By: Nick Powers | Roseville-Eastpointe Eastsider | Published October 11, 2024
ROSEVILLE — On the Nov. 5 ballot, Roseville residents will have the ability to vote for or against doing away with consecutive term limits for the city’s Board of Review.
The Board of Review’s job is to listen to appeals from residents about the tax assessments of their properties. The board then determines any necessary reassessments.
The board currently has three members and one alternate. Joanne Baker, David Bommarito and Janice Carter are currently on the board. Teresa Huck is the board’s alternate member. The city’s mayor nominates the members, who then require City Council approval. Members can serve only two consecutive three-year terms. After members hit their limit, they must wait a year until they can reapply for the post.
Roseville Assessor Brook Openshaw said it’s been difficult to find people to fill vacancies on the board when a member’s term expires.
“The state of Michigan requires them to have a training every two years,” Openshaw said. “So, it seems like we get them trained, they get a little bit of experience, and then their term is up. Then we’re left scrambling to find someone again who we have to train.”
Carter is on her second term with the board, which expires Feb. 1, 2025. With the charter the way it is, Carter would have to wait at least a year to be reappointed. She said that finding people who want to be on the board can be difficult. She also is currently on the city’s Beautification Commission and the Roseville Historical and Genealogical Society.
“The people who are new, they’re on it for a certain amount of time, then they’re removed for a year,” Carter said. “To me, that’s extra time they should be learning on the board and doing what they’re supposed to be doing. I just think it’s a better thing to keep people on without the term limits.”
Bommarito is in his second term, which expires Feb. 1, 2027. Carter encouraged Bommarito, who is also a member of the Roseville Historical and Genealogical Society, to join the board.
“It’s not a typical term-limit thing like you would think of in politics,” he said.
Bommarito said many residents’ problems stem from newly purchased homes having uncapped property taxes.
“A lot of angry residents show up wanting to get their taxes helped with,” he said.
He said the position can often be difficult.
“A lot of people don’t want to do it,” he said.
Though, he said he doesn’t mind the position.
“You just have to have the right temperament for it,” Bommarito said.
Openshaw said she thinks Roseville’s ordinance regarding the term limits is unique. She has been the city’s assessor for 25 years and said the ordinance was like this before she started. Eastpointe and Fraser’s boards of review do not have limits for consecutive terms.
“I think it’s just when the charter was set up way back when,” she said. “For whatever reason that’s how they set it up.”
Openshaw said many people are unfamiliar with the Board of Review. When they learn about the board, they don’t feel like they can make determinations on assessments.
“We get good board members and then their terms are up, and so we have to start all over again from square one,” Openshaw said.
Ballot language
Due to the difficulty in finding residents with the requisite, knowledge and experience to perform the duties of the Board of Review in reviewing the accuracy of the assessments of private property in the city, it is proposed that Section 9.7(a) be amended to delete its term limiting provision that “no person shall be appointed to the board for more than two successive full or partial terms or any combination thereof.”
Shall the amendment as proposed be approved?
[ ] YES
[ ] NO