CATTARAUGUS COUNTY
Olean, Allegany ask for relief on assessment costs
LITTLE VALLEY — Officials from the towns of Olean and Allegany told Cattaraugus County legislators Wednesday they are happy with their tax assessment service contracts, but they feel the price is too steep for their municipal budgets.
For the past four years, the two towns contracted for the services of an assessor through the county’s Real Property Tax Service office, paying $16.99 per parcel. That helps pay for an office worker to help the assessor.
Real Property Tax Service director Nancy C. Barney told the legislators and town officials that she will come back to the committee May 6 and present an hourly rate that could replace the per-parcel cost, based on a reduction in office hours at each of the towns.
Robin Pearl-Lamphier, a full-time county employee in the Real Property Tax Service department, keeps the Olean town assessor’s office open from 9 a. m. to 3 p. m. one day a week. During January and February, she is in the office longer. The town pays the county about $26,000 for the service.
In the Town of Allegany, Pearl- Lamphier keeps the assessor’s office open from 9 a. m. to 4 p. m. two days a week, with extended hours in January and February. The town pays the county about $54,500 for the service.
Olean and Allegany are the only towns that have taken the county offer for contracted assessor services, though Pearl-Lamphier and another department employee, Dan Martonis, also moonlight as independent assessors in several other towns on their own time. Martonis is an acting appointee in the Town of Portville.
Barney is in the process of showing towns the results of a recent study that points to public mistrust of the current municipal assessment process. Part of a plan now being roughed out by legislators would establish a shared-service assessment contract for nearby groups of towns.
Allegany Town Supervisor Pat Eaton and Pat Zink, who attended the session with fellow Town Councilmen Joshua Torrey, Leo Nenno, and Charlie McCool, said they don’t want to return to their former appointed and elected assessor system due to past disputes over values.
“You propose an increase in regionalization. We noticed county services were involved in all three [Olean, Allegany and Portville] using it,” said Zink, noting the momentum for the county assessor concept.
He told the legislators that the charges are out of line with $14,700 average paid for appointed assessors in eight other towns with a similar number of parcels.
“I’m here asking you for some relief,” Zink said, requesting a $10,000 reduction and cutting Pearl-Lamphier’s office hours in half.
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