Garfield, N.J., to Revote $833K Reassessment; 2025 Audit Not Posted

Bergen TV Exclusive: GARFIELD, N.J. — The Garfield City Council will vote a second time Tuesday on the $833,625 special emergency appropriation that pays for the citywide property reassessment. The agenda says members want to “reconsider the matter and re-record their respective votes” after getting “additional explanation and clarification from the City Auditor.”

The same night, the council is scheduled to approve the city’s 2025 audit and a corrective action plan answering the audit’s findings. Neither document is in the posted agenda packet, and as of Tuesday morning, Oct. 27, the 2025 audit was not on the city’s Budgets & Audits page, which lists audit reports back to 2010.

The council meets with the city auditor at a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall, 111 Outwater Lane. The notice says “formal action will not be taken.” The regular meeting starts at 6 p.m.

The reassessment, voted on again

Resolution R-526-26 would make the $833,625 special emergency appropriation for a “complete program of a reassessment of real property.” It also asks the state Division of Local Government Services to let the city keep $166,725 a year outside its state budget cap for five years, starting with the 2027 budget. The city could borrow the full amount through special emergency notes, with at least one-fifth paid off each year. The resolution needs a yes vote from at least two-thirds of the council’s members.

The council took up the same appropriation as R-487-26 on its Oct. 15 consent agenda. The new resolution doesn’t say how members voted that night or what the auditor clarified. Minutes of the Oct. 15 work session haven’t been posted.

The council has backed the reassessment before:

• Ordinance 3134, which set the $833,625 special emergency, was introduced March 24 and adopted April 14, 4-0. Councilmember Raymond was absent, according to the minutes.
• Aug. 3: the council voted 5-0 to hire Appraisal Systems Inc. of Glen Rock for the reassessment at a cost of up to $833,625.

What it means for homeowners

A June letter from the city and Appraisal Systems says the Bergen County Board of Taxation and the state Division of Taxation directed Garfield to revalue all taxable property for the 2027 tax year. New values will be based on each property’s estimated market value as of Oct. 1, 2026. Owners will get their proposed values by mail and can question or contest them. Garfield is also on Bergen County’s published list of 2027 revaluations and reassessments.

A reassessment doesn’t change how much the city raises in taxes by itself, but it can shift who pays what. Garfield’s 2024 total tax rate was $3.337 per $100 of assessed value, according to the city’s 2024 audit.

The cost to taxpayers: By Bergen TV’s estimate, the $166,725-a-year charge works out to about $7.71 a year for every $100,000 of assessed value, for five years. That’s based on Garfield’s 2025 net taxable valuation of $2,162,427,800 from the city’s 2025 Annual Financial Statement. The 2026 budget shows another deferred charge ending this year: $125,000 for COVID costs, listed as “Year 5 of 5.”

Want to know whether your assessment holds up before the new numbers arrive? Run your address through the free GardenState.ai Property Tax Appeal check, and estimate how a new value could change your bill with the GardenState.ai Tax Shock calculator.

The 2025 audit

Resolution R-523-26 would have the council certify that every member has reviewed at least the audit’s “General Comments and Recommendations” section. Under state Local Finance Board rules, the council has 45 days after receiving the audit to do that. Resolution R-524-26 would approve a corrective action plan that covers every 2025 finding. Under the resolution, each fix has to be in place within six months of the date of the audit report. The resolution says the plan is “attached,” but it isn’t in the posted packet. The Oct. 15 work session agenda listed “2025 Municipal Audit Review & Approval,” with City Auditor Dieter Lerch copied.

The city’s four previous audit reports made 25 recommendations in all, according to Bergen TV’s review:

• 2021: 9 recommendations. One repeated an earlier year’s (clearing old outstanding checks).
• 2022: 8 recommendations, including state contracts for vehicle purchases over the bid limit that the council never approved, and health-benefit contributions not in line with the state’s Chapter 78 law.
• 2023: 4 recommendations. The Chapter 78 health-benefit item was flagged again as a repeat.
• 2024: 4 recommendations, none repeats. Auditors found fire truck and bucket truck purchases made through national cooperative contracts without a council resolution. They also found capital projects that weren’t fully encumbered (money set aside) when contracts were awarded, payments approved without a signed receipt of goods, and a water utility consultant paid more than $600 who never got an IRS Form 1099.

Some issues came back in different forms. Unapproved cooperative or state-contract purchases were cited in both 2022 and 2024. Contract money not set aside when contracts were awarded was cited in 2021 and 2024.

$730,000 water bond

Ordinance 3166, up for a final vote, would spend $730,000 on the city’s water utility, with $695,100 in bonds and notes and a $34,900 down payment:

• $667,000: replacing granular activated carbon filter media at various wells ($635,200 borrowed, 15-year useful life).
• $45,000: repairs to various water tanks ($42,800 borrowed, 10 years).
• $18,000: TV camera equipment for inspecting water lines ($17,100 borrowed, 5 years).

The total includes up to $10,000 for engineering, legal, accounting and other costs.

Plate readers and parking meters

The council also holds its final hearing on Ordinance 3165, which would let police put license-plate reader cameras on private homes and businesses whose owners agree. Owners couldn’t move, disable or remove them without written police approval. Bergen TV first reported the plan’s details Oct. 19.

Ordinance 3168 would repeal the city’s metered-parking law, Ordinance 3123, seven months after the council adopted it on March 10. As listed in the March 10 agenda packet, Ordinance 3123 set $1.20-an-hour meters, Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Passaic Street between MacArthur Avenue and River Drive, on Midland and Palisade avenues between Somerset and Passaic streets, and on the west side of Harrison Avenue between Charles and Frederick streets. The repeal gives no reason beyond the “best interest of the City.” It says outstanding parking tickets issued under the meter law will be handled “in accordance with applicable law.”

Also scheduled for a final vote is Ordinance 3167, which would let the council create residential permit-parking zones based on a written police recommendation instead of an engineering or traffic study.

What to watch Tuesday

• What the auditor told the council about the reassessment appropriation, and how each member votes the second time.
• What the 2025 audit found, how many findings repeat earlier years, and whether the report and corrective action plan are made public.
• Why the city is dropping the parking meters, and what happens to tickets already issued.

All items are pending. The council has not voted.

Related: Teaneck, N.J., eyes 7th straight year of borrowing for severance pay · Hackensack, N.J., ends GOAT building tax break, OKs PILOT lien sale

Sources

• Garfield Mayor and Council regular meeting agenda packet, Oct. 27, 2026
• Garfield special meeting agenda, Oct. 27, 2026, 5:30 p.m. and special meeting notice, Oct. 22, 2026
• Garfield work session agenda packet, Oct. 15, 2026
• Garfield agenda, March 24, 2026 (Ordinance 3134 introduced) and minutes, April 14, 2026 (adopted)
• Garfield minutes, Aug. 3, 2026 (Appraisal Systems contract)
• Garfield agenda packet, March 10, 2026 (Ordinance 3123, metered parking)
• City of Garfield Report of Audit, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021
• City of Garfield 2025 Annual Financial Statement (unaudited) and 2026 adopted budget
• City of Garfield and Appraisal Systems Inc. letter to property owners, June 2026
• Bergen County list of 2026 and 2027 revaluations and reassessments (as of Jan. 7, 2026)