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06-02-62SpMtg 129 JI~ 2, 1962. A. Special Meeting was held in the Counoi! chambers at o'clock noon, with.Mayer Walter Die~z.in ~the Chair, City Manage~ Louis' J. Smitzes, 'City Attorney John Ross .Adams and Councilmen At C, Avery, George Talbot, Jr,, George V. W~r, ren and .Oliver .W. Wood~d~ Jr., being present~ Mayor Dietz called the meeting to Order stating that same ha~ been called by Councilmen A1 C. Avery, George V. Warren and Olive~ W. Woodard, Jr., in accordance with Section 20 of the City Charter and that same had been .called for the purpose of further consider? ation of the appraisal firm, s property valuations and proposed 2ssessment thereof and any other business which may come before ~he meeting. The opening prayer was delivered by .City Clerk Worthing. Mr. Avery stated that he was personally very much concerned about the reappraisal of property in Delray Beach, That he felt the appraisers were very competent people but that there were many areas that to him were inequitable, and that he had been receiving calls and letters from the public concerning same. Mr. Avery further stat- ed that he f~It the Council should take. some action before the time of Board of Equalization. That the Board of Equalization would hear specific complaints, but if the tax base was not equitable it would be too late to do anything about it. That Delray Beach has a very fine tax assessor and feels that it is necessary at this time that the Council instruct thc tax assessor to enter into the picture and to put his.thinking on it so that at the time of the meeting of the Board of Equaliza$ion the Council will be assured that the tax base is equitable. Mr. Avery then moved as follows: "I move that the City Tax Assessor be instructed to work very closely with the' em- ployed appraisal firm of this city to see if certain adjustments should be made in the proposed assessment roll prior to the Board of Equalization session on June llth, 12th and 13th, and further to authorize the City Tax Assessor to suggest certain changes where, in his opinion, they would result in the proposed assessment roll being more equitable." The motion was seconded by Mr. Woodard who stated that he felt this action is indicated. That the appraisers have done an excellent Job in most cases. However, in their appraisals economic conditions in the local area have not been considered and a great many local factors have not been considered. Further that it is past time that there was a harmoneous blending of the tax assessors experience con- cerning local conditions and-the appraisers experiences regarding other factors in the appraisal. Mr. Talbot stated that he did not feel that the motion was in order. That he agrees 100 % with Mr. Worthing as to his suggestions to correct this reassessment program, 2~. Talbot asked the City At- torney if it. was legal for the Council to do something sitting as a Council as opposed to them sitting as a Board of Equalization?" The City Attorney replied that he believed the motion would authorize and instruct Mr. Worthing to work with the appraisal firm this week and any suggestions or recommendations he would make would be at the Board of Equalization meeting. Mr. Talbot: "In other words, that would not create any action now that w~utd make the City liable as was brought out at last night,s meeting for arbitrary assessing?" The City Attorney asnwered that it would not. Following discussion and~questions, ~. Worthing. stated~ that if the motion was passed as made l~would reflect the revised front lo.ct unit values that he identified at the special meeting last nighS. Mr. Warren stated that he was de£~nttely in favor of the motion as made and would object to any change~ 6-2-62 June 2, 1962 City Manager Smitzes stated that it seems that everyone wants to do the same thing concerning the assessed valuations but the question is when .it ought to be done. The City Manager then asked the City Attorney: "Which is the most proper and safest from a personal liability standPOint and from a city liability standpoint in making any shanges Jin this~proposed r011 that'has not been pre- sented to the Council at this time. A review Of~the roll as com- pleted at the Board'of Equ~lization or instructions as per this motion here now by a Council to the assessor to make certain par- ticular reductions. Which is the safer and more legal? Both are going to accomplish the same in the end results." City Attorney: "I think the safer, certainly in my opinion, is to make the changes at the EqualiZation Board, at the time you are supposed to be equalizing taxes rather than now." There was lengthy general discussion and comments about the tax base not being equitable, the legality of changes being made in the appraisers figures before the meeting of the Board of Equalization, and the desire of some Councilmen to adjust proposed front foot values in certain areas before the meeting Of the Board of