Property Reassessment

November 14, 2008

New twist in assessment mediation

County assessment appeal board solicitor personally attempting to settle cases.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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Hang on, Luzerne County property owners. There’s another twist in the mediation step recently added to assessment appeal court challenges.

County assessment appeal board solicitor David Schwager said he will personally attempt to settle the cases before they get to mediation by communicating one-on-one with each property owner.

Property owners who pay $111.75 and complete a court challenge petition will be contacted first by Schwager’s office and be instructed to send him appraisals, comparable sales, their own recent sale or any other relevant information they think he should review, he said.

The petition document requires the property owner to list a contact address, phone/fax number and e-mail address, if available.

Schwager said he has started working on some settlements with property owners who filed petitions.

He hopes court administration will hold off on scheduling mediation until he gets the opportunity to communicate with property owners. Schwager said he believes he will resolve most disagreements so property owners won’t require mediation sessions before specialty courts director Sam Guesto.

“I don’t want the court to schedule thousands of mediations when there may only be dozens,” he said.

Schwager’s involvement may seem confusing because he represents the county assessment appeal board, and appeal board members already had a chance to issue rulings. It’s those rulings that are being challenged in court.

However, Schwager said he wasn’t directly involved in appeal board rulings, and noted many of the rulings came from temporary auxiliary boards put in place for reassessment. Like certified appraisals, appeal board rulings are opinions of value that may merit adjustments, he said.

Schwager said he will provide a fresh review of the data, backed by the experience of handling hundreds of property assessment appeals in court. He has been a real estate lawyer for 20 years and represented the appeal board for seven.

He said he won’t settle without cause and stressed he is experienced analyzing certified appraisals.

“I am sensitive to the concerns of taxpayers, and I want to do what’s fair to the county and other taxing bodies and to the taxpayer,” Schwager said.

Schwager said he will seek court approval for any settlements he reaches with property owners. If approval is granted, the new value will be sent to the assessor’s office and go into effect, he said.

While Schwager supports the mediation step, he said the recommendation to add it came from the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association’s Local Court Rules Committee.

“They recommended to the court that some sort of settlement attempt be required before the arbitration process began because of the cost to taxpayers and the county as well as the likelihood that a deluge of appeals going to arbitration would cause greater frustration than we’ve even seen thus far,” Schwager said.

Schwager said the prothontary’s office often had to scramble to find enough lawyers to cover arbitration panels before the reassessment-related ones were added. The county must also pay most of the $125-per-case for each of the three lawyers who serve on arbitration panels – possibly more for unusually lengthy cases.

Assessment-related court challenges normally go straight before a judge, but the court changed the process a few months ago, adding an arbitration panel and then, if necessary, special master stage. The mediation was added Nov. 6.

Minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he has not been briefed on Schwager’s involvement in the court challenges and has not formed an opinion on the change, though he emphasized the commissioners have no control over court procedure.

However, Urban said he disagrees with the submission of appraisals and paperwork to Schwager.

“This is a court action, and in order to keep a proper record, everything ought to be filed in the prothonotary’s office,” Urban said.

The addition of new steps has prompted the county’s reassessment company – 21st Century Appraisals Inc. – to request a meeting with county commissioners over alleged breach of contract.

21st Century’s contract extension – approved by Commissioner Greg Skrepenak and former Commissioner Todd Vonderheid – says the county shall pay the company “to defend assessment appeals to the Court of Common Pleas, and any further legal challenges to the same.”

21st Century representative Tim Barr said mediation fits that description because property owners are challenging their appeals to the court.

A similar clause was in the original contract approved by Urban and former Commissioner Tom Makowski.

The contractual fee for 21st Century to provide court-level services is $150 an hour for a certified appraiser and $250 an hour for legal counsel. Barr said $5 million was set aside in the original bond to cover the expense, though he did not believe it would come close to that amount.

Appeals Board Chairman Andy Shiner said Thursday that 21st Century won’t be involved in mediation because board members don’t believe the expense is necessary.

Barr said the appeals board informed his company the mediation step would not require evidence or cross examination and “was simply a deal negotiated between the taxpayer and appeal board.”

“We have concerns that the mediation step may have the appearance of permitting unjustified reductions to assessments,” Barr said.

Reductions for some property owners will increase taxes for others, Barr said.

“It is imperative that the county continue the strict policy of only making changes where justified and to not slip into the alleged patterns of the past,” Barr said.

Jennifer Learn-Andes, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7333.

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