Town Finance Board Sharpens Opposition to Tax Case Bills

By IAN FEIN

On the eve of a pivotal town meeting, the West Tisbury finance
committee this week sharpened its opposition to payment of legal bills
linked to the Graham property tax case amid a widening swath of
questions about the roles and responsibilities of town assessors and
selectmen.

Finance committee member Peter Costas on Tuesday said his reluctance
to pay the bills stemmed from an apparent lack of accountability from
the assessors, who failed to attend nearly a dozen meetings over the
last two months when selectmen and finance committee members analyzed
the legal bills and discussed the case.

Mr. Costas said the assessors' unwillingness to speak publicly
about the Graham case suggests they may be attempting to cover up
previous misconduct.

"We aren't convinced that our assessors aren't
covering something up," Mr. Costas told his fellow committee
members. "And if they are - and they hired these people to
help them get off - then I don't feel comfortable paying
their attorneys.

"If I knew they had done nothing wrong, I think I'd be
voting a different way," he added. "But I'm not
convinced."

The case against the assessors was brought by town resident William
W. Graham, who is challenging his assessments from fiscal years 2003 and
2004, when he paid the town more than a half-million dollars in property
taxes. Mr. Graham has alleged, among other things, that town assessors
committed fraud and falsified town records.

Heard by the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board in Boston last
summer, the case is now the longest and costliest residential property
tax appeal in the history of the commonwealth. A final ruling from the
tax board is still pending and not expected until later this year.

Finance committee member Alexander DeVito acknowledged that
assessors acted improperly when they incurred more than $200,000 in
legal bills without prior approval, but warned Mr. Costas against
passing judgment on the merits of the case. "I think you're
implying something that is very dangerous," Mr. DeVito said.

"We'll acknowledge there has been a problem following
the law," he said. "But the question is really: Should we
pay these people?"

Mr. DeVito said the finance committee gave its tacit endorsement of
the assessors' defense when it approved a reserve fund transfer
one year ago to pay mounting bills from the case. But Mr. Costas
responded that the request for the transfer came from executive
secretary Jennifer Rand, not the assessors, and that she did not share
details of the case at that time.

It also appears now that the reserve fund transfer may have violated
state law; money for the assessors' case should have come from a
specific town meeting appropriation.

"If the process had been followed properly, the assessors
would have come to the town and explained their case," Mr. Costas
said. "And then this whole public process would have started
- as it should have."

Board of assessors chairman Michael Colaneri and the board of
selectmen have acknowledged that they did not follow the proper legal
process in this case. But all have stated that they were following past
practices, which they had no reason to believe were wrong.

Records from the town hall, however, show that Mr. Colaneri and the
current selectmen were notified more than two and a half years ago that
the assessors' use of attorneys may have been improper.

At an April 2003 meeting of the West Tisbury board of selectmen,
then-executive secretary Pia Webster brought to the selectmen's
attention a legal bill from the board of assessors that she said came as
a surprise to her and the town accountant. The $3,100 bill was sent by
attorney Ellen Hutchinson, who was then representing the assessors in an
unsuccessful case against the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank. Ms.
Hutchinson now represents assessors in the Graham case.

According to minutes obtained by the Gazette, Mr. Colaneri attended
the April 2003 meeting and objected to Mrs. Webster's
characterization of the bill as unexpected. He said it was a
misunderstanding that arose because Mrs. Webster was new in her position
as executive secretary. He agreed that selectmen should be kept abreast
of attorney costs but maintained that the assessors had done nothing
wrong. "We understand the budget process," Mr. Colaneri
said, according to the minutes.

It is now known that the $8,000 in legal bills incurred by the
assessors and paid by the town for the land bank case may have violated
state law.

Reached in her Edgartown office this week, Mrs. Webster said that
after the April meeting she researched the Massachusetts General Laws
and found that assessors needed town meeting approval and greater
oversight by the selectmen before engaging counsel and incurring legal
bills. She said she then sent a memorandum to the selectmen informing
them of her findings.

"It's amazing to me that it's taken this long for
people to notice," Mrs. Webster said this week. "It was just
clear to anybody - common sense, without looking at state laws
- you can't spend huge amounts of money without it being
properly appropriated from voters."

Ms. Rand, who replaced Mrs. Webster as executive secretary, said
this week that she could not find a copy of the memorandum.

Selectman and board chairman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter on Tuesday
said he did not recall either the April 2003 meeting or subsequent memo.
The selectmen's meeting was one of Mr. Manter's first after
he was elected to the board.

The legal bills issue quietly reappeared four months later, when the
selectmen conducted their six-month performance evaluation of Mrs.
Webster. Selectmen in that meeting criticized her for, among other
things, doing research without the direction of the board and
interfering with other town hall departments.

According to a transcript of the evaluation meeting, selectman Glenn
Hearn referred to the legal bill dispute with the assessors.
"Sometimes we get complaints that they think you're looking
into the legal issues, legal bills, that they're concerned
with," Mr. Hearn said. "I don't think you've had
the right approach in dealing with the people, especially in the
position that you're new to the job."

Following her unsatisfactory evaluation, Mrs. Webster left the West
Tisbury post that fall.

Selectmen hired Ms. Rand as executive secretary in January 2004, and
the first bill from Ms. Hutchinson for work on the Graham case arrived
three months later.

According to minutes of the April 2003 meeting and another
memorandum sent by Mrs. Webster to all town hall departments, prior to
her departure she intended to develop a townwide protocol for seeking
legal advice and to budget for any upcoming legal cases during the 2005
fiscal year. It does not appear that either occurred.

After bills from the Graham case depleted the town's fiscal
year 2005 budget, the selectmen last summer called a meeting with town
counsel Ronald H. Rappaport, who recommended they adopt a policy for
seeking legal advice.

The selectmen last month, more than two and a half years after Mrs.
Webster raised the issue, adopted a formal town legal policy.