By GREG ADLER
The coup de grace was when the Board of Equalization board members testified that the role and authority of the board is not to decide if the assessor did something “wrong,” “fraudulent,” “prejudicial,’ or “whatever you want.”
The bountiful assessor knows property owners do not have the resources to fight City Hall within strict administrative laws, which impose 15-minute time presentations, crushing filing periods, and limited evidentiary rules. The City and Borough of Juneau uses the power of its offices as a cudgel, not a plowshare.
I received a “notice of assessed value” postcard, which showed the Behrends Bank building, which the Goldstein Improvement Company bought one month earlier, assessed at more than double what we paid for it.
I called the assessor, thinking a phone call would clear up this mistake. I spoke with Michael Dahle, who gaslighted me. I spoke with then-Sen. Peter Micciche, president of the Alaska State Senate, who told me the City and Borough of Juneau was involved in a money grab.
If our testimony is erased in the videoconference tapes of the Board of Equalization hearings, that would violate our due process rights. What is there left to say about the assessor office?
Obstruction of Justice
In my first day of hearings, I had the following bathroom break testimony exchange during my presentation. It has been erased from the Board of Equalization’s videoconference tape and transcript. The exchange went, according to my recollection, as follows:
GREG ADLER: I need and request a bathroom break.
CHAIR: Bathroom breaks are not allowed.
GREG ADLER: I need a bathroom break.
CHAIR: You cannot go to the bathroom.
GREG ADLER: I really have to go.
CHAIR: If you take a bathroom break your 15-minute presentation time will continue to run.
GREG ADLER: I am not kidding I have to go to the bathroom.
CHAIR: You do not have to come back to the hearing.
GREG ADLER: What?
CHAIR: If you go the bathroom we will continue the hearing without you.
GREG ADLER: I have to go to the bathroom.
CHAIR: You do not have to come back. The board will render a decision without you.
GREG ADLER: You will what?
CHAIR: In fact, Mr. Adler, you do not have to be here for any hearings. We will render decisions without you.
GREG ADLER: I have to go to the bathroom.
The City and Borough of Juneau has erased the bathroom break testimony and I assert they edited the Zoom transcripts by taking out testimony to try and make the time stamps match my 15-minute presentation at the five-minute mark.
There is a gap of 28.488 seconds.
I allege the gap exists because the bathroom break exchange between myself and the chair is erased on the videoconference tape and the transcripts, and the Zoom transcript has been tampered with and easily edited to cover up tampering with my presentation time.
The cover up erased the testimony of the chair to “minutes” from “five minutes.”
The cover up erased the entire testimony of the Municipal Clerk Di Cathcart, who said, “Five minutes.”
The CBJ Zoom transcript five-minute warning is given at about 4 minutes, 31 seconds because my Bathroom Break Exchange Testimony has been erased. My time was cut short.
The dog barking section of the transcript has also been erased. In it, the chair says “OK” to my request for the 15 minute time to be extended on account of a Board of Equalization member’s dog barking. Some 11 seconds have been erased from the official Zoom transcript. Additional testimony is tampered with on the transcript.
The gap total: 39 seconds
On June 24, 2024, City Clerk Cathcart confirmed the bathroom-break exchange took place.
At the start of the second day of Board of Equalization hearings, my motion and affidavit for reconsideration of Notice of Decisions by the Board of Equalization and a motion and affidavit to set aside the Notice of Decisions were presented.
My motions were based on these offenses:
The 15-minute hearing lacks due process.
The hearings are prejudiced and biased against the appellant.
By not permitting the appellant to take a bathroom break and permitting the hearing to continue without pause.
At the start of the second day of hearings, Deputy City Clerk Cathcart, recalling the bathroom-break testimony, felt it necessary to warn the Board of Equalization to maintain decorum.
She testified, making note of appellant’s rights, as follows: Check to see if anyone needs bio breaks, just a moment, or a short recess.
The assessor and Board of Equalization have flipped the goodwill of City Hall and turned the grueling, time-constrained administrative law apparatus against the people of Juneau.
This happened under watchful eye of the Deputy City Attorney, who did not advise or protest against the actions of the Board of Equalization chair, although he is both a participant and witness to the board’s proceedings.
Who will be the first to come forward with the truth and break the City and Borough of Juneau’s cycle of tampering with government evidence?
Greg Adler is a principal at Goldstein Improvement Co. His family has owned property and conducted business in Juneau since the 1880s. Adler and his family own a home on Pioneer Avenue in West Juneau.