BOA agenda 121018 - cancelled due to weather

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1 certificate, etc., etc., can we do that? Can we question the trustworthiness of the evidence and therefore the 2 competence of the evidence? 3 4 James Bryan said that is nuanced. The trustworthiness speaks to a piece of evidence for what it is proffered to be. For 5 instance, if you were to have an affidavit from somebody and you don't know whether that's their true statement, 6 whether it's notarized and things like that speak to the trustworthiness of the affidavit. The actual substance of it, that's 7 not the competency that they're talking about with the rules of evidence. For instance, if you were to have a case that 8 dealt with traffic, if you had an engineer's sealed report that it would increase traffic tenfold, then you would have a 9 competency issue with the trustworthiness of it if he wasn't an engineer. If he gave the same report and you just didn't 10 believe him, saying that he was only out there one day and it was a Saturday, not a Monday, that's a very poor report 11 and I just can't trust your conclusions, that's different. That goes to whether there is substantial evidence of something 12 being there. 13 14 Susan Halkiotis said then she has questions about the substantial qualifications for this evidence, I guess. 15 16 Karen Barrows said I think we can still close the public hearing and still speak with James Bryan. She asked if that is 17 correct. 18 19 James Bryan answered that she was correct. 20 21 Karen Barrows called for a motion to close the public hearing. 22 23 MOTION by Randy Herman to close the public hearing. Barry Katz seconded. 24 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 25 26 Randy Herman said not having been here for any of the previous iterations of this case, as James Bryan stated there 27 are only three issues that the board has to determine: whether a tax certificate was issued, whether the person who 28 owned the property was the holder of the certificate, and whether the structure is used for agritourism. There is a pretty 29 clear definition of agritourism in the statute. And he does not think that anyone is seriously contending that it does not 30 meet that definition and no one is really questioning whether the tax certificate was issued so really the only question 31 that remains is whether the person who owns the property is the same person who holds the certificate. And then the 32 board has to look at specifically what does the certificate say and what does the application for the certificate say. And 33 it's interesting because it is pretty clear that if you just look at the certificate it does not say LLC, it just says Wild Flora 34 Farm, which is not necessarily the same thing. But if you go back and look at the application that was submitted, it 35 clearly shows a federal employer identification number, that it is an LLC is clearly checked, but on the other hand if you 36 look under No. 3, it says the applicant's legal name is Kara Brewer. It doesn't say Wild Flora Farm, LLC. So, the 37 application kind of goes both ways and it isn't clear from the application who actually is applying. And there's evidence 38 that could support either conclusion in there, so he doesn't know. 39 40 Barry Katz asked Randy Herman to reiterate the three items for consideration, which he did. 41 42 Barry Katz said there has been argument that the entity in 2016 was not the same entity as what's on the document in 43 2017. That's a problem. 44 45 Randy Herman said there are two different ways you can look at that. You can say the certificate was issued in error 46 and shouldn't have been issued because maybe the information provided on the return was inaccurate or was 47 fraudulent or something and he doesn't think the board can consider that kind of argument because once the certificate 48 is issued, the board has to take it at face value. But, he does think it goes toward the question of who was the intended 49 holder of the certificate; was it Kara Brewer or was it the LLC. And if the fact is that the LLC did not have any income for 19