Mayor Mike Foley, who proposed changes to the city’s delinquent tax policies in 2020, noted at Monday’s City Council meeting that selling tax-acquired properties will now come under consideration every year in Westbrook. Screen shot / Westbrook Community TV
The Westbrook City Council has preliminarily approved the sale of tax-acquired property, a change from previous years that saw no action on delinquent taxes.
Council voices support for local ranked-choice voting
Westbrook resident Samantha Bassett speaks in favor of ranked choice voting at the Monday night City Council meeting. Bassett first brought the issue to Councilor David Morse last year. The council will decide at its next meeting whether to send the proposal before voters in November, as it requires a charter change. Screen shot / Westbrook Community TV
The Westbrook City Council signaled they would support a move to bring ranked-choice voting to local polling places.
The proposal passed 5-1 Monday, with Councilor Gary Rairdon voting against.
The council is expected to take a final vote on whether to adopt ranked-choice voting at its next meeting, as it requires a charter change that will have to be approved in a referendum.
Ten residents spoke in favor of ranked-choice voting Monday, with an email against the measure from resident Bill Holmes read into the record. Holmes said it would harm the integrity of the “one person, one vote,” system.
“This doesn’t change one person, one vote,” resident Glenn Hadley said. “Your vote counts; it may count for a second and third choice, but it only ever counts once.”
“We collected over 700 signatures from residents who support RCV,” resident Samantha Bassett said. “I’m not asking you to support it, I’m asking you to let voters weigh in come November.”
Concerns were raised about ranked choice voting at an earlier meeting by councilors who felt the issue was not supported by residents. They also noted it would add an additional $20,000-$25,000 to the cost of running elections for new ballot machines and programs.
“At $25,000 (an election) I am not sure; they need to understand there is a cost,” Councilor Victor Chau said.
Rairdon said he had concerns over the lack of support by residents.
“There wasn’t a citizen’s initiative, just one individual who went to one councilor, and this is where we are at, think about that,” Rairdon said. “Not a lot of people here, not a lot of emails going out, it is something I find bizarre.”
Councilors voted unanimously Monday night to OK the sale of 48 foreclosed properties if delinquent taxes are not paid. Included are three residential properties and 45 vacant pieces of land, according to information provided by the City Council.
The real estate parcels have not yet been taken over by the city; owners have been sent 60-day notices to tell them they have two months to pay the back taxes and retain their properties. The process for a property to get to this point takes upwards of two years.
About 35 of the properties are owned by MWB LLC, Osaka Street LLC and Mitchell Farms Development LLC, with MWB being the majority holder.
As part of the measure, the city has also offered a 90-day amnesty period, during which the owner of an owner-occupied, residential tax-acquired property could pay all back taxes and fees with the interest waived.
Four property owners have taken advantage of the amnesty program, paying off taxes that included about $50,000 in interest.
After the amnesty period, a committee composed of the mayor, city administrator, tax collector, finance director, director of planning and economic development director reviewed the list of remaining tax-acquired properties to decide which are to be sold or what else could be done with the properties. The city council reviewed the recommendations in an executive session June 21.
Selling tax-acquired property was part of tax reforms of August 2020, although the city has taken no action on delinquent taxes until now.
“The city did not deal with these properties until we got under the leadership of our newer tax collector Dena Lebeda,” Mayor Mike Foley said at the meeting.
Since then, the city has collected nearly $1 million in back taxes, Foley said.
Prior, there was no defined policy on what the city could do with seized properties, but the new policy allows the municipality to use or sell the property to recoup some of the money owed. Westbrook will keep the amount owed as well as related fees, according to the policy.
The number of foreclosed properties in the city dropped from 87 to 48 since the amnesty program and other measures were taken. The largest dollar value owed on a single property is $86,818 and some delinquent taxes go as far back as 1998.
The policy has caveats sparing certain people from having their homes sold, according to City Administrator Jerre Bryant.
“The city isn’t taking homes from anyone struggling, these are mostly undeveloped or vacant lands, and we continue to work with property owners on this,” Bryant said.
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