Commissioners Ask Board to Resign

Featured Stories, News April 29, 2014 , by Matthew K. Curtis

The mood at the Fannin County Board of Commissioners was tense as the board ask for the resignation of the Board of Tax Assessors.
The meeting started out with Chairman Simonds and the commissioners quickly moving through the old and new business approving three Variance Requests.

The mood would change as Simonds told the audience that there was going to be quite a bit to discuss on the evening. After opening up Public Comment, Steve Stanley got up to the podium. Stanley got up to try to “clear” his name from recent “rumors” that link him back to Performance Review that was done by the State Department of Revenue reviewing the Tax Assessors Office.

You can read recent articles and watch the full video of Stanley’s comments below.

After quickly closing Public Comment, the commissioner started discussing the Corrective Action Plan that the Board of Tax Assessors had given the commissioners in the prior meeting.

Simonds stated,

”This is about as good of any action plan that any attorney could write.” He would go on to say, “I do not see any of our Board of Assessors here today. I don’t think any of them has even seen this (Action Plan) or had any input in it…I could be wrong. The citizens of Fannin County desire better.”

Both Commissioners Simonds and Earl Johnson stated that they could not have written the Action Plan in the language that is was presented.

Chairman Simonds stated that there were really only two options, Drag this out longer and sweep it under the rug and forget about it or make some necessary changes in the Assessors Office.

After Simonds made his comments, Commissioner Johnson took to the mic to tell the audience his view on the case. He opened his comments by reminding everyone that this all began with a 100 million dollar mistake.

He also mentioned that at an earlier meeting, that the Board of Assessors had requested $18,000 for outside representation, he went on to asked them three times if that money was going to be used in conjunction with the performance review.

“And three times they told me it was not.”

Johnson would go on,

“I am not happy about that because I know that money was used for the outside attorney because fetchyournews requested an open recorded requests and received an email from that attorney.” “I approved that money and they used it–not like they said they were going to.”

Commissioner Sosebee reiterated the same facts stating that something had to be done. After answer a few of the crowds questions, Simonds stated,

“I want to read something.”

During the reading of his three minute motion the audience knew something major was about to happen.
Simonds then stated that he was making a motion,

“Based on the failure to perform the duties of a Tax Assessor, that the Board request the resignation of Tax Assessor Board Members, Jerry Whitehead, Mr. Lewis and Mrs. Towe.”

After asking for a second to his motion, all was quiet for a few seconds; then Commissioner Johnson seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous.

The Tax Assessors Board were sent Certified Letters on the following day asking for their resignation. If the board does not respond it is expected that there will be a special called meeting in order to remove them legally.

Stay with FYN as we bring you the latest details on the Tax Assessors Board.

Below are video clips of the Entire Meeting, The Motion, and Steve Stanley. Also listed is a copy of the Entire Motion.