By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

For the past 12 years, Bridgton has allowed property owners to “opt out” for posting their tax records on the assessor’s online data base.

This practice is being discontinued.

“This has caused issues for folks using the data base to determine recipients for required notifications particularly in regard to Planning Board matters,” Town Manager Bob Peabody told the Select Board at their Jan. 23 meeting.

Peabody recommended the Select Board to discontinue the “opt out” option.

Maine Municipal Association pointed out that a vast majority of property tax records are public records, and under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act makes them accessible to the general public.

There are a few property tax-related records that are confidential such as poverty abatement records, proprietary information and veterans’ exemption medical records.

MMA noted that if a municipality chooses to post its public property tax information online, there are no legal parameters on how much can be posted or in what format.

“For convenience and in the interest of full disclosure, we generally favor more, not less, public information online and in the most user-friendly format possible,” MMA opined. “A municipality could allow a taxpayer to opt out of an online property tax database, but a taxpayer has no independent legal right to do so...this information is public and customizing a database per individual whim could impose a substantial maintenance burden on IT staff.”

Assessor John O’Donnell said Bridgton was one of the “early adopters” of the online database, and pointed out that the “opt out” option was in effect since the beginning (around 2011-2012).

“A few years after we developed the service, there were towns that did not want the opt out, but there were also towns that wanted the property info but not the owner info,” O’Donnell pointed out.

So, three choices were developed:

• Opt out — record disappears from the online information.

• Mask ownership — record displays all information except for owner name and mailing address; the data in these fields are replaced with the words “contact town office.”

• Show all — all records and fields are displayed.

O’Donnell said opt out is still used, however towns that added the online database service in recent years display all records.

Currently, there are 40 accounts falling under the “opt out” option, but involves 27 owners (some own multiple parcels).

Peabody echoed MMA’s point that the town should not “wipe out” the entire database (for those opting out), that the map and lot number should remain with a notation to contact the tax office for information.

“It’s not like the parcel does not exist,” he said. “That’s kind of deceiving.”

Town Clerk Laurie Chadbourne said the opt-out issue came to light when a person, who had an application before the Planning Board, was trying to find property owner names and addresses to send certified mail regarding their proposal before the board.

“They couldn’t find a parcel that they knew was there,” she said. “I wasn’t aware of this.”

Before computer technology, people would go to the town office, access the tax maps, and find that information printed there. Now, people go online to search for that information.

“In the interest of full disclosure, we generally favor more not less public information online. It seems like we’re creating potential problems for ourselves because someone has to maintain this database of who’s opt out and who’s not,” Selectman Paul Tworog said.

The Select Board voted 5-0 to eliminate the opt-out option.