Property Assessment Becomes a Tale of ‘He Said, He Said’

Carmel Town Assessor Paul Jonke told the Courier that an error in the assessment of a Stoneleigh Avenue property was not his fault. On April 21, the Carmel Town Board consented to reduce the property’s sewer and water district charges from $378,780 to $207,274.40.

Carmel Supervisor Kenneth Schmitt told the Courier that the charges were deemed “erroneous” because the property, owned by the not-for-profit Putnam Community Foundation (PCF), had been billed as a commercial property; however, the land should have been taxed as residential.

Jonke said this property was originally expected to be a commercial property although it was zoned as residential. It had also consisted of 42 acres at the time of its original assessment; however, the PCF sold seven acres of that land to Putnam Hospital, and its property now consists of 35 acres. He explained the reason for such steep a water and sewer levy is because the property is out of district and subject to a higher levy as such.

“The land owners owed five years of back capital,” Jonke said. He continued that he doesn’t bill properties that are considered out-of-district; instead, this is the job of the Town Comptroller. When asked why the mistake had gone seemingly unnoticed for so many years, he said he wasn’t aware of it because only the comptroller’s office does this type of billing. “Whenever they [Town Comptroller] get around to it, they send out a bill.” At the time of this assessment, the Carmel controller was Tom Carey, who has since retired but currently works as a finance consultant to the town.

Carey said that it is the job of the comptroller to bill out of district properties but that he was told by Jonke to bill the nonprofit organization using the commercial property formula.

“We only bill out of district properties and it is based on the assessor’s office determining the value. He [Jonke] makes the determination—he’s the assessor,” said Carey.