I jumped out of bed this morning with the anticipation of my first day without Ron. For twenty years he has been here – I now realize – actually guiding my day.
As I came through the main door I realized that I had no keys to get into the office and couldn’t go jump into my new routine. He wasn’t here with the door already opened with coffee waiting. Then we lost our coffee carafe, another bad sign that we were beginning a new adventure without coffee.
Luckily Kathy rescued me with coffee from DD. Ok, I said to myself I can do it now. I’ll pretend that the day is just beginning and start all over. That’s when I opened my coffee and the aroma drifted to my brain, I very casually took a sip and lit my cigarette. Kathy again saved me and asked what I thought I was doing…oops I’m supposed to be outside.
Now I know what Ron’s job was – he was here to keep me going each day. I certainly will miss him as a friend but look forward to the new direction that this office might take.
*Yesterday was Ron's last day as the Town's Assessor.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Martha Sanford's (Almost) Ode to Ron Parks*
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36 comments:
Ron's the best!!!
I think this quote from the article about him in the Spectrum says it all:
"Then I'm going to cut the soles off my shoes, climb a tree and learn to play the flute," he said quoting from Fireside Theatre. "I'm just going to take each day as it comes."
Ron Parks is a full-blown bureaucrat who did the absolute minimum work required in the performance of his duties. He did nothing "extra" helping anyone but himself and his cronies. Mr. Parks is a living example of why tax collectors (assessors) were despised so much in Biblical times. Good riddance!
Jay, I hope this website isn't going to turn into a place for verbal stoning. I certainly wouldn't want my shortcomings [presuming I have any - real or perceived] posted up for the world to see.
Leave poor Ron alone!
He'll probably move south because the taxes are too high around here...
In colonial New England, obnoxious, low-level, tax bureaucrats were often tarred and feathered before being run out of town. I wonder how Mr. Parks would have fared back then?
Why is the assessor being blamed for town council's or BOE's spending?
He's the one who's been cheating people by overassessing their property.
to bad he didn't take Martha with him.
I really have to say that this is why your public employees really enjoy working for you. It's all the respect we recieve not only from the taxpayers but our Town Council. They always seem so surprised when an employee leaves and they realize the salary is $20,000 less than where it should have been. Do they read the budget they recieve? Isn't this their obligation to make sure salaries are kept in line for non-union employees? I ask all of you, taxpayers and Town Council members, "How would you feel if you were paid $56,000 when they should have paid $75,000?" Just how many teachers would except that!!!
$56K to sit around the office, drink coffee, avoid doing his job and abuse taxpayers... He was way overpaid.
Where on earth would someone like that be paid $56K (or $75K), except in government?
There are some bums around town who could do just as good a job for a lot less money.
They couldn't do any worse!
Blame the people who let him stay instead of making the hard decisions. John Lillis, Ray O'brien even had the audacity to suggest he be offered the higher salary and asked to stay. Have they been sleeping the last twenty years? and we still vote them in...
Aren't they the bums?
Parks was a clown of the first order. Content with diminishing his own self worth and that of his fellow Americans by gleefully acting as bag man for the local arm of leviathan.
I am slightly heartened to see the posts that correctly describe Parks and his position for what they are, true and intolerable enemies of liberty.Even in the insulated dreamland of bureaucracy Parks had to have some idea he and his position were despised by so many. The next self hating American who wins this position will no doubt get more pay and benefits to further our trudge towards fascism.
"The power to tax involves the power to destroy."
John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States
McCulloch v. Maryland, (1819)
Mr. Parks was in way over his head. The only thing he excelled at was being an indifferent, bureaucratic bully, backed by the power of the state. He wasn’t just a “regular guy” doing an unpopular job; he was a stereotypical, marginally satanic weasel who thoroughly enjoyed screwing the good taxpayers of New Milford.
Most people realize that taxes are the price we pay for civilized society. But when people know they're being overtaxed, they detest their tax bills and the bureaucrats responsible for them. Mr. Parks and his accessories on the Board of Assessment Appeals took particular delight in willfully overassessing people's property.
What makes this even more repulsive it that it's going on in the hometown of Roger Sherman, a patriot who pledged his life, his fortune and his sacred honor in the defense of liberty. Based on the historical record, I'm quite certain that Roger Sherman would also have little or no respect for Mr. Parks or his cohorts in the Tax Assessor's Office. They haven't earned any respect nor do they deserve it.
The vitriol in these comments is sickening and is probably from a very few who had combat with the Assessor's office because they don't understand how assesssment works.
Ron isn't an evil person. To the contrary. I found him to be eager to resolve a problem that I had and Martha and Cathy were terrific. They took their time to explain everything to me.
For those people who may not know, if you ever disagree with your assessment, you can appeal it to an appeals board right here in Town. It's a simple process and you don't need a lawyer at all.
As Martha to explain it to you. She'll walk you through it.
Stop bashing Ron!
Sorry. That should have been, "ASK Martha to explain it to you."
