Businessman Bernie Dombowsky is frustrated with the two organizations that handle property assessments and appeals complaints and wants city council to reconsider the relationship with both groups.
The co-owner of Charlotte’s Catering told council during its Dec. 18 regular meeting that the business community still has concerns with Western Municipal Consulting (WMC) providing board of revision (BOR) services and with the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) continuing to appraise properties.
“In previous years, Moose Jaw had a standard cap rate model for all commercial properties for the entire city,” he said, noting he and property manager Kristy Van Slyck brought the new rates to council earlier this year, with council agreeing that the multi-variable classifications made no sense.
Dombowsky filed several appeals when the city had a citizen-led BOR, with that group agreeing that SAMA’s cap rates were unfair to small retailers. Even though he won his appeals locally, SAMA appealed to the provincial level and won using a nearly 700-page assessors’ handbook — a document he brought to council — to justify its decisions.
Council replaced the quasi-judicial citizen-based BOR in May 2022 with WMC in hopes of receiving more favourable appeal decisions and losing less tax revenue, even though the municipality would pay this private company nearly three times as much, he continued.
“At the last (council) meeting (on Jan. 23), it was stated that it was too difficult to sit on the board of revision. (Well), that issue could be easily resolved with fair remuneration,” said Dombowsky, noting the previous BOR members made under $20 an hour — an amount that no professional would ever accept.
“There’s no reason why Moose Jaw can’t have a fair board of revision.”
The businessman accused city administration of making a “flimsy attempt” to find a new BOR service provider because of alleged time constraints, even though there were many less expensive options.
Under WMC, there have been zero small retailers who have successfully had their assessments overturned, with only a large box store and hotels successful, Dombowsky said. He initially filed an appeal but withdrew because he didn’t want to lose his money, knowing his complaint would fail.
“So there needs to be fairness brought into this system. So I would ask that the contract with Western Municipal Consulting not be renewed without consultation with property owners,” he continued. “And, that SAMA’s contract not be renewed without consultation with property owners.”
Not even city council has been able to stand up to SAMA, which said it would not conduct a secondary audit of its operations, Dombowsky pointed out. If no one is willing to push back against SAMA, there’s no point in appealing.
“Nobody is allowed to win against SAMA. And you (council) are really complicit in that … ,” he added. “No matter how wrong they are and how right you are … when they state something, they can never lose.”
Coun. Kim Robinson agreed that council should review who provides board of revision services since it made no sense that council would pay a private company over a citizen-crewed board. Instead, city hall should pay the local board the same as WMC.
Council and administration must provide property assessment and BOR services, and without any reasonable alternatives to do something different, they signed contracts with the two current groups, said Mayor Clive Tolley.
While the last citizen-led BOR did good work and was dedicated, the chairman was performing most of the work and asked for several deadline extensions so he could finish writing the appeal reports, which was unfair to property owners waiting for timely replies, the mayor continued.
Tolley added that he wanted council to work more closely with the business community on these issues.
In response, Robinson claimed that council had been presented with options for BOR services, while there are alternatives since other cities have their own assessors and boards of revision. He noted that WMC and SAMA would be out of business if they were regular companies receiving this many complaints.
Coun. Crystal Froese said Dombowsky’s concerns raised questions in her mind about the process with these two organizations.
However, she said it was difficult to find a BOR replacement because council didn’t have options in January, which prompted the rehiring of WMC. Moreover, the province legislates that municipalities must have such services in place.
Council then voted to receive and file the presentation.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Jan. 15, 2024.
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