A question about City finances? MY, I'm late for that photo-op!

Flanagan names new city assessor

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By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Jul 28, 2010 @ 08:30 PM
Last update Jul 29, 2010 @ 04:34 AM


FALL RIVER — A city resident with nearly 30 years in the field will start Monday as the new administrator of assessing, Mayor Will Flanagan said.

He’s hired Richard Gonsalves, who’s leaving his job since 2007 as Wareham’s assessor. He worked prior to that in a similar post in Seekonk for eight years.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., and is an accredited assessor.

His salary will be $80,292 before accepting a required 8 percent cut this budget year to bring his pay to $73,868 with four weeks of vacation.


“He’s taking a pay cut to come here and work in his home town,” Flanagan said. He said it was the same rate as prior Assessor Pamela Davis.

Flanagan fired Davis and Tax Collector Shannon Lyonnais on June 17. He cited complaints concerning assessments toward the assessor’s office and untimely filing of tax payments in the second office for the dismissals.


He expressed optimism Gonsalves will improve a department that city councilors, then Flanagan, criticized.


Two other vacant jobs in the financial services department, tax collector and auditor, need to be finalized.


Flanagan said he was hopeful a new tax collector would be hired by the second or third week in August, while the auditor’s job is being re-advertised after the person chosen declined the job.


According to Human Resources Director Madeline Coelho, the city received about 30 applications for the three jobs, some candidates seeking more than one post.


For assessor, there were only two applying for the head job, and another two applying for both assessor and tax collector, Coelho said.


Coelho, Flanagan and City Administrator Shawn Cadime interviewed nine tax collector candidates and six for auditor.

There was one in-house candidate, and Coelho declined to name the person.

A lack of municipal auditing experience for that job caused the city to reopen the search, Coelho said.

She is contacting auditing departments at cities and towns in the state.

The city’s auditor of 3½ years, Kevin Almeida, left at the beginning of the month to accept a promotion as finance manager with the school department. He’s been working one day a week on the municipal side.

The school department job pays $85,000 and does not include an 8 percent pay cut.

Salary ranges for the three municipal jobs start at $65,636, increasing to $82,292 for assessor and auditor and to $84,170 for tax collector.

The issuing of proper assessments and changes in the assessor’s department generated discussion at Tuesday night’s City Council Real Estate Committee meeting.


Laura Redmond of 735 Hanover St., who successfully appealed her property valuation, sought another review of her situation.


Giving the committee a stack of property valuations, she said they showed “great disparities” in values.


“It’s still over-assessed,” Redmond said of her property, attributing problems to inspectors’ reports.


Her Hanover Street property assessment was reduced on April 12 from $282,500 to $260,200, saving about $300 on this year’s taxes, a assessor’s clerk said.


The department received 539 abatement applications and approved 260, just under half, Assistant Assessor Bruce Lane said. The total requests were slightly higher than most years, he said.

City Councilor Eric Poulin said he told Flanagan the assessor’s department “needs to go in a new direction,” a stance council Vice President Linda Pereira echoed.

The committee tabled Redmond’s request pending a new assessor being hired and further discussion.


“What impressed me,” Flanagan said of his interviews with Gonsalves, “was his goal of the office is to treat people courteously and answer the public’s questions.”


He said the assessor planned to offer citizens an educational program on how property values are calculated.


Gonsalves listed 17 years of tax bills going out on time in the communities he worked.
E-mail Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com.

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You see this picture? It's included in Today's edition of the Fall River Herald News (HN).  It's emblematic of all the things I've been saying about the condition of the City and  the Flanagan administration's commitment to fix the long term problems facing Fall River in the administration of it's finances and it's departments of government.

While Fall River dances dangerously close to municipal bankruptcy and total administrative failure, Mayor Flanagan continues to care more about getting his face in the HN for "happy news" articles, like the one above related to finding a long lost Diploma,  than he does in hiring qualified people to fix the problems that the DOR and every auditor this City has ever hired for the last 30 years has written about at length.

No, let's all hit the streets and look at bad paintings and eat fast food in his name. Let's all see our money spent on Internet radio that will spin his achievements, as  light as they are, into non-stop broadcast propaganda. Let's watch as he goes to a photo op for the opening of a single clam while the City cannot find sufficient qualified candidates to fill the City Accountant position. There is no photo op he won't stop for, yet no position of financial management that has candidates willing to come here and work for him because of the rumors of interference and unprofessionalism.

Yes, let's all hail the Photo-Op King and his propaganda arm the HN for making the citizens of Fall River crave their summer cotton candy of fluffy, sugary crap, of photo's that are the equivalent of circus bears dancing in a field of daisy's, all for your entertainment and to keep your mind on this show instead of what the Flanagan administration is unable and/or unwilling to do, and the things he simply cannot do.

