March 2, 2026 – Board of Assessors – Video & Transcript
March 2, 2026 - Board of Assessors
Please waive the preamble.
Okay, I'll waive the preamble.
And I'd like to call the meeting order at 6.08 p.m. by roll call vote.
John McNeely here.
Zach?
Yes, Zach Ventress here. Sorry. Steve Clipgard here. We have a quorum. Let's see, 6.08 p.m. Is there any public comments out there?
No public comment. Okay. Okay. Then, Rob, should I review the meetings from Monday, February 2nd? Yes, please.
Those minutes are found on page 3 in your package. Open session minutes from February 2nd. I've reviewed them, and I have no questions. And there are two pages. No questions for the McNeely. Okay.
So could I have a motion to accept minutes from February 2nd? I move that we vote to accept the minutes from February 2nd, 2026, as presented in the meeting packet. And can I have a second?
Zach? I'll second. Yes, I'll second. Okay. All those in favor? Kevin McNeely, yes.
Zach Ventress, yes. And Steve Clipgard, yes. It's approved. Okay. Rob, it's all yours. Thank you. Correspondents and documents, we have none this evening. Moving on to Director's Review and Update of Office Activities at 610.
Phillip Parks and Massimo Tarzano are up for re-election. Tuesday, March 10th is the last day for submission of nomination papers. The last day to withdraw from the annual town election is Thursday, March 26th. And Monday, May 4th is the annual town meeting at 630 p.m.
Real estate abatement reviews and inspections started Monday, February 9th. We hope to complete all inspections by Thursday, March 5th, this week, with the board scheduled to vote Monday, March 16th. The discussion will take place in the executive session on abatements after the open session meeting. Continuing with Director's Review and Update of Office Activities, the Board of Assessors Representative on the Senior Tax Relief Committee, Stephen Clipgard, would like to introduce an idea for a potential fiscal 2027 and or fiscal 2028 and future senior tax credit. That information is found on page 5 in your packet, page 5 and 6. Steve, would you like to take? Sure. So basically, the Senior Tax Relief Committee, its objective is to find ways to make it more affordable for seniors to stay in town. And one of the things that was being recommended on that was the equivalent of a two-tier assessment system of which seniors have a lower rate than everyone else. It's something that I believe some towns do have. However, whether they do or don't, looking at the math, it was very obvious that anything significant could not be done because it would just move too much money from seniors over to everybody else, since obviously you still have to collect all the same amount of money. And one of the things that we did in that process was identified that something like 40% of the total town revenue is coming from households that are owned by a senior citizen, somebody 65 plus. And I went through and did a little bit of a rough stab on it, and it looks like an awful lot of these folks have been in town for usually 20 years or more. And so what they talked about was doing something that would be a thank you to these seniors as opposed to a real tax relief. And by a thank you, meaning something that would be like a one-time, maybe they're renewed or maybe not renewed, but a one-time tax relief that would reduce their assessment by a certain amount and decided that instead of that, we would just say, give them a tax credit that would come that Rob would basically process, let's say, the fourth quarter of each year of $500. Because these seniors are also in the base, any increase in the rate to pay them the $500, they would pick up $200 of that. So what we're really doing is giving them $300. And the dollar amount was something that was picked to be significant enough to say thank you and not just a cup of coffee. And we realized in talking with Rob that, in fact, the state would not probably accept this as a way to do things because we were doing it as a thank you to everybody, whether you are rich or poor. We're looking at the fact that 40% of the homes are owned by people who have been contributing probably for 20 or 30 years to the town budget, have no kids in the school system, and that represents 70% of the budget. You know, so it's like a nice thank you to say thank you for doing that. Now, the problem we run into is I screwed up quite a bit on that because the holidays came along and I never got around to seeing Rob and working out the logistics of what could or could not be done. And once it was already submitted, Rob reminded me that the state probably would not accept this as a valid way to redistribute some of the income because there is no means test. And that was actually, which I understand, you know, it's something that you can or can't do because the state agrees that this is to help people. And if you're wealthy, they're not interested in helping people. So what we're going to do is go through and attach the actual article that is being submitted.
