Jones County Board of Tax Assessors created controversy even before their meeting started last week with a change in venue that appeared to be an attempt to limit public access.
The controversy continued with public comments that started at the beginning of the meeting and heated up again at the meeting’s end.
The Nov. 7 meeting was advertised to be in the Board of Commissioners meeting room where it could be recorded. The Board of Assessors let it be known immediately before the meeting they planned to meet in a small conference room that would not accommodate those who showed up to attend the meeting.
Following a discussion, the meeting did take place in the commissioners’ meeting room.
The explanation for the confusion by Board of Assessors Chairman Tim Andrews was that he preferred the smaller room because it was easier to pass papers around.
Mickey Parker was first on the agenda. He was informed by Chief Appraiser Tony George that he would have two minutes to speak.
Parker said in May he received notice that his property value had increased and did not think much about it until he found out 9,400 properties had been randomly reassessed.
Parker said he submitted open records requests Oct. 4 and 29 for information without success.
He said he asked about overrides because there was a suspicion they were being abused.
The speaker said he asked for the override file, but when he got it, the file was corrupted. He submitted another request and finally got what he wanted but it was without all the fields.
Parker handed them another open records request that included asking for a digital copy of the meeting.
“By law you’ve got to give it to me. You cannot deny it,” he said.
He asked how properties were manually assessed and asked how they were calculated to raise them $139 million. The speaker also asked the impact on revenue collection as the result of their failure to respond.
“I’m being told its as high as $3 million. Due to the failure to properly administer the tax values in this county, you are stealing from property owners whose values are too high,” Parker stated.
The speaker was told his time was up.
“Let me explain this to you.
You are going to read the rest of this in a full-page ad in The Jones County News,” he said.
Parker asked about an individual whose house had never increased in value and was a member of the Board of Tax Assessors.
“The Attorney General of the State of Georgia will get a call from me. He told me a lawyer will respond, and you can deal with the aftereffects of violations of the open records act,” he said.
Parker also questioned the fact that the values of eight commercial properties representing $15 million in value. He said those values did not go up one dime.
Those properties did not go up while the properties of senior citizens are being raised.
After the speaker took his seat, Andrews continued with the items of the agenda with the final item the Chief Appraiser report.
George gave a similar report to what he gave to the Board of Commissioners at their Nov.
5 meeting. He said the plan is to change the process for overrides, and they were down to 2.9 percent. The appraiser said they now have better ways to value properties, and he has been training the staff on those methods.
George said costs are being updated, and the process for grading subdivisions was being changed. He said the square foot values were being reviewed and tested to see where the ratios fall. “We are also reviewing the commercial property schedules,” he said.
The appraiser reminded the board of the low number of property value appeals that have been received. He suggested the low numbers indicated property owners were not that unhappy.
George went on to talk about the Nov. 6 arbitration and the result of the increase of the county’s ratio to 33.94.
“Of course, I wanted it higher than that, but we are going in the right direction,” he said.
George said he would be attending a class about the new laws pertaining to property exemptions that passed in the Nov. 5 election.
After his report, the board went into closed session to discuss litigation and personnel.
Public comments
When the meeting reopened after the closed session, no action was taken.
Jones County Commissioner Sam Kitchens was the first to speak in public comments.
He questioned the limit of two minutes for the comments due to the assessors’ own procedure policy allowing 10 minutes for public comments. He also expressed regret that no member of the Board of Assessors complied to the request by the commissioners for an update at their Nov. 5 meeting.
The commissioner spoke about the volatile workplace in the assessors’ department and referred to a situation that escalated between two employees where one was arrested.
“I can’t imagine anyone would think it was a good idea to just bring them back in the department together,” he said.
The commissioner pointed out that the only action that was taken to keep that from happening was from the county manager and human resources department.
“The oversight of that department is the responsibility of this board. I would say the situation is dangerously critical. I ask this board again, ‘What is your plan?’” Kitchens asked.
Andrews said there was a plan and blamed the unrest on the sales ratio study. He said the board decided to let the process play out.
Kitchens was not satisfied.
“There has been no action by Mr. George or this board, and this is your responsibility,” he said.
Andrews continued to say the board had been working on the problem, however, George stated in the Nov. 5 Commissioners’ meeting that the members of the Board of Assessors were not aware they were responsible for the employees.
Gray Mayor Pro Tem James Collins was the final speaker.
He began his remarks with a reference to the outcome of the election.
“At this point, I think everyone in here believes you enjoy humiliation because that’s all you’ve done for the last month and a half,” he said.
Collins noted that another member of their board had resigned, and he recommended that they all resign.
“You all should be embarrassed. To try to move the meeting to a smaller location so it can’t be live-streamed, and to limit this gentleman to two minutes when he was the only one speaking,” he said, referring to Parker. “This is ridiculous that you are trying to hide the problem you have.”
The speaker said it’s not getting better.
“You’ve had an employee arrested and you’ve had 32 days for a plan. There is none,” he said.
Collins suggested the board members resign and allow the commissioners to appoint a new board that could fix the problem. “That’s my plan. I think it’s pretty easy; you could take care of it tonight.”
Andrews had no response to the comments. He did speak to board members about the need for a called meeting, which was tentatively scheduled for Nov. 14.
DEBBIE LURIE-SMITH/Staff
