Kernwatch

City Hall Watch Oct.1

GAR Associates, HUD Corruption,& Assessment Fraud

The result of the GAR Associates $2 million contract to provide citywide re-assessment is not even close in low-income neighborhoods. Housing sales under $50,000 on the West Side routinely average half, or less, of new REDUCED GAR assessments. Now GAR & the Assessment Office are promoting a new round of 'Community meetings' to discuss assessment corrections. But they are systematically misinforming low-income homeowners & depriving them of data needed to estimate reasonable value in scores of struggling neighborhoods where values are plummeting.

It has powerful appearance of being a conspiracy against the poor, who too often can be easily duped by politicians. Although former Comptroller Giambra printed a "Book of Recent Sales" to show real values in neighborhoods where Realtors seldom venture, both GAR & the Assessment Office (& Nanula) have gone to great lengths to withhold updates of that critically important information.

GAR went the extreme last year of hiring 'security' at poorly attended meetings last year to prevent this writer's introducing 'recent sales' data. An Off-duty cop threw me down the stairs, after standing menacingly beside me at Crane Library. His reason? I "made a statement" . . . not "ask a question", as his apparent GAR orders were to control free speech (in a library of all places) GAR was clearly following advice of former-Assessment Commissioner Joe Sole (both incompetent, causing many assessment records to be incorrect, & a no-show, he quietly retired, with no party, last January).

Sole had called the police when I tried to assist a Bennett Village Terrace block leader in appealing massive over-assessment of 84 townhouses (GAR subsequently reduced typical assessments of $42,000 to $20,000). But in most poor neighborhoods GAR values are not even close. There are 6 distressed houses a stone's throw from my 354 Baynes home. HUD is asking $59,000 for 89 Manchester, assessed $114,000. 333 Baynes another of countless HUD-foreclosures of Parlato sales, is asking $10,000 while assessed $49,000 (Parlato got it for $4,000, sold it for $46,000 in1997). And two doors away, 248 Baynes was assessed $90,000 in 1995 & currently $45,000. Stovroff Realty is asking $7,590, a mere 17% of its drastically reduced assessed value.

Ironically, under a "West Side Mayor" the West Side has declined faster than any other area. www.Stovroff.com lists 9 single family homes & 26 two or more family dwellings 'asking' under $40,000. The single houses are listed at an average 66% of assessed value, while 'multiples' ask an average 58% of assessed value. Houses generally sell for substantially less than 'asked'.

Other dramatic data showing over-assessment of the poor are the 300 or-so houses bought by Scott Wizig (NY Liberty Homes LLC), euphemistically called MASIELLO-APPROVED SLUMS of Houston. Wizig quietly got assessment reductions of 80% or more of GAR's NEW values. Proving how wrong GAR was, now identical homes on countless poor streets are

massively, UNEVENLY assessedI creates a greater injustice than formerly somewhat uniform OVER-assessments, which partially equalizes tax burdens for all. Incredibly, when the city finally posted new assessments on the "new Improved city websire (www.ci.Buffalo.ny.us), Wizig drastically reduced values were not posted. Again the very data which dramatizes GAR unfairness mysteriously didn't appear . . . until the city was hammered.

Finally the recent sales data may be printed, But last year, Assessment Office staff directed homeowners away from it to so-called "Valid Sales" data, which is primarily Realtor & investor generated sales. Too often in poor neighborhoods such sales are by investor scammers like Parlato, Palano, Chas. & Wm. King, Koerntgen, Graham, Hutchinson, who buy low (invalid) & sell very high (valid) too often with HUD subsidies. Most dramatic is Frank Parlato Jr., who made $10 million profits on 1,000 HUD-FHA scam sales raising ASSESSED Values while destroying REAL values. . As HUD winks.

Incredibly, NYS is reimbursing Buffalo for its fraudulent results, while GAR assessments very effectively hide how very badly poor neighborhoods are doing . . . as HUD money flows relentlessly by.