And on Wednesday, we're going to meet again and talk about two options. One option is just to withdraw it because obviously it's not going to go anywhere, even if the town votes on it. And the second thing is to leave it and knowing full well that it will go nowhere because of the state, but to present it at town meeting, all with the idea that making the town aware of the fact that so many seniors are now important part of the community financial base. And I've talked to a couple of people who basically are seeing that Weyland as a town is becoming more and more of a, I'll call it a place that people live when they've retired. They're not just going to be young people with families, but a lot of people like myself who are 65 plus and hope to stay here forever. And what this does is it triggers, in our mind, it triggers the reminder that if we're going to be supporting in the town, we have to make sure that everybody is aware that we're moving in a direction that is doing this. So we'll be meeting on Wednesday to decide whether or not we should just withdraw it or just submit it, knowing full well that it'll probably get rejected at town meeting. And as Rob pointed out, I kind of messed up by not bringing this idea forward to talk to people earlier. So if somebody got any ideas about it for right now, I'd be happy to, or if they want to just kind of let me know after the meeting, I'd be happy for that. We'll be meeting on Wednesday at 10 o'clock to decide what to do. Yeah, and Stephen, just to clarify, this was the Senior Tax Workoff Committee that developed this proposal? Yes. But I'm on it. I played a role in it. Tax Release Committee. Yeah, yeah, you're representing the Board of Assessors. Yeah. Yeah, I think if you leave it, I do feel like you probably should put some verbiage that explains that, you know, it's unlikely to be approved by the state. Like, I think you almost want to put that in there up front if you do end up leaving it in versus withdrawing it. Uh-huh.
Yeah. Okay. And Carol Martin also suggested that we should probably leave it in, if only to get the PR out there, you know, the awareness of what's happening. I think there's maybe other ways to just, I mean, were you using some of the town census data? Yes. Well, what we've done so far is I've gone through and taken the database that we've got. I've mixed with that, from the town clerk's office, some information that Rob got for me, which was the age of the individuals. Put in two together, you can come up with who, you know, how old homeowners are. And in this case, only one of the users, three homeowners. If one of them is 65 or plus, they're on the list. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think writing an article or publishing something in the post would be a good idea. Yep. Yep. That was one of the things that we did. Sharing all kinds of stats. Yeah. That would definitely be interesting to share out.
Okay. That was one of the things I was going to bring up to them, because I think putting an article in the local paper that describes what we're talking about. And in my mind, I'm not pushing so much to say we want to get the $500 passed. I'm pushing with the idea of something that really brings awareness to the town of how important the senior base is. And to be honest, there is a negative side. As more and more seniors come in here, that means there's less space for families with kids. Because if Steve Klitgård doesn't leave his house, that's big enough. One of the things that I was talking to Bill Sterling about is the fact that he's on a committee that's looking at potential growth of the town. They're looking at probably more space for condominiums. But all condominiums does is gives more seniors places to live. And unless someone that is a senior moves out of their house, that's not going to free that up. So, you know, there are issues out there that were. Yeah. Yeah. And, Stephen, I think, you know, I know you mentioned like the school system, but the fire department and some of the, you know, advanced life support, that ends up being, you know, highly consumed by the aging population. Absolutely.
So, yeah, I think an article is definitely maybe a good way to share out some of the learnings and stats from the committee. Yep. And I was tempted when we were talking to them, mentioned to Rob that I know that makes sense of the people on there that I can unduly influence the committee. Let's put it that way. And I'm trying to get them to, you know, tell me what they really want. And that said, my sense is, even though it'll be up there, the town meeting, to put it into the town meeting, basically, and I'm open for suggestions to almost say, do the spiel and then say, and all that said, we would draw it. And the other option is just to let the town vote on it. I'm not sure whether, you know, once you've got the PR done to talk about it, I'm not sure what the best move at that point is, which is everybody knows it's there. Do you want them to vote up or down, or do you want it just to withdraw it and leave it at that? I mean, my other people think, but I think voting on something that's not going to go anywhere, I feel like people might get frustrated that you wasted their time. Yep. You know, Cal meeting already ends up running long, like you're taking up valuable, you know, time for something that isn't able to even be, you know, something that the state is going to entertain. So I would, yeah, I wouldn't encourage you to do that part. Okay, no, I think that's, I was kind of going in that direction, only because you say you don't want to waste people's time, but I want them to know about it. And my expectation is putting an article in the, in the local paper that explains the whole thing will already get the point across, probably to even wider audience and to a town meeting, because I think more people read the newspaper than go to the town meeting. Yeah, I'll take that into account. Thanks. Thanks, Zach. So that's it. Hey, Rob.
