Village Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah.

Good evening, folks. Thank you for coming out tonight. Uh my name is Keith Cowsmark. I'm the village manager here in Ridgewood and tonight we are here to talk about the reassessment process that the village has been ordered to undergo in 2026. Back in December of 2024, the village was notified by the Bergen County Board of Taxation that a re-evaluation order was going to be implemented to take effect in 2027. The village of Ridgewood was not the only municipality in Bergen County that is affected by this order. Additional municipalities include Fort Lee, Hackinack, Hillsdale, Midland Park, Montvale, Rivervale, Rutherford, and Woodridge. We're required to undertake this process during calendar year 2026 to be implemented for the tax year in 2027. So the question becomes why do we have to undergo this process? So right now our ratio has dropped from 84.43% in 20122 to 60% today. So what is that ratio? Well, the ratio is the value of homes in today's market in comparison to what they are currently assessed for on the books on the village tax records. So, as properties sell for more money than they had previously, there creates a disparity between the value that is on our tax roles and it further impacts the ratio. This is an adjustment of the value of all re real property in Ridgewood. So it affects residential and commercial properties.

As the adjustments are made as part of this reassessment process, they'll be made on all properties across the village. The process is really designed to provide fairness and value and determine what assessments will be assigned to each property moving forward based on a number of factors that will be reviewed tonight. In turn, that will redistribute the tax burden according to the value of each property in Ridgewood. Now, I know that when you received the letter from Appraisal Systems, some questioned the validity of it. Was it real? Was it junk mail? Um, that letter was the first step in this process. The second step in this process is this community forum so that we can answer all of the questions that you as residents have about what this reassessment means and how it will affect you and your properties. The letter that was received was also an invitation. Um, when you hire an apprais when you hire a reassessment firm or a revaluation firm, you want the public to have direct access to the professionals that are sitting to my right. And what we're looking for here is residents beyond this meeting tonight to be able to communicate both with our tax assessor, Bill Palumbo, who I'll introduce in a moment, and the assistant tax uh tax assessor, um, Renee, who's here with us tonight, but also with the professionals at Appraisal Systems so that you can have all your question answered and also have a full understanding of what's going to happen when these folks visit your properties. Both re-evaluations and reassessments, and this is a reassessment, are revenue neutral. So any banter or any thing you

see posted online or you hear from your neighbors that the reassessment has a direct impact on increasing taxes is not an accurate statement. All the properties as I mentioned earlier throughout the village are going to be reassessed assigned a current value based on today's market and because that is going to affect all real property in the village it spreads out the distribution and the burden of taxation going into 2027. I want to be clear that we initially were ordered to conduct a complete revaluation of the village. However, in speaking with our team and talking to our tax assessor, we came quickly came to the conclusion that Ridgewood in comparison to other municipalities has some of the best recordkeeping on properties um that you'll see in a local municipality. With that and with some discussion about the status of our tax maps, we were able to go back to the county board of taxation and request that we implement a reassessment, which these folks can describe to you tonight the difference between the reval process and the reassessment process. But the good news is a reassessment is less costly than a complete revaluation of the town. It's also something that will go into effect. The values will be set on October 1st of this year in November and they will take you through the schedule. Every real property owner will see receive a letter with their revised valuation of their property. and you will have the opportunity to interface at that time with appraisal systems as to any questions you might have or how

they got to that number as it pertains to the value of your property. Our last revaluation was conducted back in 2008 and the last reassessment was conducted in the village in 2012. So, it's been over 14 years since we went through either process here in the village. And as you all know, real estate the real estate market has changed dramatically in that decade and a half, which is what has brought us here tonight um as we implement this order from the Bergen County Board of Taxation. So tonight we have with us our tax assessor, uh William Palumbo, and representatives from Appraisal Systems. Um Robert Brcia is an executive vice president of appraisal systems. He will be our project manager. and Michael Coplan is the assistant project manager from the firm. They're going to take you through a presentation tonight that will explain this process from STEM to Stern. And at the conclusion of the presentation, we'll have a question and answer segment from everyone who's gathered here um in the courtroom and also those who are participating by hybrid access remotely. So with that, Bill, I'll turn the program over to you and Robert.

Uh just a quick introduction. My name is Bill Palumbo, William. Um, I am the assessor. I've been since January of 2022. Um, I know this firm very well. I've worked with these individuals and this company before. But I would like to let um Rob Brusher really take over. He's going to give you the real rundown of what's happening, why we have to do this, and what this really implements for everybody in the village going forward. Unless you're going Yeah. Yes. Well, to introduce myself, uh my name is Rick Delgusio. I'm the president of the firm.

Uh before I turn it over to Rob, who's the uh he's the project manager and he's going to get into the nuts and bolts of reassessment. Um I just wanted to introduce myself first. I'm here tonight. Uh I'm a local uh guy. Took me five minutes to get here. Um, and I would also like to speak to expand upon what Keith said in that um, I was here uh, and my firm did do the revaluation in 2008. Um, it was the work was done in 2007 for 2008. And I can reflect back on that as saying that was arguably probably the worst time to do a revaluation. uh because within 12 months of when we put those values on, there was a uh a housing uh crash. Um I think we all recall uh what happened there. I think they've even made movies based on that crash. Uh and those assessments quickly became, you know, 30 40% overstated. Um we we kind of muddled through with the assessments and the appeals for three years and then decided ultimately that we had to take the time to do a reassessment again in 2012 just a few short years later just to just to redo all those numbers due to the precipitous drop uh in the market. So that's why the revaluation and the reassessment was separated by three four years. Um the good news is that the numbers that we put on uh in 2012 for 2013 um have more or less held reasonably until today. Uh but come 14 years later and considering the last I'd say three or four years of that 14 years, we've seen so much tumult in the real estate

market starting with um the pandemic. Um the pandemic produced what I like to call COVID sales. It inflated the market with people flooding from the urban areas to the suburban areas. prices spiked um right around the time that that the market started to um level off of these COVID sales. We saw another dramatic change in the market where we saw interest rates um pop from 3% say to six six and a half even touched 7% um which affected the market in many ways you know most likely affected the market with the diminished supply of housing. People just weren't selling. They weren't selling because why would they sell a house that that they had locked into 3%? Quite frankly, we're still seeing the effects of that today. Um, but my experience, you know, living in this area myself is that, you know, the last three or four years have created a scenario where not only have the prices risen considerably since it was last done in 2013. Keith spoke to a ratio of sales to assessments which is down close to 50 60%. Um but more importantly the rates at which houses are accelerating decelerating over that period is is not not uniform. Uh this is a very diverse um village. We have all different sorts of properties. We have extremely high-end properties. We have lower-end properties. We have multifamilies. We have condos. We have garden apartments. We have a thriving downtown, commercial, we have office buildings, you name it, Village Ridgewood has it. And one thing that

