Letter To The Editor – A Clarification On Assessor Law

To the editor:
During the local elections in the Town in 2011, one of the primary planks of the Democratic and Grafton Citizens Party platform was a promise to attempt to amend Local Law # 1 of 2010, to allow for a permissive referendum on the questions of an appointed versus elected assessor(s). After a significant amount of research into the matter, it is now clear that this is legally not possible. A number of State laws dating back as far as 1970 have led the NYS Office of the Comptroller to put out a legal opinion to towns that have made such a switch and have attempted to reconsider, that no provisions exist to allow for this to legally be done.
It does not appear that this opinion has ever been challenged in a court of law, probably because to do so would require a very significant expenditure of time and money on the part of any municipality. And because such a challenge by the Town of Grafton would be financially impossible, we are dropping our pursuit of the matter.
I would like to point out, however, that any future proposed changes to Town code or laws of such significance need to be put to the voters of Grafton in the form of a referendum. To back this statement up, I need only point to the results of last year’s election. Those who sought re-election that supported the change without such a referendum were all defeated. And now I am going to leave this at what I hope it is, a lesson learned.
I would like to thank all the voters who supported our candidates. We will continue to work on the various items of the platform. Some, such as a great new Town website and the posting of the meeting agenda on this site prior to such meetings, have already come to fruition. Others will require more work. And honestly, some will meet resistance simply because it is the nature of our political system. But I would like to thank ALL of the Town Board members, especially for their cooperative effort on the website. Check it out at grafton-ny.us.
Sincerely,
Doug La Rocque
Grafton Democratic and Citizens Party Committee Member