Questions raised about Knox County Property Assessor Office raises

Outgoing Knox County Property Assessor Phil Ballard recently handed out a combined $25,430 in raises to three employees and now his soon-to-be successor has some questions about the move.

“I just wonder why – was it to hurt me? You know, it actually hurts the taxpayers, not me because I will review all the salaries when I go in,” said John Whitehead, who will take over the office on Sept. 1.

The raises were signed off by Jim Weaver, according to the paperwork.

Weaver – who is Ballard’s chief deputy – ran against Whitehead in the March Republican Primary and lost by only 73 votes.

Two of the employees who worked on Weaver’s campaign – Perry Sanders and Rodney Lane – received pay increases. However, Ballard said he gave Weaver permission to give the raises and that it was not political payback.

He said the employees deserved them because they’ve taken on more duties.

The money, Ballard said, will come from salary savings.

Director of Assessments Dean Lewis, who earned almost $90,000 annually, retired last year and Ballard never filled his position.

"This is straight forward,” Ballard added. “The guy that did it, 40-something years of experience, he left. We took the money out of that position, it's within this year's budget. Really, no budget was lost, it was just re-divided."

Candidate: Property Assessor's Office under IRS criminal investigation

A two-time candidate for the Knox County property assessor’s position said the office is under federal investigation.

During a taping of Sunday political talk show "Inside Tennessee," candidate Andrew Graybeal told the panel that he’s met with current and former employees who informed him that they’ve met with an agent from the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division as recently as “two weeks ago.”

The office determines the value of all local and commercial property in Knox County.

“What I am hearing from the employees is . . . assessments, issues and campaign contributions will get you a lower assessment – that’s what has been said to me by employees, former and current,” said Graybeal, who also ran for the job in 2008.

Graybeal is one of three Republicans seeking the position in the March 1 primary. The winner will take over the office, since no Democrat qualified.

Phil Ballard, the current property assessor, is term-limited.

After the taping, WBIR 10News reached out to Ballard’s attorney, Don Bosch, regarding the accusations.

“We have been aware of the rumors and allegations for many years now and we look forward to the day that these rumors and allegations end,” Bosch said.

Jim Weaver, the current chief deputy in the office, also is seeking the position.

He said “those are rumors we’ve heard for six years,” but he said he had never met with investigators.

“I have no knowledge of this,” he said. “These are pretty serious accusations. I have not been talked to, I don’t know anyone who has been talked to."

John Whitehead, who served as property assessor from 2000-08 and also is seeking the job, said he has not talked to investigators nor was he aware of a possible federal probe.

The Property Assessor’s Office, which has 45 employees, is responsible for appraising residential and commercial property in Knox County.

Tune in to WBIR 10News at 9:30 a.m. Sunday for more on the election.

More on property assessments, appeals

Apparently property appeals are down and local tax rates are expected to drop. If you didn't see it, we ran a story Saturday, right smack here.

A few things of note.

This year roughly 7,500 protests were filed either online, over the telephone or in person during a two-week informal appeals phase that wrapped up earlier this month. The changes equated to a $30 million cut in assessments, which amount to about a $708,000 reduction in county tax dollars that the Trustee’s Office would be on the hook for collecting if not for the change.

Some folks wondered why the office could be off by so much.

Well, here's the deal, I suppose.

The state every four years requires the assessor's office to estimate a value for each of the 193,437 real parcels in Knox County. To figure out the amount, officials use a “mass appraisal” system, a method uses a plethora of data, including some of it tied to the physical characteristic of the land, nearby home sales and vacancy rates that look at multiple parcels, sometimes up to more than a 1,000 pieces of land at one time.

The process changes, though, once a property owner files an appeal. Then, appraisers work one-on-one with the person.

So, it's a lot easier when you're dealing with one piece of property and not 1,000 pieces.

On a side note, officials said that those who filed appeals online used stronger documentation and presented a better case. Appraisers then had a chance to go back and look at the information, look at the sales and look at the entire area.

In a few cases, though, officials said they did find instances where the square footage was off completely. That happened at a condo complex. So, mess up once and the entire place needed to be corrected.

Also, I've heard a number of complaints from residents, talking about how their neighbor's property was assessed at a different rate, yet they have the same size houses.

Well, that's on paper.

Jim Weaver, the second-in-command over at the assessor's office, said that owners pretty much need to focus on the property they own – and not what their neighbor has. For example, he said a 2,000-square foot single-level house is worth more than a 2,000-square foot home broken into a 1,500-square foot main level and a 500-square foot basement.

Couple other things.

Property Assessor Phil Ballard said that there's also been a lot of new growth. He said that a third of it that's taken place in the five years that he's held the post actually occurred last year. He noted the development of Costco on Lovell Road, and Publix stores in Turkey Creek and Northshore Town Center as prime examples.

“You can look around and there's construction on every corner,” he said. “There's a lot of promise going on right now.”

When asked what upset residents the most during the appeals process, Weaver said he was surprised.

“You know the one complaint I heard this time around that I head never head before was from people who were concerned that their values went down,” Weaver said. “I personally took 10 to 15 calls and they would say that 'this is my life savings,' and then the value goes down. We don't make up the values. We just capture what the market is telling us.”