most towns that have such a diversity of real estate can can speak to is that not everything moves in tandem. It moves at different paces. And that is really what throws off the inequity of assessments. And another way of saying inequity of assessments is some people are overpaying and some people are underpaying. And um that's that's not a good thing. Taxes are high. They're the highest in the country. We know that. Um there's nothing we can do about that. We meaning appraisal systems, we meaning the public. It is what it is more or less uh as far as being the number one highest tax state in America. Um, but at the least what I believe we can do is ensure that everyone is paying their fair share and there's equality and uniformity between you and your neighbors. And so what Rob is going to do tonight is lead you through a step by step uh which hopefully can explain how we're going to ensure that everyone pays their fair share um while we increase these assessments to market value and any um involvement that you the public has with us. And it is a process and we need cooperation. We um desperately want cooperation. We'll be as transparent as we can to try and educate you on the process. Um but at the end of the day, it's an opinion of value that we put on as your assessed value as of October 1st, 2026. And because of that, you live in your homes. We're valuing your homes. We need a we need a a a dialogue that exists between the two of us in order to get to um the right number. So having said that, Rob,

take it away.

So good evening everybody. My name is Rob Russia. Once again with me tonight is Michael Copelan. He's an assistant project manager and Ryan Post. He's one of our field supervisors. Um so what we prepared for you tonight is a PowerPoint presentation on the seven steps of the reassessment process. But before we get there, I like to get out in front of it and just really hammer home that, you know, reassessments and reevaluations are revenue neutral. And I like to explain to you how taxes are calculated. And I actually would like to run you through an example what to expect once this process is over. So, real quickly, I'm sure we all know, but what the town does is the town will determine their budget, how much total taxes they need to collect. And that comes from three components. Your local, your school, and your county. Once they know how much money needs to be raised, they take what is called the net taxable value in town. What that is is all of your um assessments, your taxable assessments added up into one lump sum. You take one figure, you divide it by the budget, and then that is what's called the tax rate. Okay? So, there's one tax rate for the entire town, and then each property assessments gets times by that ratio, and that's how much taxes an individual property owner pays. Okay? So, since there's one tax rate in town. The difference between the taxes from property A versus the taxes on property B is simply the assessed value. Now, as we mentioned, the last time these assessed values were updated was back in 2012 or 2013. So, when you think about it, you're paying taxes right now based on an assessment that was placed on your property back in 2013. And when you think of it that way, that right off the top of your head doesn't really seem

fair. Okay, so that's simply what a reassessment is. It's to kind of reset the playing field, bring all these assessments up to 100% fair market value again to ensure everyone's paying their fair share. By law, the town cannot gain any money from this process. So right here is an actual example of what an individual property owner could expect towards the end of this process. So, property A at the top, their 2026 assessment on record right now is $715,000. Again, I'm going to repeat that's an assessment that was put on your property back in 2013. Now, this year, the tax rate is roughly 2.89. So, to figure out how much taxes this individual property pays is you take the assessed value, 715, you times it by the rate 2.89, 89 that is per 100. So you're going to divide that figure by 100 and this property owner is paying 20,664 in taxes for 2026. Okay. Now how this remains revenue neutral is if the net taxable value increases which it will okay the market has gone up since 2013 the tax rate will come down by the same factor. So the end result of total taxes collected is the same. Okay. So for your individual property tax impact, it's going to solely depend on what your individual property does compared to what the overall increase was for the town. Okay? So for example, if the average increase that net taxable value goes up 1.6 times due to the reassessment, it's a mathematical equation.

using the budgets from 2025, you would get a tax rate of 1.806, okay, going into 2027. So now, if we skip ahead towards the end of this reassessment and this property increases 1.6 six times the average of the entire town. What they would expect is their assessment goes up from 715 to a new assessment of 1.144 million. Okay, so that does seem like a big jump, but you have to put it into context. When you take that new assessment of 1,144 and you times it by the new tax rate of 1.80, 806. As you can see, the taxes are virtually identical. Okay? So, just because the value and the assessments are going to increase from one year to the next does not mean the taxes are going to increase. Okay? But we're here to be as transparent as possible. Some people will go up in taxes due to the reassessment. Some people are going to go down in taxes and some people remain the same. So we gave you two other examples at the bottom here. If your property increases less than the average as in this example 1.6. So you go from 715 to 1.1 million when you apply that to the new tax rate you will see a tax decrease going forward. It will happen. And then on the other hand there will be properties that increase more than the average. So that bottom example, if your property goes from 715 to 1.2, you're going to see a tax increase. Okay? So another way I like to explain

it, look at the total taxes collected as a pie. Okay? The total pi amount is not going to change from year to year. The slices of the pie, which represents each and every individual property owner, those slices may change and will change. Okay, so we've been doing these presentations for quite a while now and usually when we give this example, someone would, you know, kind of raise their hand and say, I understand the math here. This makes sense, but why do we have to do this now when arguably we're at the height of the market, the values are keep going up. As Rick mentioned, there's not that much, you know, the supply. Um, higher values means it's going to be inflated values, which means the town is going to collect more taxes and therefore I'm going to be paying more than my fair share. So, what I like to do is I'll run through real quick. I'm just going to show you another example. It's the same type, but basically what this example shows is that there really isn't a good or a bad time to do a reval or reassessment. Okay? As long as we pick a specific moment in time, which we're doing this year is October 1st of the pre-tax year. So it'll be October 1, 2026. It doesn't matter if the market is rising, going down, or remaining the same. As long as we pick that specific moment in time and treat everyone in town by the same standard and treat them uniformally, at the end of this job, we could ensure everybody that you will be paying your fair share in taxes. And like we mentioned, that's the ultimate goal of a reassessment. Okay, so real quick, here's just an example. It's probably not going to happen, but it's just to show you kind of what would happen in an inflated market. So the top is going to remain the same. Assessment uh is 715 and they're paying 20,664 in

