City assessor says KRT reevaluation largely on track but conversion delays pushed schedule

Phil Drew, Bangor’s city assessor, briefed council on the office’s reevaluation work and data-conversion challenges at the March 9 workshop.

Drew said the office began conversion testing between its real-estate software and the tax-collector software in December. “It’s quite a process,” he said, adding the conversion did not initially include a firm delivery date and that delay pushed back residential inspection starts. He said the office was close to a successful test but noted the data-conversion timing contributed to a later-than-expected start for inspections.

On inspections, Drew said KRT had completed exterior visits for properties they scheduled and mailed letters requesting interior access to properties not yet inspected; he described an April plan for additional data collectors to make third-attempt visits in neighborhoods. “We’re currently at about 35%” success for interior-inspection participation, he told the council, and he compared that rate with national ranges for communities that conduct outreach.

Drew said commercial-property work began later and that KRT was about a month behind the projected March data-collection deadline for commercial inspections. To support commercial valuations, the city will mail an income-and-expense questionnaire to commercial and large-apartment owners to collect rent and expense data used in the income-approach valuation.

Councilors asked what would happen if KRT could not deliver values by June; Drew recommended arranging a Zoom call with KRT leadership (he named Ken Rogers as the KRT contact) to have KRT explain any delays directly to the council. Drew said the assessor’s office expects to have the majority of data and initial values ready for the council’s June meeting but acknowledged the situation would be a “game changer” if the timeline slipped further.

Drew also confirmed public access to property PDFs via a partial online viewer and gave a record date for the data as April 1, 2025, for relevant property documents. He said penalties for failing to cooperate with inspections exist and start in the hundreds per day, escalating thereafter, though he expressed hope the city would not need to impose fines.

The council did not take formal action on the reevaluation during the workshop; Drew said staff would monitor KRT’s progress and report back if there were missed deadlines.