Commissioner accentuates the Tax Commission (New York City Tax Commission Pres James DeCuzzi).

It was just after 5 p.m. one recent Friday afternoon when Tax Commission President James DeCuzzi found he was facing a budding crisis.

The New York City Tax Commission reviews taxpayers' applications and evidence as to why their property's tax assessment should be different from what the Department of Finance has determined.

The tentative tax roll is released each year in mid-January - it is due out this week on January 15th - and taxpayers have until March to request a Tax Commission review.

A new series of application, financial and supplemental information forms, to be used for this purpose in 1998, had been under development for many months by the Tax Commission in conjunction with the directors of the Real Estate Tax Review Bar Association. Commissioner DeCuzzi's understanding was that just a few relatively insubstantial issues and details needed to be worked out with the agency's counsel.

Meanwhile, under the impression that their months of comments had ostensibly gone unheeded, the directors of the bar group had met and voted earlier in the day to prepare to take legal action against the city and the Tax Commission to enjoin certain changes to the forms.

Alerted by a phone call, Commissioner DeCuzzi, a lawyer himself, spent the next few hours on the phone reviewing the complaints with the tax certiorari bar's Form Committee chairman, and arranged a face-to-face meeting for Sunday morning.

"We locked ourselves in the conference room here at the Municipal Building with the bar leaders for 10 hours. We were starving, freezing and tired, but we worked it out to mutual satisfaction," DeCuzzi recalls of that chilly, pre-Thanksgiving conference.

After 10 months as a member of the Tax Commission and the past year as its President, DeCuzzi is still working long hours to improve operations as well as relationships with the real estate community.

"I learn more every day, and continue to strive to do more with less," he says.

When he was appointed to head the agency a year ago, DeCuzzi undertook a thorough analysis and attendant restructuring of its organization, administration and operations, and began brainstorming with industry leaders.

"The objective was to maintain overall integrity and sound functioning of the agency, and effectuate improvements in efficiency, productivity and customer service delivery in targeted respects," he explains.

Part of that review included "revisiting the entire culture of the agency, and analyzing what we expect out of ourselves, and what we expect from the people that appear before the agency."

While the Finance Department sets tentative property tax assessments that are released for review on January 15th of each year, the Tax Commission reviews applications and evidence provided by property owners, and others with standing, who perceive their assessment to be incorrect.

Owners can protest their tentative assessment by completing, signing under oath, and filing the appropriate Tax Commission forms with the Tax-Commission or the Dept. of Finance in each borough by March deadlines.

The deadlines this year are March 2nd for property Classes 2, 3 and 4, and March 6th for the small homeowners of Class 1.

Many property owners are represented by lawyers - often members of the Real Estate Tax Review Bar Association and known as tax certiorari attorneys - or by other representatives.

The President of the Tax Commission, along with the other six appointed part-time Tax Commissioners and staff, then collate, input, review and analyze the documentation and information that is provided on and with the forms. Typically through face-to-face hearings, they determine whether the assessment should be changed.

"As I've sought to emphasize to staff and taxpayers, we are not applicants' advocate, nor do we represent the Finance Dept.," DeCuzzi stressed. "We are designed, pursuant to the Charter and State Law, to serve as independent arbiters. We're here to act like a court, where you have to prove your case."

The Finance Department-set assessment is presumed correct and the burden, he says, is on the challenging taxpayer to overcome the presumption by substantial evidence.

"To the extent they do that here, that's the relief they will get," he says, insisting the agency does not have any "blanket policy of quotas, percentages or apportioned exposure."

Commissioner DeCuzzi has instituted an "open door" policy with the leaders of the certiorari bar to share solutions and objectives, as evidenced by his recent resolution of the form criticisms.

But, he asserts, "When they come here to advocate a case on their client's behalf, they need to be aptly prepared, and to not only specify the relief they want, but present the analysis and documentation to show it is warranted."

He continues, "It was indicated to me that wasn't always the universal perception. So I have sought to emphasize to all concerned that this isn't a bazaar where people just show up and expect to be given things."

One of DeCuzzi's major initiatives has been to accelerate the review and the dispositions of the assessment review applications.

