A Critical Assessment

GR tax assessor's office must be restored to order

Last week's resignation of Grand Rapids City Assessor Laureen Birdsall shouldn't be the final word in her strange and twisted saga. More "assessment" needs to be done of how her office became an unsupervised free-for-all, as a recent report requested by the City Commission revealed. In particular, troubling questions remain about City Manager Kurt Kimball's leadership, as well as that of former Fiscal Director Robert White, Ms. Birdsall's immediate supervisor.

Ms. Birdsall, assessor since 1992, left the city last week after the 65-page report revealed pervasive mis-management. She had an atrocious attendance record and failed to put her office in compliance with the state tax code. What's more her workplace behavior was at times bizarrely inappropriate, blurring the line between the professional and personal in ways that should have raised red flags with Mr. White and Mr. Kimball long before commissioners publicly forced them to investigate.

Between the fall of 1999 and the summer of 2002, Ms. Birdsall was present in City Hall only half the days she should have been. Mr. White had granted her permission to work from her Wyoming home on complex, pending tax appeals – a serious lapse in judgment on his part. Her long absences meant that her 19-person department lacked management and leadership. That failure invited employee problems, including an assistant who moonlighted as an assessor for Lowell Township while on the City of Grand Rapids' clock.

Her presence in the office was at times equally problematic. Employees allege that she allowed some workers to view "sexually suggestive" Internet sites and once took two employees to a strip club - one accompanied her inside - to ask about male dancers for a private party. Once, she put two grapefruit into her brassier and paraded through the office. Her explanation? "I viewed it as entertaining the troops." Any one of these episodes could have been a firing offense. Taken together, they suggest a pattern of poor leadership and a profound lack of professionalism. No surprise, then, that the report concluded that her department suffered from low morale and lacked "a sense of what is proper and ethical."

The report praises Ms. Birdsall's skills as an assessor - especially her handling of the city's complicated appeal on the value of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel – but there are questions even there. Last year, a review by the state Tax Commission found that Ms. Birdsall's office did not use uniform cost tables to determine the value of residential property in the city, and the assessment rolls and appraisal card report system did not match. The shortcomings date back to Ms. Birdsall's predecessor. Still, she had plenty of time to clear them up and didn't.

Credit is due City Commissioners Richard Tormala and James Jendrasiak for pushing the investigation forward even as Mr. Kimball and Mr. White pulled in the other direction. Mr. White, who retired from his city job last year to work for the county consistently defended Ms. Birdsall. Mr. Kimball at times refused responsibility by saying Mr. White was directly in charge of the assessor. At  times he contentiously dismissed the investigation as a "witch hunt."

Mr. Kimball's reluctance suggests a blind spot. As the top administrator of the city, he is finally responsible for the conduct of all employees. In this instance he neglected or refused to recognize a department in disarray. Continued complaints involving Ms. Birdsall ought to have been enough to trigger his concern and further investigation. Even in the face of all this evidence he tried to save Ms. Birdsall's job, then offered her a too-generous six-month severance package – for fireable offenses. Why?

Now, it is up to Mr. Kimball to fix what's been broken. The city must be brought into compliance with state standards. Homeowners count on accurate and fair treatment from the assessor. The state's continuing concerns about city practices cloud citizen concerns. Employees in the assessor's office need a leader who shows up for work, acts professionally and can restore morale – and in some cases morals - to a damaged department. After such a harsh assessment of Ms. Birdsall, anything less should hold no appeal for commissioners.