Why has the City changed access to public records?

There has been a lot of discussion around accessing public records in the Nashua Assessing Office. Somehow, after the former Chief, Jon Duhamel left, the Mayor, Ms. Kleiner and Attorney Bolton decided to rethink what is available for immediate public access in Assessing. And their decisions have left much information inaccessible to the public.

Why did this happen? The timing of these changes happened when I uncovered significant irregularities in the practices in the assessing office. The Mayor elected to place an untrained, uncertified manager in charge of the Office. The legal office and city officials appear to slow down and delay access.

The City Charter states “§71. Records open to inspection. The books and records of the assessors shall be the property of the city, and at all times be open to public inspection during office hours.”

What records were available before Ms. Kleiner became manager? Any property record file, abatement files, reports, etc.. Once Ms. Kleiner took over, she instituted a “new multi-property request” form. Now, you have to identify yourself and sign your name to view a file. Further, the only property record file you can access immediately is the file of the property where you reside. Any other files you might want to review are no longer available for immediate inspection.

What is wrong with this policy?  It violates the plain language of the City Charter. Attorney Bolton and City officials somehow believe that the person who resides at the property has more rights to the property record file than to any other file. The property I own in Nashua has a property record file that is owned by the public and accessible to anyone who wishes to inspect the material. All these files are collective public records.

Ms. Kleiner instituted a practice with the clerical staff to document the property address and person accessing property record files. What were her intentions? She wanted to allow taxpayers to identify who has inspected the file of their home, when these record are open public records. This is a harassing, intimidating and an unsafe practice to place on members of the public.

If you went to Assessing to research assessments in your neighborhood, it’s intimidating to know that the assessing staff will place notices in those files to create a record of your inspection of this file. This would in all likelihood be illegal. This would be a deterrent for those who anonymously walk in to report work done without a permit. The City should not have to document who inspects public documents. An irate property owner might confront the citizen whose name appears in the file and this could result in a verbal or physical altercation. It could encourage disputes amongst neighbors and friends. By law, these are public records and Ms. Kleiner has no right to require the citizen to identify themselves to inspect the record.

Alderwoman Schmidt is an instigator in this thinking as well. She seems concerned that I am inspecting public records and is playing it up as though I were spying in YOUR records. But if we want transparency and equity with our assessments, the records must be public.

Mayor Donchess suffers from the same thinking. When he realized that the public was looking at the property record file for his house, he let the public know that he was carrying his property record file with him, so if anyone wanted to review it,  they could go to him. Why was the Mayor allowed to take the public property record file out of the assessing office? Do you think the Assessing office would allow you or me to take the file of the property we reside at and carry it around anywhere we might like?

If you wanted to inspect the file of the property owned by the Mayor, you apparently would need to call his office or knock on his door to obtain it. That feels awkward and very personal.

Recently at a July Finance Committee Meeting, Ms. Kleiner, once again, personalized the access of these property record files when questioned by an Alderwoman. Her thinking continues to be wrong.

What is the best approach to questioning a property assessment? When referring to an assessment, refer to the address of the property and not the owner. Everything about where we reside is personal and intimate to us. We count on our homes to be private and safe. City leaders have taken a personal approach in calling out the property owner and documenting the names of people reviewing property record files in Assessing. This dangerous practice should be stopped.

Any Assessing Chief worth his salt would quickly put an end to this, but when you place unqualified, untrained people in charge of public records, unnecessary restrictions and uncomfortable, unsafe conditions are created that are intimidating and violate our rights to open access information.

In the next post, I will look at unethical practice in the city legal office.