taxes. But now in this example, instead of the net taxable value going up 1.6 six times. I create an example where the assessments are going to be more than double. Okay. So in this example, property A would see an assessment going from 715 to 1.573 million. And I get that if I were to receive a letter saying my assessment jumped up that much, that's sticker shock right there. Okay. But before we jump to conclusions, we have to put that in context. We have to see what the entire net taxable value did. Now in this example, that increase from 715 was 1.5 to 1.573 was 2.2 times. Now if the entire net taxable value went up 2.2 times, the tax rate in this example would drop even lower. So for 2027, the tax rate would go from 2.89 to 1.314. And again, once you use that tax rate and you apply it to the 1.573, once again, you see the taxes are virtually identical from one year to the next. And then the same other two scenarios apply. If your property increases less than the average, you will go down in taxes. If your property increases more than the average, you will go up in taxes. But I like to give these two examples before we really get into the seven steps because I just want to really show you how a revaluation of reassessment stays revenue neutral. And these examples show you how. Okay. So if we move on to the seven steps of the reassessment process, first step is the inspection process. So about two weeks ago now, maybe three

introduction letters were mailed out with a brochure and this is the kickoff to the reassessment process. So our inspections will begin shortly, probably as soon as next week. This slide is very important and I hope we could all act like a team and get the word out which is please do not allow anyone onto your property or into your home that does not have the proper identification. So each one of our inspectors will go out with an appraisal systems ID that looks just like this. Okay. Our website, we update our website as work is issued. Our website is www.asij.com. We'll go through our website a little more in detail later on the presentation, but what we like to do is post as much information for the public as possible. So, one of the things that we post is any inspector that's working in town, we'll have their ID on our website, okay? They'll have their own staff information sheet. We also like to post the inspector locations. This is mass appraisal, so we can't make an appointment with everybody. But what our inspectors do, they do work in certain areas at a time. So what we do is once properties are issued to an inspector, we post it on an Excel spreadsheet on our website. Okay? So if your property is not located on that Excel spreadsheet, do not expect anyone to come to your property because that means your property has not been issued yet. If your property is listed on that Excel spreadsheet, you could in expect an inspector to be by your property anywhere from 3 to four weeks. We try to keep it closer. In addition to that spreadsheet, it's going to tell you uh like I said, when it was issued, but who it was issued to. Okay? So, we want to give you an idea of when we're going to be in your

neighborhood and which inspectors working in your neighborhood. So, for example, if you see next to your property was issued, say today to inspector 107, you could go to our staff information section of our website, click on inspector 107, and Sarah Holig's information will pop up, so you'll know exactly who should be coming to your property within the next couple of weeks. All right. And now, I'd like to turn it over to uh Michael Copeland, who will take you through the inspection process. Hello, I'm Michael Copelan. Um, now the next step uh when they're conducting the first visit is to look at the area surrounding uh your home. They would look at uh are you ne in an economic loss area due to uh things like a commercial property nearby, um high tension power lines, uh busy streets. Uh they would also look at the topography of your property. Is it flat? Is it uh sloping? Um they would look at views. As you know, some of the uh houses up on the hill here have beautiful New York City views. So that would also be considered in uh part of the first visit. Uh again, as I mentioned, uh high tension wires. They would look at immediately adjacent properties and those high traffic streets. On the first visit, um an inspector will come to the door and knock. Um if you are not home they will leave a sticker and then they will con uh conduct the exterior measurements of the property. Um that is uh taking to provide a sketch of the home and to capture all of the measurements um both of the house itself and any detached items. They will look at the architectural style. Are you a colonial? Are you a B

level? Are you a Cape Cod? um and look at the overall um all the aspects that uh you have on your property, patios, pools, things like that. Um that will ultimately give uh give you a sketch of your property. Shows you the footprint. It is drawn to scale. Um and it will have as you see some of the codes here. Um you will be able to ask questions uh uh once you've received your letter. if if you have any questions on what these mean. In this case, they have a brick patio, they have a wood deck, and they have a one and a half story house. Um, we do look uh at different uh basic designs. Is it a onetory? Is it a one and a half story, twotory, split level or bile level? The quality uh very important. Um, the all qualities for a home is based on the age of the home. So, if you have a 1920 house and it looks like a 2026 house, that would be an excellent or very good condition. If you have a 2026built home and it looks like a 2026 built home, that is in average condition. All of that is based on the age that the house was built. Also, if we if you look at a house and you see a house that was say built in 1990, but it looks in disrepair. It looks worse than you would expect to see uh a home that was from 1990, then it would be in fair or below average condition. If it's a full knockdown in poor condition,

as I mentioned, if no one is home, they will leave a sticker of when they are coming back to your home. Um, typically that those times will be in the evening, uh, sometime between 5 and 7. Um, if the time on that card does not work for you, you can give a call to our office and schedule an individual appointment and we'd be happy to reschedule it. We may also provide some Saturdays depending on inspector availability. If you are home and we are able to conduct an interior inspection, uh the interior inspection takes approximately five to 15 minutes. Uh they are not taking pictures inside. They are not measuring inside. It is a room count of all the levels. Um upper floors, attics, basement, everything is inspected. Take a look at the quality of those items. So, what is the quality of the bathrooms and kitchen and the overall condition of the home? If there is something when you have an inspection that you want noted, an inspector can write down a note and and they will add that to the record. Looking at the quality and condition of the kitchen will be examined. So, as I mentioned before, if you have a 1920 home, but you have a kitchen that looks like it was done in the last 10 years or so, that would be a modern kitchen for that 1920 home. However, if it was a 2025 home and it's a new kitchen, it would be an average kitchen for that home.

Quality of bathrooms is also looked at. Um those we have uh three different levels as well. We have modern, average and old. For basements and attics, we do look at the percentage of the of finish for those spaces. So if you have an attic that's not a pull down attic, but a walk upstairs, that would be an attic that we would consider. We would look point out if it has heat or no heat. We would also look at the basement looking for does it have heat and what percentage of that basement is finished. There are two different ways an interior inspection can be performed. one and the quickest way is when an inspector is at the home to allow them inside and for them to do a quick walkthrough of the home. However, if you have some reason why you are not comfortable having someone in your home, whether it is health related or safety related, we do offer a virtual inspection or contactless inspection via FaceTime or Zoom. in which case you would have a call with a uh with an inspector and they and you would walk them through the house on your phone with video showing them each individual room. Um those calls are not recorded. It is a live video, FaceTime or Zoom. Okay. If on the second visit they are unable uh to conduct the inspection, you're not home again, um something came

