Records Request Forces Action By Assessors’ Board

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An open records request has recently forced the Assessors Board to re-approve minutes two years old. During its October meeting, the Pickens County Tax Assessors’ Board made a motion to approve meeting minutes from September 2010. Board Secretary Stephanie Gooch explained the situation to the board last week.

“These minutes were never approved by the previous board members,”

she said. Gooch went on to say the situation was brought to her attention during an open records request in September, which included records from the 2010 tax year. She discovered the minutes were not saved in the Microsoft word program, but said a file was created on September 3, 2010 at 1:44 P.M. Here, she showed the board a digital picture of the computer screen displaying this information.

“Therefore, these minutes are being entered again, as I had the hard notes from the meeting. And, the minutes have been ratified by the current board on October 11, 2012,”

she said. As such, she presented a resolution for the board to approve the minutes.

Chief Appraiser Roy Dobbs explained the minutes were taken during the meeting on September 3, 2010, saying his office has evidence that everything during that meeting took place. But, Dobbs said the only thing his office could not replicate was the minutes. Dobbs and Gooch confirmed the legality of the resolution, specifically the act of approving minutes from two years ago from a different board.

When it came time to vote, though, Board Member Anna Lee Moss had some reservations, saying she would like to have more time to look further into the matter. Dobbs reminded her that everything the board has signed-off on, even if it changed what people were paying back on their taxes, will be null and void if the board doesn’t pass the resolution. The resolution is also needed to complete the open records request. Moss said she felt she did not have enough time to review the minutes and questioned why it took the board two years to correct the matter.

“How would that not have been noticed at the next meeting?”

Moss asked. Dobbs and Gooch explained the next meeting was an executive session. Moss said she wanted to have time to look at the minutes more closely and wanted to know how the hard-notes were taken.

At one point during the discussion, though, Gooch said she felt her honesty was being questioned. She noted she had been sending emails to Moss about the situation. Moss, though, said she got in late the previous night and didn’t have time to read them. Moss also reassured Gooch that it wasn’t her honesty that she questioned, but the legality of approving minutes to a meeting where she and two other board members were not present. According to Dobbs and Gooch’s explanation, which they received from board attorney Jane Range, the approval would be legal because they were presented at this week’s meeting. Board Member Teddy Cawley noted that Range reviewed the situation, adding that if the board can’t trust its attorney, it’s in a bad situation.

Dobbs commended Gooch for the immediacy in retrieving the necessary information. As soon as she discovered the issue, Gooch said, she contacted board attorney Jane Range for consultation on how to proceed.

The board approved the 2010 minutes with a 3-1 majority; Moss abstained on the consultation of her attorney.

During this week’s meeting, the board also signed off on approximately 300 tax appeals that were resolved. Gooch said the county received over 900 appeals this year out of over 20,000 parcels, but Dobbs said more appeals have previously been resolved and signed. He also said that tax bills were mailed last week and are due 60 days after mailing.

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