City administration may be happy with Western Municipal Consulting Ltd.’s (WMC) board of revision (BOR) services, but not everyone on city council believes an outside consultant should hear residents’ property assessment appeals.
Council voted 5-2 during its Nov. 27 regular meeting to have administration negotiate a new contract with WMC for BOR services for 2024 for a second year; Councillors Jamey Logan and Kim Robinson were opposed.
More due diligence
Council and administration have not performed enough research on this topic when compared to the information that property owner Kristy Van Slyck provided during her presentation, Robinson said.
Furthermore, a situational review shows the city paid WMC nearly double what it gave the civilian-led BOR in 2021, he continued. He thought council owed it to residents to find the most cost-effective solution.
“It may be Western Municipal Consulting, but I don’t think we’ve done much looking into it … ,” he said. “Let’s take the time to at least determine whether this is the proper decision.”
Robinson also rejected the idea that council had to choose WMC now, considering city hall releases the property assessment role in May.
Complaints with process
Logan said he had received complaints from several residents about WMC, specifically that it was unwilling to accommodate appointment changes or that it claimed emails were lost and citizens were never aware of their meeting date.
“It seems like they’re really ruling with an iron fist,” he continued.
Logan stated that he was concerned with how WMC conducted its business and not the company itself. Moreover, he did not want a citizen-led BOR since the last one was overworked and underpaid, although he thought council should review other options.
Rehire WMC
Mayor Clive Tolley served on the local BOR for 10 years and said it struggled to acquire members and was incapable of handling a large volume of appeals. He noted that during the board’s final year in 2021, it required three extensions to produce reports.
Council hired a professional organization last year, and without a suitable, inexpensive alternative, he supported rehiring WMC — his preference was a local board — because council had been “pushed into a corner.”
Meanwhile, with Van Slyck saying there are 25 other BORs throughout Saskatchewan, Tolley wondered if city administration knew anything about them.
Proven track record
In response, Coun. Dawn Luhning — a board member with property assessor Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) — said most boards are connected to another community. Therefore, it’s unlikely they could leave their area to provide services to another community.
Luhning noted that council went through a search process to find a new BOR and — after receiving two options — chose WMC because it was inexpensive, professional and had a proven track record.
Get the facts straight
This issue has become “contentious” but there aren’t many qualified assessors in Saskatchewan who can write reports, she continued. Furthermore, while rehiring WMC is probably not a perfect decision, it doesn’t matter since people are never happy.
“So if you think the grass will be greener somewhere else, probably not. There will be problems on the other sides as well,” she stated.
Luhning also chastised Robinson for suggesting council never appointed BOR members until May, considering appointments to most boards and committees usually happen in the fall.
“There’s a lot of things being thrown out around here that aren’t factual — from probably all of us,” she added. “I know this is turning into being a heated discussion over property assessments, but let’s make sure we have our facts straight before we say something … .”
Happy with services
City solicitor Andrew Svenson said that while a second BOR option exists through the Nokomis-based ADR Institute of Saskatchewan, that government-created entity did not apply and is for municipalities that can’t acquire their own BOR services. Meanwhile, city administration did not conduct a “thorough search” this time.
The assistant city clerk then confirmed that city administration was “happy with the services” that WMC has provided.
Clean up the process
Coun. Doug Blanc expressed concern about the process because council has received “numerous” complaints from residents who were never informed about their appeal dates. When they do speak to the board, though, it’s usually the person versus a “large number of people” on WMC’s side.
Council should look for another BOR provider and investigate further to ensure it receives the “best bang for our buck” and that citizens are treated fairly, he continued.
Blanc added that city administration should inform WMC about residents’ concerns and have it clean up those issues while improving its communications; Svenson agreed to relay that message.
Past issues
Coun. Heather Eby recalled when Tolley was on the board and how it asked council to review its remuneration since members wanted to be fairly compensated for their heavy workload. They were having trouble finishing their reports and had difficulties finding suitable times to meet.
“We did not vote in favour of giving more remuneration then. We wanted to save citizens money,” she added.
Coun. Crystal Froese said that the citizen-led board was backlogged, the few members were stressed and the process was “broken.” She noted that council attempted to help the BOR — it searched widely for unbiased members — but it made no sense to continue supporting it.
“People have a right to have their appeals heard (in a timely manner), but that wasn’t happening because of the volume of appeals,” she said, adding members require a certain skillset while these appeals-focused entities are not “a dime a dozen.”
The next regular meeting is Monday, Dec. 4.
