Austin, who will be paid $45,000 a year, is a graduate of West Springfield High School.
Randall A. Austin
WEST SPRINGFIELD – The assessors office has filled the slot of deputy assessor with a Montgomery man who was most recently employed as the principal assessor of the Berkshire County community of Dalton.
Forty-eight-year-old Randall A. Austin started work for the city Monday at pay of about $45,000 a year. Austin’s job will be to assist Principal Assessor Hans Doup.
“I’m happy because I feel it (West Springfield) is my hometown,” Austin said during an interview Friday in the assessors office.
A graduate of West Springfield High School, Austin said he grew up in West Side.
Austin had been Dalton’s principal assessor since September 2012. He said taking the job in West Springfield represents a step up for him as the position in Dalton was for 32 hours a week at about $38,000 a year. The job in West Springfield is full time.
Austin began work for the city as a data collector for the assessors office in August.
“It was my foot in the door here and I got to know the staff,” Austin said.
He also started work as an assessor in Montgomery in 2002.
“Randall brings over 13 years of assessing experience to the town. He is a very capable and qualified individual,” Doup said.
The city is able to hire Austin as deputy assessor because of the recent retirement of department clerk Frances Rahilly, according to Doup. The official said the city has budgeted for three clerks and a principal assessor, but with Rahilly’s retirement is able to swap her old job for that of deputy assessor. Creating the post of deputy assessor was a recommendation of a study done about eight years ago, Doup said.
From 1997 to 2011, Austin was employed with Cambridge Credit Counseling Corp., where he held a variety of positions. Among them were housing counseling manager as well as creditor services and relations manager. He was laid off by Cambridge in 2011.
Austin is expected to assist Doup in such areas as tax abatements and exemptions as well as help the city make sure all its property values are at full value in keeping with state law.
Austin is enrolled at Holyoke Community College, where he plans to get a two-year degree and than transfer to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with the goal of majoring in business administration.