[Southsider2k12]

http://www.thenewsdispatch.com/articles/20...e5577163621.txt

Mediator named in tax dispute

By Alicia Ebaugh
Staff Writer
Published: Friday, March 26, 2010 4:16 AM CDT
INDIANAPOLIS — Although a mediator has been assigned to help all La Porte County parties work through two lawsuits over the county’s 2006-pay-2007 property assessments, no date has been set for them to meet.

Indiana Tax Court Judge Thomas Fisher named Senior Judge Bruce Embrey as mediator for the cases Tuesday, according to court records. Embrey retired as Miami County Circuit Court judge in 2002, and subsequently served as city attorney in Peru, Ind. He was assigned this year as a senior judge in Allen County Superior Court.

Embrey can act as a mediator as part of his authority as a senior judge, Fisher wrote, and his services will be free to all parties and their attorneys. Mediation will bring all the attorneys in both cases together to reach a compromise, although no one will be forced to accept a solution.

La Porte County Auditor Craig Hinchman and the DLGF were first sued in September by Assessor Carol McDaniel after Hinchman refused to certify the county’s 2006-pay-2007 property assessments, claiming the data was faulty and instead recertifying the 2005-pay-2006 values. The county filed a motion to dismiss this case against Hinchman, but Fisher denied their request earlier this month.

Long Beach resident Bill Wendt recently was allowed to intervene in the other suit brought by Michigan City Area Schools, Michigan City and Long Beach against Hinchman and the DLGF, asking the court to force them to use the county’s 2006-pay-2007 property assessment values. MCAS faces a $8.2 million budget shortfall from property tax income if Hinchman’s 2005-pay-2006 certified numbers are used instead, and the other entities also stand to lose a significant amount of money.

As a result of the lawsuits and other delays, La Porte County property owners have been forced to pay provisional tax bills since 2007, not knowing the actual amount they owe. MCAS and other entities also have had to take out millions in tax anticipation loans and pay interest on them.

At Tuesday’s MCAS board meeting, County Commissioner Mike Bohacek accused board members and administrators of not being willing to compromise, further stalling a solution. He said it was recently “brought to the commissioners attention” that the board told its attorney Beth Henkel it will only accept the 2006-pay-2007 values. It is still possible to trend property assessment values forward from 2005-pay-2006, or trend them backward from the new assessment due in 2011, he said.

“No one in county government wants to see schools closed. If the property tax levy for the schools is the same, isn’t it irrelevant how you get there as long as schools aren’t closed?” Bohacek said. “You keep telling people to tell us to compromise. There is another solution if you can take a position of compromise.”

Mediation will not be stalled by the resignation of former DLGF commissioner Tim Rushenberg earlier this month, said Mary Jane Michalak, DLGF director of communication. Rushenberg left to become president of SRI Inc., which handles tax sales, sheriff’s sales and Internet auctions throughout the state.

DLGF General Counsel Brian Bailey has been named interim commissioner and been involved with the property tax situation in La Porte County.

[Southsider2k12]

http://heraldargus.com/articles/2010/03/31...6a478165877.txt

McDaniel, Nexus may unite in tax court case

By Alicia Ebaugh
Staff writer
Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 3:09 AM CDT
INDIANAPOLIS — Nexus Group, the property tax consultant firm that completed the county’s disputed 2006-pay-07 assessments, is attempting to get involved with mediation that could produce a solution to the county’s property tax mess by joining forces with La Porte County Assessor Carol McDaniel.

McDaniel’s lawyer, Mark GiaQuinta of Fort Wayne, submitted last week an emergency motion for her and Nexus to intervene in the Indiana Tax Court lawsuit in which Michigan City Area Schools and the city of Michigan City and town of Long Beach sued Auditor Craig Hinchman and the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. Hinchman’s decision to certify 2005 assessments instead could cost taxing units millions of tax dollars, including $8.2 million MCAS says it would lose.

McDaniel and Nexus were not going to get involved in the matter, GiaQuinta said, until Long Beach residents Bill and Dalia Wendt were allowed to intervene. Wendt has fought the 2006-pay-07 assessments from the beginning, maintaining problems with the assessments could be proved by an independent accountant’s review, as well as an August 2009 memo issued by DLGF Commissioner Tim Rushenberg, which detailed unsubstantiated lowering of certain assessed property values.

