"ANOTHER PUBLIC OFFICIAL GOES BAD"

Assessor Fined $1,530.00 Following Official Misconduct Conviction

Thursday, April 22, 2004

By Fred Hohnsen

WINDHAM - Town Justice Robert Murphy has levied $1,530 in fines and surcharges against former Cairo Assessor Francis Fuchs, who was convicted last month of charges he used his position to unlawfully lower his own property assessment.

Greene County District Attorney Terry J. Wilhelm said Fuchs has until April 30 to pay the fines, which were imposed at sentencing Wednesday.

Fuchs, 61, was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct on March 1 following a weeklong bench trial. He is appealing the conviction in state Supreme Court.

In April 2003, Fuchs bought a foreclosed and abandoned property at 51 Winterclove Road in the hamlet of Round Top for $79,000. The property had been assessed at $92,000 prior to several years of neglect.

The month before Fuchs bought it, a bank had appraised the property at $82,000. The May 1 preliminary tax rolls showed that Fuchs had reassessed the property at $83,500.

During Fuchs' trial, Wilhelm established that Fuchs lowered his assessment by 11 percent, and that of the 362 residential properties in Round Top on the 2003 tentative tax roll prepared by Fuchs, only his property had its assessment reduced.

Of the 283 single-family residences in the hamlet, in fact, all except Fuchs' property had their assessments increased an average of 15 percent.

Wilhelm also established that of the 2,577 residential assessments in the town, only four were reduced - two because of a significant change to the property, one from a sale and the remaining property belonging to Fuchs.

Police arrested Fuchs on Oct. 10 following a complaint by a Cairo taxpayers' association.

Fuchs was replaced as Cairo assessor immediately following his conviction. The town of Athens, where Fuchs also served as assessor, has delayed action pending the outcome of the appeal.

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