Commissioners refund nearly $4,000

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Wednesday, February 3. 2010

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At the Jan. 26 commission meeting, Nathan Rounds asked for reimbursement for overpaid taxes and legal fees incurred during an appeals process on an erroneous assessment of his property. He was returned nearly $4,000.

Rounds said when he asked Jeannie Haddock of the board of assessors why his taxes increased by 300% and if they could be lowered, she would not work with him to reach an agreement. Rounds said the board of equalization ruled it was an over-assessment of his property but he was forced to hire a lawyer to get results with the board of assessors.

"Citizens shouldn't have to seek counsel to deal with people in public office who are paid by taxpayers," said commissioner Parrish Swift, who moved to approve the reimbursement of $847 in tax overcharges and $2,914 in legal fees.

Commissioner Tommy Powers seconded the reimbursement and Roosevelt Willis voted in favor. Commissioner Don Collins opposed.

For more, read the Wednesday, Feb. 3 print/eEdition of The Pike County Journal-Reporter.

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#1 John Hoover on 02/03/10 at 08:31 AM

Is this any way to run a railroad? What is a property owner to do when they disagree with their assessment? The days of property owners rolling over and paying taxes on a high assessment are over. The tax assessor should be able to show any property owner why their assessment is fair. However, when an agreement can not be reached and the Board of Equalization rules in favor of the property owner then the County needs to pay expenses incurred. Its the right thing to do but it should never have come to this.

#1.1 Mrs. Sunka Durango on 02/03/10 at 09:46 AM

Thank you for posting your real name Mr. Hoover.

#2 Anonymous on 02/03/10 at 09:40 AM

legal complaints should be filed against this Jeannie Haddock for not doing her job.
Just think how many other people this is probably happening to!!

#3 Citizen on 02/03/10 at 11:30 AM

The previous Board of Assessors (remember some resigned) gave Jeannie Haddock freedom to do anything she wanted and they signed off on it. Lot of backroom deals. Ask attorney Morton and commissioner Collins. The current board is putting a leash on her. But really should fire her she is costing the county taxpayer money. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

#4 Annie Mae Gwyn on 02/03/10 at 02:33 PM

Being a member of the Board of Equalization, I was involved in this case. I'm not real comfortable about the BOC refunding Mr. Rounds the cost of his legal fees. Granted, he should receive a refund of property taxes (that is if he had already paid them) but we did not change his value because he had legal representation. Mr. Rounds himslef could have easily acquired or gathered all of the information that his attorney presented. We have had many taxpayers acquire and present lots of info in the past and these taxpayers were never refunded or compensated for their expense in gathering this material and/or data. I personally think the BOC might be creating a monster by paying for Mr. Rounds legal fees. And I must also say that I don't feel that Jeannie erred in her appraisal; she did his exactly as she did all of the other hangars. The formula just did not work in Mr. Rounds favor or conditions. Mr Rounds just happend to be the only one that felt his was too high and provided us with the info to convince us of that. We can only consider his situation at this hearing and not all of the property owners that have hangars since Jeannie used the same method for all of them.

#4.1 Daniel C. Pratt on 02/03/10 at 06:22 PM

Ms. Gwyn, when does your term and Gina Fry's expire? Have you considered applying to serve on other boards? Are you a member of the Bar? Do you think you could help Jeannie pickup dead chickens on her farm in LamarCo? Do you drive a big SUV?

#4.2 Anonymous on 02/03/10 at 06:47 PM

Mrs. Gwyn if you wil ask Mr. Rounds I believe you will find he assembled all the information. He hired and turned it over for attorney representation when Jeannie Haddock would not recognize it. Only then did he hire the attorney. During the course of the attorneys representation Haddock tried to work a deal before it got to the Board of Equalization so it would not become public. Anytime a citizen has to hire an attorney to get a public servant to recognize the citizens grievence the county should pay the attorney fees and fire the county employee that displays no compassion for the people that pay their salary. The arrogance of a county employee should be addressed by their superiors, not swept under the rug. Thank you for your public service.

