Gorham’s Assessor, Mike D’Arcangelo, is retiring in June. The position was advertised but the Town received only four applications and only one of those had experience in a larger community. As a result, Town Manager David Cole has recommended to the Town Council that the Regional Assessing program is the best choice for Gorham as it will reduce future cost increases.
Several years ago, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Casco, and Cumberland formed a Regional Assessing program. Cumberland dropped out after the first year as the program was considered to be poorly run. However, with the hiring of a new assessor, all three towns remaining in the regional program are pleased with how it is now working.
Current costs for Gorham’s Assessing Department are $186,943 which include the Assessor, Assistant Assessor and other costs. The Assistant Assessor position will be retained whether Gorham joins Regional Assessing or remains a part of Town government. The proposal from Cumberland County Regional Assessing is for $138,500, a savings of $48,443 for the next fiscal year.
Towns do periodic re-evaluations approximately every six or seven years when the the assessment ratio falls below 70%. Regional Assessing recently completed a re-evaluation for Yarmouth that went well. They contracted with KRT Assessing and paid $80,000 which included hiring a temporary person to support the re-evaluation. Gorham has approximately twice as many parcels as Yarmouth and thus the cost of the re-evaluation would be closer to $160,000.
For the most recent re-evaluation done in 2015-16, the Town hired outside staff at a cost of $47,738. The county may also need to hire outside staff for the next re-evaluation. Because of the lack of assessors, the cost to hire a person with the requisite experience will undoubtedly increase. Consolidating services means upgrading technology for a larger operation (county program) but it is less costly than each town having to make these upgrades separately.
Gorham is larger than the other three communities and is now providing almost instant access for local property owners and their questions. This proposal calls for a regional person to be at the Municipal Center two half days a week. The part-time administrative assistant will remain on staff.