I am writing in response to "Our View: Township needs to better inform residents" from the July 28, 2008 issue of The Monroe Times.
We have lived on a farm in the Town of Monroe for 24 years and my husband has owned and run a business in the Town of Monroe for even longer. This is not the first assessment we and many others in the town have been through, but I'm glad that a good number of Town of Monroe residents finally turned out to complain about their assessments. If there is something that the Town of Monroe could do to improve this process, it would be to hire someone other than Gardiner Appraisal Service of McFarland to do the assessments.
For starters, the assessor who actually came to my husband's business prior to the open book was arrogant, rude and judgmental. After receiving an inflated assessment for the business, my husband was among those at the open book, and told Greg Gardiner that his firm should not be using Madison evaluations for Green County. Maybe thinking my husband was just another hick from the sticks trying to pull a fast one, Mr. Gardiner requested my husband give him a financial statement, which he did...and low and behold, the business's assessment was lowered. The new assessment came in the mail the following day, so we question whether Mr. Gardiner even looked at the financial statement...but it took a whole afternoon of my husband's time away from his business to put the paperwork together for Mr. Gardiner.
Another Town of Monroe resident I spoke with was at the open book because his house, which he had just purchased, was assessed at much higher than what the actual purchase price was. Gardiner Appraisal Service does not appear to be doing its homework, not only using a one-size-(Madison) fits-all approach to assessment, but doing shoddy work on top of it.
Lest anyone think the Town of Monroe is an isolated incident, we also have a small piece of property in the Town of Caledonia in Columbia County. Earlier this summer, we had to waste an entire afternoon and evening going to that open book because, guess who, Gardiner Appraisal Service, put someone else's structures on our property. I would guess the turn-out for the open book at the Town of Caledonia was even higher than that for the Town of Monroe, and property owners there were very hot under the collar. We had to wait over an hour just to talk to Linda Gardiner, all to correct an error that was the result of the firm's poor work. On top of that, the assessor for that property came last September, but Gardiner Appraisal Service called us last spring and said they needed to view the property, as they had no record of anyone being there. After my husband "refreshed their memory" with the name of the assessor and the date she came, they didn't have much to say...and shortly thereafter we were mailed the erroneous assessment which prompted our visit to that open book session.
When we first moved to the Town of Monroe, Dorothy Roth, another resident of the Town of Monroe, was the assessor. She was polite, asked what she needed to ask, and respected our privacy, not demanding to see every square inch of the house as assessors for Gardiner Appraisal Service do. Gardiner Appraisal Service may be a quick, although no doubt expensive, fix for towns to get assessments done, but the firm is a big headache for property owners. It may be that the appraisal service has more work than it has competent staff for, and has made sacrifices in quality and accuracy. Perhaps it's time for the Town of Monroe to consider down-sizing, and return to an earlier time when the assessor was "one of us," not a firm out of Madison that doesn't have a clue about life in rural Wisconsin. I do not know whether or not the Town of Monroe has made an effort to find someone locally who might be interested in going through the appropriate training and certification, but now is maybe the time to think about doing so.
We have lived on a farm in the Town of Monroe for 24 years and my husband has owned and run a business in the Town of Monroe for even longer. This is not the first assessment we and many others in the town have been through, but I'm glad that a good number of Town of Monroe residents finally turned out to complain about their assessments. If there is something that the Town of Monroe could do to improve this process, it would be to hire someone other than Gardiner Appraisal Service of McFarland to do the assessments.
For starters, the assessor who actually came to my husband's business prior to the open book was arrogant, rude and judgmental. After receiving an inflated assessment for the business, my husband was among those at the open book, and told Greg Gardiner that his firm should not be using Madison evaluations for Green County. Maybe thinking my husband was just another hick from the sticks trying to pull a fast one, Mr. Gardiner requested my husband give him a financial statement, which he did...and low and behold, the business's assessment was lowered. The new assessment came in the mail the following day, so we question whether Mr. Gardiner even looked at the financial statement...but it took a whole afternoon of my husband's time away from his business to put the paperwork together for Mr. Gardiner.
Another Town of Monroe resident I spoke with was at the open book because his house, which he had just purchased, was assessed at much higher than what the actual purchase price was. Gardiner Appraisal Service does not appear to be doing its homework, not only using a one-size-(Madison) fits-all approach to assessment, but doing shoddy work on top of it.
Lest anyone think the Town of Monroe is an isolated incident, we also have a small piece of property in the Town of Caledonia in Columbia County. Earlier this summer, we had to waste an entire afternoon and evening going to that open book because, guess who, Gardiner Appraisal Service, put someone else's structures on our property. I would guess the turn-out for the open book at the Town of Caledonia was even higher than that for the Town of Monroe, and property owners there were very hot under the collar. We had to wait over an hour just to talk to Linda Gardiner, all to correct an error that was the result of the firm's poor work. On top of that, the assessor for that property came last September, but Gardiner Appraisal Service called us last spring and said they needed to view the property, as they had no record of anyone being there. After my husband "refreshed their memory" with the name of the assessor and the date she came, they didn't have much to say...and shortly thereafter we were mailed the erroneous assessment which prompted our visit to that open book session.
When we first moved to the Town of Monroe, Dorothy Roth, another resident of the Town of Monroe, was the assessor. She was polite, asked what she needed to ask, and respected our privacy, not demanding to see every square inch of the house as assessors for Gardiner Appraisal Service do. Gardiner Appraisal Service may be a quick, although no doubt expensive, fix for towns to get assessments done, but the firm is a big headache for property owners. It may be that the appraisal service has more work than it has competent staff for, and has made sacrifices in quality and accuracy. Perhaps it's time for the Town of Monroe to consider down-sizing, and return to an earlier time when the assessor was "one of us," not a firm out of Madison that doesn't have a clue about life in rural Wisconsin. I do not know whether or not the Town of Monroe has made an effort to find someone locally who might be interested in going through the appropriate training and certification, but now is maybe the time to think about doing so.