#4.3 Concord Resident on 02/03/10 at 07:12 PM

If the formula didn't work for him, and she did his exactly like she did the other hangers, then I expect there will be more suits filed.

#4.4 JC on 02/04/10 at 09:01 AM

Annie Check with the Board of Assessor's. Their rules have now been clarified so that the Chief Appraiser must bring these situations to the Board instead of making deals or stifling appeals with a closed door attitude. They will now be presented to the BOA for consideration before they ever get to the point of coming to your board. And Hey if it gets put on your docket now it won't be settled in a whisper session just prior to your meeting any longer.

Things are getting better.

#4.5 Anonymous on 02/04/10 at 11:29 AM

I did an open records request about the documentation on the Nathan's Rounds appeal. The BOC didn't do any research on this before giving the money back.It seems that Mr. Rounds didn't bother to file an appeal on his value in 2008. The refund was for the taxes for the year 2008, which was on a value he didn't dispute at the proper time.The reason his value went up 300% in one year was he built a new house on the property. There is documentation that shows where Jeannie did try to contact Mr. Rounds, she even went out to his house in Oct, but the gate was locked. The only avenue she had at that time was to talk with his lawyer, which in fact in 2007 was the attorney for the board of assessors and there was a case before the board of assessors at that time about Doug Rounds who is Nathan's father. There is documentation that shows every hanger in the county is valued the same. Isn't it odd that last year the BOE upheld the price for the hangers, but this year after Mr. Rounds father had been appointed to the board of equalization they ruled against the value. This line of thinking everybody should be able to go before the BOC and get their money back for their 2008 taxes or is this something for certain people in the county.

#4.5.1 Anonymous on 02/04/10 at 03:39 PM

Word is Mr. Rounds did file an appeal through attorney Jack Park, who did not go through the appeal because at the time Jeannie Haddock told Park to not send anymore appeals to her because there were enough to stop the aborted valuation that had just been done by an outside source via computer. Park related that. Then Jack Park went to the hospital and the paper work was unavailable. His father did not sit on the Board of Equalzation for this hearing and has yet to. Check the records. The previous Board of Assessors did not provide oversight of the assessor office therefore there have been irregularities identifed such as CUVA and valuation irregularites in addition to qualification attendence. It would behove anyone making statements in any case to talk to both sides before taking sides. Sometimes the truth hurts. But you can bet Jeannie Haddock will put spin on this as long as she is in the office and taxpayers will be ever viglant.

#4.5.1.1 Anonymous on 02/04/10 at 04:32 PM

You are going by hear say, I'm going by the facts. Any decision made about CUVA or other related issues is approved by the board of assessors, the board gets the final say in everything. They are the ones that approved the values for the hangers in 2008, not Jeannie. If you have any proof that shows that Jeannie made all this decision by herself, it would be nice of you to share them with us. But I think you might want to do an open records requecst on the last couple of years of mintues from the board of assessors and you will see who makes the decision. Round's father might not had sat on the board for that decision but he did have a man on that board that knew about the situation before it came to the board. Mr. Rounds is just upset at the board of assessors, because when he breached his cuva for giving the land to Nathan the board made him pay FMV on his land for the year 2006 and check the mintues from that meeting and you will see that the board made that decision, not Jeannie.

#5 Pike property owner on 02/04/10 at 09:03 PM

Annie Mae Gwyn,

Annie, I saw you at the Rounds hearing and spoke to you - do you remember me? I'm the guy you folks yelled at a few years ago at a BOE hearing. i hate to see you get high and mighty because I know how you really are.

Fortunately, you all will eventually be replaced.

I'll never forget the way you treated me.

