Appraisal board contends with district employees

The Cass County appraisal board convened on Tuesday to consider the hiring of a third appraiser and adopting a new policy as it pertains to overtime. The meeting spanned five hours, three of which were held in two executive sessions but remained well attended for the duration having been comprised mostly of appraisal district employees. Ten attendees requested time to speak before the board. Previous reporting from the board’s Sept. 10 meeting and in response, an employee-authored letter to the editor gave way to a much anticipated and contentious debate.

Board chairperson, Susan Jackson, called on those speakers to address the board upon its opening. Two employees expressed their intent to specifically address agenda items as they were discussed. The debate commenced as to the legality of this format wherein the employees cited HB 2840 which became effective on Sept. 1 of this year and amends the Open Meetings Act to modify how a governmental body may manage public input at its meetings. A board must allow every person who wishes to address the board on an agenda item to do so during or before the board’s consideration of the item. Amid the confusion, Jackson opened the meeting to anyone who wanted to speak, the agenda notwithstanding.

Brandi Turnbow, a former appraiser for the district, spoke in response to the reporting from the Sept 10 meeting in which she was not named, to defend her rationale for leaving the district to take a position as an appraiser with Upshur county’s appraisal district in February of this year.

“I’m only here in response to what I read in the paper as far as why I left Cass county. It was not because we ride two to a vehicle in Upshur county.”

Dr. F. Jane Kennedy of Atlanta provided a copy of a letter from the state comptroller’s office addressed to the current board chair, Jackson, and the previous chief appraiser, Jordan Klein. The letter described noncompliance issues as having been unsatisfied in the necessary time frame. She asked the board to reconcile the letter’s content with Klein’s performance and their continued approval of Klein’s raises in pay.

“Jordan Klein had all of 2017, 2018, and a few months in 2019 to get our district compliant. Number one, why would this board approve Jordan Klein’s raises in salary year after year in light of this noncompliance? Where are his evaluations? Why didn’t this board see his incompetence as described by employees in the letter to the editor in the Atlanta Citizens Journal? Why is this board considering revoking comp time accrued by employees under Klein when it was obvious that poor leadership is to blame? The board hires the chief appraiser and this laying blame on everyone but this board is deeply concerning. The buck stops with you.”

Jackson requested a brief adjournment to confer with the board’s attorney on the effective date of the house bill and motioned to leave the public forum open but to continue to other agenda items while she awaited confirmation.

A freeze in salaries and particularly, the salary of a third appraiser, was implemented in the Sept 10 meeting. Discussion about raises in salary over a two-year period provided insight into how raises are budgeted. Jackson said that in addition to raising salaries over last year’s budget, the board also approved a $10,000 contingency for additional raises to be appropriated at the chief appraiser’s discretion. Contingencies that are not utilized for raises in salaries are returned to the taxing entities as a matter of policy. There was some question about why last year’s contingency was not utilized.

“If the appraisal district did not use the budget it goes back to our entities. Any dime that’s left has to be accounted for. The 20 entities, that is their money. It is not our money to do what we want to.”, Jackson replied.

Lesli Lee, an appraiser for the district, rebutted by claiming that the district had not refunded the taxing entities in two years. She asserted that in prior discussions with board members about refunds to taxing units, “Y’all said they don’t need it.”

Director Robert Steger explained that the monies in question are still with the district. Lee pointed to Jackson’s statement about refunds, noting the inconsistency in the board’s position on the status of unused monies. He said that taxing entities would rather the appraisal district keep the overage than being forced to pay more should the district be over budget. He said of the entities, “They don’t want it back.”

Jackson presented the findings of their previous CPA in which he recommended to the board to cut its budget because it collects too much money. She claimed the overages were not returned so that they could be used to fix the building’s roof and air conditioner and whatever is left over will be given back to the entities.

When the board was asked why they gave a $5k merit-based raise to Jordan Klein every year for four years, Jackson said she would not discuss personnel issues. When asked why they would give the chief appraiser a raise and nobody else, she said the only person to whom raises are given, by the board, is the chief appraiser. A secretary for the district, Annette Wimberly, said of Klein, “When he had in the budget to give everybody a raise, you shot it down and said we only give merit raises and yet you just sat there and said you don’t have anything to do with the raises. Y’all talked about personnel issues in the last meeting about us and that was not in executive session.”

Jackson called for an executive session to discuss the overtime policy.

