Whately Assessors Set Abatement Reporting Standards, Defer to Consultant on Inspections

Other Committee · Meeting of February 18, 2026

Whately Board of Assessors agrees to formalize abatement reporting and prioritize a stalled ten-year inspection program. Meeting with a facilitator identified only as Peter, the board reached working consensus on two top priorities: requiring IRG, its assessing consultant, to submit written recommendations with stated reasoning before any abatement determination is finalized, and obtaining a concrete update on the cyclical inspection program that members say is required under the IRG contract but has not been completed. Board member Fred agreed to draft a template for the abatement report format.

The board also agreed to ask on-site assistant assessor Derek to forward all assessing-related correspondence — including emails from the Massachusetts Association of Assessing Officials — to all three board members, after members said they had received no such communications in roughly two years. A facilitator also raised a contract interpretation question over whether Derek's field inspections fall within or outside his contracted eight office hours per week, saying he would raise it directly with Derek. Whately's abatement deadline is May 2, 2026, per a February 13 email from Derek.

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Source: the Other Committee meeting of February 18, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.