Large county assessment districts are being given people power in a way they’ve never had before.
In a little-noticed election, voters this month elected three new members to represent consumers on the appraisal district’s board of directors.
These commissions set policy and hire the county’s chief appraiser. The commissioners also appoint members to the Appraisal Review Board, which handles appraisal appeals. The commissions do not appraise properties, but they do oversee the chief appraisers who do.
These three new seats, part of the state’s new tax code, are supposed to bring some popular power to the dysfunctional property assessment/tax system.
“I’m looking forward to going there and asking questions and doing some fact-finding,” said Angie Cox, elected representative for the Denton Central Appraisal District.
“There are inefficiencies all over the place,” said Matt Bryant, Tarrant Appraisal District selectman.
Dallas Rep. Patrick Burge said he wants more oversight to make sure “things are being done in the best interest of taxpayers.”
Texas election oddities
This is something new. Texans have never voted for their district leaders before. No wonder Texas has become so strange this election.
First, there was very little advertising for the candidates.
I wish I had covered it before the election, because I wanted to mark important milestones in our state’s efforts to improve our system, but I was chasing news about chemicals that stay in the water forever, shady property tax companies, the new refrigerant we needed for our air conditioners, and the dangers of buying solar panels from door-to-door salesmen.
My reporting may have helped voters, especially diligent voters like Bonnie Savage of Highland Park, who spent a lot of time researching the candidates before voting. For her, researching the candidates was a daunting task.
“Do you have any ideas where I can find candidate information for my first election?,” she wrote to me. “I’m thinking about ignoring the appraisal districts rather than flipping a coin.” And she noted that the three new seats, while all ostensibly nonpartisan, could easily become politicized.
The confusion wasn’t her fault: She received a mail-in ballot, then a second one a few days later, and when she inquired, discovered that the ranking committee had listed the candidates in the wrong order, so she had to redo her ballot.
Dallas County elections spokesman Nicholas Solorzano said the Dallas Central Assessment District made a mistake and will cover the costs of reprinting and mailing the ballots a second time.
The bill hasn’t arrived yet, but assessment district spokeswoman Cheryl Jordan said she believes the error will cost the district less than $15,000.
See? The appraisal district was in chaos too.
Chicago politics?
In Collin County, only three people ran for the three volunteer positions, and because none were chosen to face an opponent, each candidate was declared the winner in the aborted election.
In Dallas, only one of the three races was contested: “I did a lot of campaigning just in my office with my patients,” said the winner, podiatrist Patrick Burge.
In Tarrant County, County Judge Tim O’Hare consolidated his power and continued to organize his own political party by endorsing three candidates for three seats. All three were elected.
A political action committee that backed O’Hare’s slate spent $70,000 on candidates, according to filed financial documents.
One candidate, Colleyville City Councilman Chuck Kelly, made an uproar when he sought and did not get O’Hare’s endorsement and filed an ethics complaint with the state, citing O’Hare’s involvement as both an election official (with the power to disqualify candidates) and as an advocate for candidates, which Kelly called a conflict of interest.
In a letter to Kelly, O’Hare rejected his request to disqualify his opponent, Bryant, for technical violations in his campaign finance filings.
Judge O’Hare’s office released the following statement: “Judge O’Hare ran on a platform of conservative principles, a commitment to controlling spending and reducing property taxes. It is not surprising that he is endorsing and supporting like-minded conservative candidates who will represent taxpayers and share his views on effective governance.”
O’Hare appointed Victor Puente to fill the vacant board seat. Puente, who currently serves as TAD’s board chairman, served as O’Hare’s campaign treasurer when he ran for county judge in 2022, according to the Fort Worth Report.
Kelly calls it “close to Chicago politics.”
How to use
The board is made up of the tax collector, who is an ex officio non-voting member, and in most counties five members appointed by local governments such as cities, counties, school districts, etc. Going forward, the board will be made up of eight voting members.
The race was supposed to be nonpartisan, but in some counties it became a Republican versus Democrat contest.
Their terms are four years, but they will be replaced after two years.
So far, every candidate I’ve spoken to has said the right things: they all want an evaluation system that is transparent, efficient, honest and fair. That’s what we all want.
Despite this chaotic beginning, let’s hope that this change will be good news for all property tax payers.
Board of Directors Award Winners
Dallas Central Appraisal District
- Patrick Burge
- Kendall Scudder
- Alexandra Stewart
Taranto Appraisal District
- Eric Morris
- Carrie Rigney
- Matt Bryant
Denton Central Appraisal District
- Angie Cox
- Lisa McEntire
- Rick Guzman
Collin Central Appraisal District
- Robert Philo
- Sumber Zebu
- Andrew Cook
Rockwall Central Appraisal District
- Natalia Bennett
- Michael Harmon
- Vacancy (to be appointed)
