ALERT: #124
DATE: February 24, 2007
TO: Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners
FROM: Village League Tax Revolt Committee

Dear Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners,

Events are happening so quickly, that by the time I have almost finished writing an Alert, it has become old news. The next hearing, following our last terrific victory before the Washoe County Board of Equalization, was our Class Petition scheduled for February 23, 2007.

The Board of the Village League had become aware that District Attorney Richard Gammick was planning to bombard us with uncountable procedural and administrative blocks to allowing our Class Petition to go forward.

We also noted that a decision had been made at a prior County Board of Equalization (CBOE) hearing to schedule, on February 28th, an additional day for a hearing to determine the matter of equalization of property taxes within IV/CB and the remainder of Washoe County.

On the day before our Class Petition hearing yesterday, after much deliberation and many, many phone calls with our attorneys, the Board of the Village League made the decision to withdraw our Class Petition, and avoid the expenditure of time and funds that would be certain to follow as we fought, through the courts, the challenges to be made by the District Attorney to the procedural legal aspects of our Class Petition.

Instead, the Village League Board determined that Attorney Suellen Fulstone could represent ALL of the property owners in Incline Village and Crystal Bay at the planned CBOE “equalization” hearing on February 28th.

The first Item on the Agenda at our hearing yesterday was a blatant attempt by County Board member James Covert and the Acting Chair, Pat McAlinden, to force two members of the CBOE who had voted in our favor for the 1000 IVCB Petitioners’ victory to RECUSE themselves!!

Member Covert suggested that “ethics” demanded such an action. Of course, the real and extremely transparent reason for all of his concern about “ethics” was to reduce the number of voting members of the CBOE to three, whereby he and the Acting Chair would control all decisions to be made.

This motivation became even MORE apparent when Covert also suggested that the favorable ruling at our prior hearing be overturned!! One of the members under attack was an Alternate, (replacing prior Chairman Sparks, who had been intimidated into resigning by District Attorney Richard Gammick). Acting Chair McAlinden announced that he was to be replaced by a different Alternate. The two members being pressured to recuse themselves held their ground and the attempt to reconfigure the CBOE was defeated.

The Washoe County Clerk then stated that the previously agreed upon extra hearing day had not been properly Noticed, (as is mandated by law), due to a “clerical misunderstanding”; therefore, the equalization issue was NOT on the February 28th Agenda!!

Our next step in this ever evolving saga is to appeal the Class Petition equalization issue to the State Board of Equalization, which convenes on March 26, 2007. Given the current circumstances, we are so glad that we made the difficult decision to withdraw our Class Petition from the clutches of the CBOE. We just “dodged that bullet!”

Many of you have emailed and called regarding the last property tax payment due on March 5th for your 2006-2007 taxes. We were hopeful that the Washoe County Treasurer would issue the refunds plus interest that are due to all of us for our victory last March.

However, as to be expected, no monies have been forthcoming. Yet another battle still to be won.

Rather than give Washoe County an opportunity to further delay the refund issue, by arguing that we haven’t properly submitted our last payment of the 2006 taxes, we would suggest that the taxes be paid.

However, be sure to Pay Under Protest!!! The Form is available on our website at www.NevadaPropertyTaxRevolt.org. , then click on Forms in the Menu box. The Form is available as well, for those of you who have third parties making your payments from impound accounts.

We will be attending the CBOE hearing on February 28th, just to protect your interests against other unforeseen circumstances arising. Stay tuned.

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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