Several Allegheny County officials face contempt if assessment process lags
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Common Pleas Senior Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. walks to the courtroom in the City-County Building, Downtown Tuesday to conduct a hearing on the ongoing reassessment process for Pittsburgh and Mount Oliver properties. Judge Wettick ordered the county manager, chief assessment officer and other top officials below Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald in the chain of command to follow the judge's orders to proceed with the reassessment.
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Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald will not face contempt of court charges, but his acting county manager, Jim Flynn, could if the county slacks off on efforts to complete a controversial property reassessment.
Common Pleas Senior Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr., who is overseeing the court-ordered property revaluation, included that warning in a court order he signed Tuesday.
At an afternoon hearing, he also put off until Thursday his decision on which set of assessment numbers will be used to calculate 2012 property tax bills.
Mr. Fitzgerald, a longtime foe of reassessment, said the judge's actions Tuesday were another example of judicial overreaching. "The people elected county council and the executive to set policy," he said at an evening news conference.
Lawyer Paul Lalley, representing the city school district, had asked the judge to allow the school board to use 2002 base-year numbers, rather than recently compiled 2012 values, to calculate tax bills for one more year.
Two days after he took office, Mr. Fitzgerald advised residents to ignore the new numbers, and he ordered the county's Office of Property Assessment to send new certified property values using the 2002 base-year numbers.
Judge Wettick, in turn, reiterated his order that the city and school district use new values in figuring their millage rates.
Lawyer Don Driscoll, representing one of two groups of property owners who sued the county to force it to reassess, asked the judge to punish Mr. Fitzgerald and the county for violating his reassessment orders. Punishments for contempt of court could include fines and imprisonment.
In his ruling Tuesday, Judge Wettick instead found that Mr. Flynn, the appointed county manager, was responsible for carrying out the court's orders regarding reassessment. His latest order requires that Mr. Flynn "shall fully, efficiently and promptly implement existing and future court orders issued by this court regarding assessment of real property."
First Published January 11, 2012 12:00 am