up, they will leave a second card that we call an estimate card. Um so if they have not gotten in the second time, they will conduct an estimate to the highest reasonable value of the home. Everything will be listed that they are putting on your record on this card. Don't worry if something is incorrect on that card. All you have to do is call the number and arrange for an inspection and that item will be corrected. So, if it says I have a finished basement and I don't have a finished basement, just give us a call. We'll get an inspection done and that will be corrected. The same in uh inspection process for residential is for condos and town houses. Now, we may make uh arrangements with a condo uh association to let you know um that we're conducting your individual complex at that time, but um the sketches are slightly different if they are entered in for master deeds for a complex. So, it shows us raw square footage number and we would go with those master deeds. But we still would want to do an interior inspection to see the current condition and quality of each one of those units. As you you can see an example of those master deeds and um how we would look at uh the different dimensions of the those units. All right. So, step number two is the analyzation part. So, step number one is the inspection process. Uh, the people that are coming to your home, they're inspectors, okay? They're collecting the data for the appraisers back at the

office. So, step number one and two kind of happen at the same time. While the inspectors are collecting all the information in the field, the appraisers are back at the office analyzing all this data. One of the first things we're going to do with the assessor is carve up the town into homogeneous neighborhoods. Okay, this the reason for this is we want to treat similar homes alike. Okay, and by carving the town into these neighborhoods, this helps us with the standard of being uniform, treating everyone in the same neighborhood uniformly. Step number three is our review process. Okay, once we collected all the information and start placing values on the property, we uh review all our information and then once we're comfortable with our information, we move on to step number four. And this is very important. Okay, so just to repeat, this is step number four of the reassessment process. And this is where we share our values with the property owners. So what I like to call them because they are are preliminary values. All right, we want to share this information with you because we want to get some feedback from the property owners. Okay, so sometime in November, each property owner will receive one of these letters from our company. It's going to tell you what the value is. We're going to get into a little bit of the projected taxes and then it's going to direct you to our website and this is where we post new information on our website. So, real quick, if you go back to those two examples that I spoke about where how much the net taxable value increased, at this stage of the game, we'll be a we'll know where that net taxable value is going. All right? So, at this stage, step number four, we'll be able to let you know and predict a

tax rate going into 2027 if we use the budget from 2026. Okay? All right. So, at this stage, you'll know if you're going to be in line for a tax increase, a tax decrease, or you're going to remain pretty much neutral. Okay? So, like I said, this letter is going to direct you to our website. Our website once again is www.asingj.com. So, once these letters go out, what we're going to post on our website first and foremost is that neighborhood map that I just explained. So, you're going to see how we carved up the town into different neighborhoods and what properties your home is being compared to. We're also going to put up the impact, so you'll be able to see the net taxable value where that's going. We're going to put up a tax impact calculator where you'll be able to calculate your projected taxes going forward. Okay. In addition to that, we post all the comparable sales that took place in the past two or three years. All right. So, the example I like to use is if you're a colonial style home that's 2,000 square feet, you're located in neighborhood one and we have you set for a million dollars. If you go on our website, you'll be able to filter and search for colonials in neighborhood one that are roughly 2,000 square feet. And if they are selling between 950 and say 1.1 and we have you assessed at a million, that should give you the confidence that you would be able to sell your home for that amount. Okay. And the last thing we post on our website because like I said, we really want to be as transparent as possible are all the residential assessments. Okay. So, this is very good and we got very good feedback with this. You know, a lot of times property owners have a hard time finding a good comparable sale or maybe a good comparable sale doesn't really exist, but it seems like every property owner knows their street, you

know, very well. So, you'll be able to go on our website, look at your neighbors assessments, and make sure you fall in line where you think you should fall with your neighbors. All right. Step number five happens. Like I said, as soon as these letters are mailed, you could research our website. All the information is there. If you rather just speak to someone about your property, you'll have the opportunity to set up an informal meeting with a representative from our company and they will go over first and foremost the property record card that Michael uh explained and they will help you um go through our website and we can explain to you how we came up with your assessment. Step number six, this will happen sometime in 2027, the beginning of 2027, probably the end of January, February. All the information will get turned over to the town and the county. And that's when your assessment will become final for 2027. And then at that point, you would have to file an appeal. Rick, would you like to take me through the appeal process?

Uh, sure. Um, before I get to the appeal process though, I just want to add to something Rob Rob touched on briefly on the neighborhood map where we uh where we carve the uh village into neighborhoods, color-coded neighborhoods. Um, that's very important in this town um in helping us establish land values um for corresponding total assessments. Um, and I can give you uh an example of okay, let's take a a house a a theoretical house that's built in 1950 1960 22500 square foot colonial. Um, if you take that identical house, okay, just the house, and you drop it, say in the old country club section of Rididgewood, or then you drop it off of Monroe by like the Willard School, or you drop it on Belair near Orchard, or if you drop it um near the Old Valley Hospital, or if you take it by Grove, or you take it all the way on the other side of 17, that neighborhood there. I just gave you, you know, seven different neighborhoods where that exact house, you drop it in those seven different places, it's going to have seven different potential sale prices. Some of the sale prices will be drastically different for the same house just simply because of the neighborhood that it's located in. And I think everybody here can can agree that there are definitely distinct neighborhoods uh in in Rididgewood. So, it's very important for us to define those neighborhoods so that once we value the house, we're not just valuing the house itself, but we're we're putting a correlating um

neighborhood land value to that as well. And so when you do file an appeal, um, if you file an appeal, whether it be an informal appeal where you come down and you speak to us about why you think your house might be assessed differently than we have it. Um, or if you do something a little more formally by going down to the county tax board in front of a arbitrer, a third party, and argue your case, um, you not only want to have evidence of similar houses, but make sure those houses are in similar neighborhoods to yours. Um, and if you can do that, if you can present a house that is similar to yours in a similar neighborhood, comparable neighborhood, same neighborhood preferably, and we have a discussion about what those houses are selling for versus uh what we stated your house at, um, we we we have no problem having that conversation and making an adjustment if warranted. Um, that's the process that happens during the informal meetings. But listen, we could disagree and we could respectfully disagree. It's an opinion of value. But it doesn't end there for you. If we say we believe our numbers right and you insist it's not, then you have the option of a nominal filing fee. I I what is it $100 for if you if you file an appeal with the Burden County Board of Taxation? I believe it's a $100 filing fee. You present your evidence to the county board. We present our evidence and then you can go down uh to the county and you

can, you know, you have that as an option. That's that's recourse. hopefully doesn't get to that point, but um we're going to have all of the sales and all of the evidence that you need on our website in order to present a case. And um we call that the final step um because um I just want to give everyone the assurance that um you know our our number isn't gospel and you have recourse if you continue to disagree with us. I don't know if any of you have ever gone through the process before, but it's it's not that difficult and hopefully it doesn't get to that point. Hopefully, we can resolve all the issues. That's our intention. That's our goal. But it's an opinion of value. So, with that, I think um we can open up the floor to any questions. Um unless So, so first, I just want to thank Rick, Rob, and Mike um for their detailed explanation of this process. Just a few things that I I want to point out and highlight from the presentation. Um first of all, as I said at the onset, a reassessment is revenue neutral and any information that's given out to the contrary is wrong. Let me just say that first and foremost. And what I mean by revenue neutral is there is a certain amount of money that's collected by the tax collector that's aortioned out to run the village operations to run the school district operations to send what we owe the county from our taxpayers and then to support the allocation from the public library. Those numbers, while they go up incrementally each year, um those numbers that we collect are are are certain. They're set by the adoption of the village, county, and school budget.

