NORWALK, Conn. – An angry but determined Norwalk taxpayer took her four-year fight against Norwalk City Hall to Hartford on Wednesday.
Members of the Freedom of Information Act Commission called their decision in the case brought by Lynnelle Jones, a Wilson Point resident, a “compromise” as they ordered the city of Norwalk to make an effort to get documents for her. But Assistant Corporation Counsel Diane Beltz-Jacobson said the documents don’t exist, although Jones has evidence suggesting they do – a paid invoice to an appraiser in the amount of $1,500.
Jones is seeking the results of an appraisal done by Sheehy Associates LLC in reference to the 2008 valuation of her home at 10 Point Road, which she owns with her husband, William Lipschutz. She would also like a copy of minutes taken at a May 29, 2009, Board of Assessment Appeals hearing, which contested the valuation.
Jones says she has already “lost” a court case in the matter. The Board of Assessment Appeals denied her appeal of the city’s appraisal, and, on July 23, 2009, she filed an appeal in Stamford Superior Court. Court documents show that the city’s valuation was $2,599,200. Jones wanted it dropped to $1.75 million, which was the value determined by an appraiser she hired, Guy Rocco. On Sept. 13, 2012, Judge Taggart Adams ruled that $2.050 million was a fair appraisal.
Jones suspects that Sheehy’s appraisal matched hers. She would like to see it.
“It’s all over, but I just feel I have a right to this information,” she said to commissioners.
Hearing officer Valicia Dee Harmon said she felt there was “strong evidence” that such an appraisal exists.
“When I see the payment of $1,500 and then I see a public agency refer to an appraisal in their forms, and then I see the complainant able to find a picture that was part of an appraisal and I have her testimony that pictures were taken inside,” she said, “I find it very hard to believe there wasn’t more.”
Beltz-Jacobson, who has not been involved in any previous matters involving Jones’ complaints, said there is no written report.
“In fact, there is an appraiser who took pictures inside the property, and there was a payment made to that person, but that is not conclusive of the fact that an appraisal exists,” she said. “… There was an oral report given to the city and he was paid for his consultation, but there was no written report.”
Associate Corporation Counsel Brian McCann had handled correspondence on the matter. No city of Norwalk representatives made it to the March 25 hearing on Jones’ complaint. That was a preliminary hearing in which Harmon ruled in favor of Jones. That proposed final decision was considered by the FOI Commission during Wednesday’s hearing. Tax Assessor Michael Stewart was in attendance as well, waiting from 2 to 4 p.m. for the complaint to be considered.
Harmon’s proposed final decision included ordering Norwalk to provide the records to Jones free of charge.
Before the hearing, Jones said she was expecting Norwalk to present its argument against her, although the city hadn’t made it to Harmon’s hearing, even though it had been reminded.
“I do not believe that the city of Norwalk should get a second bite at the apple and to let them come up with legal argument after four-plus years of this nightmare,” she said in her opening remarks to the commission. “I think would be grossly grossly unfair. … The excuse that the city just forgot to come to the hearing is really hard to believe.”
But Beltz-Jacobson’s only argument was about paragraph 15 of the ruling, which concluded that an appraisal exists.
The commission voted to approve the decision made by Harmon, with two amendments. One quoted the city as saying that the BAA had not been keeping minutes at that point, and quoted the city as saying it does now. The city will turn over any records it has of the hearing in question, the ruling said.
The city is ordered to contact Sheehy Associates and attempt to get whatever documents it may have generated as a result of the work it did at Jones’ home.
“Sheehy and Associates must have something that the city must have paid for,” Harmon said. “If they have paid for it, they can call them up and get it and they can provide it to this complainant.”
Jones said the appraiser was there for an entire day and came back the next morning. She said she lost a full day of work for that, as well as for the two hearings she has attended in Hartford.
She said she feels appraisal modifiers are unfairly applied in her neighborhood. The view of Long Island Sound is rated as being better at her home than at other homes in the neighborhood, homes that sit directly on the water, documents in the tax assessor’s office show.
It’s not about money, it’s about the principle, she said. “In the process of my four-year fight, I’ve spent more money on attorneys than I would have saved in taxes.”
Correction made, 2:18 p.m.: Sheeney changed to Sheehy.
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