Cambridge city department heads: Director of assessment Robert Reardon

Robert Reardon is the director of assessment for the city. He was hired in May of 2005 after having previously served as an assessor for the city, supervisor of local taxation for the Commonwealth and assessing administrator for the town of Belmont. During his career as a real estate appraiser Reardon has received numerous professional designations and wards from the International Assn. of Assessing Officers, the Mass. Board of Real Estate Appraisers and the Mass. Assn. of Assessing Officers. In addition, Reardon is a national instructor in real estate appraisal courses and has qualified as an expert witness in various Mass. courts. In order to keep precise numbers on each parcel of real estate in the city, they implemented a computer assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) system built by Mass. based Vision Appraisal Technology. This system combines many features which offer a detailed look at the real estate within the jurisdiction including being linked to a Geographic Information System (GIS), which maps the city and allows a detailed review of the real estate and the surrounding parcels to ensure a fair system of assessments throughout the city of Cambridge. The CAMA and GIS systems are available on the city of Cambridge web site to allow interested individuals to review the real estate assessed values and property information including pictures of the improvements. The system has helped to create a more transparent view of how assessed values are calculated and assessments of the surrounding properties. Another feature of the system allows for a virtual appraisal of individual residential properties by automatically selecting some comparable properties to validate the assessed value and then plotting them on a map surrounding the subject property. The city's assessment system, like other jurisdictions, has evolved from a paper based system to a state of the art system and will continue to evolve as technology dictates. As a result of these changes the city was nominated by the International Association of Assessing Officers as one the Outstanding Assessment Jurisdictions of the Year 2007.