MORE TO COME

Richard Kern, MSW, 882-2388, October 1, 2001
WEBSITE: www.kernwatch.com email: Kernwatch@AOL.com




				City Hall Watch Oct.1 GAR Associates, HUD Corruption,& Assessment Fraud The result of the GAR Associates $2 million contract to provide citywide re-assessment is not even close in low-income neighborhoods. Housing sales under $50,000 on the West Side routinely average half, or less, of new REDUCED GAR assessments. Now GAR & the Assessment Office are promoting a new round of 'Community meetings' to discuss assessment corrections. But they are systematically misinforming low-income homeowners & depriving them of data needed to estimate reasonable value in scores of struggling neighborhoods where values are plummeting. It has powerful appearance of being a conspiracy against the poor, who too often can be easily duped by politicians. Although former Comptroller Giambra printed a "Book of Recent Sales" to show real values in neighborhoods where Realtors seldom venture, both GAR & the Assessment Office (& Nanula) have gone to great lengths to withhold updates of that critically important information. GAR went the extreme last year of hiring 'security' at poorly attended meetings last year to prevent this writer's introducing 'recent sales' data. An Off-duty cop threw me down the stairs, after standing menacingly beside me at Crane Library. His reason? I "made a statement" . . . not "ask a question", as his apparent GAR orders were to control free speech (in a library of all places) GAR was clearly following advice of former-Assessment Commissioner Joe Sole (both incompetent, causing many assessment records to be incorrect, & a no-show, he quietly retired, with no party, last January). Sole had called the police when I tried to assist a Bennett Village Terrace block leader in appealing massive over-assessment of 84 townhouses (GAR subsequently reduced typical assessments of $42,000 to $20,000). But in most poor neighborhoods GAR values are not even close. There are 6 distressed houses a stone's throw from my 354 Baynes home. HUD is asking $59,000 for 89 Manchester, assessed $114,000. 333 Baynes another of countless HUD-foreclosures of Parlato sales, is asking $10,000 while assessed $49,000 (Parlato got it for $4,000, sold it for $46,000 in1997). And two doors away, 248 Baynes was assessed $90,000 in 1995 & currently $45,000. Stovroff Realty is asking $7,590, a mere 17% of its drastically reduced assessed value. Ironically, under a "West Side Mayor" the West Side has declined faster than any other area. www.Stovroff.com lists 9 single family homes & 26 two or more family dwellings 'asking' under $40,000. The single houses are listed at an average 66% of assessed value, while 'multiples' ask an average 58% of assessed value. Houses generally sell for substantially less than 'asked'. Other dramatic data showing over-assessment of the poor are the 300 or-so houses bought by Scott Wizig (NY Liberty Homes LLC), euphemistically called MASIELLO-APPROVED SLUMS of Houston. Wizig quietly got assessment reductions of 80% or more of GAR's NEW values. Proving how wrong GAR was, now identical homes on countless poor streets are massively, UNEVENLY assessedI creates a greater injustice than formerly somewhat uniform OVER-assessments, which partially equalizes tax burdens for all. Incredibly, when the city finally posted new assessments on the "new Improved city websire (www.ci.Buffalo.ny.us), Wizig drastically reduced values were not posted. Again the very data which dramatizes GAR unfairness mysteriously didn't appear . . . until the city was hammered. Finally the recent sales data may be printed, But last year, Assessment Office staff directed homeowners away from it to so-called "Valid Sales" data, which is primarily Realtor & investor generated sales. Too often in poor neighborhoods such sales are by investor scammers like Parlato, Palano, Chas. & Wm. King, Koerntgen, Graham, Hutchinson, who buy low (invalid) & sell very high (valid) too often with HUD subsidies. Most dramatic is Frank Parlato Jr., who made $10 million profits on 1,000 HUD-FHA scam sales raising ASSESSED Values while destroying REAL values. . As HUD winks. Incredibly, NYS is reimbursing Buffalo for its fraudulent results, while GAR assessments very effectively hide how very badly poor neighborhoods are doing . . . as HUD money flows relentlessly by. MORE TO COME Richard Kern, MSW, 882-2388, October 1, 2001 WEBSITE: www.kernwatch.com email: Kernwatch@AOL.com