Well, I'll let the board know that fiscal 2027 income and expense forms of list and three ABC charitable forms were due today, Monday, March 2nd, and it's, they're due by 7pm tonight at the conclusion of this meeting. The office continues to support consul on aging with their tax prep for their constituents, and our senior tax workoff participant in the office have been working with the Boston Public Library for future scanning. Those documents should be leaving our office Wednesday, March 4th. We've packaged items together, and we're hoping that they, the BPL does show up, takes them into Boston and gets phase two going on scanning and sharing with the public. Okay. That's all we have here on 623. Are there topics not reasonably anticipated for this meeting? None. Mm-hmm. I guess I've got a topic for a future meeting, which will be to basically pursue my earlier comment about the circuit breaker and what's going on. So I will be doing some work on that and talk with Rob and Tamara about it, and that may be something that comes up, at least for information purposes, at a future meeting. That's it. To present to present to the board all FY 2027 exemptions as we have received them Friday, March 6th. Is that correct? Yes. And for the board to take action on all real estate and personal property abatement applications.
That's all the business we have in open session. So if the acting chair would like to make a motion to adjourn, should I read the information on that? And reply we're adjourning to go to executive session. Thank you. Okay. That's at 625. Can we vote to adjourn the meeting by roll call vote?
Doug McNeil, yes.
Zach Ventress, yes. And Steve Klitgård, yes.
Okay. And we're exiting open session to go into executive session for a reason. Steven? Steven? Meeting to adjourn the enter and executive session for purposes of complying with GLC 59, Section 60, and GLC 214, Section 1B, as permitted for Purpose 7 of GLC 30A, Section 21A, to review and discuss the following. Review minutes, Monday, February 2nd, from 630 executive session, vote to accept and release. Voter vehicle abatements, month of February 2026, vote to accept. And FY2026 real estate and personal property abatement update. The board will not return to open meeting.
So at 626, this meeting is adjourned. Okay.
John McNeely here.
Zach?
Yes, Zach Ventress here. Sorry. Steve Clipgard here. We have a quorum. Let's see, 6.08 p.m. Is there any public comments out there?
No public comment. Okay. Okay. Then, Rob, should I review the meetings from Monday, February 2nd? Yes, please.
Those minutes are found on page 3 in your package. Open session minutes from February 2nd. I've reviewed them, and I have no questions. And there are two pages. No questions for the McNeely. Okay.
So could I have a motion to accept minutes from February 2nd? I move that we vote to accept the minutes from February 2nd, 2026, as presented in the meeting packet. And can I have a second?
Zach? I'll second. Yes, I'll second. Okay. All those in favor? Kevin McNeely, yes.
Zach Ventress, yes. And Steve Clipgard, yes. It's approved. Okay. Rob, it's all yours. Thank you. Correspondents and documents, we have none this evening. Moving on to Director's Review and Update of Office Activities at 610.
Phillip Parks and Massimo Tarzano are up for re-election. Tuesday, March 10th is the last day for submission of nomination papers. The last day to withdraw from the annual town election is Thursday, March 26th. And Monday, May 4th is the annual town meeting at 630 p.m.
