Oswego Common Council’s Meeting on April 22nd Sparks Controversy Over Property Assessments

Bt Jose Hernandez

OSWEGO – April 23rd, 2024, The Common Council of Oswego met again on April 22nd, and the meeting was quite contentious. The council voted 2-4 not to pass resolutions 119 and 121, which were voted on at the same time.

Resolution 119 waived the rules and brought resolution 121 to the floor without committee consideration. Resolution 121 rejected the preliminary assessment by GAR associates, terminating the contract with GAR and returning property assessment values to their prior values.

Twelve Oswego community members came to speak during the public forum before the vote, and only one out of 12 voiced support for the current tax assessment: a man on a fixed income who was overpaying prior to the reassessment. Oswego community members advocated for themselves and elderly community members who could not attend the meeting. Most of the community members asked the council to vote to pass the resolution for them.

Councilman Gosek was very impassioned about the resolution and admonished the common council and mayor for using language that seemed to be against the resolution before a vote took place. Before the vote took place, Gosek spoke about the failure of state and federal government and said that local government should serve its people. Gosek went on to renounce the Republican party and claimed he would be registering as an independent due to perceived failures of the administration. Gosek’s microphone was cut, but he continued regardless.

The legal counsel for the common council referred to the resolution as ‘nonsensical’ and full of grammatical errors. Most of the common council agreed to side with the city attorney Kevin Caraccioli, with only councilmen Vanucchi and Gosek voting for the resolution. Mayor Corradino tried his best to keep order during the meeting, but outbursts from the crowd witnessing the vote were frequent. Many people in the crowd claimed to not be voting to re-elect Corradino, and tensions were high.

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