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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBoard of Review 2021 Minutes P 't� S I � CITY ASSESSORS OFFICE Sharon Frischman, MMAO City Assessor 3rd Floor City Hall 124 West Michigan Avenue Lansing, Michigan 48933 (517)483-7624 Andy Schor, Mayor FAX: (517)483-4101 www.lansingmi.gov/City-Assessor Minutes City of Lansing Board of Review December Meeting December 14th, 9:00 am 3rd Floor City Hall Meeting called to order by Chairperson Eshragh at 9:00 am. Members Present: Chairperson Eshragh Member Redding 1. Discussed proposed changes to assessed and taxable values pursuant to MCL 211.53b. 2. Approve changes to assessment roll as attached. Meeting adjourned 10:05 am. S CITY ASSESSORS OFFICE Sharon Frischman,Assessor 2r! 3rd Floor City Hall C f.t 1 G 124 West Michigan Avenue Andy Schor, Mayor Lansing, Michigan 48933 (517)483-7624 FAX: (517)483-4101 CITY OF LANSING BOARD OF REVIEW MINUTES March 2, 2021 Members Present: Felicia Eshragh, Mike Redding, Elizabeth West Members Absent: None Staff Present: Sharon Frischman, Assessor Darren Carter, Deputy Assessor Teressa Bowers, Residential Appraiser Charles English, Commercial Appraiser Old Business: None Public Comments: None New Business: Elizabeth West motioned to elect Felicia Eshragh as Chairperson. Motion carried. Sharon began by stating either she or Darren would be attending the March Board of Review with Charles operating zoom and BS&A while Teressa handled daily schedule and petition paperwork. She asked Teressa how many people were scheduled to appeal the upcoming meeting. Teressa responded stating five people for the entire week for now. Sharon asked Teressa what would be blocked for the board to review for the end of the day. Teressa stated personal property and letter appeals would be reviewed at the end of the day. Sharon also added poverty and veterans exemptions will also be reviewed. Felicia asked if there were many personal property statements for review. Sharon stated that since personal property was due on February 20th, which was on a Saturday, receiving personal property had to be extended until the 22nd of February which was on a Monday. She also stated that we received mail that was post marked on the 22n6 of February and those personal property statements had to be accepted and processed. Sharon explained that the assessment roll had a good increases in residential properties values which were between seven & eight percent and the inflation rate was 1.4 percent which was nominal. She assumed there would be more appeals because of the increase in values. Sharon stated she asked the County to do a one year sales study which is usually done if there is a declining market and that the results were the same. She explained that residential values are increasing and commercial values went up about two percent and were mostly apartments. She stated that Industrial values increased more because of recreational marijuana. 1 CITY ASSESSORS OFFICE Sharon Frischman,Assessor 3rd Floor City Hall 124 West Michigan Avenue Lansing,Michigan 48933 Andy Schor, Mayor (517)483-7624 FAX:(517)483-4101 Felicia asked what the commercial margins were and how much room they had to play with because of Covid-19 and thought it would be less than last year which was significant. Sharon stated there was more room and that she expected a lot of commercial appeals for the Michigan Tax Tribunal for this year. Sharon stated we had more tribunal appeals last year because of the extended deadline by the State of Michigan. Felicia asked if there were more commercial or more residential. Sharon asked Darren Carter to speak on how many residential tribunal appeals were in 2020. Darren stated there were more residential tribunal appeals. Sharon added there were a lot of commercial small claim appeals last year. Felicia asked about how walk-in protest would be handled. Sharon stated that they would have to call in first or appear in on the meeting through zoom. Sharon specified other requirements; taxpayer signatures on petition and that taxpayers would have to email their petition. Mike Redding stated that taxpayers could screen capture in zoom but it would not have a signature on it. Felicia stated a screen shot would not be an official submission and they would not be able to use it. Felicia asked about the process from beginning to end on how to conduct the appeals so that new member Elizabeth West would know how it works. Felicia explained that there would be an itinerary that morning and they should sign into zoom at 8:45 a.m. because the first appointment are scheduled at 9:00 a.m. Felicia asked Teressa was anyone scheduled at 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning. Teressa stated she thought the first