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Commissioners get answers, move drain assessments forward
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Wednesday, November 23, 2005 10:33 AM EST
CORUNNA - A report to the Shiawassee County Board of Commissioners Tuesday by a representative of the engineering firm that discovered unassessed drain work reaching back 14 years shed new light on the controversial issue but left some still questioning the 2005 assessments.
Walter Wendling of the Spicer Group said unbilled work could easily go unnoticed in an annual audit that, like Shiawassee County's, does not examine each individual drain account and he verified that no statute of limitations limits billing for drain projects.
But the centerpiece of his report was the revelation that of the $748,832 being assessed in 2005, just $132,782 is for drain projects undertaken in previous years. Further, $69,774 of the remaining assessments are for work undertaken since 2001, with projects more than five years old accounting for $63,008 of the total 2005 assessment.
Those past projects are being assessed this year after the county commissioners in August backed the short-staffed drain office in contracting with the Spicer Group to ensure the 2005 assessments were complete by the end of September. From August through October Spicer Group employees reviewed outstanding drain accounts, facilitated apportionment hearings and prepared the tax rolls in exchange for $50,980 paid from drain commission coffers.
Wendling said the drain office held hearings on apportionments in September, announcing the opportunity for review to those affected by the assessments and giving them the opportunity to appeal.
“We held hearings and no appeals were madeŠanyone who did not show up to that hearing, either fortunately or unfortunately, lost their chance to appeal,” he said.
Wendling said the only alternative to the plan outlined in the 2005 Special Assessment Annual Report, which the board approved Nov. 10, is for the board of commissioners to foot the bill, possibly by paying the revolving drain fund from the county general fund.
Money collected for drain projects completed in the past but billed in 2005 will reimburse the revolving drain fund the money paid out to contractors when the projects were completed.
In answer to questions about why some land purchasers were assured their deeds and titles did not carry outstanding obligations only to later be assessed for drain work completed before they purchased the property Shiawassee County Treasurer Thomas Dwyer said his office does not record drain projects that have never been assessed, just those that have been billed.
Wendling said his office found that projects completed on the Youngs Intercounty, Perry No. 2, and South Branch of Looking Glass River drains in 1992, 1998 and 1999, respectively, had never been assessed, but some in attendance continued to argue the amounts levied in 2005 were invalid.
“We're wondering why we're being assessed for a drain we've already paid for,” Perry Township Supervisor Sid Grinnell told the board. “Our township has been paying our assessments on the Looking Glass RiverŠcan they give us a double assessment?”
Perry Township is being billed $4,802 for the South Branch of Looking Glass River Drain in 2005 while bills to landowners for the same project will total $15,212.
There was some disagreement between commissioners about how to proceed on the no-action agenda item.
Commissioner Jerry Walden said the board should consider alternatives to charging county residents for drain work completed in previous years, but others said the opportunity to overlook unbilled drain projects is in the past.
“We are not drain peopleŠ our job is financial responsibility to the taxpayers and that's what we're trying to do here,” said commissioner Jon Michael Fuja. “We're following the drain code to the best of our abilities and I think we're obligated to continue on the path we are on.”
New Haven Township Supervisor Tom Foster said he was not satisfied by Wendling's report and the board's path of action.
“I will instruct my township's residents to pay their bills under duress so that eventually justice might prevail,” he said. “I don't envy this commission the dilemma before them but it is a dilemma they need to do something about.”
Drain Commissioner Gary Holzhausen said the 2005 assessments do not warrant the controversy they have attracted.
“Everybody blows everything way out of proportion,” he said, arguing that drain assessments are bills for services rendered, not a tax, and vowing the 2006 assessments will move more smoothly. “There's no limit on drain assessments and this is not a tax. We're going to clean everything up and next year we're going to see that everything gets done.”
Holzhausen said he and Wendling will be available by appointment to discuss any remaining questions about the 2005 assessments.
“Anybody wants to come in they can do so and we'll talk. I can answer 90 percent of their questions,” he said.