Politics & Government

City Tax Assessor Leaves Post For Italy

Richardson Sanderson vacated his role as tax assessor this week. He's held the position since 2007.

The man with one of the most important and well-known roles in the city as it relates to property values and taxes is leaving his position this week.

Richard Sanderson, the city’s tax assessor, is leaving the city for greener pastures—literally.

He’s moving to Rome, Italy.

Find out what's happening in Manassas Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Since he announced his re-location more than a month ago, several city officials have playfully expressed their jealously over Sanderson’s move. His wife, Christine Sloop, works in U.S. foreign affairs and is taking a position in the country, Sanderson said.

Sloop’s work brought the couple to Chile in 2002, where Sanderson said he worked in public affairs for the U.S. Embassy and as a private consultant for an assessment administration.

Find out what's happening in Manassas Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

He learned some Spanish while there, which has been helpful in his role as tax assessor in Manassas Park, where there are many Spanish-speaking residents, Sanderson said.

Tax assessing in Manassas Park has been challenging, just as it would be in a larger jurisdiction such as Washington, D.C. or Alexandria, he said.

 “You’re got your challenge of reassessing properties at the frequency that the law requires,” he said.

“ … We assess every property, every year. You have to monitor the real estate market and again, it’s not just the (residential) market, it’s the commercial real estate market, industrial real estate market … every taxable property in the city has to be reassessed.”

He came to the city in September of 2007, right around the time when the number of foreclosures started to escalate quickly, he said. It complicated his job because it complicated the real estate market, he added.

Normally, 1 percent or 2 percent of the properties that change hands each year are foreclosures, he said. In 2008, 85 percent of the properties that changed hands were foreclosures.

Now the real estate market is normalizing, he said. This year, property values as a whole in the city went up 4 percent.

Sanderson is quick to point out that he is responsible for determining property values, but is not responsible for determining the tax rate.

It’s the assessment multiplied by the tax rate that determines how much someone pays, he said. Manassas Park's tax rate is $1.65 per $100 of assessed value.

Naturally, people want to have a lower assessments so they can pay less taxes, but he doesn't make concessions for anybody, Sanderson said.

“I very readily tell them what I can and can’t do. It’s all dictated by the Virginia code,” he said. “Good professional ethics is, you can’t do for one person what you can’t do for everyone else. There are certain standards that you have to go by.”

He understands that paying real estate taxes have been a difficult thing for some people because of the economy, Sanderson said.

“You might have someone who is having difficult times with their own ability to pay their lender … that’s their personal situation that there in—I can’t take personal situations into account,” he said.

He tells them how much he thinks their property will sell for, and if they disagree, they can ask for an appeal and even take it to court, Sanderson said. Sanderson said he’ll miss working in Manassas Park, despite the tough times.

“The market in Manassas Park has been very unusual during the period that I’ve been here, hopefully, I’ve been giving good advice to the people I’ve worked with, like the governing body and the city managers,” he said. “It’s been fun because it is a small city.  I’m going to miss the fact that it is and it has been a one-person office and I think that’s kind of fun.”

The city did not hire a new tax assessor, but rather contracted a firm, East River LLC, led by Charles “Mac” Page to do the work for roughly the same price as a salary—about $130,000 a year.

The firm has spent the last several days working with Sanderson in an effort to make the transition go smoothly.

Manassas Park City Council approved the contract with East River. It expires June 30, 2015.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Manassas Park