Mayor’s foe: Tax appraisals biased
Challenger for mayor Albert G. Brien makes accusations that property revaluations show favoritism
WOONSOCKET – One of Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt’s political challengers is questioning the integrity of the city’s revaluation process, suggesting property values have been manipulated to protect the incumbent’s family and friends, while financially punishing others with whom she is, as he puts it, “not such good friends.”
A professional real estate appraiser, Albert G. Brien says his research of public tax records reveals an “egregiously disproportionate” gap in new property values assigned to owners within the two groups. He says some are contemplating legal action to challenge what they believe are unfairly punitive assessments, though he declined to identify them.
Brien said he first discovered the discrepancies before he became a candidate for mayor, when certain property owners asked him for help in analyzing their revaluation notices. Some are now clients who may, ultimately, end up appealing their property values, either to the Assessment Board of Review or, if necessary, Superior Court.
“This is not political,” said Brien. “If all of the assessments were con- sistent and distributed fairly and equitably we would not be having this conversation. There would be nothing to talk about.”
But Baldelli-Hunt says it’s nothing but political, and that Brien’s allegations are without merit.
At a cost of $347,000, the city hired the Northeast Revaluation Group of Warwick last fall to assign new values to some 12,000 parcels of commercial, residential and industrial real estate in the city. Baldelli-Hunt said values assigned to those parcels were the result of work performed by NEG that was completely independent.
“I have nothing to do with that,” she said. “That is handled through the revaluation company.”
She claims Brien is just stirring up doubt about the revaluation
process so that property owners will come to him looking for help in the appeals process – help that Brien will charge them for.
A veteran of the political scene, Brien has previously served on the City Council and is also a former finance director who worked, ironically, for Baldelli-Hunt’s uncle, Mayor Charles Baldelli, in office from 1985-1989. He is one of two announced challengers, including businessman Albert Beauparlant, who have forced a primary on Sept. 12 to see who will appear on the general election ballot in November.
Brien’s allegations first surfaced at a meeting of the City Council on Monday, when he rattled off a list of examples of new property values to buttress his case. He was reading from a list of 19 parcels in all with data he culled from public tax records at City Hall. The information is also available online.
Eight of the parcels were on a list under the heading “Friends.” The rest were on a list labeled, “Not such good friends w/LBH,” referring to the mayor.
Brien: Two of mayor’s own parcels decreased in value
Previously, city officials had said that the average residential parcel in the city had increased about 16 percent. But in Brien’s “Friends” list he found residential and commercial properties that increased far less, and some that decreased.
The “Friends” list includes a small plaza owned by the mayor doing business as Angel and Promise Investments, located at 1173 Social St. The value of the parcel in 2017 was $261,000. After revaluation, it actually decreased in value by 5 percent, to $249,000.
Also included was a parcel which Brien says the mayor owns at 846 Cumberland Hill Road, leased to Stericycle. It dropped in value from $668,400 to $635,000 – also 5 percent. Meanwhile, Stericycle’s holdings at 369 Park East Drive dropped 21 percent, from $1,235,700 to $1,019,200.
Brien looked at the value of the mayor’s home and those of some of her neighbors, including Scott A. MacLennan, an alternate member of the Zoning Board of Review and a member of the RISE Prep Mayoral Academy’s board of directors – which Baldelli-Hunt chairs. His house at 269 Prospect St. rose in value just 7 percent, from $379,000 to $401,400.
The mayor’s home, located at 304 Prospect St., increased 2 percent, from $300,000 to $307,300, according to Brien.
Some of the mayor’s neighbors on Brien’s list of residents, who supposedly aren’t so friendly with her, saw their properties increase more dramatically. They included Roger and Corinne Bouchard of 341 Prospect St., whose home increased in value about 20 percent, from $273,400 to $327,000.
Another house at 338 Prospect St., owned by Elaine and Eleanor Demarjian, increased 11 percent, rising from $243,500 to $270,000.
Brien’s personal residence at 513 South Main St. increased 26 percent, from $195,900 to $247,700.
The two lists also allow for some side-by-side comparisons of neighboring commercial properties, including 25 Cummings Way, also known as the Bank of America building, which is owned by Fall River-based First Bristol Corp. – a firm on Brien’s “friends” list. With 2.23 acres of land, 25 Cummings Way’s assessment dropped 2 percent under revaluation, from $2,986,600 to $2,931,000.
A block away, Walgreen’s Pharmacy, which also earned a spot on the “not such good friends” list, didn’t fare so well. With half as much land,
its assessment increased 45 percent, from $2,320,400 to $2,569,300.
Gary Fernandes, a real estate developer who owns 83 Main St. – a group of apartments beneath Timeless Antiques – fared even worse. The nine-unit parcel increased 190 percent, from $292,900 to $849,000.
“I believe the conclusions are obvious,” Brien told the council Monday. “There is no doubt in my mind that we have at the very least a revaluation that does not pass muster. I believe the city has a great deal of financial exposure as a result...”
Brien said many commercial property owners appear to have been particularly hard hit and they have retained legal counsel to research whether they should pursue a class action lawsuit to challenge the revaluation.
Mayor: Brien’s numbers are misleading
While Brien accuses Baldelli-Hunt of manipulating the revaluation figures, she says her political opponent is the one that’s done the manipulating.
With thousands of parcels in the city’s real estate stock, it’s easy to extract data from a carefully selected few to prop up a biased point of view, she argues.
“Of course, he’s cherry-picking,” Baldelli-Hunt says. “He’s trying to create a picture.”
Some real estate professional are leery of drawing conclusions about the city’s revaluation based on a set of data from a tiny percentile of the real estate stock.
They also point out that Brien’s data fails to note that values are affected by how various parcels are used. In the case of Roger and Corrine Bouchard, for example, their home functions not just as a residence, but also as the Pillsbury House, a bed and breakfast business. Also, 25 Cummings Way is an office building. The neighboring Walgreen’s Pharmacy is a retail and pharmaceutical business. Real estate appraisers use different methods to calculate values for properties that vary in use.
“Generally as appraisers you want to look at similar type properties and you want a large enough sample size before drawing conclusions,” says Mike Tarello of Vision Government Solutions, a company that performs municipal revaluations for scores of communities in the region. “That’s just basic appraisal procedure.”
Robert Martin, president of the Century 21 Crossroads Agency, had a similar reaction to Brien’s conclusions. And Martin has good reason to be skeptical of the revaluation – he’s appealing the value NEG assigned to a four-family he purchased on West Park Place to the Board of Assessment Review.
But Martin, too, says the most trustworthy conclusions about the overall reliability of NEG’s work should drawn from a large set of data that includes figures of comparable properties. The main concern isn’t how much various classes of properties increase, said Martin, but whether the increases in comparable properties match up.
“You can draw the conclusion if you go over a large sampling of comparable properties,” said Martin. “I took my area... I went within a half-mile and I looked at four-families. Some had nine bedrooms and some had eight bedrooms. That’s where the fairness factor is here.”
Brien says he hasn’t uttered the last word about the city’s revaluation. He says he’s still doing research and consulting with his clients about potential avenues of appeal that may be open to them.
“The information we developed will be turned over at some point in time to legal counsel with whom we have been having conversations,” he said. “And collectively there are many, many commercial taxpayers here who have been aggrieved and aggrieved severely. The direction they take is up to them.”