The Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court has scheduled a vote of ‘No Confidence’ on Wednesday in Jeff Law, the Chief Appraiser of the Tarrant Appraisal District.
The vote follows a series of public missteps at the TAD, including problems with the rollout of a new website earlier this year, and last week’s firing of a TAD administrator who was recorded saying that he was willing to lie to the media to cover up the nature of those website problems.
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare said that the call for a ‘No Confidence’ vote in the Chief Appraiser is the result of multiple missteps and not one single issue.
“[To] use a sports analogy, if the head coach of a college or pro football team fires the offensive coordinator, then fires the defensive coordinator, then fires the special teams coordinator, eventually you have to look and say, ‘Well, it must be the head coach,’” Judge O’Hare said. “I think this is a similar situation.”
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The Tarrant Appraisal District is tasked with assigning property values throughout Tarrant County. There has been a sharp rise in property values across North Texas and, as a result, a rise in people protesting those appraisals.
Earlier this year, a new feature on the TAD website, which was supposed to improve the process by which people could file those appraisals, was not functional for weeks.
In April, the TAD Board of Directors issued a Letter of Repair against Chief Appraiser Jeff Law, which is essentially a reprimand coupled with a list of improvements they expect him to make.
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Then, last week, the TAD Board fired an IT administrator who was secretly recorded saying, “I’m OK with creating a false narrative that distances the truth from the media,” in reference to those website problems.
In response, the mayors of Keller, Southlake, and Colleyville wrote an open letter saying, “Taxpayers have lost trust in the Tarrant Appraisal District, and it is time for the TAD Board of Directors to appoint a new Chief Appraiser.”
Judge O’Hare emphasized that the No Confidence vote, should it pass, will have no direct effect on the leadership at the Tarrant Appraisal District. Instead, he said he hopes that it communicates to the TAD Board members that they should act accordingly.
In response to an inquiry from NBC 5, a representative from a public relations firm that the appraisal district has hired stressed that the TAD “does not comment on news external of the organization.”
The same statement also highlighted many professional accomplishments of the organization under the leadership of Jeff Law.
“The Tarrant Appraisal District is an agency that closely follows the regulations set by the Texas Government. TAD has received and maintained, commendations from the International Association of Assessing Officers from the Certificate of Excellence and Assessment Administration,” the statement noted. “These recognitions and achievements are a direct result of the current leadership for the past 15 years.”
