Melissa RussellLast year, Belmont changed its treasurer from elected to appointed. Later this spring, the same change may come to the Board of Assessors.
Select Board Vice Chair Elizabeth Dionne calls the proposed move an attempt to make governance “transparent, efficient, and cooperative.” She said the current structure that once served Belmont “does not work anymore.”
Robert Reardon, chair of the Board of Assessors, countered, calling the idea “a solution looking for a problem.”
A 2022 report on the town’s financial structure by the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management recommended the town improve its governance by moving to an appointed treasurer and assessors to professionalize the positions and foster closer coordination among financial functions.
According to the state Division of Local Services (Mass DLS), the benefits of moving local officials from elected to appointed positions include attracting a wider candidate pool with strong credentials and relevant professional experience and providing the opportunity to define job requirements and reporting structure.
There will be a public hearing Jan. 18. If the article is approved at special Town Meeting Jan. 22, voters will weigh in on April 2. The proposal started as a citizen petition from Precinct 8’s Angus Abercrombie.
Town Administrator Patrice Garvin stated the Select Board has yet to adopt a formal stance on the issue.
Elected versus Appointed
Assessors determine the value of a town’s real and personal property to calculate property tax rates for the fiscal year. They must pass Massachusetts Department of Revenue training to learn state-approved methods for assessing the value of properties. According to the Assessors Office, the assessors appraise about 8,000 parcels of property in Belmont.
The Collins Center report recommended Belmont centralize decision-making, responsibility, and authority. Moving to appointed treasurer and assessor positions is part of that, Dionne said.
Appointees would be motivated to work cooperatively with the town’s finance director, treasurer, and accountant, and the change would improve accountability, Dionne said.
“If any [member of the finance team] isn’t playing nicely with the others, it makes things very challenging,” Dionne said. “We want to move forward on a number of fronts, and it is fair to say, the Board of Assessors has not been forthcoming with the information that we repeatedly requested. They repeatedly pledged to take action on certain things, such as senior tax relief, and have done nothing. We need to move forward. In my mind, there is no argument for an elected Board of Assessors.”
Reardon defended the Board of Assessors, saying there is no issue getting qualified people to serve.
“There are no problems with the assessing practices,” he said. “We all serve a three-year term, and if we’re not doing a good job, someone could run and replace that person.”
Reardon called Dionne’s statement that the current board has not been effective on items including senior tax relief, “disingenuous, to say the least.”
“Tax relief is something not in the purview of the local Board of Assessors. It is under state statute,” he said. “I don’t think we can be held accountable for things we can’t change without state statutes. We have to govern by laws we’ve been given.”
He expressed concern over the idea of the Select Board removing a member of the Board of Assessors with whom they disagree.
“That seems a little harsh. It doesn’t sound democratic to me,” Reardon said.
Who would be appointed?
Dionne said it would be essential to find assessors who are in “philosophical alignment with our desire to grow Belmont’s tax base.”
“We keep raising taxes on the residents, and we still don’t have enough money. It’s going to take time to grow out of this, but if we don’t start now, we’ll never get there,” she said.
Dionne said moving to an appointed position would lead to a small but robust pool of applicants.
“One of the things that matters is succession. If we don’t have a Board of Assessors, we are toast because we can’t certify our tax rate, we can’t issue tax bills, we can’t collect taxes. It is imperative we make this an attractive position for a very small pool of qualified assessors.”
Reardon parried, “It is important to have an independent board that can give impartial opinions. We’re an impartial board, doing our best for the residents and taxpayers of Belmont and making sure we are fair and equitable to everyone in the town.”
Dionne said she hopes Town Meeting will pass the article “overwhelmingly.”
“The appointed treasurer has been a smashing success,” she said. “Given how well the treasurer is working out, it is a good data point for people to consider doing something similar with the assessors.”
