(2020 statement) My wife Marcia and I acquired a leasehold in Arden in 2009 and moved to Arden in 2011. I served as an assessor in 2019 and 2020 and believe I have a good understanding of Arden’s land rent system and the application of those principles to assessments by the Board of Assessors in recent years. The assessments process should be fair, simple to administer and readily understandable and should result in assessments that do not radically change from year to year. (Of course, assessments increase from year to year because expenses, primarily County and School taxes, increase each year.) I believe that the 2018 and 2019 assessments were fair and the 2019 assessments as consistent as possible with the prior year. Over the years the efforts of assessors to achieve fairness have resulted in a significant level of complexity and made understanding of the assessment process more difficult. I believe that the assessors should continue to try to make the process more transparent. 10/13/2020