Real estate abatement reviews and inspections started Monday, February 9th. We hope to complete all inspections by Thursday, March 5th, this week, with the board scheduled to vote Monday, March 16th. The discussion will take place in the executive session on abatements after the open session meeting. Continuing with Director's Review and Update of Office Activities, the Board of Assessors Representative on the Senior Tax Relief Committee, Stephen Clipgard, would like to introduce an idea for a potential fiscal 2027 and or fiscal 2028 and future senior tax credit. That information is found on page 5 in your packet, page 5 and 6. Steve, would you like to take? Sure. So basically, the Senior Tax Relief Committee, its objective is to find ways to make it more affordable for seniors to stay in town. And one of the things that was being recommended on that was the equivalent of a two-tier assessment system of which seniors have a lower rate than everyone else. It's something that I believe some towns do have. However, whether they do or don't, looking at the math, it was very obvious that anything significant could not be done because it would just move too much money from seniors over to everybody else, since obviously you still have to collect all the same amount of money. And one of the things that we did in that process was identified that something like 40% of the total town revenue is coming from households that are owned by a senior citizen, somebody 65 plus. And I went through and did a little bit of a rough stab on it, and it looks like an awful lot of these folks have been in town for usually 20 years or more. And so what they talked about was doing something that would be a thank you to these seniors as opposed to a real tax relief. And by a thank you, meaning something that would be like a one-time, maybe they're renewed or maybe not renewed, but a one-time tax relief that would reduce their assessment by a certain amount and decided that instead of that, we would just say, give them a tax credit that would come that Rob would basically process, let's say, the fourth quarter of each year of $500. Because these seniors are also in the base, any increase in the rate to pay them the $500, they would pick up $200 of that. So what we're really doing is giving them $300. And the dollar amount was something that was picked to be significant enough to say thank you and not just a cup of coffee. And we realized in talking with Rob that, in fact, the state would not probably accept this as a way to do things because we were doing it as a thank you to everybody, whether you are rich or poor. We're looking at the fact that 40% of the homes are owned by people who have been contributing probably for 20 or 30 years to the town budget, have no kids in the school system, and that represents 70% of the budget. You know, so it's like a nice thank you to say thank you for doing that. Now, the problem we run into is I screwed up quite a bit on that because the holidays came along and I never got around to seeing Rob and working out the logistics of what could or could not be done. And once it was already submitted, Rob reminded me that the state probably would not accept this as a valid way to redistribute some of the income because there is no means test. And that was actually, which I understand, you know, it's something that you can or can't do because the state agrees that this is to help people. And if you're wealthy, they're not interested in helping people. So what we're going to do is go through and attach the actual article that is being submitted.
And on Wednesday, we're going to meet again and talk about two options. One option is just to withdraw it because obviously it's not going to go anywhere, even if the town votes on it. And the second thing is to leave it and knowing full well that it will go nowhere because of the state, but to present it at town meeting, all with the idea that making the town aware of the fact that so many seniors are now important part of the community financial base. And I've talked to a couple of people who basically are seeing that Weyland as a town is becoming more and more of a, I'll call it a place that people live when they've retired. They're not just going to be young people with families, but a lot of people like myself who are 65 plus and hope to stay here forever. And what this does is it triggers, in our mind, it triggers the reminder that if we're going to be supporting in the town, we have to make sure that everybody is aware that we're moving in a direction that is doing this. So we'll be meeting on Wednesday to decide whether or not we should just withdraw it or just submit it, knowing full well that it'll probably get rejected at town meeting. And as Rob pointed out, I kind of messed up by not bringing this idea forward to talk to people earlier. So if somebody got any ideas about it for right now, I'd be happy to, or if they want to just kind of let me know after the meeting, I'd be happy for that. We'll be meeting on Wednesday at 10 o'clock to decide what to do. Yeah, and Stephen, just to clarify, this was the Senior Tax Workoff Committee that developed this proposal? Yes. But I'm on it. I played a role in it. Tax Release Committee. Yeah, yeah, you're representing the Board of Assessors. Yeah. Yeah, I think if you leave it, I do feel like you probably should put some verbiage that explains that, you know, it's unlikely to be approved by the state. Like, I think you almost want to put that in there up front if you do end up leaving it in versus withdrawing it. Uh-huh.
Yeah. Okay. And Carol Martin also suggested that we should probably leave it in, if only to get the PR out there, you know, the awareness of what's happening. I think there's maybe other ways to just, I mean, were you using some of the town census data? Yes. Well, what we've done so far is I've gone through and taken the database that we've got. I've mixed with that, from the town clerk's office, some information that Rob got for me, which was the age of the individuals. Put in two together, you can come up with who, you know, how old homeowners are. And in this case, only one of the users, three homeowners. If one of them is 65 or plus, they're on the list. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think writing an article or publishing something in the post would be a good idea. Yep. Yep. That was one of the things that we did. Sharing all kinds of stats. Yeah. That would definitely be interesting to share out.