appointment was at 10:00 a.m. Felecia stated they could work on letter appeal or petition if there were no morning appointments. Felecia added that once someone logs into zoom they will come in as an attendee and have five minutes to appeal. Felecia asked if a taxpayer do not submit evidence before the appointment do they have the ability to show evidence by screenshot. Sharon stated that if someone has an appointment they should already have their evidence submitted. Teressa stated she did not think taxpayers had been submitting evidence but would call taxpayer and request a signed petition with documentation. Dairen asked why a taxpayer would have an appointment if they did not submit evidence. Teressa stated during prior year's taxpayers would fill out the petition at the time of their in-person appointment. Teressa also added that taxpayers were told to log on our website to get petition to file. Sharon stated we should call taxpayer to have them file petition before their appointment. Charles English stated there is a file sharing on zoom but it may be disabled in the administrating settings. He indicated the chat function is where you can share a file on the desktop for a specific group. He further explained it would not display on the screen but will send it to all the panelist so that it can be viewed. He stated if it's enabled they could talk to Christopher Mumby with Information Technology to enable it as a backup. Felicia agreed that would be helpful and it could be downloaded. She added that she was concerned about showing personal inforination while others could view. Charles then displayed on screen how to enabled in-meeting file transfer. Mike asked who has to enable in-meeting file. Charles stated either Sharon or Christopher because it's in the specific account settings for the host. 2 PNS � .1; CITY ASSESSORS OFFICE Sharon Frischman,Assessor 3rd Floor City Hall C hi 1 , 124 West Michigan Avenue Lansing, Michigan 48933 Andy Schor, Mayor (517)483-7624 FAX:(517)483-4101 Mike Redding asked what should be done about taxpayers who log in during another taxpayers appointed time Sharon explained a taxpayer can sit in during the meeting because of the open meeting act and also stated she didn't think it would be a problem. Felicia added she would assume other people would be waiting to log into zoom and there may be back to back appointments. Sharon stated because of the back to back appointment a ten minute time frame was given for each taxpayer. Felicia asked how the board members would receive letter appeals. Sharon stated as letter appeals come in they are put in a computer file folder each day and that they would be emailed to each member the night before. She added Teressa would be able show the information on the screen during zoom if something is missing and that the information is on a shared drive that everyone has access to. Darren Carter wanted to clarify the time frame for each appointment. Teressa stated taxpayers have ten minutes each. Felicia asked about how they should conduct downtime during appointment. Teressa stated that there were about one hundred and fifty veteran's exemption ready to be reviewed for downtime. Sharon stated there was changes in the poverty exemptions by legislation that taxpayer could be approved for either a twenty-five, fifty or one hundred percent exemption and that any other formula would have to be approved by the State Tax Commission. She also explained she and the Mayor decided any taxpayer that is eligible for the exemption would be one hundred percent exempt due to Covid-19. Felicia asked if there were different income thresholds for the different percentages for the poverty exemption. Sharon stated there was no direction about how to use the different percentages. Sharon added that she interpreted it to be that everyone would get either twenty-five, fifty or one hundred percent for the exemption. Felecia asked if the poverty exemption was based on a percentage of the taxpayer's income. Sharon stated before Covid-19 the exemption was based on a reduction from a formula that the State used for the property tax credit formula. She explained that someone with a lower income would get more of a tax break. Felicia asked would the assessment be cut by a certain percent. Sharon stated we would have to cut their taxable value by the percentage. Sharon again stated that she and the Mayor discussed any eligible taxpayer would have a zero tax bill. Sharon stated that all board members must watch a twenty minute video from the City Law Dept. After the video, Sharon asked if the board members had any other questions. They had no other questions. Motion by Member Mike Redding to adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 3:14 p.m. Submitted by Teressa Bowers 3