D86 Halts Intervention in Residential Tax Appeals

The Board of Education voted 6-1 Monday night to stop intervening in residential property tax assessment appeals.

The Chicago legal firm of Scariano, Himes and Petrarca has represented the district in cases before the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board (PTAB) in which residential property owners were seeking a reduction in assessed valuation of greater than $100,000.

In July, at the request of Board President Dennis Brennan, the board voted to suspend its intervention in residential assessment disputes for 60 days so that it could study the issue. Last month, to gather information on the topic.

“I think most of us didn’t understand the process,” Brennan said Monday night. “Her information, I think, was very helpful to the board.”

The president said most board members came away from that meeting knowing how they wanted to proceed on the matter.

“I’m going to ask that we take a vote to not authorize interventions and to discontinue our attorneys’ work on any intervention” in residential cases, Brennan said.

Board member Dr. Richard Skoda sought to amend the motion to also rescind authorization for interventions in commercial property tax assessment appeals, except on a case-to-case basis.

“Whether that store in Hinsdale is worth $2.7 million or $2.1 million, nobody here knows that and our lawyers sure don’t know that,” Skoda said. “On the other hand, if Oakbrook Center was in our district and they’re assessed at $1 billion and want to go down to half a billion, well obviously that’s something we’d have to look at.”

After some discussion about the appropriateness of an amendment involving commercial appeals being included with a vote on residential appeals, Skoda agreed to withdraw his amendment, with the understanding the board will consider it in October.

Board member Kay Gallo cast the only dissenting vote against ending the interventions in residential disputes.

“I believe that we do still need to protect our revenue resources,” Gallo said, “but I also understand that on the PR side, it’s not a good thing to our citizens.”

However, Gallo said if the board at some point did decide to resume intervention in residential cases, she wanted a different legal firm to represent the district.

“If we were to continue at any point with PTAB, I do not want Scariano, Himes and Petrarca as our lawyers,” she said. “I was disappointed in the report that [attorney] Mr. [Alan] Mullins did, that it came the night of the meeting [with Cockrell], that we had no time to prepare, except at the meeting. I was disappointed that he was not there. Ms. Cockrell gave up her time and our attorneys weren’t there.”

Gallo also said if the board revisited commercial appeals cases, she’d like to see if the district could find a legal firm with more real estate expertise.