Okay. That was one of the things I was going to bring up to them, because I think putting an article in the local paper that describes what we're talking about. And in my mind, I'm not pushing so much to say we want to get the $500 passed. I'm pushing with the idea of something that really brings awareness to the town of how important the senior base is. And to be honest, there is a negative side. As more and more seniors come in here, that means there's less space for families with kids. Because if Steve Klitgård doesn't leave his house, that's big enough. One of the things that I was talking to Bill Sterling about is the fact that he's on a committee that's looking at potential growth of the town. They're looking at probably more space for condominiums. But all condominiums does is gives more seniors places to live. And unless someone that is a senior moves out of their house, that's not going to free that up. So, you know, there are issues out there that were. Yeah. Yeah. And, Stephen, I think, you know, I know you mentioned like the school system, but the fire department and some of the, you know, advanced life support, that ends up being, you know, highly consumed by the aging population. Absolutely.
So, yeah, I think an article is definitely maybe a good way to share out some of the learnings and stats from the committee. Yep. And I was tempted when we were talking to them, mentioned to Rob that I know that makes sense of the people on there that I can unduly influence the committee. Let's put it that way. And I'm trying to get them to, you know, tell me what they really want. And that said, my sense is, even though it'll be up there, the town meeting, to put it into the town meeting, basically, and I'm open for suggestions to almost say, do the spiel and then say, and all that said, we would draw it. And the other option is just to let the town vote on it. I'm not sure whether, you know, once you've got the PR done to talk about it, I'm not sure what the best move at that point is, which is everybody knows it's there. Do you want them to vote up or down, or do you want it just to withdraw it and leave it at that? I mean, my other people think, but I think voting on something that's not going to go anywhere, I feel like people might get frustrated that you wasted their time. Yep. You know, Cal meeting already ends up running long, like you're taking up valuable, you know, time for something that isn't able to even be, you know, something that the state is going to entertain. So I would, yeah, I wouldn't encourage you to do that part. Okay, no, I think that's, I was kind of going in that direction, only because you say you don't want to waste people's time, but I want them to know about it. And my expectation is putting an article in the, in the local paper that explains the whole thing will already get the point across, probably to even wider audience and to a town meeting, because I think more people read the newspaper than go to the town meeting. Yeah, I'll take that into account. Thanks. Thanks, Zach. So that's it. Hey, Rob.
Well, I'll let the board know that fiscal 2027 income and expense forms of list and three ABC charitable forms were due today, Monday, March 2nd, and it's, they're due by 7pm tonight at the conclusion of this meeting. The office continues to support consul on aging with their tax prep for their constituents, and our senior tax workoff participant in the office have been working with the Boston Public Library for future scanning. Those documents should be leaving our office Wednesday, March 4th. We've packaged items together, and we're hoping that they, the BPL does show up, takes them into Boston and gets phase two going on scanning and sharing with the public. Okay. That's all we have here on 623. Are there topics not reasonably anticipated for this meeting? None. Mm-hmm. I guess I've got a topic for a future meeting, which will be to basically pursue my earlier comment about the circuit breaker and what's going on. So I will be doing some work on that and talk with Rob and Tamara about it, and that may be something that comes up, at least for information purposes, at a future meeting. That's it. To present to present to the board all FY 2027 exemptions as we have received them Friday, March 6th. Is that correct? Yes. And for the board to take action on all real estate and personal property abatement applications.
That's all the business we have in open session. So if the acting chair would like to make a motion to adjourn, should I read the information on that? And reply we're adjourning to go to executive session. Thank you. Okay. That's at 625. Can we vote to adjourn the meeting by roll call vote?
Doug McNeil, yes.
Zach Ventress, yes. And Steve Klitgård, yes.
Okay. And we're exiting open session to go into executive session for a reason. Steven? Steven? Meeting to adjourn the enter and executive session for purposes of complying with GLC 59, Section 60, and GLC 214, Section 1B, as permitted for Purpose 7 of GLC 30A, Section 21A, to review and discuss the following. Review minutes, Monday, February 2nd, from 630 executive session, vote to accept and release. Voter vehicle abatements, month of February 2026, vote to accept. And FY2026 real estate and personal property abatement update. The board will not return to open meeting.
So at 626, this meeting is adjourned. Okay.