Every public official in New York is required to take an oath of office to: “ ... solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of (my office) ... to the best of my ability.”

In addition, under New York's Real Property Tax Law (RPTL), Section 102, and as set forth in the New York state “A Taxpayer's Guide: How to File For A Review of Your Assessment,” as revised in January of 2002, the term “Revaluation (‘reassessment' or ‘update')” is defined as: “A systematic review of the assessments of all locally assessed properties, valued as of the valuation date of the assessment roll containing those assessments, to attain compliance with the standard of assessment (a uniform percentage of value) ... ' (RPTL Section 102).”

Based upon:

1. the grievances filed with the Town of Summer Hill Board of Assessment Review (BAR) by property owners or their representatives,

2. recent correspondence with Town of Summer Hill appointed assessor Heather Garner,

3. the stipulations submitted by said assessor to the BAR for its review and approval, and

4. worst - said assessor's refusal to provide any credible corroboration or documentation to substantiate the per-acre value determinations on which her 2009 reassessments of land values in the Town of Summer Hill are allegedly based, it has become very clear that there are:

1. gross errors and deficiencies in many property inventories in the town,

2. glaring inequities in valuations of innumerable properties within the town,

3. unexplainable and insupportable reductions in the assessments of certain “select” parcels already agreed to by the assessor,

4. unexplainable and uncorrected duplications in the comparable residential sales provided by said assessor to the public for purposes of comparison, and

5. grossly inflated “time-adjusted” comparable sales.

The bottom line: There is nothing uniform or fair or equitable about the 2009 revaluation of properties in the Town of Summer Hill. It violates NYS Real Property Tax Law, and more importantly, the Constitutions of the United States and of New York. The town board should immediately set it aside as a sham and a fraud, especially in light of the current economic depression, and direct that the 2008 Assessment Rolls be reinstated.

Furthermore, as the mechanics of the BAR's grievance process are based on the wholly defective 2009 revaluation, I hereby give notice that I refuse to participate in the fraud by continuing with the deliberation of the grievances, and therefore will abstain from all further voting on the grievances before the BAR.

Mary A. Osgood

Groton