[Vision2020] Spokesman on BOE appeal

[Mark Solomon]

Visionaries,

from today's Spokesman.

I'm no lawyer, but I did serve almost four years as county 
commissioner sitting as a BOE. Some thoughts:

this is likely termed an adversarial proceeding because the 
"taxpayer" referred to in 63-501A is usually construed to mean the 
taxpayer on the property in question. Appealing the assessment of 
another taxpayer's valuation challenges their rights as taxpayers 
even if in this instance it's their right as non-taxpayers. The 
closest we ever got to this question while I was in office was a 
challenge initiated by the Board of Commissioners to Gritman's off 
the roles status due to a change in policy at the hospital regarding 
charitable care for indigent persons. The hospital changed their 
policy to restore charitable care so it did not proceed to a hearing. 
Ada County followed our lead and did revoke non-taxpaying status for 
at least one of the downtown hospitals several years later.

If possible, I would highly recommend securing the services of an 
attorney as Whitney will go out of his way to place procedural 
hurdles in your path. The BOE is a quasi-judicial proceeding under 
Idaho law (the commissioners sit as administrative judges) and any 
ruling made may be appealed by the parties involved to the State 
Board of Tax Appeals and that decision to the state courts. The 
administrative record of the Latah BOE is the most critical piece of 
evidence that is reviewed by the appeals bodies.

Mark Solomon
********
Citizens challenge church's tax status

Latah commissioners cancel protest hearing

Hannelore Sudermann
Staff writer
July 7, 2004

MOSCOW, Idaho - In a rare proceeding for Latah County, two citizens 
are questioning the tax exempt status for Christ Church, a large 
local religious organization that boasts 800 members, a college, a 
publishing company and a seminary.

The church, its auxiliary offices and the school, New Saint Andrews 
College, own and inhabit several buildings in downtown Moscow. The 
church and school incorporation are listed with the IRS as public 
charities, and with the exception of a few thousand feet which is 
rented out as office or retail space, most of their properties are 
off the tax rolls.

A Board of Equalization hearing scheduled Tuesday to hear a protest 
filed by Moscow residents Rosemary Huskey and Saundra Lund was 
canceled by two of the Latah County commissioners, who comprise 
two-thirds of the board. They said with the help of their legal 
counsel and after receiving a letter from the college's attorney, 
they determined that Christ Church and New Saint Andrews College 
weren't given enough notice to prepare.

"This is our first experience in these kinds of protests," said Tom 
Stroschein, Latah County commissioner and BOE member, apologizing to 
the room of about 50 people for postponing the hearing. The 
information did not get to Christ Church in a timely manner, he said.

Though Huskey and Lund came to the hearing with a stack of documents 
and a visual presentation, Stroschein refused to open the meeting 
Monday for any kind of testimony. Fellow board member Jack Nelson, 
backed his decision. "This is in fairness to the owner of the 
property."

Huskey and Lund said they have no personal connection with the 
church, but have filed their protest out of concern that a large and 
influential organization in the community may have bent the rules and 
is not paying the taxes that it may owe on more than 
40,000-square-feet of commercial property.

Doug Wilson, pastor of Christ Church, is scheduled to be out of town 
at a conference in Virginia all this week. The attorney for New Saint 
Andrews, Greg Dickison said he had a court commitment in Kootenai 
County Tuesday.

This is not the first controversy for the church. This winter a book 
that Wilson co-wrote about slavery at the time of the Civil War 
caused a stir when a group of Moscow residents and two UI professors 
accused him of being an apologist for the slave-holders. His stance 
and a history conference the church hosted drew attention as many 
individuals and groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, 
accused Wilson and the speakers he invited to the conference of being 
neo-Confederate.

But this time, the controversy is not about ideology, but about 
property and money. Lund and Huskey attended the May 3, 2004, BOE 
hearings at which tax exempt status for the downtown properties 
belonging to Christ Church and New Saint Andrews College were 
granted. They say they were never given an opportunity to speak. 
"Kind of like today, there was not place for public input," said 
Huskey.

So they went through a formal process of protesting the status, and 
in June filed their complaint claiming that the board granted the 
status based on incomplete and inaccurate information. They say they 
don't believe the BOE is at fault, just that it wasn't given a 
complete picture by the church, the college and their representatives.

As for the specific issues regarding the church and college tax 
status, Lund and Huskey said there were multiple problems, but they 
didn't want to discuss them prior to making them public at an open, 
on-the-record hearing with the BOE.

One of their issues could be that County Commissioner Paul Kimmel, a 
member of the Christ Church congregation, spoke and voted at the May 
3 BOE hearings. His involvement with the church while deciding an 
issue that directly affects the church may be a conflict of interest.

After the hearing today, from which Kimmel recused himself saying he 
wanted to avoid even the appearance of conflict, the commissioner 
told The Spokesman-Review that he did vote on issues affecting the 
church in May, but only after making it known that he was a member. 
He said he has no personal or financial affiliation with the college.

According to the minutes from the May 3 meetings, the other two 
commissioners also voted in favor or granting the tax exempt status.

Huskey and Lund's protest hearing is now scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday 
in the commissioner's meeting room at the courthouse. Because the 
hearing has been rescheduled and the issue seems to be of interest to 
a number of people community, the postponement will benefit not only 
the parties involved, but more people in Latah County who might want 
to attend, said Commissioner Nelson.

The women disagreed with the postponement, saying that they had filed 
their paperwork and given notice as instructed and they didn't 
understand how the church and its representatives couldn't have known 
about yesterday's hearing well in advance. "We all know this is a 
small town," said Huskey, adding that she posted the information on a 
community e-mail exchange. "This was no surprise."
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