Incline tax rebels alter complaint

INCLINE VILLAGE - Two Washoe County tax rebels amended the lawsuit they filed last week against the Board of Equalization on behalf of 1,400 people appealing their property tax bills.

Theodore and Mary Lou Harris representing the Village League to Save Incline Assets returned to Reno District Court with their complaint the Washoe County assessor did not provide requested documents under the Nevada Open Meeting law.

The original suit was filed Feb. 2, claiming the board did not provide adequate notice of tax hearings and seeking to stop them.

In the Harrises' lawsuit, they argue the open meeting law requires 21 days written notice or five days personal notice

Maryanne Ingemanson, president of the Village League and a plaintiff in both complaints, said lack of notice has hurt several people who had hoped to attend the hearings.

"The problem is that the board only gives about three days notice, and for people living out of town it's proved to be a hardship," Ingemanson said.

Earlier in the week, Ingemanson questioned a paragraph in the State Attorney General's Open Meeting Manual, which exempted tax commissions and boards of equalization from the notice rules.

The Attorney General's Office, in a letter to Suellen Fulstone, the attorney for the Village League, admitted that the questioned paragraph was "removed from the publication but was mistakenly left on the Web site."

"The county relied heavily on that paragraph and now that it has disappeared, so has a lot of their defense of this matter," Fulstone said.

Deputy District Attorney Blaine Cartledge, whose office is representing the county, said that to expect the board to be required to give 21-day-notice on hearing dates is unrealistic.

"The fact that all these hearings must be completed by the end of February so that people can move on to the state appeals process is impossible," Cartledge said. "This is a statute and I don't know how they expect the board to hear 1,400 cases in two days.

The complaints both seek an injunction that will halt the hearings and declare the appeals that have already taken place null and void, and ask that the court require proper notice be given to appellants.

Ingemanson and her group were hoping that the complaint will be heard.

"The problem is, it's been passed on by two judges already, because of schedule conflicts," Ingemanson said.

The matter has finally been assigned to Judge Steve Elliot but, according to Ingemanson, that too can cause a problem.

"Judge Elliot is also one of the 1,400 appealing his tax appraisal," she said.