Letter: Grafton Township Assessor needs an audit

To the Editor:

This letter is to call for Alan Zielinski, Grafton Township Assessor, to allow for audit of his assessment books, as his poor valuations have led to grossly uneven tax burdens.

His own residence, for one, is woefully underassessed. While he raised other properties 20% toover 100% for the 2019 quadrennial, his 1.4 acre lakefront property went up just 3% from 2015 to 2019.

It is valued $55,000 less than a smaller home on a lot half its size up the lake from him.

And the home assessment for Lakewood Village President Phil Stephan was chopped in nearly half. In 2019, it went from a fair cash value of  $448,704 dollars to $241,446 ... for a luxury home with a pool overlooking a golf course.

Something is very wrong here, especially when a village president got one of the largest assessment drops in a 20,000-plus parcel township.

Zielinski and Stephan have both stated they don’t know each other. And the Grafton Assessor states he made an assessment error. But even the corrected number is far below market value.

To top that, the neighborhoods Mr. Zielinski created defy logic. Some number in the hundreds of units, while others barely above single digits.

A 2017 Sales Ratio report from Zielinski’s office, which he fought to keep fromrelease,  showed his neighborhoods are unevenly assessed.

Even worse, Mr. Zielinski performs the condoned act of “sales chasing,” where he adjusts homes that recently sold to their sales price, instead of properly assessing all homes using mass appraisal methods. Homeowners that aren’t aware they’re being sales chased can see tax bills significantly higher than the same home next to them.

What would solve this is an audit from the International Association of Assessing Officers. But when I asked Mr. Zielinski if he would cooperate, Mr. Zielinski replied, “I’ll let them open my books when you let someone open yours.”

Mr. Zielinski, you do not understand assessments, or the concept of “Public Official.” Allow a neutral third party to look at your books, or just resign.

John Mueller

Lake in the Hills