Suffolk City Council to hold meeting on assessments

I sure wish all of you ignorant people who think only the "priviledged" own the waterfront in Suffolk would actually bother to do some leg before you make your dumb statements about paying our fair share. I own a modest piece of waterfront, have been there for many years, and my household income is probably less than many of yours. I call it smart planning and hard work. The bottom line is that the assessments were totally unfair and inappropriate and, like someone else said, no proper research was done before they arbitrarily threw some numbers on some properties. I guarantee you if YOUR assessment went up as much as some of ours did, you would be the loudest one screaming.

I'm with you wilkerson3, I am on the edge of my seat too. It has to be "breaking newsworthy" come Tuesday. As I stated last week, what a joke this is.

I live on a tidal creek which is deemed creek "waterfront". I have about 4 hours a day of navigable use. My assessment jumped 40% this year and it almost jumped the same amount last year while I was deployed (unable to represent myself to fight it). Mrs. Kattman's office did ZERO field work and due diligence with any of the properties in our city. All waterfront is not created equal and cannot fall into a cookie-cutter computer model. Her office did no inter-Departmental work with the Planning Office to check permits and what was actually on the properties. Her office had no idea what permit I had pulled in the past and they wanted me to actually get a letter from the planning office to try and resolve my issue
Thus, the City Assessor relied completely on aerial photos and what was on their computer database. It appears to me that none of them really looked at the GIS plots or property surveys from my meetings with them. In addition, I attended a few of the Board of Equalization meetings and the Assessor could never really answer the "why" for the increase in property assessments. For example, one gentleman was trying to understand why his .13 acre plot was taxed at a relative hig

Geee. I wonder if this special meeting will result in lower assessments for the priviledged few who own waterfront property. I sure hope so. I'd hate to see them pay their fair share of Suffolk taxes.

In the past few weeks City of Suffolk has weather thunderstorms, tornados and firing of the City Assessor.
Well, here will go again. Suffolk City Council is going to consider compensation for the fired City Assessor and appoint a new Assessor at tonight meeting.
I predict, Ms. Kattmann will obtain her "Golden Parachute" as compensation for her years of service, just as other persons who worked with former City Manager Myle Standish received.
With a Mayor, whose business is real estate and other council members who are attorneys and represent developers in Suffolk. The new City Assessor will have his/her hands full as these City Officials push their clients through the system to buy/sell property.
"GOOD LUCK AND GOD'S SPEED!" to whomever is appointed the new City of Suffolk Assessor. I can wait for the outcome!
mose

...we are all on the edge of our seats waiting for the brilliance that is sure to come out of this meeting.................