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The Metropolis of Penticton voted Tuesday to compensate a susceptible senior $140,922 after her dwelling was auctioned off to pay a $10,000 property tax debt.
Town’s determination comes after a report from B.C. Ombudsperson Jay Chalke discovered the town did not talk clearly with the senior, known as Ms. Wilson, earlier than promoting her dwelling for $150,000 in 2017.
On the time, the house was assessed at $420,000. Lower than two years later, one other proprietor bought the home for $498,000.
The movement to supply compensation handed 5 to 1 at a particular assembly, Mayor John Vassilaki stated Tuesday.
Vassilaki stated he put ahead the movement on compassionate grounds.
“I would not have the ability to dwell with myself if I hadn’t carried out it,” Vassilaki stated. “She’s on the age the place she requires as a lot funding as she will get with a purpose to assist her for the remainder of her life.”
However Vassilaki additionally was emphatic that the current council was not concerned with the auctioning of the house again in 2017.
In an announcement, Vassilaki stated there was “one other facet to the story.” He would not elaborate throughout a telephone interview, citing privateness points, however prompt the ombudsperson did not hearken to the town.
“There’s a whole lot and a whole lot of pages of data that we gave the ombudsperson, and he did not embody it within the report that he made public. And we have now a difficulty with that. I’ve a difficulty with that,” Vassilaki stated.
“And to launch the report simply earlier than Christmas? You already know, was it affordable? To me, it wasn’t. So, these are the problems that I had with the report.”
Chalke’s report famous his workplace “fastidiously thought of the Metropolis’s letter and attachment in finalizing this report. We now have not revealed the attachment right here, as a result of it contained private particulars about Ms. Wilson that we didn’t wish to disclose publicly, and the letter sufficiently set out the Metropolis’s response to our report.”
Wilson, whose identify was modified for the report, as soon as lived in the home together with her mom. After her mom died in 2013, Wilson stayed within the dwelling and have become chargeable for paying the property taxes.
She did not pay in 2015 or 2016. The report didn’t present specifics to guard confidentiality, however stated she didn’t make the funds as a result of she was “a susceptible member of the group in a deprived place” who was “unable to take steps on her personal” to handle these payments.
Vassilaki additionally expressed frustration with how the general public reacted to the story.
“Whether or not it was from the general public, from the Metropolis of Penticton or from the province or proper throughout Canada as a result of I had a whole lot of emails proper throughout the nation,” he stated.
“It was terrible. I’ve by no means been handled like that within the three, three-and-a-quarter years that I have been right here as mayor. I’ve by no means been handled like that. Me or metropolis council. Or workers, I imply, our workers took it simply as arduous as we did. It wasn’t proper. However you recognize, public opinion is what it’s.”
Vassilaki stated the compensation wouldn’t influence the town’s funds and the senior would obtain the cash as quickly as attainable.
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