The council president said the assessors can bring legal counsel to the meeting about the possible discipline.
Anthony DuludeHOLYOKE -- The City Council will consider whether to discipline Chief Assessor Anthony Dulude and Assessor Deborah J. Brunelle regarding the over-taxing of Macy's that forced the city to refund the department store nearly $960,000, councilors said Tuesday.
The discussion will include Dulude's taking of a $1,000-a-year stipend from the city for eight years for a certification from a trade group that he actually didn’t have. Dulude is repaying the city with deductions from his paycheck, officials have said.
"We will be discussing their job performance clearly as it relates to these two matters," council President Kevin A. Jourdain said, in the meeting at City Hall.
The council Public Service Committee will discuss the assessor issues in a meeting to be held next month. Such a public meeting is needed to address the public's questions about the assessors' issues, Chairman Peter R. Tallman said.
Dulude and Brunelle declined to comment when reached after the meeting.
Jourdain said the council was following city charter rules for the possible disciplining of employees by announcing a meeting date and giving notice to the employees.
"They're welcome to come with legal counsel, if they wish," Jourdain said before the meeting.
The council appoints the assessors. But it was Mayor Alex B. Morse who has considered the issues serious enough that he has put a letter of reprimand in Dulude's personnel file, Dulude said last week.
Councilors David K. Bartley, Tallman and others said they were disappointed how the assessors' issues have been handled so far, but it was unclear if that was a criticism of Morse.
Dulude was paid the stipend for supposedly having yearly certification from the Massachusetts Association of Assessing Officers, of Marlborough. But Dulude hasn’t had the certification from the group since May 2004, according to online records.
The association is a statewide professional association whose primary function is to help assessors learn about the profession and stay trained. It is unaffiliated with the state of Massachusetts.
Jourdain has said Dulude had assured him he would complete a course to get recertified with the Massachusetts Association of Assessing Officers by the end of this month.
The state Department of Revenue requires that those who work as municipal assessors complete the department’s Division of Local Services’ Course 101, Assessment Administration: Law, Procedures and Valuation. It is the basic training program provided for local assessors.
The city had to pay Macy’s in August to settle a complaint it had been over-taxed the past three years.
The issue was the city and Macy’s disagreed on how its 201,000 square feet at the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside should be valued, officials said.
Macy’s sought an abatement, which the Board of Assessors denied. Macy’s appealed to the state Appellate Tax Board in a case involving three years worth of values. Assessors and Macy’s lawyers settled the case in August.
An abatement is paid from a part of the budget known as the overlay account.
The abatement paid to Macy’s is $332,740 for fiscal year 2010, $367,321 for fiscal year 2011 and $256,359 for fiscal year 2012, City Treasurer Jon D. Lumbra said.
Assessors determine property values based on sales of similar properties in the past year. Dulude previously said assessors thought the assessment of Macy’s property should be based on the square-footage rate used to determine the mall’s value, which was $97 a square foot.
This raised the value of Macy’s to $27 million and increased its tax bill to $990,000 a year from the previous $535,000 a year, Jourdain said.
But Macy’s argued it should be treated as a store independent from the mall, at a square footage price of $37.
Under the agreement, Macy’s assessed value dropped from $27 million to $18 million for fiscal year 2010, $17.2 million for fiscal year 2011 and $16.2 million for fiscal year 2012, Jourdain said.
The agreement drops Macy’s tax bill to $624,000 a year, said Jourdain. He argued that a silver lining despite the forced $956,420 payout is that the city with the $624,000 bill will be getting $89,000.