ALERT: #123
DATE: February 22, 2007
TO: Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners
FROM: Village League Tax Revolt Committee

Dear Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners,

Yesterday we won a HUGE Victory before the County Board of Equalization for the approximately 1000 members of the Village League who had signed and filed their Petitions for Review by January 15th.

Attorney Suellen Fulstone did a spectacular presentation on behalf of the Petitioners. The final vote was three to two in our favor. IT WAS A REAL SQUEAKER!! The hearing began at 8:30 A.M. and the final and decisive vote was not until 6:00 P.M. A long day for all. I am just now starting to draw a deep breath.

Washoe County! They are doing everything possible to stop us. They want your MONEY; there is no doubt about that.

On Friday - February 16th, the County Board of Equalization Chairman, Steven Sparks, opened the proceedings by reading aloud an email that he had received from District Attorney Richard Gammick, the night before. The letter contained a veiled reference to a perceived “conflict of interest” by the office of the District Attorney; therefore, Gammick stated, the office of the D.A. could no longer proceed to act as counsel for the County Board of Equalization.

Then Chairman Sparks read aloud his letter of resignation, and immediately left the room. As was anticipated no doubt, this intimidation of the Chairman of the County Board by District Attorney Gammick, left us with a County Board of four members. If a vote ends in a tie, the Appellant loses. (That would have been us!)

The new counsel for the Board, who had been hired by the District Attorney, took his seat and a mind numbing reading of all of the parcel numbers, names and hearing numbers of the 1000 Petitioners followed.

A terrific vote of thanks to all of you who heeded our call to attend the hearing. None of us were aware of the stalling techniques that had been carefully planned by Washoe County.

Just before adjournment, we were stunned by a sudden proposal from Assessor Josh Wilson, that the rest of the hearings be CANCELLED as 46 of our members had already won their appeals the previous Monday. No action was taken on his suggestion, so the next morning at 8:30 A.M. we were once again positioned to present our appeals.

After 45 minutes of waiting, we were informed that the “new” counsel was unavailable! The counsel previously provided by the District Attorney’s office reappeared and told the board that if they would waive the “conflict” problem, he would stay. After much discussion, they declined to continue with the hearing and another day was lost.

Day three. An alternate member for the Board had miraculously been appointed by County Commissioner Larkin.

At last, we were able to proceed and in what was obviously AN ENORMOUS SETBACK to the County, we WON!

In March 2006, the Village League had appealed and won, before the County Board of Equalization, a roll-back of assessed values for all residential parcels in IV/CB to the tax year of 2002. However, in December 2006 the Assessor sent out Assessment Notices to all of us reflecting the higher values as were determined for 2006 by the assessor, (before our March victory), plus a 15% increase in land values.

On Wednesday we won another roll-back. This time, the 2007 assessment values were rolled back to the 2002 assessed values.

However, the battle is not over. No doubt the assessor will once again appeal our current victory to a hearing before the State Board of Equalization.

Sincerely,

Village League to Save Incline Assets Board Members:

• Maryanne Ingemanson, President
  
• Dale Akers, Historian
  
• Les Barta, Law Research
  
• John Carney, Analyst
  
• Wayne Fischer, Webmaster
  
• Ted Harris, Tax Revolt Committee Chairman
  
• Todd Lowe, Financial,
  
• Chuck Otto, Public Relations

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