Three contracts for services to assist the county in kickstarting the 2020-21 assessment process have yet to receive approval from the Nassau County Legislature.
The contracts were submitted to the County Legislature on July 8 and were not included on the agenda for the July 15 meeting.
Christine Geed, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran’s director of communications, said in a previous statement to Blank Slate Media, that “the Majority is attempting to sabotage the 2021/2022 assessment roll by delaying three assessment contracts for necessary services.”
The three contracts, which total over $1.6 million worth of services, are with Michael Haberman Associates, Standard Valuation Services and Assessor Educational Services.
Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) said the three contracts are under review.
“There are issues as to whether the work on updating the assessment roll should be accomplished by existing staff, which is what the administration said would be the case when we voted for the same contracts last year,” he said.
Michael Haberman Associates would provide the county with ancillary services to further train Department of Assessment, Assessment Review Commission and county attorney staff members.
A contract with Standard Valuation Services is for training and related assessment support services for the use of the multiple regression model for the 2020-21 tentative assessment roll.
The Department of Assessment has determined that to conduct the 2021-22 tentative assessment roll, it will conduct a trend analysis of the 2020-21 assessment roll to determine values used for the next year’s tax roll, according to the county executive’s office.
Assessor Educational Services would provide staff with instruction in real property appraisal, property valuation, mass appraisal and commercial/industrial modeling concepts. The contract is for 396 hours of course instruction to 80 existing and newly hired staff members in the Department of Assessment, the Assessment Review Commission and the county attorney’s office.
While the contracts are being reviewed, it has not been determined whether they will be voted on at August’s meeting of the Legislature.