#6 nathan rounds on 02/05/10 at 08:55 AM

Okay Everyone,I am tired of the phone calls.
Here are the facts: Yes my Property went up 300% in one year.Yes, I did build a new house. My house was assessed at $113.00 per sq. foot. Yes, Steve Fry's house built the same year and is at least 1300 sq ft larger than mine and the same type of construction, but his house assessed at $70.00 per sq ft. Doug Mangham daughters house, larger than mine, same type of construction, same lot size, assessed at less than $70.00 per sq ft. Her property (land ) and house together was at $148,000. Just my house was $194,000.These are just comps of people that you have heard in the news. We found at least thirty others that we presented to the BOE but they didn't really look at them. Yes, the statement about Jack Park and my appeal are correct.
Yes,I tried to work this out on my own with the Tax
Assessors office with no results.
Yes, I filed a return and got a four percent decline in assessment value. Yes, I appealed and there was no change in value. Yes, it was appealed to the BOE.Yes, Jeannie Haddock did try to get in touch with me but only after the case was to go to the BOE. (You ought to hear the recordings and voice mails she left me) . Yes, she lowered the assessed value with my lawyer one week before the hearing with BOE by $67,000. No, I did not accept the change because I hired scott Mayfield to represent me through the normal protocol of the appeals process and not work an under the table deal with the chief assessor. Yes, I chose to go to the BOE because this was the normal protocol of the appeals process.Yes, if Jeannie had not changed the Property value $67,000 under the table a week before the BOE hearing, the meeting would have been a lot longer and a lot more embarrassing for her publically when we would have forced the issues of the comps.Yes,Jeannie made the changes ($67,000) to my property without ever seeing it. Yes, I hired a lawyer to make sure it was done in the proper and legal way. Yes, I hired him to keep from getting railroaded. I had already been shut down by the Tax assessors office. Yes, I would have gone all the way to Superior
court with it if I had too. Yes, the BOE lowered my accessory building value,plus adopted the offer that Jeannie made under the table to my lawyer. If Mrs. Gwyn was paying attention she would have noticed this.I guess I wasted my time doing all the research because certain people paid no attention to it. Yes, I did 95% of the research that my lawyer presented to the Board. Yes, he mentioned that too them. Yes, I saved a lot of money for the county because of the research that I did. Yes, a large part of the legal fees incurred were from Jeannie calling my lawyer and inviting him to the Tax Assessors office to solve the problem before it went to the BOE.Yes,my accessory building was $62,500 new and then changed to $108,000 a year later with no improvements done to it. Yes, John Peavy inspected my property six times in nine months. Yes, I asked the sheriffs office to arrest him for tresspassing after he was caught inside my structures with out my permission and me not being there. Yes, this is just one example of how Jeannie and John treated me in this process. Yes,it was the Tax Assessors office that created this situation not the tax payer. Now you can see why it took hiring a lawyer to defend my right for a fair tax assessment. I am just glad I was in a position to hire one. If not I would be paying almost a $1000.00 year more than most of the comps that I found. Yes, I hope all taxpayers and land owners use the Pike County Tax assessors website to make sure they are uniform with other comps to their properties.And Yes Jeannie found no problem with my property until she was to be put on the spot with the BOE. Yes, there would be no such thing as the BOE if the tax asessors followed the guidelines and laws of the State of Georgia. Yes, I would like to thank Mrs.Gwyn and her fellow members Of the BOE for their service to this county. Yes, I hope because of this case that the Tax assessors treat all taxpayers equally and the load of appeals will be decreased significantly. And yes I want to thank Mrs. Anonymous for telling me who my father is...You are my hero!!!!

#7 nathan rounds on 02/05/10 at 03:35 PM

I apologize for leaving the Commissioners out of my thank you process. I want to thank the BOC for their time and ruling in the tax payers favor.

#8 Payback time Marro on 02/10/10 at 12:03 PM

So the commissioners make a refund and rightfully so. Sorry Junior Commissioner Collins, you do not understand! Now the commissioners should make Marro refund the county the $30,000.00 cash he found in a county office in a brown papersack. Not finders keepers!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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