“Nexus Group, as the contractor of the La Porte County assessor, has incurred significant time and expense in conducting the valuation work it was hired to conduct ... (their) work remains unpaid as the result of the allegations by the Wendts,” GiaQuinta wrote in the motion. “They have the right to defend their work and avoid unrefuted testimony and findings that would likely affect Nexus Group’s ability to procure work. In addition, unless allowed to defend against these scurrilous and unfounded attacks, the parties will be free to enter into settlement documents that deprive Nexus Group of its property rights to its reputation.”

McDaniel was already involved in her own lawsuit with Hinchman and the DLGF, and as such was included in the mediation process for the two cases. However, GiaQuinta said they wanted to make sure both lawsuits were settled at the same time.

“They could try to just come to a settlement in one case and say ‘We’re done here’ without ever including us,” he said. “It’s a logical step since the suits are already related.”

Commissioner Mike Bohacek said involvement of the Nexus Group and McDaniel together in the mediation process would only “muddy the waters.”

“The vendor has a clear financial interest, and she as a county official has joined forces with them against the county,” Bohacek said. “One can only surmise her purpose is not to assist us.

“If she’s doing it in the spirit of cooperation, then we would appreciate it,” he said. “But given her actions in the past, I feel she is standing in the way of a mediated solution.”

But McDaniel and Nexus Group should work together, GiaQuinta said, because the firm has a duty to defend the work they did under her authority. Many people have vilified McDaniel for standing up for the reassessments, which the DLGF approved, in an attempt to do the right thing for the county, he said.

“If it weren’t for her, the 2005 values would already be in place and (MCAS) would already be out the money, the cities, too,” GiaQuinta said. “She’s standing on principle, in everyone’s interest, although no one understands she did the right thing.”

No decision has yet been made on this motion, and no date has been set for mediation to begin.

[ChickenCityRoller]

Check out this article from Bloomington. Not very suprising that LaPorte County isn't the only county in Indiana who got taken for a ride by the "Nexus Group."

http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2....qp-6015640.sto



‘We’ve been smeared,’ Sharp says of state’s contract investigation
Copies show assessor had a 2008 contract with appraisal firm
By Bethany Nolan 331-4373 | bnolan@heraldt.com
March 30, 2010


Nexus Group president Frank Kelly said it appears Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s investigation into Monroe County’s 2008 reassessment contract is akin to producing “a mountain where not even a molehill exists,” while Monroe County Assessor Judy Sharp said she’s felt “smeared” by the investigative process.

Both Nexus Group and the state have provided the county with a copy of the county’s contract for the 2008 reassessment cycle, a document county officials had previously said they couldn’t put their hands on.

MORE: Previous story and related documents <http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2010/03/28/news.qp-2801772.sto>

The document is at the heart of an investigation by Zoeller’s office, which is questioning whether Sharp used an appraisal firm for reassessment without a contract or without one approved by the state. Such action would violate state law.

Both Nexus Group’s Kelly and the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance have provided Sharp with copies of the 2008 contract. In an e-mail message also written to The Herald-Times, Kelly said a State Board of Accounts audit incorrectly concluded no formal, written contract existed.

“I have no idea what happened to the county’s copies of these documents, but it is the legal responsibility of the county auditor to maintain such copies,” Kelly’s e-mail said. “What has occurred to date is that the State Board of Accounts finding that no contracts were executed is plainly in error. ... Hopefully that finding would be corrected before its damaging effects extend further.”

Kelly’s e-mail also referred to action by Zoeller’s office to hand-deliver formal paperwork as part of the civil investigative demand, saying such documents are usually sent via U.S. mail.

“It appears to be a blatant attempt at intimidation of county officials and their vendors as the AG attempts to produce a mountain where not even a molehill exists,” his e-mail said.

Sharp said Monday she was upset by the tumult over the 2008 contract, which county attorneys said Friday they had been unable to find.

“It’s been disheartening,” she said. “We did nothing wrong, and Nexus did nothing wrong. But we’ve been smeared.”

The county had already located its 2009 reassessment contract, and other documents requested by the attorney general’s office. County attorney Dave Schilling said his office intends to reply to the civil investigative demand by an extended April 9 deadline.

Bryan Corbin, a spokesman for the Office of the Indiana Attorney General, previously explained the investigation was prompted by a certified audit of the Monroe County commissioners recently released by the State Board of Accounts. That audit, which covered calendar year 2008, said the county paid Nexus Group $213,000 for assessment services that year without a contract. An audit for the county assessor’s office for that same time frame notes the issue as well.

In addition, Corbin said via e-mail Monday, the office will not comment on a specific civil investigative demand while fact-finding is ongoing.