Lockport, N.Y., Councilman-At-Large Joseph O’Shaughnessy told the Union Sun & Journal that the Common Council’s vision for the assessor’s office is to have the city’s current real property appraiser, Lena Villella, fill two roles — appraiser and assessor — for an appraiser’s pay and a stipend.
O’Shaughnessy says it’s a less costly arrangement than the one advocated by Lockport Mayor Anne McCaffrey, who wants the city to contract with Niagara Falls for core assessor services for $30,000 for the year, while leaving the Lockport assessor’s office as is.
The council nixed the proposed agreement with Niagara Falls and instead created a full-time city assessor’s post with a salary of $68,000.
Left undetermined in the job-creating resolution is the matter of who the full-time assessor would be. That is a mayoral appointment, and after being acting assessor for six months in 2014, during which time she served as both real property appraiser and assessor, Villella turned down McCaffrey’s offer of a second appointment.
“In April 2015, I was critical of Mayor McCaffrey’s decision to then hire a part-time assessor,” O’Shaughnessy said to the newspaper. “A full 10 months ago, I questioned paying someone $650 to work only one day per week, when we already had a long-tenured employee who had done the job and who knew the workings of that department better than anyone. I said then, as a businessman, it just didn’t make any financial sense to me. Now, this mayor wants to pay someone with zero knowledge of the city $72 + per hour, for a one-day-per-week assignment. As someone responsible and experienced in running a business, this again makes no financial sense to me.”
The councilman added that he believed the assessor’s job was more than a one-day-a-week responsibility. According to O’Shaughnessy, the assessor does much more than sign the assessment rolls and represent the city at valuation appeals in small claims court.