During the 1998 fiscal year, the Tax Commission handled over 50,000 applications for the review of property tax assessments, encompassing over 130,000 tax lots. In and of itself, the sheer numbers mean a lot of paperwork.

Indeed, Commissioner DeCuzzi noted that his own incredulous reaction when he had estimates formulated and they showed the Tax Commission collectively handles at least two million pieces of paper and has more than 110,000 customer contacts each year in discharging its core business function.

Out of nearly one million city properties, only between 50,000 and 60,000 file an application for correction each year, and most of those are filed by the city's largest properties and most sophisticated owners.

These tax lots, however, represent about 70 percent of the city's assessed value, and thus place over $5 billion of corresponding tax dollars under review.

Since the total property tax revenue amounts to about $8 billion each year, and is the city's largest single revenue source representing about a quarter of all city income - DeCuzzi says "maintaining a fair and efficient allocation of the real property tax through sound assessment review policies and procedures is important for both property owners and the city."

DeCuzzi has also worked to shorten the time it takes to adjudicate cases and to oversee the acquisition, installation and deployment of a local area computer (LAN) network to facilitate that task.

The Tax Commission was one of the first agencies approved by the Giuliani administration for a special grant from the city's technology fund for that purpose.

"With the assistance of the LAN, the Tax Commission's broader technology systems will not only help us better manage and diminish the paper, but affords us many other productivity and efficiency capabilities," DeCuzzi reveals, including the establishment of a web site, automated calendaring and scheduling, enhanced capacity to audit case outcomes, and minimization of manual data entry.

Two of the Tax Commission's computer filing initiatives last year enabled over 44,000 applications to be simultaneously disk filed, while over 30,000 petitions for judicial review, also known as "writs," that were served on the agency by taxpayers and attorneys to preserve their right to contest the agency's 1997 assessment review determinations in court, were also filed by disk and will be used for future Tax Commission and Law Department actions.

The two initiatives enabled city records to be created on each matter while avoiding thousands of hours of manual data entry by city employees, who would be merely duplicating the work already accomplished and reviewed for errors by the private sector.

In focusing on enhanced technological applications and otherwise administrating the tax Commission's affairs, DeCuzzi has sought to develop what he calls a "condo team culture," to emphasize management in all respects and install an innovation mentality among his talented and extremely hardworking staff."

Over the years, because of the convergence of a burgeoning caseload and the constraints of local budgets, the annual review and disposition of the assessment review applications gradually expanded to a year-round process. "That was neither intended to happen, nor desirable," DeCuzzi explains.

Although told it was "circumstantially impossible," last year, due to his initiatives, the Tax Commission was able to complete hearings and render dispositions on the overwhelming majority of its applications by mid-October, some two and a half months earlier than what had become the norm.

This provided sufficient time, he says, for many more property owners and their representatives to make informed judgments about whether to incur the time, effort and expense to prepare, file and service petitions for judicial review before the October 24th deadline.

"This year, we hope to accelerate it further, and hear and dispose of more cases before the publication of the final roll (at the end of May)," DeCuzzi says.

He is also hoping to prevail upon the bar and other real estate industry groups to segregate those cases on which administrative review on the merits will not be ensuing - such as when it is known that the requisite income and expense statements will not be filed, or a court case is being mounted.

"It's in everyone's interest that when an application is filed, and for one reason or another they know they don't want a hearing, we take it out up front," DeCuzzi explains. "They will have preserved their rights to proceed with judicial review if desired, but if the applications are taken out up front, rather than after going through the many processing stages here, it will allow us to better focus on the cases where substantially administrative review is warranted."

Accelerating the hearing and disposition of cases "is win-win," DeCuzzi emphasizes.

When a case is reviewed by the Tax Commission and an offer is made and accepted before the final roll is closed in May, instead of later, the actual property taxes will be based on the new corrected assessment, and affected owners will not be out-of-pocket for tax overpayments.

"In those instances, it also means they don't have to apply for a refund, the Department of Finance does not have to process the associated remissions, and the city averts exposure to pay refunds," Commissioner DeCuzzi adds.

