Two more resign from D.C. tax appeals board
By: Michael Neibauer
March 15, 2009
The D.C. board charged with hearing appeals of commercial and residential property assessments is down to 10 members after two more resignations, falling far short of capacity even as the number of appeals soars.
Paula Ionatti and Barrett Evans, both five-year members of the Board of Real Property Assessments and Appeals, resigned last month. They are the latest to leave the critical panel, which has in its pipeline more than 4,000 appeals of tax year 2009 property assessments — roughly 20 percent more than 2008.
The board’s decisions, which often favor the property owner, could reduce the city’s coffers by as much as $100 million this year alone, city finance officials say.
Board members are appointed by the mayor to unpaid, five-year terms.
A wave of resignations has followed the 2008 appointment of Towanda Paul-Bryant as interim chairwoman of the board. Lawrence
Smith, a seven-year board member, blasted Paul-Bryant in a Jan. 30 resignation letter for inexperience and lack of leadership skills.
Paul-Bryant is dragging down board participation and morale, and she “seems bent on precipitating its destruction,” Smith wrote to
Mayor Adrian Fenty and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray. Her “singular qualifying attribute that she claims,” Smith wrote, “is her friendship with the mayor.”
Evans said Friday that he left because his term had expired last July.
“I certainly share a lot of the same feelings that Mr. Smith had,” he said.
Ionatti could not be reached for comment.
The board has taken steps to improve records management, to train members in ethics and to revamp its Web site, Paul-Bryant told the D.C. Council’s finance and revenue committee during a recent oversight hearing. The board, she said, was looking at steps it could take to fill the membership ranks with 18 professionals.
“The board is in transition and there is much to be done to ensure the board meets its statutory mission,” she said.
Ward 2 D.C. Councilman Jack Evans, chairman of the finance and revenue committee, urged some action. For whatever reason, he said, “we can’t get people to do this.” Perhaps it is time to professionalize the board, he said, to pay the members or turn the job over to administrative law judges.
“Change comes hard,” Evans said. “Nobody really wants change; they just think they want change. But in this situation we have to change, because I can’t put up with the level of complaints that I’m getting.”
mneibauer@dcexaminer.com
