BATH

A citizen wants the sale of a city-owned building halted, saying it occurred beyond public view and well below assessed value.

On April 17, the City Council approved the sale of the former Mid Coast Hospital building on Park Street to Robert Smith for $799,000. The city’s most recent assessment on the parcel was $6.5 million.

In a letter to Ward 6 Councilor David Sinclair dated May 28, former City Council candidate Larry Scott and his lawyer, Michael Wischkaemper, asked if Sinclair knew “of any agreement to change the assessment of the property for the new buyer.”

In response, Sinclair emailed City Council Chairman

Bernard Wyman on Wednesday, asking him to instruct City Manager William Giroux to delay closing of the sale.

Thursday morning, Wyman criticized Sinclair.

“I’m a little bit concerned with Councilor Sinclair because Councilor Sinclair puts these people up to writing these letters,” Wyman said, refering to Scott’s letter to the editor, published Thursday in The Times Record, which said the sale “smells funny.”

“I’m kind of disappointed with David Sinclair,” Wyman said. “I talked to Bill (Giroux) and Roger Therriault (city solicitor) on Wednesday, and I can’t put a stop to this.”

Sinclair wrote to Wyman that Scott has made him aware “several times” of issues being raised with the proposed sale. “If directing such short- term delay is not a step you feel comfortable undertaking on your own, then I suggest you call an emergency council meeting this week, to have the entire council weigh in on the question,” Sinclair wrote. “Transparency in our proceedings is a far more weighty value than is any perceived short-term gain from expedient conveyance of the property in question.”

City officials Thursday vouched for both the process of the sale and the $799,000 sale price.

“This is all according to statute,” Giroux said. “Everything is legal. We felt it was wise to reduce the city’s risk by privatizing the operation and getting it on the tax rolls for the first time.

“It’s important to remember that we bought this property for a dollar,” Giroux said, “and sold it for $799,000.”

Therriault said public entities that are subject to the Maine Freedom of Access Act are not required to negotiate sale of real estate publicly. Deliberations involving the disposition of real estate are permitted in executive session, he said.

A number of factors relating to the property would prejudice the city and the buyer if disclosed publicly, Therriault said.

Giroux said he has not done business before with Smith, but knows him.

“He’s a local guy,” Giroux said. “We know who he is. He buys buildings and fixes them up.”

Scott, who had his own interest in acquiring the property, said he cannot understand why the city sold the property for considerably less than the assessed value of $6.5 million.

“The city is coming to us and saying we need to raise taxes by 5 percent,” said Scott, who lost in a close three-way race for the Ward 7 council seat last autumn. “The city of Bath sold this property way under value.”

Assessor Paul Mateosian expressed a different perspective.

“In general,” Mateosian said, “the assessed values placed on tax-exempt properties are cursory, ‘cost approach’ values that receive little review or scrutiny,” he said. “To develop accurate values for special purpose tax exempt property would be very expensive and a waste of tax dollars.

“To develop the sale price, the city took a hard look at the income and expenses generated by the old hospital over the life of the city’s ownership,”

Mateosian said.

The City Council voted 8-0 to sell the property April 17. The city determined the offer to be “fair and equitable,” according to minutes of the meeting.

Scott alleges city officials have been “stonewalling” him and his lawyer for weeks, and said he went to Giroux’s office April 26 seeking information on the property.

“I asked his assistant for information on where it was listed and advertised,” Scott said. “Nobody could really tell me anything.”

Told of a Realtor to contact, Scott said the Realtor told him he could submit a “backup bid.”

“He said I should have my Realtor contact him, so I contacted my Realtor and she sent him a request for information,” Scott said. “Both my request for the additional date and my real estate agent’s request for additional date went unanswered. The city of Bath is unwilling to supply information regarding this sale.”

lgrard@timesrecord.com