ATHABASCA — In an effort to be more impartial and unbiased during an assessment review, Athabasca County will be contracting clerks and panellists.
An Assessment Review Board (ARB) meeting happens on an irregular basis and locally it is made up of representatives from Athabasca County, Town of Athabasca and the Village of Boyle.
“Assessment is fairly complex. On the surface, it looks straightforward, but there's a lot of nuances that things can be made exceptions so, I think having a contracted panel will serve everybody well, especially because there's not that many hearings per year and so it's hard to be up to date,” said reeve Brian Hall in an Oct. 9 interview.
It was at an April ARB meeting the county contracted Purbeck Services to provide a clerk trained in arbitration review and they also provided panellists.
“The cost of getting the decision incorrect, is far greater than the cost of having really experienced panellists,” he said.
Usually if someone has a complaint with their property assessment, they speak to the assessor and sometimes that can lead to a change in the assessment. If there isn’t a desired change, then property owners can appeal to the ARB.
“There are different classifications within assessment and so there's a couple of things; one, commercial property is taxed at a different rate but assessed using similar methodology like sales comparison or some other credible assessment,” Hall explained. "There's a couple of classes of property that are done based on a formula and farmland is one of them. That's why you see farmland worth $300,000, on the market, but with an assessment of $6,000. It's because it's based on productive value.”
So, it makes sense to hire people who do assessment reviews for a living to sit on the ARB as needed.
“These panellists are independent; they're not paid hacks to say no to everything,” said Hall. “The terms are expiring for most of the people on the panel; either are expiring or have expired, and so in order to have a sufficient number of people, we need to fill them from the provincial panel list.”
Because ARBs are quasi-judicial boards hearing appeals on property assessment matters and the ARB has the authority to uphold or modify the assessed value of the property, decisions of the ARB cannot be appealed to council, but, also, formal training to become a panellist is a requirement.
“I think overall it is good value, because you've got people who are doing this regularly and are experienced and have a good understanding of the regulations,” he said.
The motion included paying panellists $200 for less than four hours of work, $300 over four hours up to eight hours, and $450 over eight hours. They also agreed to pay the ARB clerk $225 for less than four hours, $400 for between four and eight hours, and $600 for over eight hours.
“We can't force anything on our (municipal) partners and that would be incredibly disrespectful and contrary to the relationship of respect that we have,” said Hall.
If the Town of Athabasca and the Village of Boyle want to hire panellists if there is an assessment review on a property within their borders it will be up to them, this is only what Athabasca County is choosing.
“There's a really good working relationship of mutual respect,” he said.