We are not collecting additional money or additional revenue at the end of this process. We are still collecting the same amount of money. The difference is who pays what portion is based on the new assessment rather than the assessments that were established back in 2012 and 2013. So I think that's an important point for people to know. Um secondly, Bill and I have people who who come in and ask about their current taxes under the current assessments. And unfortunately for them, we we don't have a lot of good advice for them because to file an appeal today and Rick was talking about once this reassessment process is complete at the end of this year. I'm talking about the ability to file a residential tax appeal today. It's very difficult to do so because to go to the county tax board and establish that you are overappraised, that your appraisal is set at at at a higher value than it should be, you have to produce comparable sales of homes in Ridgewood that are of comparable value. And right now, because the market is such a sellers market and because values are so high on homes and because our last reassessment was done in 2012 and went into effect in 2013, there really is almost no capacity for a resident to file a residential tax appeal and be successful unless there's really some outlier issue related to that. Bill, how many residential tax appeals did have we had in the past few

years? Uh, we had 17 in 22, we had 30 in 23, we had 17 in 24. Uh, last year I think we had 10, and this year we have eight. And And how many line items in the uh over 8,100 line items.

So we have 8,100 line items and we had 10 residential tax appeals last year. So, the reason I bring that up is because I think it's important because the only avenue at this point to bring fairness and equity to the values that are assigned to the properties in Ridgewood is to go through this mandated reassessment process because there really is no recourse in filing a tax appeal if you feel that your assessment is too high at this point. Um, the other thing I just wanted to reiterate real quick are the dates and then we're going to open it up for questions. Um, but as Rob indicated, inspections are going to start within the next few weeks. So, folks are going to start to have knocks at the door. You're going to start seeing those cards left if you're not there. We definitely want people to be made aware of that. We had a specific meeting um with the Ridgewood Police Department. All of the inspectors from Appraisal Systems that will be out on the street visiting with residents to inspect their properties. All of their information will be in the hands of the Ridgewood Police Department. pictures, IDs, signatures, information so that when that person comes to the door and when that person's walking around the neighborhood, all of the folks who are assigned from the police department to that shift are aware of those people being in the neighborhood to conduct these inspections. So, I just want to reiterate from a safety standpoint that the police department is well read into this process and they are aware of who will be on the street and in what neighborhood at what time. I think that's important. Secondly, October 1st um is a very important date because as was mentioned in the presentation, the values of the properties in the Ridgewood will be set as of that October 1st date. The notifications to the residents which will come later this fall. Paul and Rob, I believe you said

at the council meeting on on uh Wednesday night that it's a statutory date that appraisal systems has to to follow in order to notify folks of their of the new value that's been assigned. Is that correct? That's correct. It would have to be after November 10th.

So after November 10th, residents, property owners throughout the village will receive that letter with their newly assigned valuation. And then at that point, appraisal systems will start to conduct those informal hearings that Rick mentioned so that folks can go in and have conversations and talk about how appraisal systems arrived at the number that the property is assigned. Um, and all of this will go into effect for the 2027 taxation year. So with that, um Dylan, if you have a microphone, we're going to start just procedurally with questions from folks who are gathered here in the room. Uh Dylan has a microphone so he can bring that around and then once we've exhausted all the questions in the room, then we'll move to hybrid access where folks can raise their hand ver virtually and we'll call on them uh and they'll be patched into the room to ask their question. Ma'am.

Okay. So my first question is what type of training do all of the people that work for your company in each of their roles go through and what I'm thinking about how can you be certain that they are things that they are being sub um so I was asking about training for what what type of training do all of the people in your company go through in all of the different roles? rules. So, what I'm thinking about is how can we be certain that they are being subjective and that they are being fair across the board. Yes. So, all of our field inspectors are full-time employees of appraisal systems. Okay. And they've been working with us for a number of years. So, anyone who steps foot in Rididgewood has had years of experience. We do put them through an extensive training period. But I do want to point out that they are full-time employees. It's not a situation where we hire, you know, certain individuals to work on a certain town, get rid of them, and then hire another crew. So, they are full-time employees that have been trained and met all the requirements.

And Rob, the per the folks who were reviewing the data back at your office, you mentioned the appraisers. Could you just talk about their their training and Yeah. So, the appraisers again, um, I'm one, for example, I've been working since uh at this company since 2003. All right. You have to have your appraisal license to be at my level. Um, you have to go through uh take classes, courses for that, continuing education every two years. So, all of our appraisers on staff have been through that and have been working with us for a number of years.

Yeah. Look, I'm I'm proud to say that a lot of the same uh uh personnel uh that uh I worked with on this job in 2008 2013 are still with us. Yep. Next question.

You mentioned that external factors such as power lines are taken into consideration uh for the during the appraisal process. Um two-part question, I guess. Are these appraisals going to take into consideration the 60- foot high utility poles that were installed uh through Ridgewood a few years back after the then uh village engineer signed an authorization to allow those to be installed? Number one. Number two, how, if at all, will these appraisals uh sorry, reassessments uh take into consideration the continuing problems with uh drinking water quality that we have in this village.

