 Hello everyone. I'm James Milan. Welcome to this conversation one-on-one with Errol Tosjan, who is one of the candidates for the board of assessors here in town this year. Errol, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. You're taking the time. We, you know, first thing I would like to ask you about is the fact that as you shared with us, both in your profile and in the debate, what has motivated you, what galvanized you to seek this seat, was your own experience not too long ago with moving into Arlington and and being surprised about your assessed rate and then looking and going through the process of attaining an abatement. So that didn't go well and that spurred you to do this. What else, you know, lest you be considered or looked at as a single issue candidate here, what else is it that you both want to do as part of the board and bring to the board aside from a fresh and not positive experience? Right. Yeah, so two things. So going back to kind of what was the main catalyst for getting me to be interested in running. So just to remind the viewers, you know, we purchased our house in Arlington, which we were very excited about and then soon thereafter we received our first property tax bill and we noticed that the assessment was about eight percent higher than the purchase price of our home, which, you know, for Arlington tax rate, 12 or so dollars per 1,000 depending on, you know, the cost of one's house and, you know, housing prices are pretty expensive in Arlington. That can be, you know, a material amount for most people. So we did end up applying an abatement, which was a pretty arduous process. The form is like these, challenging. And then ultimately we received an abatement from Arlington and that, you know, I thought was pretty good. We received an abatement for an amount, an assessment that was below our purchase price, which we thought was reasonable, although we didn't quite understand how the board landed at that amount. And, you know, I continue to see a theme here of lack of transparency and that's really why I'm running. You know, one of the reasons I'm running is to bring some additional transparency to the voters and the citizens and taxpayers in Arlington, really how these numbers are computed, you know, what truly goes on behind the scenes with the assessor and the board and, you know, the property tax is a significant portion of many folks' budget. So I think it's important that each citizen is armed with the information and that, you know, how did the board arrive or the assessor arrive at the values that they're being charged at tax rate against? Well, so if the main thing that you're concerned about is transparency, that gives rise to two questions as far as I'm concerned. One is what can you do? Assuming that you get in, what can you do once you're in? How do you plan to make that happen? And my second question is is it transparency basically as it relates to people who are in the same position as you were in, people seeking an abatement or something else from the board, or is it a broader kind of transparency you're talking about where the board is informing Arlington more generally or Arlington citizens or homeowners more generally about a number of different factors? So I think the board and the assessor's office could publish additional FAQs going into exactly how the amounts are derived. You know, I'm a CPA and I scrounge through as much documentation as I possibly could just try to figure out myself and I couldn't figure it out and I'm not the best CPA in the world but if I can't figure it out, you know, it may be tougher for the average Arlingtonian to come to an understanding. You know, additionally I think additional transparency could be broad in terms of, you know, how the amounts are calculated and then the abatement process. You know, what happened at the follow-up at the board meeting where they determined an amount post-abatement? You know, how did they arrive at that exact dollar amount when it went into that? So I think along with the decision from the board it would be helpful to understand what went into that determination. You just mentioned that, you know, it would be helpful to know what's happening behind those closed doors in a sense, right? Have you been behind those closed doors? Have you attended? I haven't but I've looked at the minutes and the last time I looked at the minutes there was a clear lag in publishing of those minutes from the board and those minutes themselves were pretty sparse. I think the minutes should disclose exactly how the amounts were derived. If that's not possible then, you know, maybe a blanket statement like, you know, why were the amounts abated or or, you know, what drove the, you know, sales comparisons that led to the reduced or reduced amounts or whether there was no abatement, you know, allowed by the board. You know, what went into that decision? Yeah, and I'd just like to return to a question that I had kind of thrown out earlier. Perhaps you may have responded to it. I just want to ask again, how do you see the functioning of the the assessors on the board? How do you see the way that that functions enabling you to make the changes that you would like to see happen were you to be elected? Yeah, whether the board is empowered or not on your master's is general law, you know, I think a board member either representing the office in official capacity or