The value of a good assessor

Now seems like a good time to shower praise on someone who might be suffering slightly in terms of popularity at the moment: North East Assessor Katherine Johnson. The praise is for the commendable job she’s been doing since elected in 2007 getting the assessor’s office in shape and the town’s properties updated. The questionable popularity status (and this is only a guess) could be due to the fact that property owners in the town of North East just received their newly assessed property values in the mail last week. But even some of the most disheartened property owners have been able to put their misgivings aside and sing Johnson’s praise. Take resident Amiee Duncan, for instance, who owns land on Winchell Mountain with her husband, Frank. They just learned their residential property went up in value a startling 23.54 percent, yet Duncan said she found it hard to hold those numbers against Johnson personally. (See Page A3 for more on this story.)“I can say I think she’s done a great job and put a lot of effort in,” Duncan said. “She’s worked with and helped a lot of people.” Duncan went so far as to say that she will be doing research on her side before lodging a complaint, and acknowledged Johnson’s office could be correct in its assessment (although she hopes not, which is, of course, understandable). The point? Johnson has been working hard, and earnestly. And people appreciate that. She’s been putting in long hours and proving her dedication, fulfilling what the Town Board most wanted of an assessor back when it discussed the matter with the Assessor’s Office Study Group five years ago. At that time a checklist was created for the assessor’s duties: keep well-maintained data; schedule periodic revaluations and perform the bulk of the revaluation work; keep equity among the parcels in town; provide written reports to the Town Board; and be accessible to the public. Johnson has met and exceeded all of the above requirements.She is now wrapping up a multi-year reassessment project that she has overseen since 2007. Unlike the previous townwide reassessment, which many property owners in North East were dissatisfied with, Johnson has kept her project on track. She has dutifully kept the public informed along the way and just last week held another public hearing to let property owners know what they can expect as a result of the data collection and new assessments.Again, not everyone will be satisfied; the median increase clocked in at around 8 percent. In some instances, as with the Duncans, there were extreme increases. Property owners with similar cases are encouraged to call the toll-free number that accompanied their assessment to schedule an appointment with the assessor’s office. The appointments are prior to Grievance Day, and it is recommended property owners pursue this avenue of recourse before heading to the Grievance Board, which is one’s last resort.Johnson is perfectly willing to work with property owners. One of her best qualities is that she is so approachable. She is happy to sit down and listen to anyone, explain how the reassessment process works and answer any questions. Her responses are clear and easy to understand — which is not always the case when it comes to number crunching. The town of North East is indeed fortunate to have Katherine Johnson as its assessor. She is young, and bright and enthusiastic about her work. She has been doing an excellent job in working to get the town’s properties assessed fairly and equitably. Houses and farms aside, Johnson herself is of great value to the town of North East — and that’s something you just can’t put a price on.