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• St. Louis County properties not added to tax rolls cost others money - TwinCities.com Page 5 of 6 "I have not refused to come in for the audit," Vidmar wrote in one e-mail to Hintz in February 2008. "After the hell I was put through by you and your self - serving schedule last fall, my blood pressure goes through the roof when I hear your name or see it written." Hintz said the St. Louis County Board was told of the problems but nothing changed. "It was really frustrating," Hintz said. "The county is responsible for this, but you'd ask for help, and you didn't get it." Forsman, the St. Louis County Board member who represents a large portion of the area with the unassessed properties, said he first remembers being told about the problems sometime in 2005. "I was of the belief that the assessor's office was taking action to correct these things, and taking action to correct these deficiencies as soon as they were made aware of them," Forsman said. To make sure properties were eventually put on the tax rolls, the county would send its own staff to assess parcels. They continued to alert Vidmar to missed properties during audits, but by about 2007, records show that Vidmar refused to respond to county assessors' e-mails asking why work wasn't getting done, and he wasn't meeting county assessors for audits. "And that year there had been very little work done at all," Hintz said. "He is required to meet with us, but he said, 'I'm just not going to do it.' " In 2008, letters were sent to all Vidmar's cities and townships, alerting them of the situation and • saying the county would do the work and bill the municipalities. "Our only recourse was to let town boards know these infractions were taking place," Monacelli said. When called to town board meetings, Vidmar would get into debates with County Assessor Dave Sippila, Monacelli said. Some townships would continue to hire Vidmar, who was still assessing by mid -2011, records show. "The finger was pointing in many different directions," said Monacelli. "Our assessor's office was trying to take action, but nothing was being resolved." When he took over in August 2010, Monacelli said he met with Vidmar to try to resolve the problems, even going to his home and fixing his computer. "But we still did have some issues, and at that point things were winding down," Monacelli said. "If there was work to be done in a township, we'd just go in and do it." By the end of 2011, St. Louis County had assessed 17 of Vidmar's cities or townships, charging them for the work. Many of the townships appeared to have taken the money they paid the county out of the money they owed Vidmar. That's the action Cherry Township took against Vidmar, said town Clerk Stephani Hartzell. http: / /www.twincities. com/localnews /ci_ 20264312 /st- louis- county - properties- not - added -t... 11/19/2012