Residents of North Hills and Sunset Districts:

Do you know what you will be getting for that money you will be paying?

  
If you are in the North Hills District, you should have received your letter ("Letter to North Hills" and related "North Hills Maps 1, 2 and 3" attached below*) about your assessment.  If you are in the Sunset District, a group of us met with Mark Deline, Assistant City Manager, on September 3, 2009 and saw your assessment information.  The methods for both districts look a little different, but are virtually the same:  The assessment is roughly equally divided between safety/reliability and aesthetics.  The safety/reliability half is spread equally among the lots and the aesthetics portion is based on wire length.  In North Hills, everyone gets a view factor of "1" except for 3 out of 321 properties (See Maps attached).  This means that it is essentially a cost-based formula.  For Sunset District the Assessment Engineer essentially converted wire length to a number.  Like North Hills, a few were adjusted for view, but most are assessments are based solely on wire length. 

The calculation of the aesthetics by the Assessment Engineer is very unfair because it is based on cost and results in high assessments for some people who get little benefit while others who get a big benefit pay little.  For further information on the problem, please see the attached “Letter to City Council August 28, 2009” below.