When Nassau County residents go to the polls on Election Day, Nov. 4, they will be asked to vote on a referendum that will decide whether the Nassau County Assessor's position will remain an elected position or will be appointed by the Nassau County Executive.

The referendum, if approved by voters, would abolish the county board of assessors and replace the county-wide elected chair of the board of assessors with an assessor who would be appointed by the county executive, subject to the confirmation by the county legislature.

The current chairman of the board of assessors Harvey Levinson was elected by voters and began his six-year term in January 2004. Residents will decide on Nov. 4 if the assessor should be appointed by the county executive for a three-year term or if the county should continue with a system whereby the assessor is elected to a six-year term by voters.

The proposal to amend the county charter was made by Democratic Legislator Wayne Wink, who believes the change would take politics out of the assessor's office.

"This is a long overdue reform which will assure that the assessor's office will be administered by a true professional with meaningful qualifications for the office, while improving the assessor's accountability to the people, the county legislature and the county executive. If adopted in November, this will be one of several steps to upgrade and professionalize this department," said Wink.

Even though, if approved by voters, the change in the county charter would take effect in January 2009, a year before Levinson's term is due to expire, Levinson still supports the change.

However, some believe that making the assessor's position appointed as opposed to elected would take the decision out of the hands of voters and instead make the assessor beholden to the county executive.

One Nassau County Legislator who is opposing the change is Republican Legislator Rich Nicolello, who believes the county assessor would be held less accountable if appointed by the county executive as opposed to being elected by the residents.

"The proposal would effectively eliminate the people's choice and hand it over to the county executive. Thus, when your house is wrongly assessed due to mistakes by the assessment department, you would no longer be able to vote out of office the person responsible for those mistakes. The residents of this county must retain their right to elect the county tax assessor," wrote Nicolello in an email to constituents.

The Nassau County Department of Assessment is responsible for placing a value on each of the approximately 416,000 parcels of land in the county for the purpose of assigning the appropriate amount of property taxes that are generated from each parcel.