Mr. Michael Zeller recently posted a letter explaining why he resigned from the Longmeadow Board of Assessors after serving for 15 years. He talked about serving our community as an unpaid volunteer while devoting thousands of hours of personal time serving as a Board of Assessor member. He mentioned attending training classes over the years to help him hone his knowledge, skills, and abilities for being a board member in the professional delivery of services to our community.
As the chair of the Board of Assessors, Mr. Zeller sent a letter to every Select Board member individually with his recommendations for who should be appointed to the Board of Assessors. Selectman Gold commented it was very much out of the ordinary for a chair of a committee to reach out with such a strong recommendation to the Select Board. Selectman Gold and Lam expressed support for Mr. Zeller’s recommendations.
Mr. Zeller with his tenure on the BOA is abundantly qualified in identifying what knowledge, skills, and abilities a candidate should possess to provide enhancement to the quality of work the BOA performs for our community.
None of the Select Board members have ever served on the BOA or taken the prerequisite training. Therefore, they likely only have a cursory knowledge of the duties and responsibilities. People with knowledge of the duties and responsibilities of BOA members realize that experience and familiarity with the appraisal and abatement process directly affects the quality and thoroughness of the evaluation our taxpayers receive when they file an abatement request.
Nevertheless, Mr. Zeller’s recommendation was tossed aside by Selectman Hemavathi, Zwirko, and Levine while being promoted by Selectman Gold and Lam. Instead of accepting the recommendations from the Chair of the Board of Assessors, Select Board member Zwirko moved to nominate his neighbor and friend who had no experience associated with the duties of the BOA. Selectman Zwirko and Levine endorsed the nomination while stating it would be nice to have a “fresh start” and “new eyes” on the committee. The Select Board chair also supported Selectman Zwirko’s nomination with the final vote being 3-2 with Selectman Gold and Selectman Lam voting no.
Mr. Zeller stated he felt the three members of the Select Board made either an irrational or prejudicial decision in choosing an unknown quantity over and established one and felt they had taken a vote of no confidence in his abilities and past contributions on the BOA.
When Mr. Zeller submitted his resignation letter after serving 15 years on the BOA expressing his views on what had transpired, only one Select Board member took the time to drop Mr. Zeller a personal note thanking him for his service to our community. That was Selectman Gold who is currently the longest serving member on the Longmeadow Select Board.
The Select Board represents us as a community. Is this disrespectful and dismissive behavior representative of what we are? Wake up Longmeadow before it is too late.
Richard Foster
Longmeadow
