Suffolk fires its embattled assessor

Can a City Council be impeached? Can they be fired before their term is up?

All this talk about the "rich" not paying their fair share. Why should a hard working "rich" person who wants to live on the water in a $1,000,000 house pay 3 or 4 times the tax that the guy living in a $250,000-$300,000 house pays? They both get identical city services. For that matter, why should he pay 4X the income tax, sales tax, personal property tax, etc, etc, etc, and on and on? Where's the reward for working hard/working smart?

Yet city assessments (at least mine) went up 12 percent last year and another 5 percent this year. I see loads of houses for sale that have had signs up for over a year now. I think increasing the waterfront properties like she did was just Kattmanns final straw. Whatever program she's been using has some serious flaws. The poster who said the council must live on the waterfront, is right as far as Johnson goes. At one point her waterfront property was assessed lower than smaller inside lots with smaller houses. I think that was about five years ago. Someone must have complained though, because one year her assessment jumped up to match the rest of the neighborhood. Suffolks assessments are on line, so it's easy to check. Kattmann needed to go though, mostly because she had an attitude of she could raise assessments as much as she wanted and if the home owners didn't have the time or smarts to appeal then they got ripped off. We should be able to trust people that hold public seats. Obviously in our local governments that's not the case. It's time to vote out all the elected members of government and fire all the appointed ones. Let's start new.

Doesn't this sound like the real mistakes were made PRIOR to this year?(the homes being greatly underassessed). So the property owners benefitted from the prior assessments. Now that they're properly valued (and taxed)the owners are complaining? hahahahaha!!!!!

When do we fire the idiot assessor in Norfolk? The state rules on assessment are very clear. Look them up on line. Homes are NOT valued at market. There are way too many examples of homes on the market sitting stagnant well below the assessed value. That info is available on line as well. Required working papers do not exist. All properties on a given street will go up by the same percentage regardless of differences or lot locations. The money drunk, private developer loving council in Norfolk uses the assessors office to take the heat for unvoted upon tax increases yearly. This charade needs to end NOW.

If you have nothing intelligent to say you could always resort to judging the lady based on her appearance. Priceless.

We have triple the taxes we have now so that his development projects could be funded with our tax dollars. The way Norfolk and VAB tax dollars fund his slum projects now.

all the city council people probably live on the water why else would they care????

It's funny you people keep posting about the "rich" in Suffolk. These so called "rich" people would be the middle class if they lived in VB. The only difference is these people were smart enough to move out to Suffolk where the cost of living is cheaper then in VB... I know because I am one of these so called "rich" people. Take my mortgage to VB and I get a shack in Indian Lakes or Green Run.

Suffolk council needs to take a good look at themselves for this problem.
They hired somebody for an independent opinion on her department and found she was a strong leader but was SEVERLY under staffed.(hmmm lets just fire her to save are butts)Instead of helping with her staffing problem they just sit back and watch her drown.I hope she sues for wrongful termination!

If I were the risk manager of Suffolk, I would be meeting with my finance director immediately. And if I were the Finance Director, I would be setting up a reserve fund for the pay out that will be required. And if I were a citizen, I would be asking some hard questions about how a consultant hired by the city council could study and opine that the assessor was doing a good job, only to fire her a few short months later. Stand by for a very expensive law suit.

The one's leasing luxury cars or the ones with the 401k's.

The cities are out of control with their spending. They spend our money like water, crime is rampant and the same idiots keep getting re-elected.
The asessment on my house went up to 50K MORE THAN I PAID FOR IT in the 8 months I've owned and I appealed the assessment--it's insane what these assessors are doing! More than half of my mortgage payment is taxes--the payment and interest is $1290 and the taxes are $600 a month!

In some areas of Suffolk the fair market value of property decreased. In others it increased. On average, a slight increase for the city as a whole with the majority of increase coming from property next to water. Exactly what other cities in Hampton Roads have experienced in this real estate market. No different.

Removing the assessor will not change the assessments. Property values are simply a reflection of current market conditions. Buyers and sellers determine what the property is worth. The assessor doesn't set the market value she simply reports it.

These clowns on city council are a hoot. If they want to reduce the tax burden on home owners all they have to do is lower the tax rate accordingly. Why aren't they? Ask this question Dave Forster. Ask this and many more.

Just another scapegoat in Linda Johnsons buracacy. I would suspect she was doing only what council and others expected her to do and then the powers couldn't stand the heat so they fire the messenger. Wouldn't it be nice if we could fire the entire city council? Oh, we can! It is called voting but apparently most voting people are satisfied with what they are getting for their tax money.

