Ramblings: Council Wants To Appoint Property Assessor; City Aims for Zero Traffic Deaths; Police Release Bias Report

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Council seeks oversight over real estate assessor

Roanoke City Council wants to make the official whose property assessments determine residents’ tax bills into a political appointee.

The director of real estate valuation, whose office makes annual property assessments, used to be appointed by Council members. Two decades ago, Council decided to have the position be under the city manager’s purview. 

The move would add a fifth direct report to Council — which currently includes the city manager, city attorney, city clerk and municipal auditor.

“What we’re going to is the pattern that you’re seeing across the Commonwealth,” City Attorney Tim Spencer said Monday.

“In the words of our current real estate valuator, KC Bratton, he has said, ‘Listen, to keep real estate valuation pure, if you will, that we’re only considering the property, please don’t tie us to the budget process by putting us under the umbrella of the finance department,’ where the [city’s] budget is getting developed,” Spencer said. “He doesn’t even want the perception.”

Most of Roanoke’s local tax revenue comes from the collection of real estate taxes. As the city’s budget has grown, some residents have complained at public meetings about how higher real estate assessments are leading to higher tax bills.

The city’s real estate assessors are required to estimate only the “fair market value” of property. Those annual assessments are the basis for the city’s tax rate of $1.22 for every $100 of assessed property value.

Councilman Bev Fitzpatrick, who last month replaced Luke Priddy for his unexpired six-month term, asked why the change was being made since he hadn’t been in on Council discussions.

“I was always taught the least responsibility you have as an elected official, the better off you are, which usually means you don't add more people to be in charge of instead of less,” Fitzpatrick said with a chuckle. “I see it as a political problem. I’m seeing it from the other side.”

Spencer said Council will vote on the proposal Aug. 19, but enacting the full change will require General Assembly approval.

The move comes as Roanoke has been without a permanent finance director, to whom the real estate valuation director reported. In April, then-city manager Bob Cowell stripped Brent Robertson of that title following a complaint he had behaved unprofessionally.

Roanoke kicks off Vision Zero traffic safety plan

Roanoke is driving toward a future with zero traffic deaths.

A new safety plan called Vision Zero aims to eliminate roadway deaths and serious injuries by 2035. On average, 11 people killed and 70 seriously injured in crashes in Roanoke each year, according to the city. 

This week, the city kicked off a community outreach and engagement portion of the plan, including information sessions and guided walks of places where roadways could be improved.

A survey has also opened to gather input into how Roanokers think traffic safety could be better.

City officials describe the forthcoming action plan as “a paradigm shift” that will “lay out a new set of principles for engineering roads, educating travelers, and creating a sense of collective responsibility.”

The final plan is expected to be completed by the end of this year. 

You can find more information about related public meetings in this week’s Happenings events calendar.

Roanoke police release racial bias report

Black drivers in Roanoke are disproportionately more likely to receive traffic tickets than white drivers, according to an annual city police report.

But the 2023 Biased-Based Policing report concludes there’s no evidence of systemic racial bias in the department.

The annual analysis, published online this week, states that 59 percent of traffic citations went to white drivers, 36 percent to Black drivers and the remaining percentage to drivers of other races. Analysts compared that to an unspecified metric of “bad drivers on the road,” based on car crashes where the driver was cited as at fault.

Though the report does describe the racial breakdown of that “bad driver” metric, it states Black drivers are overrepresented in receiving traffic tickets.

“The data does not indicate nor allow for determining why this is the case,” the report says. “For this reason, additional metrics should be considered as part of a bias-based policing study.”

Last year, the department received three complaints alleging racial bias, involving eight officers. The report said three officers were cleared of those allegations and complaints against the other five were ruled as unfounded.