So with the the polls that uh you mentioned, so those are site influences that were mentioned in the presentation. Site influences could be positive or negative. Everything is going to be noted when the inspectors go out in the field. All right? And then what the appraisers do back at the office is what is called a paired sale analysis to see what the effect of that site influences is on value. And if it's proving through the sales that that's an influence, you would see that adjustment on the property record card. So to answer your question, yes it will be noted and if it is determined that it affects value, it will be uh taken into account and we would see that through the sales. So there have been there was a question raised at a prior council meeting, not the one that appraisal systems attended, but I think it was the night that your contract was awarded. And the question was, for instance, the downtown since the last reassessment has experienced um significant growth, right? There's there's new multif family dwellings down there and that type of thing. So, there was a question that was asked, how does that play into um the new appraisal that will be assigned um as far as site conditions? So, could you just use that as an example? Um and that's where you have additional development downtown. For example, Valley Hospital is no longer Valley Hospital. It's an ambulatory site. Hospital moved to Pamis. There's far less traffic coming in and out of that site on Vanine. just could you speak to both of those examples how that might

Do you have a thought on this or

uh yeah yeah yeah my my thought just to expand on what Rob said um it absolutely those two examples uh we'll be looking at but at the end of the day it's really the sales that will dictate the decisions that we make. So the market data that comes out of the downtown commercial area based on the mo the most recent develop uh will bear itself um through through you know both sales and leases incomes etc. um you know the um sales that take place in and around where the old Valley Hospital used to be. We can kind of compare and contrast those to the sales like say prior when it was a fully functioning hospital. Um you know this is all part of the investigation process. I can give you with assurityity that all of these things we're going to be looking into. Uh but at this point um our investigation into the market um it's an unknown. We'll definitely have that answer for you and we'll have all of the reasoning and rationale for you after the decisions ultimately made because we have to we're going to have to present. Okay, here's the adjustment we made for this example because of X, Y, and Z or we didn't make an adjustment because we don't have this data. Do you have data? And that's where the exchange comes in. But those questions will be answered, you know, at the end of the job during that informal meeting process. And just with the regard to the last part of your question, water quality is not part of what they will consider as far as appraisal systems work effort goes. However, let me reassure you that our PAS treatment facilities will be built out by the end of this year with the exception of one uh which will be built out by the end of the first quarter of

27 and we will be in compliance with all D requirements once those facilities are $150 million worth of investment once those facilities are up and running. And actually as of today, six of the 12 PAS facilities are now online and providing um quality drinking water through those six facilities. So Dylan, next person in the room, remind me again, is the entire bureau on Ridgewood Water? Yes. So there's no other It's just Ridgewood Water. That's what I thought. Okay. Thank you.

Well, I want to thank you for coming here and give us this presentation, but I have some underlying issues that I'd like to present. Um, number one, I don't like people coming to my property when I'm not home. And um, and I would u find it very difficult to accept that. I I value my property and I value my privacy. And if I find somebody in my property when I'm not there, that would that would not be a very good idea. And number two, um, god can you address that to us because yes, excuse me. Let me address uh let me address the first thing right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right from the bat you call our office you give your name you give your location you explain your wishes and we will um respect that and we won't go to your property we'll set something up with you just call our office but if you don't call the office and you don't give your name and your address we're not going to know and they might knock on your door so make sure you call us and let us know that

that's understandable the second thing is um if somebody comes to my property and they fall over a branch or something I don't want to be liable for that. So, I'd like to see some sort of a workman's compensation insurance brought to us so I can prove that you guys are going to take care of that in case something happens within the property because I don't want to be responsible for that. Uh, we have insurance that was that was part of the contract. I understand that, but I got to see the workman's compensation insurance paper before I decide somebody's going to come into my property because there's a liability issue here. I mean, my my firm if you know, you can put

you can talk all you want, but I need to see the paper. When I hire somebody to work in my house, I always ask that they bring it and then that is fine. But I'm not going to be liable for somebody getting hurt in my property. They they trip on some sort of branch or they fall down whatever. I don't want that happening. Co- Call the Call the office and put in a request for the for the policy cover. Very good. That that doesn't help. I need I need to see the document. No, I got to see the document. And lastly, the meetings to u to talk to somebody. Will it be held here?

Uh in most cases, yes. I mean, we definitely uh do these meetings in person within a town. Um the location will be yet, you know, will be determined, but yes, a room like this would be perfect. It would most likely either be here or be at the public library just due to hours. Um depending on availability, right? Depending on availability. The library is open longer than we are, so we may set them up in the auditorium. But that once this process of the inspections is complete, we'll make those determinations and let folks know where those hearings will take place. Okay. So, we'll we'll be notified or we can see in the website. You'll be you'll be you'll be you'll be notified. Thank you very much. We appreciate very much. Thank you.

Thank you everyone for showing up here tonight doing this presentation. I have three quick questions. if you could just hold the microphone closer to your Well, maybe Well, the the thing is is that we're broadcasting.

Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Uh I have three quick questions and you can answer them at the end. Uh to uh Harry's point, why I was wondering why can't a call be made ahead of time to schedule the appointment rather than having someone just come to the door? My next my next question. I realize the definite connection between property values uh appraised values and assessed valuations. They're they're definitely directly connected. But I also do know that assessed valuations are typically lower than market values. And my last question which is kind of connected and this has to do really with the assess assessor's office is what tax rate is being utilized to come up with the final tax amount and valuation. Thank you.

I I mean I can answer um I'm sorry. What was the first question again?

Specific appointments. Oh, okay. Okay. I Okay. As well, as Bill explained, there's 8,100 properties uh in uh we need to put this project complete this project for 2027. And to manage 8,100 personal appointments is just undoable. Uh trust me, my experience will will tell you that even if a town has a thousand properties, I couldn't manage 1,000. This is mass appraisal. Um, we try because of that, we try to make it as convenient as possible and we'll show up there and if you're not there, we will work with you uh to try and come up with a time that's mutually convenient. But in order to manage 8,000 plus properties, it's this is the best way to do that. Um, uh, the second question, I'm sorry, remind me again what the second Oh,

yes. That's an interesting point and it always feels that way because we establish on a specific date October 1st u in this case two 2026 that's that's the valuation date based on the history of sales the previous six months to a year leading up to that point. Your taxes though are going to be based on your payments that you make in 2027 are going to be based on that number that was established a year earlier. So whenever you're in a market that continually goes up when you're paying your taxes in 2027, it's going to feel like that number is lower than what you can get for your house. That that that's the sense that I get. But I can assure you that our responsibility as of October 1st is to establish what it would be worth at that fixed point in time. You're just going to be paying taxes based on that number moving a year in ahead of that date.

Well, it is now. Yeah, it certainly is now. You mean when it's when a first reval is first done? Uh, in other words, if an appraisal was done by property appraisal, somewhere on that appraisal would be the assessed valuation. And I know from reading up on this information that assessed valuations are typically lower than the values.

Again, I it's if I were to give you a number right now, um, my job is it needs to be consistent with fair market value. Okay. Now, if you were 6 months from now, I it could be way off. It could be too low. I mean, that's what I'm sensing. I think the best way to explain this is that as of October 1st, the appraisal should match fair market value. Now, what happens after that is anyone's guess, right? Already tonight, already tonight, Rick mentioned, you know, the 2008 reval that happened here in Ridgewood, right? went online, then the market crashed. Yes.