Equali- zation. Considering that all Councilmen were in agreement on what should be done, ~. Woodard stated that he felt it.was necessary to ask the City Attorney again when the Council can act legally to accomplish the adjustments that the Tax AssessOr has suggested so that the tax roll Cannot be questioned legally and that the Council indicate to the public, through the press, where the Council feels these areas of equalization are needed and that, at the proper time, the areas as indicated would be adjusted accordingly. City Attorney Ad~s: "I will repeat it again. I can .see no legal probiem if you Wait until the Board Of Equalization sits and ~' then make any eqmalizations, rather than taking achance of being accused of .being-arbitrary in advance. Actually the-Council doesn't do the assessing, you equalize the inequities." Mr. Avery was asked to restate his motion and the City Attorney stated that there should be one correction, as according to the Charter it should read that the City Manager instruct the City Tax Assessor. ~. Avery then restated the motion as follows: "I move that the City Manager instruct'the City Tax Assessor to work very closely with the employed appraisal firm of this City to see if Oertain adjustments should be made in the proposed assessment roll prio~ to the BOard of Equalization session on Ju~e llth, 12th and 13th, and further to authorize the City Tax Assessor to suggest certain Changes where, in his opinion, they would result in the proposed assessment roll being more equitable." Mr. Woodard asked the City Attorney: "Is that motion as just stated acceptable from a legal'~standpoint?'' City ~Attorney: "All this does by saying prior to the Board of Equalization, that Just means that he will work closely with them prior to that-and he will make his suggestions at the time the Board of Equalization sits." Mr. Woodard: "Is the motion as just stated acceptable to the Cmuncil?" Mayou Dietz then commented as follOWs: "YOu men have discussed this and I would like to add that my concern is purely s legal one. Wha~'rate .of interest would we have to pay if we borrowed the money to run ~he City of Delray Beach. It would be-around 5%. How much money would we have to borrow, about ~700,000.00 so that when we say this is a legal matter we are talking about a legal matter that could cost the City some ~3~,000.00 of taxpayers money 8nd I don't think any of the tax payers would be appreciative of the fact if they had to pay .$.~,~000.00 just to .take care of the fac~ that we didn't legally explor~6 awenues around which, we wish to bring aboutcertain e- qualizations. The legal way is the only way and I think one of the t~i~gs that is confusing here is the Councilmen have no right as -2- 6-2-62 June 2, 1 962 131 Councilmen to tamper with the assessment values of a community under the Charter of the City of Delray Beach. The only time that anybody can tamper with---tamper may not be the proper word so I withdraw tamper and say change. Tamper implies something that'you shOuldn!t be doing, where this is something that You should be doing. When the Council sits as an Equalization Board, then they are no longer the Council of Delray Be~ch but they-are at that time a Board of Equalization and under our 0hemter they can then, in their' JudgmsB~ equalize the assessments as 'they see fi't, and even if they.did a terrible Job it WoUld be legal, but. if the CoUncil made a change they did a terrible JOb it would be illegal.' We are not going to have everybody happy so that You can rest 'assured that there is going to be some c~plaints one way or the other. If 'you~do, the court is going to look back at certain things that'have transpired in Delray Beach up to the present time. For example, there is published statementin 'the newspapers the fact that the concern has ~ompleted their work. They are Staying on for onemonth to expla£h ~heir assessment to each individual taxpayer. They have been Sn and doing that. Based on completing their work~ the City has ~aid 016,000.00 of the $20,000.00 that the contract called for uD~ ~ompletion of their work. This concern has completedlts~work uR this point, and its work was to determine a true valUe of the. things that they studied in Delray Beach. Consequently any one directing~a change in that now, in my opinion, would belter~.eringwith the whole roll losing its true value as. the flrmhas set ~up~ The Only people that have the authority .to dothat is the~EqUalization Board when it sits in June. Manypeople have come i~and' they have been ex- plained these figures, and they were given the figure on the bottom of ~the card .that was the true value, then it was transferred to'80% They were shownhow it was derived. We were even~tOldlas a Council in the school that they had completed their work. They are are around now for the education and they Will'be p~sent at the Equalization Board to assist us. There is a true cash value as set forth by these people that were hired. The