2016-05-09-minutes-public-works-study-session

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of every aspect of an LID, including lega! rights and the impact of the LID statutes. Each city should consult with its attorney and adopt a policy with regard to the disclosures which the city wishes to make with respect to its LID proceedings. B. Notice — Beyond the Statutes The statutes for LIDs require notice of the hearing to confirm the final assessment roll be sent to property owners in advance of the final assessment roll hearing. At a minimum, the notice must conform to the requirements of the statutes. However, the city may give a more detailed notice, For example, a recurring issue on Superior Court assessment appeal's by property owners who did not present evidence at the final assessment roll hearing is that the city failed to advise them of the absolute necessity to make a record. Because this issue has arisen on a number of occasions, many cities now advise the property owners in the notice of the hearing to confirm the final assessment roll that the owners must present their protests, together with whatever information or evidence which they wish the council to consider. This type of more detailed notice helps blunt the property owner's attack in court, yet, at the same time, does not give the property owner all of the information needed to successfully challenge an assessment. Other cities choose to provide complete notice of the procedure to be used by a property owner not only at the assessment roll hearing itself, but also the manner of contesting the assessment in the Superior Court. Again, this is simply a policy decision to be decided upon by each city council. C, Public Records Requests Cities are frequently presented with requests to provide copies of public documents relating to LIDs or RIDS. There is nothing in the LID statutes which provides special protection for public documents relating to the LID. When a request for such public records is made, the response should be the same as in any other situation. If anything, because of thetighttime constraints for the final assessment roll hearing, the employees of a city should make an extra effort to comply with the public records request so thatthe property owner cannot claim in courtthat he or she was prejudiced by the slow response of the city in providing documents which had been legitimately requested. Again, this is a matter which should be governed by city council policy. D. Arranging for Transcription Since a judge is restricted to the record of the proceedings before the city in his or her consideration of an assessment appeal, the city must be prepared to compile an accurate record of the proceedings before the council, While the law is not completely settled on the subject, it is advisable that the city be prepared to provide a verbatim transcript of the final assessment roll hearing itself. This can be done by having the hearing tape recorded and transcribed by city employees, This process can be laborious and time consuming and rarely produces a fully satisfactory transcript. It is much betterto arrange to have a court reporter appear at the final assessment roll hearing and take down what is said verbatim. Court reporters are trained to take down every word that is said and to attribute it to the proper speaker. The cost of having a court reporter appear is usually nominal compared to the total cost of the L!D. !f no property owner files an appeal the hearing w':Ii not need to be transcribed. If an appeal is filed a court reporter can usually provide a transcript within a matter of days and the city can charge the property owners for the transcript on a per page basis along with the other documents constituting the record before the council. Moreover, the transcript provided by a court reporter is usually more Local and Road Improvement Districts Manual for Washington State Sixth Edition 67