The Jones County Board of Tax Assessors held its monthly meeting last week and continued to on the path of putting the tax assessor office and county’s tax digest in order.
The April 3 meeting was called to order by JCBTA Chairman Leigh Stanford. The opening prayer and pledge were led by board member Joe Rutledge.
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At the conclusion of the agenda items, the meeting was adjourned to enter closed session to discuss personnel. When the meeting was reopened, Stanford stated the board is committed to being as transparent as possible. She said that includes correcting any items needed for the tax digest and for personnel.
The chairman said board members continue to work toward that daily. She said letters placed in the personnel files of two employees that resulted from illegal meetings of the previous board were part of the review.
Stanford opened the floor for board members discussion and asked if there were any motions pertaining to those letters. Rutledge made the motion to remove the suspension letter placed in the file of Kim Adams Nov. 18 and the reprimand letters placed in the files of Adams and Bill Goodman Dec. 5.
The vote to remove the letters was unanimous. Stanford said that vote obviously did not change anything, but it did perfect the record.
With no other agenda items, the floor was open for public comments.
Commissioner Sam Kitchens said he was not expecting the removal of the letters from the employee files and was pleasantly surprised by the action.
He thanked all the employees of the tax assessors department for their hard work and thanked the board members for their transparency and their hours of hard work attempting to right any wrongs that had occurred.
Stanford explained in a subsequent conversation that board members have spent hours going over personnel records and re-evaluating every employee position and salary to make sure each position is classified appropriately.
Business meeting
After calling the meeting to order, the chairman noted that the Board of Commissioners voted at their April 1 meeting to remove the two remaining members of the previous board.
After approval of the agenda, the board was presented with agenda items by Adams. Those items began with conservation and included 16 CUVA renewals, nine CUVA applications, 19 FLPA renewals, the continuation of 28 CUVA covenants and three FLPA covenants. She presented a CUVA breach due to death of the holder and one voluntary breach.
Other items included CUVA and FLPA values for 2025, the denial of a freeport application, approval of eight error and relief items, 11 motor vehicle appeals and 180 homesteads.
The board approved all the items presented.
Interim Chief Appraiser Jim Davis presented an update for the board. He said the county is actively seeking responses to an RFP for revaluation services and he is working toward a presentation for aerial photography services for county properties.
Davis said the photography presentation would be made jointly to the JCBTA and commissioners with the goal of getting the service performed in the fall and ready to use in 2026.
The speaker said they are working toward finalizing the permits issued in 2024 and entering the information into Wingap.
“We are obviously working to get everything ready for the 2024 tax digest,” he said.
Davis said the state made a change in the tax assessment notices that are mandated to be used this year. He said those notices will include information about the estimated rollback rate.
The appraiser went on to talk about caveat training for tax assessors in May. He said it is a 20-hour training and would fulfill the training requirement for board members for the year.
Davis said the training includes updates for new laws, trends and regulations pertaining to tax assessors.
The final agenda item was personnel. Stanford said the presentations and documentations by attorney William Noland and Anthony George would be included in the record. She talked about additions to the tax assessors office and stated Donna Welch had completed the first tax assessor training class.
She also added that Tax Appraiser Tommy Crosby had resigned.
The next meeting of the JCBTA is scheduled at 5 p.m. May 1 at the Government Center. The meeting can also be accessed on the county website at jonescountyga.org.
