The city administration is considering eliminating the Westbrook assessor’s office in favor of a contract for the service with South Portland.
City Administrator Jerre Bryant and Mayor Bruce Chuluda believe the move will save the city money and allow residents access to a better assessing software system. However, some are concerned the move could make assessing information less accessible to Westbrook residents.
For over a year, the city has been working under an agreement with South Portland where the two cities were sharing the services of Assessor Elizabeth Sawyer, with Sawyer splitting time between offices in Westbrook and South Portland. Under the new arrangement, the assessor would move full-time to South Portland with services at Westbrook City Hall being virtually eliminated.
“We’d still have an office here,” said City Administrator Jerre Bryant. “It just wouldn’t be staffed full-time. A lot of information would be available electronically.” Bryant said there would be someone at City Hall with the ability to answer simple assessing questions.
Bryant said the administration is considering the move in an effort to cut costs by further streamlining the way city government does business. The city could save more than $20,000 with the move, according to Bryant.
Bryant said the move would also allow Westbrook to be able to tap into a more sophisticated system now being used in South Portland. South Portland uses a more sophisticated software system than Westbrook, though the city is in the process of upgrading. In addition, the South Portland system allows residents to access a great deal of information remotely over the Internet, something that is not available in Westbrook. Once the offices are combined, Bryant said Westbrook residents would be able to access assessing information over the Internet as well as through a computer kiosk at Westbrook City Hall.
“I think it does make sense,” Chuluda said. “I would expect this would be an essentially seamless transition.”
While there would still be some presence at Westbrook City Hall, the current one-and-a-half positions in the assessing department would be eliminated. While positions would be eliminated in Westbrook, Chuluda said there would be employment opportunities available for those employees in South Portland.
“There would basically be an elimination of positions here, and those people would have the ability to work in South Portland,” said Chuluda.
Bryant said he expected both Westbrook’s employees would be able to move to South Portland as South Portland employees under contract to Westbrook. “I don’t anticipate anybody losing a job,” he said.
Under the new arrangement, Westbrook residents would still have access to an assessor, but instead of just being able to drop in to City Hall, meetings would be done by appointment either at City Hall or at the resident’s home.
The move has some local real estate agents scratching their heads. Claire Garvey, whose agency does significant business in the city, said she thought the move would hurt residents. “I honestly think it’s a bad move,” she said. “You’ve got citizens, elderly people that want to talk to the assessor.”
Garvey is in the assessor’s office several times a week, and she feels it is important for Westbrook to retain the office there. “I don’t think city offices should be in another town,” said Garvey. “When people want to talk to an assessor, they should be able to.”
Al Juniewicz, another local real estate agent, said if Westbrook were to go through with the move, he hoped there would be enough information at City Hall so he wouldn’t have to drive to South Portland every time he needed a question answered. Bryant said most information would eventually be available electronically, and it would be accessible via a computer at City Hall.
City Council President Jim Violette doesn’t think the city should be contracting services out to another municipality. He said he was concerned about the level of customer service Westbrook residents would receive from South Portland employees.
Bryant said he didn’t think Westbrook residents would suffer from the arrangement. Because Westbrook would be paying for a service from South Portland, Bryant believed South Portland would work to keep its client satisfied.
“We’re trying to make absolutely certain there is no loss of service,” he said. In fact, Bryant thinks residents would be better served by the arrangement. “We’re gaining because we’ll have a far better service in place,” he said.
There is no timetable for the move to happen. Chuluda said he is still considering the possibility and the administration has made no presentation to the Westbrook City Council, which would have to approve any contract between Westbrook and South Portland.
While Bryant has spoken to South Portland officials about the move, Chuluda said the administration has not presented this to the Westbrook council because details still need to be ironed out. Once that is done, he said the administration would bring the proposal before the council.
Violette said he wanted to hear the details from the administration before making a final decision, but he said he would not be inclined to support the move. Because the city is most likely facing a citywide property revaluation in the near future, Violette said it is not the right time to combine Westbrook’s assessor with South Portland.
“I understand what the administration is trying to do, but I have grave concerns about how they are going to pull it off,” he said. “We’re going through so many changes right now, and, with revaluation on the horizon, it’s not the right time to do it.”
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