Second Reval in the Works

This letter was sent to Scarsdale10583 by Bob Harrison: Scarsdale Taxpayers: Alert and unite. On Tuesday March 3 the Scarsdale Village Board will hold a public Finance Committee meeting at 8 PM at Village Hall to discuss a NEW COMMUNITY WIDE REVALUATION for 2016 with John Ryan of J. F. Ryan Associates. Mr. Ryan was the monitor of Tyler Technologies work for the 2014 revaluation and was paid about $ 110,000 for his work and advice. Tyler was paid over $1,000,000 by a competitive bid contract to do the 2014 community wide revaluation.

The Village Board has now hired Mr. Ryan to do a DRIVE BY reval of Scarsdale's 5,700 residential properties based on July 1 2015 values at the cost of $ 245,000 of TAXPAYER MONEY in a NO BID CONTRACT. We urge Mayor Steves to allow public comment at this meeting and to tape the meeting for our community TV channel in effect OPEN government for Scarsdale.

We urge every Scarsdale taxpayer resident to attend this meeting and protest this WASTE of taxpayer money for a new reval when the 2014 reval still has about 750 outstanding small claims assessment review cases and Article 78 proceedings against the Village. The VILLAGE BOARD SHOULD RESCIND AND REPEAL THE AUTHORIZATION TO SPEND $ 245,000 WITH J.F. RYAN ASSOCIATES IN A NO BID
CONTRACT FOR A 2016 COMMUNITY WIDE REVALUATION.

The results of the 2014 revaluation were excellent with a coefficient of dispersion of 4.39, the best in Westchester County as stated by Village Manager Al Gatta. In my conversation with John Wolham, senior official with the NY State Office of Real Property Services there is NO state mandate to do future revals. On the ORPS website there is a suggested guideline to do a reval every four years. There are NO penalities by the state for not doing any reval. Scarsdale should do its next reval in four or five years.

A number of residents have sent emails to the Mayor and Village Board urging the repeal of this WASTE of Scarsdale taxpayer money.

We urge every taxpayer to send an email to clerk@scarsdale.com. This email address is the only way to make sure that every member of the Village Board will hear from our residents. We will also be circulating a petition opposing a 2016 reval. The residents must tell their Village Board that we have been through a stressful, painful and costly reval process and NOW is the time to let the dust settle from the 2014 reval.

Contact Bob Harrison for more information at proscars@aol.com or call 725-0962 .

Bob Harrison, Chairman
Scarsdale Taxpayer Alert