The assessor says city officials fired her after she refused to approve a farm tax abatement for an elected official. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

An appeals board on Wednesday revived a municipal tax assessor’s claims that she was fired in retaliation after she rejected a local committee’s request for a tax break on farmland.

The ruling says whistleblower protections in New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act can extend to tax assessors, despite separate workplace protections afforded to them elsewhere in the statute.

“This decision affirms and clarifies that the protections afforded by the Conscientious Employee Protection Act can certainly apply not only to tax assessors, but to all tenured public employees in New Jersey. We believe this decision will ensure justice and fairness for courageous whistleblowers in the public sector,” said Matthew Luber, attorney for the plaintiff.

The decision of the three-judge panel reverses a lower court ruling that found tax assessor Anna-Maria Obiedzinski was ineligible for job protection under the law because tax assessors can only be fired by the state tax division. The new ruling requires a Superior Court judge to review the facts to determine whether the law’s guardians apply in her circumstances.

Obiedzinski sued the township in 2020, alleging township officials engaged in a pattern of retaliation after she rejected community committeeman Robert Becker’s request in 2013 for an agricultural land assessment that would have exempted some of the land his property taxes.

She received a call from Tewksbury Mayor Louis DiMare a short time later, when DiMare urged her to contact Becker’s wife, adding that the two had complained about her, Obiedzinski told other township officials. Obiedzinski alleged that elected officials were trying to exert political influence on her to improperly settle a tax appeal.

In 2017, the township denied her request for an additional seven hours of work per week to complete inspections of farmland, which Obiedzinski was then conducting on his own time.

Three years later, the township sought to oust her, alleging she failed to properly supervise an outside appraiser or timely inspect properties and gave incorrect advice to residents seeking to appeal tax assessments.

Obiedzinski sued in response, alleging that township officials were retaliating against her for “opposing the defendants’ unlawful attempts to engage in a fraudulent tax scheme and, worse, to cover it up.”

The state Division of Taxation, the only body with legal authority to remove a tax assessor like Obiedzinski, denied the township’s request to remove him, finding their claims without merit, but a Superior Court judge ruled against his retaliation claim, finding that it was not covered. by the state’s whistleblower law because Tewksbury couldn’t fire her on her own.

The appeals panel said the lower court should have applied a factor-based test to determine Obiedzinski’s eligibility under the Conscientious Employee Protection Act, consistent with more recent case law.

They found that the township over the years “reduced her hours and reduced her pay,” “reprimanded and belittled her,” and “required her to work on her own time to perform an essential job function “.

Attorneys for the town did not return requests for comment.

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