Scarsdale Welcomes New Village Assessor Victoria Sirota

Theresa Diamond, Jane Lawrence, Victoria Sirota and Margaret SmoyverScarsdale has a new Village Assessor. Victoria Sirota, who served as assessor in North Castle has accepted the job and was officially appointed at the February 25 meeting of the Scarsdale Village Board of Trustees. Here are comments from Trustee Justin Arest, welcoming Sirota and thanking those who filled the void while the Village undertook their search.

As many are aware, former Assessor, Nanette Albanese unexpectedly resigned from her position on Friday, March 1, 2019. The Village wasted no time setting up a plan and I am very proud that the hard work of many has led us to the appointment before us tonight, just less than one year later. I would be remiss if I did not make a few comments of appreciation before proceeding. I am a huge advocate of process and ensuring that the proper steps are taken by the right people in order to promote the best decisions and hopefully the best outcomes. But, regardless of how impressive of a plan could be implemented in terms of a search, without stability in our Assessor’s office over the past year, none of it would have been possible. We are all very grateful for the hard work and substantial time put in by our Village Manager to ensure our incredible professionals had the resources they needed, including the important addition of Edye McCarthy as a consultant. Thank you to Edye for her assistance. I need to extend a big thanks to Ms. Jane Lawrence who I imagine would never have believed anyone had they told her she would have served as Acting Assessor for a year. She continued to say yes when Scarsdale needed her and for that we should all be grateful. To say that her service was integral would still be an understatement.

Finally, quick thanks in the interest of time, to all of the participants of our search committee, the outside professionals that aided us and at times educated us, former HR Director Adil Tahir and current HR Director Angela Sapienza-Martin who did most of the leg work and helped us stay organized, and former Mayor Dan Hochvert, current Mayor Samwick and Village Manager for their leadership and unwillingness to ever panic.

Over the course of this process we received over 30 resumes from interested applicants. Of those, over a dozen candidates were seriously considered and many of them were interviewed multiple times by the search committee as well as the Board of Trustees. The road to get here might have been a little longer than anticipated but, I could not be more pleased to introduce Scarsdale to Victoria Sirota.

Victoria comes to Scarsdale from the Town of North Castle where she has served as its Assessor for 8 years. She holds a BS in Accounting and a BA in Russian from Rutgers University where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Victoria is a CPA and spent fifteen years in the accounting and taxation fields until deciding to take a step back and spend more time with her family.

Victoria’s career in municipal assessments began in 2012 when she was appointed to be the sole assessor for the Town of North Castle. Victoria, along with the assistance of her professional staff in North Castle prepares, maintains and defends an assessment roll of approximately 4,800 properties for the purposes of taxation for the Town (that includes the hamlets of North White Plains, Armonk and Bedford-Banksville), five school districts, Westchester County and various special districts. Victoria is a member of the Institute of Assessing Officers. Otherwise known as the IAO, it is chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. An assessor with an "IAO" designation, such as Victoria, is recognized as one who has achieved the highest level of professional competence in his or her field. Additionally, Victoria is a member of the NYS Assessors Association where she plays a valuable role on its Legislative Committee, and, an Executive member and also Past President of the Westchester County Assessor's Association.

Victoria is looking forward to working with our community and encourages residents to call and/or stop by the Assessor's office with any questions related to exemptions, assessments or even just to introduce yourself.