New Haven Mayor John DeStefano received a letter today signed by 11 New Haven aldermen demanding that controversial city Assessor, Bill O'Brien, be fired.

A similar thing happened to O'Brien in 2008 when he worked in Bridgeport. At that time, aldermen drafted a resolution calling for O'Brien to be fired. The resolution went nowhere since Bridgeport aldermen don't have the authority to fire city employees. But just a few months later, O'Brien resigned from Bridgeport and came back to work for New Haven.

This year, O'Brien and City Hall have taken heat for hundreds of disputed assessments, resulting in higher tax bills and frustrated city taxpayers.

Here's the text of the letter:

CITY OF NEW HAVEN

BOARD OF ALDERMEN

July 16, 2010

Honorable John DeStefano, Jr.

Mayor, City of New Haven

Dear Mayor DeStefano,

As Members of the New Haven Board of Aldermen, regrettably it has come to a point at which we are left with no other choice but to go on record as expressing a strong “Vote of No Confidence” in Mr. William O’Brien, and calling for his immediate removal as the City’s Tax Assessor. After much review and deliberation, we have no confidence whatsoever in Mr. O’Brien’s ability to discharge his duties in a straightforward, professional and equitable manner. Furthermore, we believe that the removal of Mr. O’Brien is essential to begin the task of reforming the city’s tax offices to provide quality customer service to taxpayers, while fairly generating the most revenue possible for the city.

As Assessor, Mr. O’Brien has consistently displayed a callous disregard for the general welfare, and even hostility, toward many tax paying citizens of New Haven. According to numerous residents, Mr. O’Brien’s unsympathetic, even antagonistic approach is often on display and has even appeared to intimidate his staff into following his lead. Residents seeking answers from his Office continue to complain about the unprofessional and tactless approach of Mr. O’Brien and the staff under his supervision. In short, Mr. O’Brien does not appear to understand that his salary is paid by the taxpayers of New Haven, the same individuals that he seems to not hesitate to antagonize. His imperious manner and confrontational temperament does not serve the city well in a job which requires professionalism, prudence, fairness, as well as good communication and problem solving skills.

Everyone must pay their fair share of taxes, and the city must be tenacious in finding new sources of revenue. But the answer, especially in these difficult economic times is not to target and bully the city’s most vulnerable law-abiding taxpayers that constitute the bedrock of our community. In addition to his confrontational style, Mr. O’Brien’s arbitrary and capricious methods of assessing property taxes and his steadfast (not to mention arrogant) defense of such methods leads us to believe that he is not the right person for this very essential post in our municipal government. We cannot help but note that serious issues also came up with Mr. O’Brien’s attitude and performance during his previous tenure as New Haven Assessor, and then in his capacity as the Assessor in the City of Bridgeport.

In a New Haven Independent interview, Mr. O’Brien said that when he took over the Assessor’s job in 2008, he believed that small businesses throughout town had low property assessments that hadn’t changed in 15 years. Suspecting that some of them must have bought new equipment he admitted to having used “an industry standard evaluation” for how much equipment businesses of certain sizes buy or own in a typical year, and he came up with across-the-board new assessments for hundreds of businesses without ever having done an audit or any type of information gathering. That is completely unacceptable and indefensible. Any increase in assessed values should be based on hard facts. That is what we owe taxpayers and that is the right thing to do. We know that at least 356 taxpayers were given arbitrary $5,000 assessments by Mr. O’Brien based on his “industry standard evaluation”. Mr. O’Brien told one such taxpayer that she was lying when she filled out her declaration of personal property. In effect, he seems to operate from a standpoint of believing that almost every city taxpayer is lying and is guilty until proven innocent.

The list of outrages committed against taxpayers is seemingly endless. In addition to the small businesses who received arbitrary assessments, we know that so far at least seven lawsuits involving church properties have been filed against the city to contest Mr. O’Brien’s assessments. There has also been a rash of taxpayers reporting that their used cars were suddenly and inexplicably appraised at a higher value this tax year than they were last year. We also know that approximately 394 senior citizens received tax hikes this year, even though they participate in the city’s elderly tax freeze, which should freeze their tax bills at the same amount as when they entered the program. There is a disturbing pattern here of Mr. O’Brien going after the most vulnerable in our population, those who are most likely to just pay the huge tax hike, and do not have the funds or stamina needed to pursue legal action. The seniors were shocked when they opened their bills to see increases, as were the Aldermen who were never notified by Mr. O’Brien of the senior tax freeze “glitch”. The final blow was to see the anguish of our seniors, on a fixed income and among the most vulnerable in our population, when they received this unexpected and unexplained increase in their tax bill. This Board fought long and hard to bring some tax relief to our overburdened senior citizen population, and this was yet another outrageous and insulting slap in the face. Now is the time to say enough, before even more damage occurs.

