Morenci’s city charter specifies that two taxpayers and the city assessor are needed to fill the board of review—the board responsible for reviewing real estate valuation.

State law, however, forbids the assessor to be part of that group. That situation could create a conflict or at minimum have the appearance of bias, said Kelli Sobel of the State Tax Commission in a letter to city assessor Martin Marshall.

Marshall thought that requirement in the city charter was archaic and he contacted state officials for an opinion.

A new member for the board is now needed, said Morenci administrator/clerk Renée Schroeder, to join Chris Merillat and Sandy Wheeler.

The board meets regularly three times a year, Schroeder said. Two of those meetings are short—only to correction errors—and the third is the longer meeting where taxpayers come to city hall to contest their assessment.

Anyone interested in serving should contact Schroeder by noon Jan. 22.