Grant Assessor Barr,

With your May 12 2015 letter, your GTA Office has in less than a year’s time gone from A -> B -> C    

A. -      May 16, 2014      GTA Office signed document assessing Wooster as “restricted”.  See attached.

- May 19, 2014      GTA Office signed letter it has been and is assessing Wooster Lake properties as

“restricted”

B. -      Nov 11, 2014      GTA Office submit documents at tax hearing assessing Wooster Lake properties as

“not restricted”

- April 24, 2015     GTA Office writes letter claiming a small claims lawsuit ruling empowers to her Office

change the status of Wooster Lake to a not-restricted status and assess as

“not-restricted”.  All without a Declaratory Judgment from a judge.

C. -      May 12, 2015      GTA refuses/can not produce a Declaratory Judgment as the State’s Attorney requires

to so as to change the lake to not restricted, stating: “My office does not determine how lakes are used….”

Please clarify how your Office assesses Wooster Lake properties as of 5/12/2015: Is your Office assessing Wooster Lake properties as restricted, per the multiple recordings of restrictions at the Recorder’s Office,

or

Does your Office have a Declaratory Judgment like the State’s Attorney says is legally required to invalidate those recordings of restrictions and empowers you to change your assessment of Wooster Lake properties from restricted to not-restricted?.

Once you make that clear, do you realize your statement in your May 12, 2015 letter:

“By law, properties are valued based on sales in the previous 3 years of similar properties in the same neighborhood….” means you are admitting you are breaking the law?  Your own words.

That is, if you and your Deputy were violate what you say the law requires you to do with your assessments, you admit you would be breaking the law.

I am attesting, and I (and others) have the GTA documentation to support the accusation, that on November 11, 2014 this Assessor Barr and Deputy Assessor Spencer:

1. successfully lobbied to have dismissed with the Tax Appeals Board the many, within-3-years-sales of various Wooster Lake properties when they were presented as comparable property sales.  These recently-sold, Wooster Lake comparable properties were presented by residents, an appraiser, and an attorney, but these 2 public officials lobbied to have them all ignored.

2. successfully presented lake properties of ONLY OTHER LAKES’ PROPERTIES - such as Duck Lake, Fischer Lake, Brandenburg Lake - to compare against the Wooster Lake properties being challenged by residents, appraiser, and attorney.

Your GTA Office verifiably went outside the market, outside the Wooster Lake neighborhood and onto other, outside lakes as your Office’s sole basis to wrongly assess Wooster Lake properties and to deny challengers of being able to compare with best comparable properties that have recently sold on Wooster Lake. 

Shall we begin to share with everyone how FAR BELOW the actual sale amounts are of these Wooster Lake properties compared to your Office’s Assessed values of those same Wooster Lake properties?

Let’s start with 34420 Converse Lane, a Wooster Lake property listed on 5094179 as “restricted”.  The land-only sold in February 2014 for $55,200.  A land-only property that had been listed for several months with a realtor and was listed home-included with a realtor for over 2 years.  Your Office’s assessment of the land-only in 2013: $148,069………NEARLY 3X THE MARKET PRICE OF $55,200.

Is there any question why the Assessor is dismissing the sales of Wooster Lake properties as comparable?

Kirk Denz