As a lawyer who has worked both sides, he takes his position seriously.

The lifelong New Yorker graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Albany with a bachelor's degree in sociology. He then attended Rutgers University School of Law on a full, merit-based scholarship as a Rutgers Graduate Scholar, graduating in the top 15 percent of his class.

After serving as a Confidential Law Assistant to the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, Second Judicial Department, he became associated with a Long Island law firm whose practice was concentrated primarily in the area of real property taxation.

By 1993, he had founded the Manhattan law firm of DeCuzzi & Getzler, working on a variety of legal matters.

Since late-1994, DeCuzzi has served at the pleasure of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as a member of the Mayor's Committee on City Marshals. From 1995 through early 1996, he also served as a per diem Administrative Law Judge with the New York City Housing Authority with regard to employee disciplinary proceedings.

Members of the Tax Commission are appointed by the Mayor, but unlike most other city agencies, the appointments must be approved by the City Council. After this process, DeCuzzi began a six-year term as a Tax Commission Commissioner in March of 1996.

In January 1997, Mayor Giuliani, again with the advice and consent of the City Council, appointed him as Tax Commission President to serve the remaining five years of a six-year term.

As an agency head, Commission DeCuzzi also serves by designation as a member of Mayor Giuliani's Cabinet, a role he describes as "an honor and a privilege of a lifetime."

Although he had directed all his energies to establishing his law office and was well on the way to building a successful practice, Commissioner DeCuzzi explains that when he was offered his current post, he simply could not decline.

'There is no one in public life I admired and respected more than Mayor Giuliani," he says. "To be afforded the opportunity to be a member of his administration and participate in some small measure in the veritable renaissance the city was experiencing under his direction had an appeal and pull akin to a calling."

Describing the Mayor as "leadership personified," DeCuzzi adds that "in giving it my all every day, I receive inspiration by example from the Mayor's high standards and unparalleled dedication and integrity." This, he says, is a sentiment widely shared by his Cabinet colleagues.

An active participate in legal, fraternal and civic organizations and affairs, Commissioner DeCuzzi attributes his interest in social and civic activities to the role models and upbringing provided by his parents, his experience with the Brothers of Holy Cross while a student at Holy Cross High School, and his own personal "constitution."

He has served as president and continues to serve as a member of the board of directors of the Columbian Lawyers Association of Nassau County, and also sits on the Board of Advisors of the Coalition of Italo-American Associations, Inc.

In 1994, he co-founded the Confederation of Columbian Lawyers Association, a metropolitan area umbrella group with over 1,500 affiliated members.

Through the New York Volunteer for Youth Campaign, he has been mentoring a 16-year-old Brooklyn boy, Angel, "a terrific kid with enormous potential."

He also recent assented to become a member of the National Board of Directors of Cooley's Anemia Foundation, Inc.

Additionally, Commissioner DeCuzzi is a frequent guest speaker and participant at community and local school programs, and often represents Mayor Giuliani at a variety of functions throughout the city.

In what "precious little" leisure time he has, DeCuzzi says he is a "perpetual student and careful observer of local and national politics and world affairs," an "avid" sports fan, a "rag-top man" who enjoys driving, a backgammon buff, and an ardent listener of music.

This the Commissioner calls his "lifeblood" and admits to being a concert-going fanatic, "from the Rolling Stones to symphony - in that order," he laughs, expounding on how "great" the Stones were at last fall's Giants Stadium concert.

A sustaining life member of the Queens Farm Museum, DeCuzzi admits to loving nature in all its forms. That includes his caged house pet, a Mexican rosy boa snake which he has raised from infancy.

The Tax Commissioner's annual report to the Mayor and the City Council will be issued by Commissioner DeCuzzi by March 1st, and he expects it to reflect some of his successes over the past year, accomplished through careful study of the agency, brainstorming sessions with managers, motivation of the staff, "and just trying to set standards and a tone of achievement."

As with other successful Giuliani administration appointments, Commissioner DeCuzzi is focused on pursuing an agenda during his tenure designed to optimize productivity, efficiency and service delivery for the people of the City of New York.