You guys are finally waking up to the realities of your community needs, not city interests by recognizing that the property assessment process is unfair & broken.

Oh my gosh! Waterfront property is worth more than other property??!! Who let this information out? Clearly she has got to be stopped.

The problem is that, in a depressed real estate market, the city continues to assess properties at ever-increasing value. To keep assessors honest, the city should be forced to buy homes from the property owner at the assessed value.

You know the problem is that the rich pay for the politician's campaign. So the rich via the politician stick it to the middle class. And guess what? The middle class keeps voting them in…go figure.

...is an honest, fair and just City Assessor. Apparently City Council only lives by the 'Golden Rule", those with the "Gold" rule. You idots weren't complaining when you were flipping houses for 135% of their true value.....someone should check the Real Estate transfer records and see how many names also appear on City Council.........

Interesting thing this assessment vs taxation for value percieved. The owners want top dollar when they sell....the city wants taxes paid on the perceived value and the appraiser values it at what a buyer is willing to pay...there is no middle road here..no one can be faulted..

The assessments have lagged far behind the actual sales value for years..but the woners got benefit of this without paying taxes on the "real" value a buyer was willing to pay..being in real estate for the last 20 years, this is a no win situation for the sellers feel they should be taxed low and sell high, the appraiser feels it should be appraised low even if a buyer is willing to buy high and an assessor is caught in the middle...

I have seen many homes assessed at only 60% of the actual value...does the seller scream I am not paying my fair share of taxes then..you better believe they keep mum about it but then they feel they really should get the max out without being fair in paying their portion of taxes.."to be continued"

It just sounds like the rich complained, and what the rich want they get! Make me wonder about Virginia Beach??? But thats life, middle class always pay their taxes, we complain but we dont have the power like the rich!!

The value of the property when it was last transfered ONLY! It`s only fair if I paid 100k that I should pay taxes on that. If it`s sold for 125k the new owner should pay for that. Do away with the accessors office almost completely!!

A typical city council move....."kill the messenger!" All the Hampton Roads city councils are exactly alike. They take no responsibility for anything. VOTE THE BUMS OUT

It wasn't she raised the rate, she doesn't control that, it was that was she had no logical explanation for how her new system applied to various properties. As the article said, her assessments were pretty arbitrary and some of us ended up with increases of over 120%. I think she got what she deserved (put that into dollars and you are looking at $150-200K jumps). Now I just hope Suffolk can straighten out the mess she and her office made. I applaud Linda Johnson for being so proactive in all of this as well, and honestly, I wasn't a big fan before recent events.

To the previous poster...her boss is city council and she does not set the rate, council does! The Assessor is one of 4 dept heads that report directly to Council.

This is the most ridiculous side show I have ever seen in local government. Our Mayor is a licensed REAL ESTATE AGENT and apparently does not know how market values are assessed! She SOLD some of the houses in question! Council asked for the redo in last year's firestorm and then wondered why she did...publicly anyway. A joke, this council is a joke.

If Parr and the rest think the system is broken, then like so many other Suffolk agencies, they need to adequately fund and supply them. Oh wait, they need tax money for that and no one wants to pay for that!

My assessment went up six percent this year yet property values have dropped. The home next to mine sold for less than the assessed value year before last. The assessed value was dropped to the selling price that year but the following year went up by ten percent then another six percent this year. Houses in my neighborhood are staying on the market over two years now, whereas before they were sold before the sign went up. It's time to start limiting the ammount an assessment of residents who have lived in their home for five years or more to the cost of living index. In other words, no matter what the market does a homes assessment could only increase by the percent of the cost of living index. Years that the homes value does not increase would allow the assessment to be increase (but still limited to the percent of the index). That way long time residents will not be getting taxed out of their homes. Most residents homes are not just an investment to be bought and sold, it's where we raise our families.

I'd hope they take her boss out also. I'm sure he/she had something to do with her getting creative in her assessments. She was following directions I'd suspect. I don't think she took it upon herself to raise the tax rate. Shame she has to be the 'fall person' for a seemingly standard procedure in the area.

Sounds like the wealthy didn't care to pay their fair share of taxes and took umbrage when Ms. Kattman attempted to balance the tax scales a bit. The lesson here is "don't mess with rich people or they will have you removed from your job". Hopefully, she will find employment in a place where the Country Club Crowd doesn't run the show.....obviously not locally.

....by giving our city assessor the boot. I'd doubt it though. The individuals that run this city are too interested in taxing and spending so as to keep their developer cronies happy.