as a private citizen could advocate for, you know, a bunch of changes, whether it's the use of databases, you know, sales data more effectively in the town, whether it's the influence of outside consultants, you know, which consultants are selected. You know, we're approaching, you know, a time where data mining is pretty sophisticated and there's plenty of smart citizens in our town that have this expertise and I'm sure would yield guidance on how to best and most effectively use the data that's available. And I'm pretty confident that that's something that hasn't been looked at by the board or the assessor's office today. Why are you confident about that? Is it that you've approached the board to find out how they're doing this? You know, again, I know you said that that's the problem, right? Is that it's not immediately clear, but what kind of efforts have you already made to look into this already? Well, there is a ratio that's published by the town of sales to assessment ratios periodically and some of these ratios can be quite abnormal. So the guidance from the state is that an assessment to sales ratio has to be between 90 and 110 percent of the fair market value and from time to time the town publishes that there's exceptions that deviate significantly from the norm and I firmly believe if data was used effectively there would be less of these deviations or deviations that don't exceed the norm by significant amount. One of the real themes of your campaign so far is an idea that the board could use an infusion of some younger perspective, let's say, as you have self-identified as a millennial and said, hey, you know, the board could use this perspective. Right. What exactly do you mean by that given that one of the other candidates, a long time incumbent of the board, has insisted that what they do has nothing to do with age and perspective that comes from age and serving a particular cohort or not, etc. Right. I think in any job that has been held by 20 years, you know, I think I brought up the point of auditor rotations before, I think anytime someone new is brought into a position that's been held by extended period of time of someone else, that person's going to bring fresh ideas, they may uncover new ways of doing things more efficiently, you know, and frankly I grew up in an age of technology that I think the folks on the board today, you know, they just grew up in a different time and residents in Arlington are moving in from other towns, they're getting younger, so I think those folks need representation as well and certainly, like I said before, the tax payments are a significant portion of their budget. But what do you mean when you say that those folks need representation and it has been stated that the board is not a representative body in the same way as a legislature represents the interests of its constituents? I mean just personally speaking, if you know the determination of a large portion of my monthly budget is made by folks that aren't similar to me, don't represent me personally, that's just something to consider, you know, certainly it's on my mind, especially when they can affect your livelihood so much. And you mentioned as part of an answer a minute or two ago technology and the fact that, you know, you have grown up and are comfortable, let's say, with a certain kind of integration of technology in your life that you, the assumption is maybe is not the case for many of the current board members. Do you see, what is one example of technology that you see could make, help make, affect the kind of changes that you're wanting to see on the board and that you would bring to the table if you were a member? I can't name specific technologies, I'd have to see what data is available to the assessor's office in the board and then I could, you know, look into the most effective use of technology to extrapolate and use that data effectively. Well are you familiar, for instance, with the Patriot properties, the database and do you know whether that's that's been used, is currently being used, is that something that you would would advocate for? I'd have to see, I mean I'm sure cost is a consideration, some of these vendors you know vary in their pricing and you know there's I'm sure limited resources that the town could deploy. So it's a question of given the limited resources, how can we accomplish the goals, make the process more transparent to the citizens in Arlington and just you know arrive at a better place? Okay we have just two minutes left and I wanted to make sure that you feel satisfied with what we've covered in the conversation and to invite you to add in anything else at this point if you'd like. Yeah thanks James, you know first of all I'd like to thank yourself and Sarah and ACMI again for for the platform and the opportunity. I just want to say that I think you know as Arlingtonians where we're in this together doesn't have to be a you know lateral decision by the assessor's office or the board in determination of how the assessments are done. I mean you know we're a town of 40,000 there's plenty of intelligent people in town that have bright ideas how to make this a better process and I think I think we can do better. All right well thank you very much. I've been speaking to Errol Tosjan who is a candidate for the board of assessors here in town this year. Thank you audience for joining us and we'll see you next time.