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Allegheny County behind on commercial property assessments
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Resignations and firings have put Allegheny County assessors behind in their efforts to assign new values to commercial properties, the man in charge of the project said this morning.
Wesley Graham, the county's acting chief assessment officer, said he had moved to replace the four workers who were gone, but he warned it would take some time "for the new people to get up and running."
Common Pleas Court Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr., who is overseeing the property revaluation project, said he wanted weekly reports on assessment progress. Today he got the first of those briefings.
Mr. Graham said 808 commercial reviews were completed last week, leaving 15,085 yet to be done. At last week's rate, it would take the county almost 19 more weeks to finish revaluing commercial properties. That would mean that portion of the work would not be completed until the end of January.
Judge Wettick said he wanted weekly reports after concluding that county officials lacked "a sense of urgency" about getting the assessment completed. County Executive Dan Onorato, whose administration is carrying out the project, members of county council and both candidates seeking to replace Mr. Onorato as county executive all have announced their opposition to the effort.
First Published September 27, 2011 12:16 pm