Which necessitated within a four-year period then conducting an entire new reassessment because in that case, what you likely saw was the value of homes drop below what was assigned in the assessor's book. Now, generally speaking, homes are gaining value. And since COVID, we've really seen homes gain value. So in this case, that's why it's so hard right now to file a tax appeal because you don't have comps. So you're correct. The the the assessment is signific significantly less than far um fair market value, which is why we are where we are. And that's why our ratio has fallen from 84% in 2022 to 60% in 2026, which is necessitating this process. So yeah, I I agree with what you said 100%.

Well, I think Rob gave a good explanation. The t the tax rate, the predicted tax rate can only be established after we uh we finish the job and come up with the the new aggregate. And it's simply um the way that Rob comes up with that predicted tax rate is it's a simple mathematical equation. We take the aggregate of all the new assessments divide it into the uh the the total budget school county local and that's where you get the tax rate from

and Mr. Lorocco, the tax rate is established each year, right? So, for example, if we have a year where, you know, a lot of construction happens in the village, right? And Bill puts on a significant amount of what's called added assessments, somebody puts an addition on their house, somebody puts a deck on their house, there's a new ratable established when the when the uh the highdensity housing downtown came online, it changed the ratable base. That rate is that that number that Rob referred to earlier, the equalized value of the entire town is established annually. And then based on that total, the tax rate is established annually. In this case, obviously, we're going to have all new valuations of these of these properties in the town and then we will establish the new tax rate for 2027 based on that. Okay,

great. Next question right there. Hi. Uh my first question just to piggyback a little bit from what this gentleman was asking um in 2013 or circa that time when the town was reassessed. So if we look at an assessment value right now at a home no matter what it sells for are you saying that that assessment value represented the market value in 2013 of that home? Yes. Okay. That that's great. Um there are which which I don't want to interrupt you and I don't want to belabor it but that's the reason that there was such a short window between the reval of08

and the reassessment of 12 because there was such a dynamic change in the market when it crashed that rate uh valuations came down and needed to be reestablished in 2012.

Got it. And my next question is so there are a lot of properties obviously you've seen the market a lot of property being expanded renovated and reassessed around that time. So my property was reassessed in 2023 or 24 when we completed our our renovation to my house. Um, are those properties being reassessed again? Because you mentioned they reassessed in 2013, but ours were reassessed. They will be Why don't you speak to somebody who did a full addition and has been readressed since then.

Yeah, you were reassessed based on the values and the assessment placed in 2013, not today's market. So again, that's why we have the ratio showing the difference between the assessment based in 13 versus the market value now and the tax rate at the number that it is. So we're again, we're looking at assessments changing to higher numbers and rates coming down. But yeah, your assessment and your change on your home was based off of the values in 2013. So that goes for like if somebody buys a house four months ago that was completely redone, reassessed, that same thing for them. Yeah, it's still it's still taking the 2013 assessments. I'm not changing it to today's market.

I'm still working off of those 2013 assessments, making adjustments for it then because again, the tax rate is higher than it will be off of a 2026 value. So, in order to have the assessments lower, that's why the tax rate's higher. And then we're just going to kind of flip. So, so let me just let me just say this, right? I love my tax assessor, but he speaks in tax assessor, right? So, so let me let me say this. You're you're he's not change when you do it a big addition on your house, right? Do new renovation. He's not basing it on the market v the market rate of 2023. It's still based on the market rate of 2013. What he's adjusting are the improvements that you made. So, if there's a new master bedroom and a new master bath with two walk-in closets, that's now has to be factored in as he closes out that building permit. But the the the market rate that he's basing on doesn't change. The improvement changes the assessment. Am I right?

Yeah. Over here.

Hi. Thank you. Um I the on one of the slides I saw the interior you're kind of comparing a 1920s house to a 1995 kitchen. Correct. So you're it's a subjective kind of assessment of that kitchen, the interior. And so my question is is you're taking a how how do you subject or objectivize objectivize? Am I that is that a word? I don't know if that's a word. Objectivize. Uh a value on a kitchen that looks like it's you know it renovated in 1990 on a 1920s house. Um that's considered modern for that house. I'll I'll give you an example. My house is 175 years old. A 1990 kitchen is a modern kitchen comparatively to that house, but it's not a modern kitchen in 2026. So, I'm I'm trying to understand how do you objectifi objectivize? I don't know if that's a word.

I mean, the how do you under how do you uh assess that value? The quick answer to your question, correct me if I'm wrong, in your case, that's still a typical condition. There's what's called deferred maintenance. We assume that there's upkeep to the house, especially a house that old, but what you're telling me that kitchen isn't going to um cause a buyer to pay extra for your home just because of the kitchen condition if it was built in 1990. So, that would still be classified as a typical condition with no, it's not modern. And the same thing for like the bathroom, correct? and we're we're looking for the extremes above and beyond in either direction.

Okay. Yes. Thank you. I'm glad you'll see my house. It's really nice, actually.

Does anyone else in the room have a question? Sir, as Dylan's passing the microphone, if there's anyone on hybrid access who wishes to ask a question, if you'd like to virtually raise your hand now, we'll move to that in a few minutes. Yeah, maybe I covered this earlier on because I I came in late, but um my question is I have two questions. One is how the current assessed value impact the new assessment if any. So for example, if you assessed it uh can you increase it by 60%. Or are there any caps on this? Number one and number two is um the stay in New Jersey for seniors. This is outside of this program, right? So the assessment is independent of this and whatever programs the government or the state offers. Uh are there any is any information about this new stay in New Jersey?

Thank you.

Quick answer. No, we don't. We don't. Uh the the the previous assessment has no bearing on our new number. Um nor nor should it because the reason the reason why we are doing this the reason why the county tax board ordered this is because it's been deemed that these assessments are inequitable and dated and so right and and to your second question um yeah I'm sure the assessor has the corresponding documents for any senior deduction any stay programs and so forth. We're not we don't get involved with that. reestablish the number and then subsequent to that whatever state programs will be. Yeah.

Anyone else in the room? Yes. Don't I have one over here? Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I hope you can understand my English. Uh English is not my language. So, I'll try to I have a two question. Uh interior assessment and exterior assessment. If I stay home, they're going to do same time. Yes.

Then how long like exterior assessment and the interior? You told me interior assessment is no take a photo, no measurement. They just see how many loom I have the update the bathroom or kitchen. But ext they measure the houses. So yeah, how long like exterior how long does an inspection take? I mean the question the typical inspection I would say is about 20 minutes exterior interior. It does depend on the size of the house, how many ins and outs there are on the home, but I think we could all say about 20 minutes from start to finish total.

