70.07 Functions of board of assessors in first class cities.

(1) In all 1st class cities the several assessors shall make their assessments available to the commissioner of assessments on or before the 2nd Monday in May in each year.

(2) The commissioner of assessments shall publish a class 3 notice, under ch. 985, that on the days named, the assessments for the city will be open for examination by the taxable inhabitants of the city. On the 2nd Monday of May the commissioner of assessments shall call together all of the assessors, and the other members of the board of assessors as provided in s. 70.06 (2), and they together with the commissioner of assessments shall constitute an assessment board.

(3) To the end that all valuations throughout the city shall be made on a uniform basis, such board of assessors, under the direction and supervision of the commissioner of assessments, shall compare the valuations so secured, making all necessary corrections and all other just and necessary changes to arrive at the true value of property within the city; and the commissioner of assessments may direct that all objections to valuations filed under s. 70.47 (16) shall be investigated by such board.

(4) The concurrence of a majority of such board of assessors shall be necessary to determine any matter upon which the commissioner of assessments requires it to act. No notice need be given to the owners of the property assessed of any corrections or changes in assessments which are made prior to the day or days fixed in the notice mentioned in sub. (2) on which said assessments are to be open for examination, but any changes made thereafter and before the assessment roll is delivered to the board of review can only be made upon notice by first class mail to the person assessed if a resident of the city or, if a nonresident, the agent of the person assessed if there is one resident therein or, if neither, the possessor of the property assessed if any, if the residence of such owner, agent or possessor is known to any member of said board of assessors.

(5) The commissioner of assessments may provide for such committees of the board of assessors, as the commissioner of assessments may think best, to make investigations including the investigations mentioned in sub. (3) and perform such other duties as are prescribed by the commissioner of assessments. The commissioner of assessments shall be chairperson of the board of assessors, and may appoint as a member or chairperson of the various committees, himself or herself, any assessor or other officer or employee in the commissioner's department.

(6) The board of assessors shall remain in session until all corrections and changes have been made, including all those resulting from investigations by committees of objections to valuations filed with the commissioner of assessments as provided in this subsection, after which the commissioner of assessments shall prepare the assessment rolls as corrected by the board of assessors and submit them to the board of review not later than the 2nd Monday in October. The person assessed, having been notified of the determination of the board of assessors as required in sub. (4), shall be deemed to have accepted the determination unless the person notifies the commissioner of assessments in writing, within 15 days from the date that the notice of determination was issued under sub. (4), of the desire to present testimony before the board of review. After the board of review has met, the commissioner of assessments may appoint committees of the board of assessors to investigate any objections to the amount or valuation of any real or personal property which have been filed with the commissioner of assessments. The committees may at the direction of the commissioner of assessments report their investigation and recommendations to the board of review and any member of any such committee shall be a competent witness in any hearing before the board of review.

(7) This section shall not apply to a city of the 1st class after it has come under a county assessor system.

History: 1973 c. 90; 1977 c. 29 s. 1647 (8), (16); 1977 c. 273; 1979 c. 34 s. 2102 (46) (b); 1979 c. 95 ss. 2, 4; 1979 c. 176; 1983 a. 192, 220; 1991 a. 156, 316; 2001 a. 103; 2005 a. 49.