I for one, know he cannot make the City work in any real sense. He is surrounded by a greedy collection of Grifters( here used as a sarcastic term of endearment for this story), as he himself is one, of a sort, taking your money and your authority to make he and his cabal of buddies and advisors very, very cozy indeed, and positioned to rake in the dough. He cannot attract talented people from well run communities to come here at all. The rumors about this City in all branches of public finance are legendary. NO ONE, and I mean, NO ONE, who is recognized by those who know who can perform and who are merely professional pretenders will recommend colleagues to come to work for this City. The pay is far too low and the aggravation from dealing with uninformed, meddling elected officials will keep them away in droves. 

The recent hire of a new Chief Assessor is exactly a case in point. He is a known quantity in the business. Not spectacular, in fact, not noticeable. His character has been described as very quiet, very deferential, compliant and, unfortunately, "PLIABLE". That last word scares me to death. PLIABLE...meaning willing to do exactly what his appointing authority (Mayor Flanagan) desires , not what the law requires of his oath. Here we go again, potential oath breaking and secret hiding by a home town lad who just wants to come home. This is getting old folks.

This guy is a known quantity. The last two places he's worked are absolutely not known as paragons of financial administration. In fact, they could easily be declared disasters, and have been so in the past. Hardly what I'd call a ringing endorsement or a hopeful development. Maybe his resume should have included the "hook" line of "willing to relocate and march in place". I don't know about you folks, but after a career in public service, I wouldn't be crazy over hiring a guy who is willing to take a pay cut on the twilight of his years of service, one who is rather "Casper Milk-toasty", and bendable at just the right moments. This does not bode well for an administration whose top officials have absolutely no clue what they are doing in running City Hall and it's finance team. They, I think, are desirous of hiring those who will do their bidding, things like cover up bad revenue estimates on which budgets were based, cover up FY 2010 deficits and budget overspending, in the General Fund and other funds, and fill in the blanks on the pages of the Tax Rate Recap Sheet in a way to accomplish all of the above. Another hire to serve as mouthpiece to DOR for tax rate approval...and another patsy to take the blame when things fall apart. If it wasn't so down right predictable it would be sad.

Of course, the stated achievement of having sent out tax bills on time for 17 years is dubious at best. That is because all the Assessor has to do is valuate property and have those valuations certified for inclusion by the DOR. Everything else depends on the smooth and timely functioning of the City Accounting Officer, the Treasurer, the Tax Collector and City Clerk. Their summary information is handed to the Assessor to plug into a computerized Tax Rate Recap Sheet. Then it goes to DOR for approval of the tax rate. Printing and sending out tax bills is a simple procedure after that. A trained monkey could do it.  Many communities have outside firms do it for them. Take my word for it as a former municipal Finance Director and certified Assessor, I know.

The picture Flanagan and his Grifters want to project is one of competence by not ever discussing what is going on within the administration. Have you any idea of what the tax collection rate is this year when compared to past years at this point? Did we meet the revenue totals that were projected for FY 2010, a figure that should easily have been determined by this time, since the books, by law, had to be closed on July 15, and no later? Has anyone in the Grifter administration mentioned a word about it? How about worker morale?I hear  it's not much better than when his predecessor was trying to use the HN to track down insiders who might be commenting on the stories in the HN itself? There are many unhappy people toiling away at City Hall and Fiola and Torres are angrily threatening folks at the drop of a hat...those are the rumors constantly floating around from within at City Hall. Employees are overworked and underpaid by an administration that resents having to take their own medicine, the medicine they expect all other employees to swallow happily. Talk about talentless hypocrites.

So while Grifter#1 runs all over Fall River having his chubby face presented next to a blooming orchid plant outside of your local Stop and Shop for a photo op, the City has to do a phone poll to find willing, qualified candidates to fill the City Accountant job to close the City's books after the bank accounts and accounts receivables haven't been reconciled for , I'd guess, at least the last nine months. Forget it folks, only someone about to be fired is going to take a cut in pay to work in a crap hole that is the City of Fall River's finance team under this collection of unqualified leaders, Flanagan and his Grifters. It's not going to happen, and that means DOR will be saying BAADDDDDD THINGSSSSSS come December when a real tax rate has to be determined and no tax revenues are coming in....YET AGAIN.

Let's see...Tax Collector? Again, word spreads quickly in the business, and no outsider except a very desperate person will come here to work for Fall River. My bet is that someone tied to the adminsitration or a FROED member will be appointed to the job. Oh, I think they have someone picked out, and I think most people will see the selection as a patronage, hack job, which is why it's not yet being announced.

By the way Mr. Grab...have you figured out yet who the spy is in your office?....if you haven't, you're even dumber than I gave you credit for...another stellar hire by this Mayor...opps, time for another Photo-Op!