Published: August 16, 2008 04:45 pm         

complaintant answered by CCAD

By ANDY HOGUE

Register Staff Writer



The Cooke County Appraisal District announced it had spent enough time investigating a former employee’s concerns of alleged illegal activities.

The central tax collecting agency met Thursday night for a regularly scheduled meeting.

According to the July 21 Register, Trudy Hanks, a former property appraiser, approached the Cooke County Appraisal District’s (CCAD) Board of Directors on July 17 regarding activities of the CCAD. Though not specific, Hanks had a long-standing concern that one of the appraisers in the district was not a resident of Texas.

She originally posed the questions in late February.

Two CCAD directors were appointed to answer her questions, Beverly Snuggs and Larry Partain, but Hanks was concerned that she has received no formal response as of July 17. At the July meeting, the Board consulted with Peter Lowe, Austin-based attorney via telephone, and Jim Hatcher, Gainesville attorney. Prior to executive session, Hanks’ attorney Jim Hatcher said two female employees of the district were fired earlier this year.

Hanks received her response on Thursday, but was not present for the meeting. The responses would be mailed out to affected parties, Snuggs said.

“We have represented to the board and I now represent to the public that significant District resources — in time, effort, and attorney’s fees — have been devoted to the review of, and response to, these letters of complaint,” Snuggs said, as she read a letter to be mailed to all parties. “We believe that all the board members have reviewed the letters and have been repeatedly briefed on the status of the complaint investigation ...”

She continued: “We wish to emphasize that in our opinion, the complaint letters were taken very seriously. There has been criticism that the response has taken took long, but we suspect that if the response had been immediate, there would have been criticism that the complaints were not carefully or seriously considered.”

The letter said the district’s attorney believes no violation of the law had occurred.

“We do not feel it is appropriate to go into detail in this meeting regarding individual matters alleged but, as the board knows, the proposed letters to the complainants do contain significant detail,” Snuggs continued, reading the letter.

The letter said neither Snuggs nor Partain could confirm any wrongdoing on behalf of the CCAD’s management.

Darlene Alderman, a CCAD employee, spoke on Hanks’ behalf.

“What was done to Trudy Hanks by this Chief Appraiser to a supervisor should be unacceptable in anyone’s book,” Alderman said, reading from handwritten notes.

Not going into specifics, Alderman said Hanks was not allowed to have an item on the CCAD Board’s agenda.

Members Jim Myrick, Partain, Bob Knauf, Dean Mendenhall and Snuggs were present at the meeting, along with several CCAD employees and community members.

In public comments, Valley View resident Steve Gaylord said he was concerned about a $38,000 increase in his appraised value, though no substantive improvements were made. He said he has not been scheduled for a protest hearing before the Appraisal Review Board, and wanted to know why.

Gaylord said he filed a protest on May 31.

Reporter Andy Hogue may be contacted at andyhoguegdr@ntin.net