In the first substantial fix for Philadelphia's broken property-tax system in more than a century, the troubled Board of Revision of Taxes agreed yesterday to surrender responsibility for setting tax values.
Mayor Nutter announced that the BRT board had agreed to allow the city finance director to take charge of running the agency and oversee a long-delayed makeover of its tax assessments, widely considered among the least accurate in the nation.
Under the agreement, which takes effect immediately, the board members keep their part-time positions, their $70,000 salaries, and the responsibility for deciding tax appeals.
Also untouched, for now, are the 80 patronage BRT jobs controlled by Philadelphia's Democratic and Republican Party organizations.
City leaders have been debating how to fix the BRT since May, when an Inquirer series described an agency riddled with poor management and political cronyism.
Nutter said yesterday's move was an important first step to restore public confidence and stabilize the agency while he and City Council worked on permanent changes.
His main concern, he said, was a lack of leadership. Executive director Enrico Foglia, a former Democratic committeeman, resigned under pressure last month.
"Someone needs to be in charge," Nutter told reporters at a late-afternoon news conference outside his office. "They don't have an executive director, and their chief assessment officer has been very ill."
In May, Nutter called on all BRT board members to resign, a demand they quickly refused. The new agreement leaves them in office, along with the three-member Board of View, an agency that hears appeals in condemnation cases.
"We have to work with someone," Nutter said yesterday.
The two-page memorandum allows the finance director to run the BRT for six months, though that could be extended to a year.
In the meantime, the BRT will hear appeals from property owners unhappy with their assessments.
Nutter said he first talked with the BRT members in August about splitting the assessment and appeals functions and putting the finance director in charge of operations.
There seemed to be little resistance from the BRT. Yesterday, Nutter thanked them for being "cooperative."
Board members, who have been recessed since July, had nothing to say about the deal. Chairwoman Charlesretta Meade, who has declined to comment about her beleaguered agency for months, did not return phone calls or e-mail messages. Vice chairman Harvey Levin declined to comment.
"The agreement speaks for itself," he said.
City Finance Director Rob Dubow said the administration planned to hire a full-time manager to run the agency under his supervision. The first priority will be to get a handle on the BRT's operations.
"We have a couple people in mind," he said. "We'll hire someone who is a strong manager and can understand what's happening here and how it can be improved."
Dubow also assumes control of what the BRT has called the Actual Value Initiative, a project that would, for the first time, set Philadelphia's property values at their worth in the marketplace.
The agency's assessments are now far off the mark, with nearly identical properties on the same block taxed at dramatically different amounts. Homeowners in pricey neighborhoods pay far less than they should, and owners of lower-income houses pay too much.
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