Upon reconvening in regular session, Jackson said they would not take any action on overtime but wanted to make a statement. “The action we took to freeze the accumulation of comp time will stay frozen until a new policy is adopted. To reiterate, none of the comp time was frozen for any employee that has any. We froze the accumulation until we have a new policy in place.”

Concern over whether the board would recognize accrued comp time was paramount for employees. The board dismissed those concerns as unfounded. However, the board called into question the legitimacy of accrued comp time, on record, at last month’s meeting with Jackson leading the charge, “I don’t think we owe it. It’s unapproved.”

The comp time that has accumulated was said to be invalid because it was not approved by the chief appraiser. The employees claimed that the former chief appraiser, Klein, had delegated the duty of approving comp time to his deputy chief appraiser.

The board went into a second executive session to conduct a six-month review of the current chief appraiser, Anita White. Upon reconvening, the board approved a raise in pay for White. Jackson asked the board if anyone had anything to add, and in the absence of further discussion, she called the meeting adjourned.

The attendees who had waited hours to speak were incensed that Jackson adjourned the meeting. Jackson claimed her question about further discussion items were asked of everyone. After a heated exchange, Jackson reopened the meeting to let them speak.

Joe Smith, retired military and postmaster, leveled criticism at the board and its chairperson, “If you treat your employees right, they’re going to do a better job for you. The way y’all have treated your employees, it’s a wonder they’re still here. And I know you could say they’re not your employees, but that’s a bunch of bull. You sit here and dictate policy, they’re your employees. They work for you. I am disappointed in this board. I’m ashamed of you. All of you board members. You let this lady sit up here. She dictates all the policies. Mr. Steger’s going to second everything she says and y’all just sit there. I don’t even know why you show up. If you can’t do a better job than what you’re doing, you need to resign and let somebody in here that will do the job.”

Duane Hicks attended the meeting as a taxpayer and in support of his wife, Lacy, the deputy chief appraiser.

“I just wanted to make sure it was on record. You said the employee’s comp time is theirs, it will not be in jeopardy in any form or fashion?”

Jackson responded, “We didn’t touch the comp time.”

“I’m just wanting a yes or no answer,” he said.

When Jackson failed to answer, resolutely, Hicks asked the board if accrued comp time was safe. The board answered, “Yes.”, in unison.

Lee reacted to the discussion in last month’s board meeting, detailed in the previous reporting, “I take offense to the whole newspaper thing that came out the other day because almost everything in that was a lie. Our integrity was questioned in that. You called us all liars and all thieves is basically what you did. Like we’re all just sitting here drawing comp time for no reason waiting for the fall so we can take all that time off. That pisses me off. You had no right to say that. You haven’t spoken to one of us in this office. Not one of us. None of you have ever been to this office to see what we do. The work that we put into this office and yet you want to sit there and pass judgment on us.”

Director Joe Wall asked the employees, “If Jordan wasn’t doing his job, why didn’t y’all come to the board?”

Heated discussion led to an accusation that Jackson was aware of Klein’s shortcomings but not moved to act. Wimberly addressed Jackson and recounted, “I know for a fact that you were let know that he was sitting in there playing games because I heard you over the phone when she [Lacy] called to complain about having to sign a check where he had fudged his time and you threatened her job and being insubordinate. I was standing right in there and you said that you knew that he was in there playing games and you didn’t care.”

Hicks addressed Wall, directly. “Sir, that’s the answer to your question right there. The whistle was blowed. The person who blew the whistle job was threatened for insubordination and the whistle never got blowed again.”

Wall asked if Hicks had any proof that Klein wasn’t doing his job or if he was taking the word of others.

“Your report from the comptroller, where y’all get your judgment. She’s [chief appraiser]…it’s fixing to fall on her head. You’re going to get the reports. You’re going to see what he hasn’t done.” Hicks said before asking White, “Am I right or wrong?”

White responded, “You’re right.”

Hicks continued, “When the stuff hits the fan, so to speak, it’s going to look like it’s on her and these other group of ladies. It’s about a two-year lapse from what I’ve read. It’s going to look bad on her over the next few years when you’re trying to give her a raise. It’ll look good on him from the previous two years.”

In a separate discussion between Baker Bledsoe and Jackson, Bledsoe asked Jackson why board members did not address the issue with Klein about holding an election in 2017. Klein failed to hold an election thus allowing board members to serve an additional year, unelected, and resulting in one board member losing his seat.

Jackson, who has served on the board since 2010, said of her duties as they relate to board elections and her management of their chief appraiser, “It’s not our job. We didn’t know. He said he made an error. I just didn’t keep up with that. It’s just too petty.”