[R]UTLAND — The lawyer for a Rutland developer is not only taking the city to court over the assessment of one of his client’s properties, but is also challenging the validity of the entire grand list.
“The plaintiff demands that the entire grand list for the city of Rutland be struck, that all excess taxes collected be returned to the taxpayers in accord with the values of the properties set at the last legal reappraisal,” attorney Sigismund Wysolmerski wrote in the lawsuit.
The last reappraisal in Rutland was in 2006, according to city officials. The grand list, the assessed value of the property in the city, currently totals slightly more than $1 billion.
Wysolmerski, representing Rutland businessman Joseph Giancola, says the city is valuing his client’s property on East Center Street at $381,000, about three times the roughly $125,000 he believes it may be worth.
“It’s our position that not only is this property overvalued, but that in fact the entire scheme of assessment in the city of Rutland, because of market forces, is more than double-digit way over valued,” Wysolmerski said at hearing in the case Tuesday in Rutland Superior civil court.
Matthew Bloomer, the city’s attorney, said at the hearing that Wysolmerski can challenge the value of the property at issue through the lawsuit, but is going too far afield by seeking to throw out the full city grand list.
“I think the appeal rights here are with respect to the one parcel,” Bloomer said. “I don’t know that the relief that they asked for is appropriate for this kind of appeal.”
Judge Samuel Hoar asked both sides to present written arguments on that matter and he would issue a decision.
“Let’s tee that up,” the judge said. “It could dramatically affect the scope of this controversy.”
He asked both attorneys to submit filings “reasonable promptly” and he would also work to issue a ruling as soon as possible. “I will do my best to turn it around quickly,” the judge added.
Giancola bought the East Center Street property, which was vacant and had fallen into disrepair, from the city for $50,000 in 2013. The property, known as the Dana Center, was once home to a school and later a recreation center.
Wysolmerski said since taking over the building his client has put a great deal of money into fixing it up to have units to rent for apartments as well as commercial uses.
The attorney said only four apartment units and a daycare were permitted to lease space in the building at the time it was most recently valued by the city. However, the city, he said, valued the property based on how much income it would generate if the entire building had tenants, which was far from the case at that time, he said.
The entire building, Wysolmerski added, wasn’t even permitted for additional tenants at the time.
He told the judge in court Tuesday that while property is overvalued, multi-family and multi-purpose buildings are most out of whack.
Over the past five years, the attorney said, “the sale prices of those buildings have fallen anywhere from 20 to 50 to 70 percent, depending upon the circumstances of the sale.”
In the lawsuit, Wysolmerski wrote that the city has failed to keep the grand list in line with fair market values of properties within the city.
“(A)s such the entire valuations in the city of Rutland must be rolled back to the last legitimate general appraisal,” the lawsuit stated.
Wysolmerski also takes direct aim in the filing at the city assessor, alleging that he showed biased against his client, who owns numerous properties in the city.
The lawsuit repeatedly accuses city Assessor Barry Keefe of acting “illegally and capriciously and with personal animus” toward Giancola, adding that the city official is using his position to “selectively enforce the tax code of the city in a discriminatory manner.”
The lawsuit claimed that Keefe “tracked” Giancola’s properties in the city “for the purpose of selective application of reassessments.”
The actions of the city, Wysolmerski wrote in the filing, “amounts to an illegal and arbitrary confiscation” of Giancola’s properties.
Keefe, reached Tuesday afternoon, denied acting out of bias against anyone, but declined further comment.
Giancola is a major property owner in the city. His holdings include Howe Center, a sprawling complex of buildings housing businesses and other entities on Strongs Avenue.
Giancola also owns numerous multi-family properties in the city. Last month, he was the high bidder at $600,000 on the downtown properties auctioned off by the former parent company of the Rutland Herald.
The next hearing in the case is expected to take place in February.