As New Milford's Tax Assessor, Mr. Parks' job was to accurately assess property. According to this week's Spectrum, Mr. Parks just "signed off" on the town's 2008 Grand List.
How many people think the 2008 tax bills will accurately reflect the area's significantly decreased residential property values?
How many people think the 2008 tax bills will wrongly reflect their home's peak value from several years ago?
How many people know that Mr. Parks did whatever was easiest, regardless of accuracy?
On February 4, 2008 at 8:57 AM, anonymous wrote: "... if you ever disagree with your assessment, you can appeal it to an appeals board right here in Town. It's a simple process..."
Of course, it's not that simple. You forgot to add; "and when they disregard the objective evidence and flippantly say 'no' to your appeal, taxpayers have no other recourse but a costly appeal to the Litchfield Superior Court."
The assessor and appeals board are certainly aware that average taxpayers can't justify the court costs of an appeal to the Superior Court. It is in this way that the assessor and appeals board "thoroughly enjoy screwing the good taxpayers of New Milford".
One last time....
Assessments are only compiled with a revaluation. They do not change in between. (Read you State Statutes.) Everything the Assessor's Office does is regulated throught the State of Ct. The process of appeals and court are directed by State Stautes. The Office has no control over policies.
You must be a crony of Mr. Parks' for him to be so "eager to resolve [your] problem". The rest of us get little more than attitude and grief from the ravenous bureaucrats in the Assessor's Office.
By the way, assessments of personal property (boats, vehicles, etc.) are compiled annually, not with a revaluation.
The overassessment of personal property is where the apathetic bureaucrats in the tax assessor's office routinely cheat people without any regard for impartiality or fairness.
You people need some happy pills. I'm fed up with government as much as the next guy, but Ron Parks is hardly a "marginally satanic weasel". You people obviously don't know Ron at all; he is much too lax to be satanic.
You people are scaring me! The guy is gone, why didn't you speak up about his oh-so-evil nature before, when maybe something could have changed? You just come in after all is said and done and spew hate?
Deep breaths people, deep breaths...Perhaps a little transcendental meditation?
Little Miss M is so right. Leave the guy alone. The complainers don't understand how the system works. And, as she implied, where were they when he was here? Why didn't they bring their concerns to the Mayor or Town Council????
I’m sure that all the taxpayers who “brought their concerns to the Mayor or Town Council" over the years were singled out for ‘special treatment’ by the tax assessor’s office…
“Maybe something could have changed?” The Mayor(s) and Town Council(s) were well aware of what was going on in the assessor’s office, and they did nothing about it for 20 years. They obviously had no problem spending the ill-gotten gains that Mr. Parks brought in. They’re addicted to spending, so why would they do anything to impede that gravy train?
"...he is much too lax to be satanic."
That's funny!
If Ron is looking for something to do in retirement, he should consider the used car business. It's a much more principled profession that will afford him increased respectability in his golden years.
The federal, state and local governments are too big and spend too much of our money! A robust free market economy (free from burdensome taxation and regulation) is the only hope for creating jobs and improving the quality of life for all citizens.
The tax assessor's office is an enormous hindrance to job creation and improving one's quality of life.
"free from burdensome taxation and regulation"
...I'm not sure how you can have services and have no way to pay for them if not for taxation...
..how would your quality of life change if you are not taxed..Call for an ambulance -no won't come; call because someone is breaking into your house.. no won't come..sleeting out..no salt or trucks going your way....children have no schooling...running the streets etc. Move to China if you don't like it here.
anon wrote:
"The vitriol in these comments is sickening and is probably from a very few who had combat with the Assessor's office because they don't understand how assesssment works."
Gee. We had "combat" with Ron many times over the years and he always collapsed like a house made of playing cards. He would quake when the wife went to see him and simply did as told. Y'all need assertiveness training. Shucks, we even got him to fill out our personal property tax forms. Was that bureaucrat abuse? Felt good.
Get a grip. It doesn't say free from ALL taxation and regulation. Establishing Justice (courts, etc.), insuring domestic Tranquility (police protection), providing for the common defense, promoting the general Welfare (post offices, roads, fire protection, public education, etc.), and securing the Blessings of Liberty are all legitimate purposes of government. These things obviously require taxation.
Funding today's mammoth, overweening bureaucracies and superfluous government agencies demand "burdensome" taxation.
"I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers and salaries merely to make partisans, and for increasing by every device the public debt on the principle of its being a public blessing." --Thomas Jefferson, 1799
In 1776, people like you told Jefferson to "move elsewhere" with his "subversive" ideas. I'm very grateful he stayed...
Hmmm...the "blessings of liberty." That's my bank account right?
One has to wonder what kind of American tells other’s with whom they disagree to move somewhere else. Are they self righteous, arrogant or just plain intolerant? Perhaps the poster can shed some light on this for us?
Anyway, I digress…
Just because someone doesn’t share your level of intellect doesn’t mean they should “move to China”, or anywhere else for that matter. It’s a relatively free country, and I have absolutely no problem with ignorant buffoons like you living among us. Please try showing others the same courtesy.
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