MOOSE JAW — Having heard the business community’s frustrations with the city’s property assessment contractor, Coun. Chris Warren wants to force the contractor to provide more educational sessions for city council and residents.
A motion to renew the contract with the Saskatchewan Management Assessment Agency (SAMA) was presented during the Aug. 11 regular council meeting, which prompted Warren to introduce an amendment.
He wanted city administration to create an operational guideline for the finance department that formalized two main expectations under the assessment services agreement with SAMA.
Those expectations included:
- That SAMA provide a formal public presentation to council by Nov. 30 of each year, including an overview of assessment changes and trends; a summary of the cap rate model changes, including comparative tables; identifying legislative changes that affect assessments; summarizing appeals and outcomes of appeals; and the legal fees the agency incurred or is forecasted to incur
- That SAMA deliver, at a minimum, one public open house annually to provide residents with access to assessment information and support, and, one educational session annually to enhance council’s understanding of assessment practices and changes
Warren said he thought he could amend the original motion, based on a section in the procedure bylaw. However, the committee chairman ruled his amendment out of order, which forced the councillor to introduce it as a notice of motion later in the meeting.
Council will debate the motion at its Aug. 25 meeting.
Initial discussion
Warren asked administration many questions about the motion to approve the SAMA contract.
Administration told him the contract’s projected cost next year was $819,000, while performing the assessment work in-house could cost over $1 million annually. Moreover, the one-time cost to launch the program would be almost $300,000.
Furthermore, administration said there is a shortage of property assessors in Saskatchewan and Canada, while Swift Current recently had issues with its in-house assessors. Yet, the benefit of SAMA is it can access provincial resources virtually to support the city.
“For city administration to hire an assessor for the City of Moose Jaw would be a real challenge,” said city manager Maryse Carmichael.
Carmichael noted that not having an assessment provider would delay city hall in issuing the tax roll or producing the annual tax assessments, thus delaying the city’s ability to collect revenue.
The city manager also said administration thought it was important for council to speak with SAMA annually, which is why the new contract forces the latter to provide a presentation by Nov. 30 of each year. Also, council can discuss any topic it likes during those meetings.
Warren said the previous contract lacked an educational or awareness piece about the assessment process, which was important for people to understand since the system was “foundational for the viability of a city.”
Meanwhile, Carmichael said residents with questions can discuss them with administration, and if administration can’t answer the queries, residents can meet with SAMA, which has an office at city hall.
Carmichael added that the agency can also provide formal education sessions to residents, either one-on-one or in small groups.
Hands off SAMA!
Coun. Dawn Luhning — who is a SAMA board member — said she favoured the extra educational sessions, but took issue with comments people had allegedly made during the meeting about wanting the city to have “full control” of assessment services.
“Let me make something very clear: Nobody in this city wants the (municipality) to have a conflict of interest with how your assessment is completed … ,” she said agitatedly. “You do not want your elected officials and your administration telling you what your assessment should be because we want as much money as possible … .
“I’m not going to have any part of that because that’s a conflict of interest for me as an elected official … . It is 100-per-cent wrong.”
Continuing, she said some residents who are upset with their assessments want council to have a secondary audit conducted on SAMA. However, that only happens when the agency fails to comply with provincial legislation. Moreover, assessments are “highly legislated” and cities can’t “just willy-nilly” change them.
She added that Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert have in-house assessors and other municipalities use SAMA — but everyone follows the legislation.
In response, Warren said there was nothing in his amendment about wanting to control SAMA, but only language about “quality control.” Furthermore, he noted the amendment was based “entirely on contract language” and comments from administration and he wanted to formalize that as part of the renewed agreement.
“It’s not changing the contract, it’s just adding a little bit of clarity,” he added.
Council later paused the meeting and went in-camera to receive legal advice from administration. After returning, Warren’s motion was ruled out of order.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Aug. 25.