In fact, city Aldermen have never received so many complaints, angry calls and tearful visits from their constituents concerning unfair assessments, a failed appeals process, and generally poor, unacceptable treatment from our city's Office of Tax Assessment. Based on the testimony and evidence, we can say confidently that the cases cited here are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stating the number of taxpayers who were treated unjustly or subject to arbitrary assessments by the present Assessor. Mr. O’Brien’s standard answer to his arbitrarily grossly inflated assessments was to suggest that it be appealed to the Board of Assessment Appeals (BAA). But the BAA lacks two-thirds of its members, the remaining active member has revealed major gaps in knowledge, and the BAA does not keep minutes. Citizens report being summarily turned down even in clear-cut cases of city errors: for instance, when a for-profit coffee shop was inexplicably penalized for not filing a declaration as a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization, or when a homeowner was charged for a building on his property that doesn’t exist. Many appeals were simply never heard because the BAA could not handle the volume of appeals and was just as confused by Mr. O’Brien’s actions as were taxpayers.

Basically, under Mr. O’Brien, citizens had no legal recourse and were denied due process to challenge assessment errors, even though they’re supposed to by law. Very unjustly, this left taxpayers with only one option to seek redress of their grievances - a costly and nerve wracking appeal through the courts that most simply could not opt to pursue.

The Tax Abatement Committee and this Board remain committed to working with you and your Administration to improve the operations of our city’s Tax Assessor’s Office, and taking steps to ensure that our city’s tax offices operate in a transparent, fair, respectful and effective way. However, we believe that there is no way forward without removing Mr. O’Brien from his present position as Tax Assessor. During these tough economic times, when we are asking our city’s taxpayers to reach even deeper into their pockets, the city simply cannot afford to have someone with William O’Brien’s behavior, attitude and temperament as the point man for our tax efforts and our direct interactions with taxpayers.

It has become clear that William O’Brien stands at the center of the problem and as an obstacle to any solution. Mr. O’Brien has been given every opportunity to correct problems, address issues and change course. Instead he has consistently chosen to dig in deeper and do even more harm to the integrity of the Tax Assessor’s Office, your Administration, and our entire city government. The cost in time, energy, staff resources, and legal expenses continues to mount as the city scrambles to try to fix the problems that Mr. O’Brien has wrought, tying up city government in knots. It is honestly scary to think of Mr. O’Brien heading up the city’s coming massive property revaluation effort.

Again, we respectfully urge you to remove William O’Brien from his post as City Assessor at the earliest possible time, so that city government can make a fresh start in re-establishing a relationship of trust and credibility with taxpayers and putting aside an orientation that encourages a culture of contempt and harassment of our city’s taxpayers. Surely everyone must pay their fair share, but the taxpayer should not be regarded as the enemy of city government. As city officials, we must never violate the bond to do right by those we work for and who pay our salaries – the taxpayers of the City of New Haven. If we are to really change the way business is done and ensure that our taxpayers are treated fairly and decently going forward, then we need a different Assessor who is genuinely committed to solving taxpayer problems and ensuring that our city's tax offices do a better job serving citizens in the future.

Thank you very much for your consideration of our request.

Respectfully,

MICHAEL B. SMART

Chairman, Tax Abatement Committee

Alderman, 8th Ward

GINA CALDER

Alderwoman, 2^nd Ward

JACQUELINE JAMES-EVANS

Alderwoman, 3^rd Ward

ANDREA JACKSON-BROOKS

Alderwoman, 4^th Ward

DOLORES COLON

Alderwoman, 6^th Ward

GERALD ANTUNES

Alderman, 12^th Ward

MIGDALIA CASTRO

Alderwoman, 16^th Ward

CHARLES A. BLANGO

Alderman, 20^th Ward

GREGORY MOREHEAD

Alderman, 22^nd Ward

SERGIO RODRIGUEZ

Alderman, 26^th Ward

CLAUDETTE ROBINSON-THORPE

Alderwoman, 28^th Ward

DARNELL GOLDSON

Alderman, 30^th Ward

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Yeah  - Yeah   |2010-07-17 11:08:34 Betsy, you are the best. Stay with the story. Keep in touch Reply 1   0

Carl  - Great article   |2010-07-19 12:36:48 Great article Betsy! It is so refreshing to see elected officials as upset as taxpayers regarding such egregious treatment. Reply 1   0

jhc   |2010-07-19 19:09:32 O'Brien was hired for his obstinacy and ornery disposition. #1 , he is working with the co-workers and hired consultants that hang around City Hall. City Hall (aka planet 51) makes sure the selective tax enforcement benefits themselves. that has to include hefty campaign finance folks of City Hall (k-Pax) Some need the listings hidden to hide them in Not-For-Profit status and university properties. Wonderful Article by the way Reply 1   0

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