And so let me -- let me -- I can't do that. I'm going to have that conversation with the Council President, and that may be an option. Colleagues, I don't want to lose a quorum. I know Council Member Lozada has her time, but Council Member Harrity, I hear you. Can you go quickly, Council Member Harrity? Go ahead quickly, Councilmember.
Hold on, Council Member Harrity. The Chair recognizes Council Member Harrity.
I'm sorry. The other part of that question for that lady was she appealed and then had to appeal the appeal and was charged $300 for that.
And couldn't get the money back. That was the other part of that. Thank you.
Yeah. And so that sounds like that would have been a decision made by the Board of Revision of Taxes, which is separate from us. So anybody has a right to appeal that, but that's not an OPA fee.
So maybe what we should do is talk to the Council President about bringing both back together, so we could do a deep dive for the constituents in the City of Philadelphia, because we can't just brush this stuff under the rug. People cannot afford. People cannot afford the cost of living right now in the city, and we have to examine everything we can to make Philadelphia more affordable for our constituents that we all work for and represent. The Chair recognizes --
The Chair recognizes Council Member Landau, then we can get ready to adjourn for the day.
Oh, I'm so sorry. The Chair recognizes Council Member Lozada.
I think we have to add this conversation here, and that is that it is called gentrification. Can we be honest and say that that is gentrification? That's exactly what it is. I mean, in order for us to fix what is happening in our city, we have to have an honest conversation. There is no reason why we should not be able to tell people why and how we got to whatever the number assessed value was, or how they -- we came about their assessment. My questions were along the same lines as Council Member Landau, because consistently in the southern part of my district, I get asked the same question: "I've done absolutely nothing. I've lived in my house for 40-something years, and I have all of these new houses around me, and now I'm paying -- I went from paying $1,300 of a property tax to $6,000 of a property tax. How and why?" And then I ask the city to explain it to me, and there's no 23 response. It's-- it's not fair. And again, we can't keep telling people that we want them to choose Philadelphia as their place to raise their families if we can't keep it affordable. And okay, maybe we're building houses that for some people they call it affordable. They call Turn the Key affordable to some people. In my neighborhood in the southern part of the district, Turn the Key doesn't work because it's no 12 longer affordable. And it's not because of the cost of the house; it's the taxes. They can't pay the taxes, and they can't pay to maintain the property. And we as a government are doing absolutely nothing to help explain that. And then you ask for an appeal. Your appeal -- the woman yesterday said to us, "My appeal -- I appealed it in 2025, I just got a date, and it's at the end of the year." How does that happen? Are we behind? Are we -- are we not sure what the response is? How is the appeal process? How do we -- can you explain the appeal process to us?
So that specific appeal process you're referring to is the Board of Revision of Taxes, so I would not speak on their behalf, as they're an independent department.
They schedule -- they schedule hearings as they're able to, but we don't schedule hearings for them --
What is the equation? What is -- how do you come up with how a property is assessed?
And there's this thing apparently called a certification process, the assessed value certification process.
So the certification process is when we close the rolls on the tax -- on assessment rolls for one year and roll into the next year. So that's the conclusion. So with the state, that's March 31st, and then we roll into the next tax year after that. For how the properties are valued, we publish data after every reevaluation. We have a report that goes -- the Council is published publicly after every reevaluation that includes the information on all of the data points and how the values are formulated as a general process. But obviously, just to hit some of the quick points, it's location, it's type of property, it's the condition of the property, it's the size of the property. Those are the biggest factors, typically. So what properties that are similar to your subject property, whatever you want that to be in terms of location, size, condition, age. Those are the value -- those sales are used in to help estimate the value of any one given subject property that matches up with that. And we have -- how many sales do we have? We have tens of thousands of sales throughout the city that are broken into specific neighborhoods and specific areas to come up with those values. So it's not one sale making a market in any case; it's multiple observations, multiple transactions, and data from those transactions.
So development drives is a driver, or part of the driver in your assessment process?
Development in a neighborhood also is taken into consideration when you are coming up to that assessed value?
Well, it's what -- it's what properties are selling for. So development in terms of we would not take a sale of a brand-new home that is across the street from a home that's half as large and twice -- I'm sorry that's twice as old; 100-plus years old and say, "Well, this sold for this; we're going to apply a factor of this, and that's how we get your value." It's what the house across the street, what those properties are transacting for, whatever the drivers are for that, that we use to estimate that value. So whatever factors, whether it's catchment area, whether it's wanting to be in a specific part of the city, any -- whatever buyers and sellers are taking into consideration when they purchase a property in an arm's- length transaction, that all goes into what --
So development is taken into consideration when you guys are coming up with these assessment values?
