Mr. A.R.C. Vyatt,
Assessor,

Municipal Ball,

j111 Brwmette Avenue,
Coquitlam, B.C.

Dear Sirt

RE! Reorganization of the Assedsment ‘Function

(
“Thank you for the opportunity of commenting on ‘the reorgentzation of the Assesonent
function. I don’t feel that I can comment on the setting of boundaries for the .
assessment jurisdictions ond I imagine that you will have comments on this aspect
of the problem:from the various Assessors in your area. I take it from your letter ©
that you are more interested in tha problems, that may arise in the separation of —
the Assessment function and | placing it under 2a independent authority. we

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I believe that one of the reasons ‘that the transition has " taken’ place with ‘nindinum
amount of objection ia the fact that municipal councila for yeara have felt that
.the Assessment Department was pretty much under the control of the Provincial -
Assessment Commissioner and that there was very little they could do to tn€luence
the Assessor in his work. The Assessor came ander a ‘separate Act, the Province
tionitored ascessnents, appointed members te the Court of Revision, etc. Although -

. dt appeared that the Assessor and his department ‘were independent in actual fact 7°
they were subject to policies, regulations and the controls ef their respective
municipal Coumecils and have always | been | an essential ‘Part of the municipal: organ . of
_ teational framework. a a we ; aa

’ ' soa ls . yoo. vey . -

Nearly all of our c mundedpal.t business telates: to services to property. in ‘neatly ;
every minicipality the basic and most important piece of information ia the indiv- : .
idual property record or collectively. the inventory of all property in tha munici~*
‘pality that is contained within the assessment roll, I don't know whether alli -
municipalities follow the same route but I would venture to say that most munici-

- palities basa all of their records in almost every department on this basic propercy -
_daventory. ‘The roll numbers assigned by the Assessor are generally used.as the «. no
reference numbers for all property transactions whether it be water billing or a...
building permit. application hence it is very difficult to completely remove this “
basic information file from the municipal hall without producing some inconvenience.
In any event it will require a considerable increase in liaison, tightening up ‘of
communications and no doubt, soma duplication of records to insure that the munici-
pel hell is atdill able to find an owner or a current legal description ox roli

number when it is required, In essence then the establishment of the Assessment
Departeont as a neparate entity has removed the very heart of the information sys-
tem of the municipality and placed it under a completely independent authority. I.
believe this will take some getting used to and while I don’t feel that the physical
separation of the Department is the. Problem. it would be my concers that in tha tong ;

we

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