Yeah, about 15 on the exterior, about five on the interior depending on the size of the house. Okay. And then I read this paper they said same similar houses they you visit not the neighborhood right it's like you visit today I will you guys visit my neighborhood or similar housing so yeah I would say typically the inspectors try to inspect say 15 to 20 homes a day so they would work doortodoor on any given street so when the inspectors buy your home I would expect that they're on your street for the entire day.

Okay. One more question. If inspector came after one week after or someone visit to inspect my house, can I say no? Because someone already visit to inspect my house. So, you know, I just wor if we should only be showing up to your property once to do the inspection and once we get inside, we will not be returning. Oh, okay. No returning. That's not going to happen. Okay. Yes. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Dylan, we have a question here in the back corner. I'm getting my steps in. It's all right. He's getting his steps in. He's good.

Thank you for a thorough presentation. My question is um are homes located in a flood plane uh affected any differently? Yes. The Yeah. Uh to what degree? Um I revert back to my other explanation. you know, our investigation based on the analysis sales analysis market uh will will determine uh to what degree we make an adjustment, but historically we almost always give adjustments for homes being in a flood zone. And Rick, I know this came up back in the day when I was in Woodland Park because we have flood issues there, too. Do you look at repetitive loss data as part of your

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And we also have access to all of the corresponding, you know, flood flood maps. um overlays and so forth. And you know, I'm very interested in in in getting as much data as I can to paint as clear a picture. Historically, um you know, I've worked in some towns where it it really is a major issue and um you know, we're we're my firm's well-versed in in investigating those those issues related to flood. Very good. Anyone else in the room? Yes. right here. This gentleman right there, Dylan. Right.

Just a general question. Uh exterior. Let's say uh you have a generator or central air versus a home that doesn't. Uh does that affect the assessment? I Rob, I don't think the generators do. We don't Do we pick generators out? The on center depends on the town and we'll decide. Um, Central Air for sure um is a line item on the property record card and it does add value. Again, it's not a major contributor to value. You know, you're looking at the lot size, size of the home, style, those are the major, but yes, central air for sure is on there. Um, fencing or uh fencing? No. Walls? Nope. Okay. Thank you. Landscaping wall uh fences, they don't worry about those things.

Okay. Okay, if there's no one else in the room, um Mark, if you could patch through Vinnie R on hybrid access. Hi, are you guys able to hear me? Okay, Vinnie, we can hear you. Go ahead.

All right, perfect. Yeah, I just have a quick question regarding I have no issues with someone coming into my home, but I do have a my family and I have a couple vacations planned over the next couple of months, so we won't see a sticker left on our door. what is the time horizon between um a sticker left behind if we do miss them and the next time they come to visit and the followup part B to that is if we are in home and a sticker is left is there a way somewhere digitally that we would be able to kind of monitor I know you mentioned the website and when they'll be in the areas but um I think you know where I'm going with the question so I just wanted to kind of understand a little more about the timing since it is on a fast process here sure Michael

um yeah So, if you um one, we do have that list of inspector locations. So, once your property is assigned there, um as Rob explained earlier, we'll be there in the next 3 to four weeks. If your vacation is planned during that time, give us a call. Um we'll put you on a special needs list and uh remove your property from being inspected at that time. Um and then we can come and then you can call for an appointment when you get back. Um otherwise um the time between stickers is typically only a couple days. Uh the first visit um uh they would go say on a Monday um by Tuesday through Thursday they would be revisiting that to attempt to do an interior inspection.

And then also I would just like to add I'm not sure if this was your question but we will be doing interior inspections up until the time what we call the book being closed which would be uh early in 2027. So, even after the preliminary values are mailed out, we will still continue doing interior inspections for properties we didn't get into. So, even if you miss that window, there there'll be plenty of time to do an interior inspection. Thank you, Vinnie. Uh Mark, if you could enable David to participate by hybrid access. David, can you hear us? Yes. Okay, floor is yours. Go ahead.

Thank you. So uh you might have answered this already. Sorry I joined late but does a recent purchase and purchase value uh have any effect on the reassessment value? Uh yes uh what we do it the recent sales in the past we'll say in the last two to three years will definitely be used to determine the market value of other properties in that area. So I would say absolutely. So your p David, do you have any other questions? Okay, that was

move on to We're going to move on to Amy. Mark, if you could let Amy in.

Amy, can you hear us? Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes, Amy, the floor is yours. Thank you. Um, I have a question. Um, so is there a way we can see the um, uh, result? U, so for example, if there's a mistake um, accidentally made by the assessor or whoever come in to visit my house, is there a way to correct it?

That that is a great question. And when we send the preliminary value letters out uh mid November, there will will be a paragraph that tells you if you would like to request a property record card, you can email us at, you know, a email address that will be set up for Ridgewood and we will send you a property record card. That's a great question and I encourage anyone to uh get a copy of that because like you said first and foremost you want to double check that the objective data on your property was collected accurately.

Yes. U so second follow-up question is um you probably have already mentioned it um how long how soon can I request the report card after the um visit? So typically what we what we we can give you an inspection record that's going to not have that much information. What I recommend to you is after that value letter is mailed, then you could get a full property record. Just so we're the the letter after November 10th, then you could request a full copy of your property record card that will have all the information on there.

And then at that point, there'll still be time I'm sorry to cut you off. At that point, there'll still be a number of months still left to this project where you will be able to get any information corrected that you feel is uh incorrect. Got you. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. If there's anyone else on hybrid access, we have almost 50 people on hybrid access. So, between hybrid and in person and on YouTube, we're about 90 folks who who participated in this tonight. So, is there anyone else on hybrid access that has a question about the process? Okay, seeing no one, I think that's about that's a wrap. But I just want to stress to everybody both on hybrid and in person that this entire process is meant to be collaborative. We want you to communicate with appraisal systems on any questions you have. If you have special circumstances where you have a health condition and you need to set up a specific appointment or if you're going to be out of town for an extended period of town time during the inspection period, we want you to call appraisal systems. Um they are looking for reasons to say yes to our residents and make this process as painless as possible. Um and along the way, if you have questions for our tax assessor or for my office, I've actually left cards on the back table. You're welcome to call Bill or Renee in the assessor's office or call my office um if you need some additional information or you have additional questions as we proceed here. So, thank you all for coming out. We appreciate your time. We hope it was informative.

Thank you.