it's cost because their union demands their wages/salaries/retirement benefits.....
you see....it IS us against them
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
I have found something, which again, shows that the mayor and Waterfield are wrong. Remember this from the article:
Quoted Text
“I don’t mind going out on a limb for Ed Waterfield,” he (McCarthy) said. “He’s the best one for the job.” He said Waterfield would be willing to change city assessments in response to house sales instead of defending the city’s rationale for the assessment. In some cases, houses in the city now sell for much less than their assessment.
“You can’t just tell people, ‘This is the assessment, live with it,’ ” Mc-Carthy said. “If you have a house assessed at $100,000 and you buy it for $92,000, you might be able to explain the $100,000. But the $92,000 might be the proper number to put it at because of the sale. Have some common sense.”
He added he thought Waterfi eld would have the courage to apologize and change the assessments in those cases.
“I want somebody with common sense. The problem is, people have done things without common sense, with a level of arrogance and isolation,” he said. “You have to be able to say, ‘You know what? The city made a mistake.’ ”
Now check this out, interpretation of legal council by the state of New York:
Quoted Text
In Krugman, the Second Department held that, by their failure to respond to the petitioner's notice to admit (i.e., a civil litigation disclosure device; see, CPLR, §3123), the assessors admittedly followed a practice of "reassessing only those properties which had been the subject of transfer or conveyance" (533 N.Y.S.2d at 500). The court decided that this practice (which is sometimes referred to as "welcome stranger" or "welcome neighbor" assessing) "violates the statutory and constitutional requirements of uniformity and equality" in assessing (ibid.).
So once again, we have more proof that the mayor has no clue what he is doing and he wants to choose someone who has absolutely no experience whatsoever in valuating property, nor does the chosen buddy know anything about the law.
However, I believe that in an "informal meeting" with the assessor, if you bought a house for X he could reduce assessment as long as he reduces mine to X as well, through the informal meeting process (and I mean assuming our houses were in the same neighborhood and were otherwise comparable. He could NOT reduce ONLY those that sold.
Who out on these boards believes that the assessor has adequate time to meet with thousands of homeowners for meetings when he is handling all the applications for STAR senior and the vet stuff, etc.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Oh, so his guy will "have some common sense" and I guess that is an acceptable substitute for knowledge of the law, and acting in accordance with the law? Is there "common sense" when it comes to complicated, specialized areas like property valuation and taxation? Good grief. He can't believe all the nonsense that comes out of his mouth, can he? People are having their homes stolen out from under them, and this guy is inventing his own rules as he goes along.
The thing is the city MUST do a COMPLETE CITYWIDE reassessment and nothing less.
Problem is, McCheese doesn't dare use that phrase, because to use that phrase would mean the leader of the city would have to openly admit that things are failing in the city. He would have to explain that a reassessment is needed because property values have gone down. At a time when values are going up everywhere outside of the city (particularly outside of the county), it would be very difficult to openly and officially state that values i the city are falling. That would be an admission of failure. Easier to do it quietly on a one by one basis and hope that most people don't ask for a reduction.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
The town of Rotterdam is looking for an experienced, certified assessor with a salary starting at about $70,000 [Sept. 17 Gazette].
Utica, which has been used in the past as a model of comparison with Schenectady, pays its assessor $52,000. So I am asking why someone who has no experience or certification in this position is being considered — nay, demanded — by the mayor for this job? This gentleman wants $82,000 a year. I am scratching my head in wonder.
By the way, I have 14 years experience in my job and haven’t had a raise in four years!
Michele E. Lupe
Schenectady
Another intelligent letter in the Gazette. McCheeses does not have a leg to stand on.
Logged
I hear that frustration.
