Geneva Township assessor will face challenger

A Geneva Township trustee dissatisfied with the service provided by the current assessor has decided to run for the job.

Denise LaCure announced her candidacy late last week. The election is next spring.

"I'm running because I want to bring back service, customer service, to the assessor's office," said LaCure, who works as a deputy assessor for St. Charles Township.

"I could offer the public more information on assessments and do it in a friendly manner," she said.

"That's pretty much political posturing on her part," said current Geneva Township Assessor Aubrey Pratte, who has not decided whether to run again.

LaCure said residents were unhappy after receiving notices of revised assessments Dec. 22. Most assessments went up, some by 75 percent. People had 30 days to appeal the assessment to the county Board of Review, but some complained the assessor's office did not return phone calls when they sought information, she said.

Pratte said Thursday he and his deputies returned calls but that it took a while because they received more than 500.

Pratte explained in January to the township board the county mandated Geneva Township add $91 million to its assessments to match it with other townships. The township reassessed two neighborhoods in downtown Geneva where property assessments were up to 40 percent below market value and applied a multiplier to the rest of properties in the township.

LaCure said the township board has questioned the assessor hiring a consultant and suggested a review of the assessor's office workload and procedures to see if staffing is adequate.

LaCure said she was assigned to work with Pratte on the project, but he didn't return her phone calls. Pratte denied the charge.

The consultant was in his budget, Pratte said, and was used to reassess the two Geneva neighborhoods in part because of the workload and the varied building styles and ages.

Pratte said he is proud of his office's Web page, where people can look up property information. "We have worked very hard to make it user-friendly," he said.

LaCure would like more information published in the township newsletter and in newspapers, especially for senior citizens who don't use the Internet.

Pratte said he understands why residents are unhappy, since assessments are up in a year when property sales are down and foreclosures skyrocketed nationwide.

Property values as of Jan. 1, 2007, are in the general reassessment. Price drops, if any, after that date would be reflected in future reassessments.

"We're in a business that's not very popular," Pratte said.