The Jones County Board of Tax Assessors had its first meeting with its three new board members last week, which signaled the beginning of a process to correct numerous problems with the county’s property values as well as issues within the tax assessors department.
The disfunction of the Jones County Tax Assessors’ office is evidenced by the fact that its employees had to be split into two different work locations.
The Feb. 6 meeting was called to order by the Chairman, Tim Andrews, who is one of two members the Board of Commissioners voted to remove at its Jan. 7 meeting. The other member who was voted to be removed was Scherryl Morgan.
Andrews and Morgan were joined at the meeting by the new members, who were appointed by the commissioners at a Jan. 14 called meeting. Those members are Andrea Riley, Joe Rutledge and Leigh Ross Stanford.
Riley is familiar with the work of a tax assessor having retired from the office after 24 years as an assessor. Rutledge is the owner of Gray Computers, and Stanford is a supervising U.S. Probation Officer with 27 years of experience.
Andrews’ term as chairman ended with the first agenda item of the Feb. 6 meeting. The Board of Tax Assessors selects its chairman at the beginning of the first meeting of each year.
When the nominations were opened, Morgan nominated Andrews and Riley nominated Stanford. Andrews received two votes, but Stanford received three and immediately took over the duties of chairman.
Next was the selection of a secretary of the board, which must be a tax assessor. Rutledge nominated Kim Adams. The vote to approve was 3-2, and Adams too immediately took over those duties.
Attorney William Noland presented information about the JCBTA (Jones County Board of Tax Assessors) peer review. He said he was retained to represent the Board of Commissioners in the removal of Andrews and Morgan.
Noland explained that, as county attorney, Ashley Brodie could not represent the county or the tax assessors board members in the action. He said the removed tax assessors were entitled to a hearing in Superior Court before the action by the commissioners would be final. The date of that hearing has been requested but it has not been set by the court.
The reason for the removals was given as the failure of the JCBTA to meet the standards established by the Georgia Department of Revenue, namely the failure of the fair market value assessment of properties, the unlawful use of overrides and grade changes and violation of the open meetings law.
Andrews again stated that the county should provide counsel for him and Morgan and addressed the question to Stanford. She responded that the request exceeded the board’s authority, and it would not be discussed at the meeting.
Chief Appraiser Tony George gave his opinion of the peer review. He said 80 percent of the items recommended in the review had been completed before the review was completed.
He also claimed that the tax digest had not been late in the past eight years.
Riley disagreed. She said one of the recommendations, a door-to-door review of county properties, had not been done since 2017.
George said the door-to-door review was done by Tax Assessor Bill Goodman and asked Goodman to verify that. However, the tax assessor, who was in the back of the room, said a door-to-door review of properties had not been done.
Goodman stated he did one complete review from 2014-16, but it had not been done since.
Andrews said he read the 142-page peer review. He said it was an extensive report that was beyond the understanding of those not trained in the field.
Stanford said she did not disagree that some of the language was beyond her scope, but 80-90 percent of it was in plain speak.
“It was disappointing. I’m hearing that 80 percent of the recommendations have been corrected. That tells me the report was accurate,” she said. “I do have questions about why these things had to be done.”
Andrews said he admitted he did not know.
“How can we oversee a department when we haven’t had training in it?” he asked.
Stanford said she has been trying to catch up and understands she has a lot to learn.
George said he believed the lack of appeals by property owners shows everything was not done wrong.
Stanford said, if the properties were undervalued, there would be no complaints.
George talked about sales ratios and how they are computed. He said the digest was completed despite having lost half the staff.
The chairman asked George why half the staff was gone. She also asked what he was doing to train the staff he has.
George said he was scheduling training and having in-house training.
Stanford said, in the past two years, the chief appraiser has taken 180 hours of training while his staff is out of compliance. She asked the reason for that.
George blamed the problem on the pandemic that resulted in fewer classes available.
Stanford asked the chief appraiser if he was proud of the peer review. He responded he was not proud, but recommendations had been addressed.
Stanford took issue with George because he did not respond to an email request she sent to him Monday. George said he was trying to get the information she requested. He ultimately apologized and said he meant no disrespect.
George and Adams presented the board members with new business items that included approvals of renewals and one new conservation exemption. Those items were dealt with quickly.
Stanford talked about the importance of transparency and requested county email addresses for the board members. She also asked for the personnel records for tax assessor department employees in order for board members to become familiar with them and be able to address employee issues in the department.
“We need to have employees in one location,” she said. “Best practices need to be adopted, and this is where I propose we start.”
The chairman asked for bylaws, employee handbooks and the minutes of the 2024 board meetings.
Rutledge asked for the meeting times to be moved to 5 p.m. instead of 4 p.m., and board members agreed to the change.
Stanford asked that the information pertaining to upcoming board meeting be emailed to the board members for review.
Morgan then stated she had a job and a life. She said she is not sure she is willing to spend the time to review the material if she is not being paid to do it.
The chairman asked George to have personnel records and other items requested to board members by the end of business the following Tuesday, Feb. 11. She also requested a called meeting of the board to address the ongoing personnel issues.
“We are in charge of that office, and we are not there. I don’t know all the people in that office, but I want to learn,” she said.
It was agreed among board members to have the called meeting at 4 p.m. Feb. 20. That meeting will include having the employees of the tax assessor office present. The Feb. 6 meeting in its entirety can be accessed from the county’s website, jonescountyga.org.
