February 11, 2015
Deal appointed assessor for city, town of Homer
HOMER — Real property tax services director Randy Deal has given his two-weeks notice to Cortland County and will be leaving the post to become tax assessor for the city of Cortland and town of Homer and possibly Virgil starting Feb. 23.
Both the city of Cortland and town of Homer voted to appoint Deal as assessor following special meetings held Monday evening and Tuesday morning, respectively. The town of Taylor, which was another municipality Deal was slated to assess for, voted unanimously against hiring him at a meeting Tuesday night said Supervisor Steve Breneman this morning.
Breneman said the town had “somebody else in mind” and added that Deal did “not meet our criteria.” He would not elaborate.
Deal said this morning that the approximately 500 parcels that Taylor would have contributed to the roughly 10,000 parcels he was going to be assessing would not have much of an impact but he was sorry to hear the board did not vote in favor of hiring him.
It was unclear by press time if the $85,900 annual salary Deal was slated to make with all four municipalities on board would remain intact without Taylor included.
Virgil is to vote on the measure Thursday and Deal was reluctant to comment on the job, saying it would be premature until all the municipalities vote in favor of his hiring.
But Virgil Town Board member Dale Taylor, who sat on the interview committee that selected Deal from among seven candidates, said he expects the board to approve the hire.
Deal will serve the remainder of a six-year term left vacant by assessor David Briggs, who retired in December. Deal’s term will end Sept. 30, 2019, and Taylor said the hope is that Deal will train an employee in the office to take over his job when his term expires.
Deal is currently budgeted at about $35,300 for his role as part-time director of the Real Property Tax Office, a post he works at 21 hours per week. He has held the job since February 2013.
Briggs still works part-time for the town of Cortlandville, but retired from his role as assessor for the towns of Homer, Taylor and Virgil and the city of Cortland.
Deal’s salary will be covered through a joint agreement established by the towns and the city and his office will be located in Homer Town Hall. Deal said this arrangement will be a savings for the city of Cortland, though he was not sure of the exact savings Tuesday.
Briggs had been located in an office on Church Street in Cortland. Deal is retaining existing staff that had worked under Briggs. Deal said one employee already started work last week, collecting data on all the new building permits in the four municipalities since information on new construction is due by March 1 for town assessment purposes.
Homer Town Supervisor Fred Forbes said the towns and the city began looking for Briggs’ replacement shortly after Thanksgiving.
“The larger committee met maybe two times or three times,” Forbes said. “It became too cumbersome (so) then we appointed one (person) from each municipality to be in charge of interviews and working through this contract negotiation.”
Taylor agreed the search process was a long one and one that interview panel members gave much thought.
Deal said Forbes initially asked him to advise them on the search process, helping committee members to know what kinds of questions to ask of assessor candidates. Deal said officials ultimately decided he was actually the person best positioned to take over the job.
“We got up to a couple of weeks ago and time is really running out ... so I suggested that I would be willing to help out if they wanted to extend their search,” Deal said. “They approached me and said ... we would like to just appoint you.”
Taylor said Deal’s extensive experience with tax assessing in various towns, prior to taking the county real property tax director position, made him a qualified candidate.
Deal said he is uncertain when or how the role of real property tax director will be filled.
Legislature Chair Susan Briggs (R-Cortlandville) said Tuesday afternoon that the county is discussing how to fill the seat and it would be premature to comment on whether Deputy Director Karen Spafford would be appointed to the role.
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