I mean, we don't have a variable for development. If people want to buy a property somewhere because they see development, that's in their internal process of --
So it could be -- it could be a potential factor, just like if somebody wanted to live in the Penn Alexander catchment area, that's going to be a factor of what they're willing to pay for a property.
We absolutely need a hearing on how OPA comes up with assessment evaluations of properties.
It is crazy, and it is unacceptable for us not to be honest in this chamber. Development has a lot to do with how people's properties are evaluated in neighborhoods. It's called gentrification. It's called gentrification.
So I'll say, you know, we're obligated to value based on what the market is saying. If the market is including development, we can't take development out --
But you've got to develop it in order for you to sell it, don't you?
You have to develop in order for you to sell. And it say -- based on that sales price is how you're going to determine whether the values of other houses in the area.
Well, when you talk about development specifically, if it's new construction, those sales will only be used to value new construction. There is a distinct difference in our process. And I'll say this, you know, we -- whether it's a hearing or an informal session with Council, we can sit and give a two-hour presentation on everything we do. Council Member Gauthier's office took advantage of that. I sit here every year and offer it. We will always offer it. We -- you know, there's nothing we're trying to hide here. We will walk through that whole process from soup to nuts. And we have -- we have some of the best people in -- literally the world that work on this stuff. They speak all over the world. They are active in this industry; they are active in their communities in Philadelphia. They are boots on the ground, not only in the assessment process, but in the real-life actions that Philadelphians are living day to day. So I understand there could still be confusion. We will walk through that whole process with any Council office that wants to have that presentation.
So I would say -- and I'm going to let Council Member -- so let me do -- so let me just say this real quick. I think that the concern is not necessarily understanding the process, I think the concern is partly understanding the process, but it's making it transparent to the public, right? That's the biggest concern. So a briefing to make sure staff and councilmembers understand what's going on is always great, and we appreciate you making yourself available for that. But I don't think that that will answer some of the transparency issues that we have, that we need to get on the record so the public can hear that. Let me -- let me let Council Member Gauthier go, then Majority Leader Gilmore-Richardson, and then we can get ready to close out.
Councilwoman. Remember we got a short window, you-all. We don't want to lose our quorum.
Thank you. Very quickly. We thank you for the -- on the session with my staff. We appreciated that. But I think what we're looking for is transparency, but ultimately change. And I also think a recognition that you as a head of OPA understand, even though you don't control every piece of this directly, that you understand what a big issue this is, particularly for those of us who represent Black and Brown communities, poor communities. That it has been -- it's on record that our process is biased, and we have not done anything meaningful to change that dynamic. And so I think it also is unhelpful to -- we don't expect you to know everything about every department, but we do expect you to recognize what a big issue this is, not just for Council and our constituents. And we expect OPA to come together with BRT and Revenue and whoever else needs to be at the table towards change, right? So we look forward to the report, your study that you're doing, but we have to see something concrete that allows us to recognize that you recognize what a strain this is on our constituents. Thank you.
Thank you, colleague. Council Member Young, please, we got to go quickly; we got to close out.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Very, very quickly. What type of marketing does OPA do to, I guess, proactively market that not -- that the abatements are not just for developers but for anyone who's like kind of rehabbing their house substantially? Like, what do you do to let people know that?
Quickly respond because we have to get ready to adjourn.
So we publish the information about the abatement on our websites, we take the forms out to community meetings, we don't run commercials or anything like that. I mean, if there's additional outreach that we're not hitting to, we're happy to help out with that, because if it's available to anyone and, you know, we are open to any ideas that will help get that word out there. It hasn't been -- it hasn't been on the OPA's side. We manage it, but the marketing for that for the city was -- has not been directed towards us specifically.
Council Member Young, we're going to be calling OPA back. So today, it won't be your only bite at the apple. With that being said, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Gilmore-Richardson for a motion that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the committee today stands in recess until Monday, May 4th, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 400, City Hall.
Mr. Chairman, prior to the motion, I'm respectfully requesting on the record that we have a callback for OPA for this budget season. And to that point, I move that this committee stand in recess until Monday, May 4th, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 400, City Hall.
It's been moved and properly seconded that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the committee today stands at recess until Monday, May 4th, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 400, City Hall. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. COUNCILMEMBERS: Aye.
Those opposed? The ayes have it, and the motion carries. The committee will stand in recess until Monday, May 4th, 2026, at 10:00 a.m, in which we will reconvene in Room 400, City Hall. Thank you, everybody. (Committee of the Whole public hearing concluded at 3:40 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence are contained fully and accurately in the notes taken by me of the above case, and this copy is a correct transcript of the same. _______________ Samanda J. Rios