Appraisal board attorney offers opinion on 2018 election

The Cass County appraisal board convened Tuesday to address ongoing issues raised in previous meetings. Jim Evans, an attorney with Low Swiney Evans & James Law PLLC in Austin, whose firm specializes in the representation of appraisal boards across the state, was in attendance. The meeting was well attended by the public.

The appraisal board has been under intense scrutiny since September for issues regarding the 2018 election of its directors, district employees’ compensatory time and the directors’ consideration of revoking accrued hours in open session, the former chief appraiser’s job performance and the challenges it poses for the current chief appraiser and her staff, a hiring freeze in the midst of an overwhelming backlog, accusations of directors rubber stamping their chairperson’s agenda, and basic necessities such as providing employees with adequate heating and air conditioning which have been under consideration since March but tabled again for the December board meeting.

The failure to conduct an election of the appraisal board of directors in 2017 was of interest to the community and the primary reason for Evans’ visit. The previous chief appraiser, Jordan Klein, claimed he had forgotten how the process works in a letter from Sept. 2018 in which he requests of the taxing units to submit their nominees for a term of one year.

“Deadlines for nominating members for the board of directors and the deadlines for casting votes by the taxing units for board members are not mandatory deadlines.”, Evans said of an opinion rendered by the state attorney general in 1984.

From Article 16, Section 17 of the Texas Constitution regarding its members continuing to serve, unelected, he read, “All officers of this state shall continue to perform the duties of their offices until their successors are to be requalified.”

Evans said this was not the first time in his experience that a chief appraiser had forgotten to hold election. He explained, “I had another instance years ago where a chief appraiser in another appraisal district called me and said, ‘What do I do?’ The short answer is, have the election.”

However, there is no record of when Klein became aware of his error. Evans acknowledged, “I don’t recall when during the year this happened.”

All documents relating to elections since 2011 disappeared after Klein vacated his position in April of this year. Evans admitted, “I don’t have the documentation evidencing the board elections.”

Examination of the board book found nothing in the minutes addressing the error in 2017 nor 2018 but acknowledged the board’s requalification in Jan. 2019.

The basis on which Evans defends Klein for having delayed the 2017 election process by one full year is that deadlines to hold elections are directory which is defined as an instruction of no obligatory force and involving no invalidating consequence for its disregard.

When asked to consider the standard set by that opinion and the implication that by extension, elections are not at all required, Evans said, “That’s not true. The tax code requires that there be elections every two years.”

He added, “I think a board of directors that decides not to have an election because they don’t have to, if that’s their position, makes that decision at their peril.”

Several taxing entities have already cast their votes for directors. Outstanding ballots are due back to the chief appraiser before Dec. 15. Votes will be tallied, and directors notified before Dec. 31. Board chair, Susan Jackson, failed to secure nomination and does not appear on the ballot after nearly 10 years of directorship. Scottie Bates and W.J. Salmon, the former board member who was unceremoniously ousted as a result of the 2018 election, are contenders for two of the seven directorships. In any case, it appears that the board, as it sits today, has met its peril.