assessment roll is one thing and the roll~ as~Z ~nderstand it is~the true cash value to which you apply a certain percentage which happens to be 80% in Delray, and you make up an assessment roll. I think it would not be hard fo~ a court that ~ere totally impartial~t° say that'has~been tampered with. There is~nothing wrong with taking~those figures as prepared by this firm before the EqualiZation BOard~and at the same time take before the Equalization Board any and all suggestions that our appraiser may make and in the Judgment of the Equalization Board they can take figures that theY determine are an equalization of the values. I, for'one if you.will recall, was against the employment of an outside appraiso~,, I Went along because it Was the majority wish. I have to lean on Mr. Worthing, I know nothing about this~ and Hr. Worthing,s word would~lmost be law to ~e at an Equalization ~eeting. As I mentioned in the preliminary Council Meeting, ~and I think you will find that I mentioned in a CoUncil~Meeting, that I didn,t think it was necessary to bring in an outside appraiser be- cause we had one very competent right in the City at the present time. As far as you being concerned,~ any member who might be concerned--~- when the Board of Equalization sits 'from June llth on, they would have the same maJqrity in their favor as they have.right this moment, because it's the Same groUP Of men. Consequently anything that you can pass .... and it only takes three votes---that you can pass right now, you can pass in an Equalization Meeting. If you pass it~at' an Equalization Meeting it-is legal. You are not subject tO any personal liability as well as the City facing the prospect of its tax roll being thrown out. We are operating so close now that I woutd caution you to take every legal protection that is given to you to take be- cause this is much more serious, I think, than you.realize, and I don't think that some of .these legal matters are a matter which we laymen can say 'Well it,s quite obvious that so and so has not been submitted,. It has been submitted. It has been submitted to the public. There has.'been interviews on it. There are press releases on it. The people can come in and testify that they sat down with Mr. Hall or Mr. Ehrenborg and in the presenoe of Mr.. Worthing were told certain things about this. I caution You only too strongly about that. Is my position a legal one, Counsellor?" City Attorney: "I think it Just confirms what'I have said, tha~ any action should be taken at the Board of Equalization meeting and not until then, with the exception of letting D~. WOrthing look into it." -3- 6-2-62 Mr. Woodard suggested withdrawing his second .to the motion that was on the floor but Mayor Dietz asked him not to at this time. Mayor Dietz corm~ented as follows: "That motion is perfectly proper and legal as I read it. May I.-~ead it again, please. It'P not the motion that I'm: objecting to, if I ~am objecting, but it i the fact that we must not say, at this time we do so and so, which on June llth we do. We must say to ~. Worthing, to use his very best Judgment and to bring to us, the Equalization Board, not to the Assessors, but to the Equalization Board, his recommendations of where he feels that %hi.s particular firm has not the true market valuations, tie, being local, has a true. market .value. It is then up to the Council, without any legal responsibility whatsoever, to act as their Judgment .dictates on .the ~wo sets of figures submitted.. ISm pretty sure if it is done that way it will be perfectly legal and it can,t be thrown out. Is that correct, Counselor?" Mayor Dietz then re-read Mr. Avery,s motion and suggested that the words "to the. Board of Equalization'! be added, the motion then reading as follows.. I move,~hat the City Manager instruct the City Tax Assessor to .work very~closely with the emDloyed appraisal firm of this City to see if certain adjustments should be made in the proposed assessment roll prior to the Board of Equalization session on June llth, 12th and 13th, and furthe~ to authorize the City Tax Assessor to suggest certain changes to the Board-of Equalization where, in his ~opinion, they would result in the proposed assessment roll being more equitable." P~. Avery and ~. Woodard agreed to the change of wording in the motion. Mr. Talbot: "Now the City Counsel guarantees that we are on legal grounds."- City Attorney Adams: "We certainly, are to this point anyway. Whether you do..$verythlng legal once you. get on the Board of Equali- zation ...... but up.~to this point everything is legal." Upon call. of roll, the motion carried unanimously. Atan Duncan, Palm Beach Post-Times reporter asked Mayor Dietz if the Board of Equalization meeting was an open meeting. The City Attorney.reported that.said meeting is a public meeting so far as his research has been able to determine. The meeting adjourned at 1:00 P.M. on motion by Mr. WOodard. R. D.~ WORTH~NG City Clerk APPROVED: -4- 6-2-62