City of Oak Creek

Common Council Report

Meeting Date:  09/16/03

Item No.:         3

Recommendation:

That the Common Council adopt Resolution 10281-091603, Resolution to Authorize Retaining the Services of Cole-Layer-Trumble Company (CLT) to Conduct a Limited-Scope City-Wide Revaluation for the 2004 Assessment Year, for a fixed fee cost of $109,000.

Background:

At the 09/02/03 meeting, the Common Council authorized the negotiation of a contract extension with CLT to conduct an assessment ratio maintenance project for revaluation of assessed property for 2004. 

CLT, which currently serves as the City’s contracted assessment services firm, was engaged under separate contracts to handle revaluations in 1997 and 2001. Prior Councils had determined that a three-year cycle to keep values current was prudent and reasonable.  The last revaluation was effective for 2001, with values seen on the Dec. 2001 tax bills.  This cycle follows this schedule:

            2002                an interval year with no revaluation activities

            2003                1^st year of 2-year process. The first revaluation activity would be                              done beginning approximately November, 2003.

            2004                2^nd year of 2-year process.  The new values would be released                               approximately June, 2004, with values to be effective on                                          December, 2004 tax bills.

Attached to this report is an Executive Summary-Revaluation report submitted by Dave Johnson of CLT that outlines the major phases of the revaluation process to be followed.  This is considered a limited-scope revaluation because there will generally be no residential interior inspections except for properties that have sold since January, 2001, or when property owners request an interior review.  Since the 1997 and 2001 revaluations were comprehensive, much of the work now will involve records analysis rather than on-site inspections.  

The Assessor’s office and CLT will still organize a thorough public relations effort to keep the public informed of reassessment activities and progress.

Fiscal Impact: 

$109,000 total cost would be funded in the following manner:

            $28,000 remaining from prior revaluation

            $35,000 budgeted in 2003 CIP

            $46,000 to be budgeted in 2004 CIP

Because the scope is limited, the cost will be correspondingly lower than a full-scale revaluation.  The costs of the 1997 & 2001 revaluations were $249,000 and $231,000 respectively.

Prepared by & Fiscal Review by: Beverly A. Buretta, CMC City Clerk/Comptroller

Respectfully submitted, Robert L. Kufrin City Administrator