3 North Texas mayors call for new Tarrant Appraisal District chief appraiser
TARRANT COUNTY (CBSNewsTexas.com) - Citing scandal and the loss of public trust, three mayors signed a letter Thursday calling for the Tarrant Appraisal District to appoint a new chief appraiser.
The letter from Armin Mizani of Keller, John Huffman of Southlake, and Bobby Lindamood of Colleyville, says they plan a vote of no confidence in current chief appraiser Jeff Law, and calls on other cities, school boards and taxing entities to do the same.
The letter follows the release this week of a partial recording from an internal meeting at TAD this spring, held while criticism was building over the district's website that was not ready for public access when new property valuations were released to owners.
On the recording, an employee can be heard talking about how certain people didn't like being attacked, saying "I'm ok with creating a false narrative that distances the truth, from the media."
The revelation had Lindamood calling for a complete audit of the agency, beyond just the IT issues.
"This thing is just a complete mess, and it starts from the top down," he said Thursday, in a joint interview with Mizani and Huffman. "There should be some accountability from the top down."
Law survived a threat to his job earlier this month, with a split vote of confidence from the TAD board. His supporters at the time indicated they thought he was on the right track to repairing issues with transparency, communication and reputation.
In response to the letter from the mayors though on Thursday, board chair Tony Pompa wrote that he recognized the letter and "…wish to express that we hear you and take this public statement very seriously."
Pompa said he was in discussion with the board attorney and would make public comment at an appropriate time. Mizani led the push earlier this year along for the recall of the previous board chair Kathryn Wilemon, in response to a series of public controversies at the agency. The issues had created a lack of public trust in the district, Mizani explained, especially from residents who were scrutinizing property valuations that were climbing higher each year.
"When you've got a lack of trust in the process because you've got an entity in TAD because scandal after scandal has not corrected its culture -- because that's what it is it's a culture problem -- then that's where we believe there needs to be a change in leadership," he said.
Mizani said they had already fielded calls from other cities and school board members willing to back their push. Huffman said even though there had been changes at the district it still didn't appear there was any accountability for the issues, or a full accounting of exactly what happened with the website this spring.
"At the very least we should be able and all our taxpayers and constituents should be able to expect and demand competency in the appraisal process and the appeals process, and we haven't seen that."