Knox Board of Equalization meeting

Knox County property owners who don’t think their land is worth its current assessed value, can appeal to the local Board of Equalization, which meets each June.

Those wishing to challenge the value can schedule a meeting by calling 865-215-2006.

Last year some 808 folks appealed.

"We think all the training that we'd provided the appraisers now and the technology have allowed us to be more fair,” said Knox County Property Assessor Phil Ballard. There has been a leveling off and the real estate market and everything."

The Board of Equalization usually sees a spike in appeals every four years when the county does property appraisals.

The next round of re-appraisals takes place in 2017.

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."

Property assessor candidate claims degree from UT but school says no

Graybeal

Knox County property assessor candidate Andrew Graybeal says he earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Tennessee, but the college has no record that he ever took a class there.

In addition, UT officials say the university does not accept transferred credits from a technical college Graybeal says he attended.

“We searched for Andrew Graybeal . . . and could find nothing,” Amy Blakely, a spokesperson for the University of Tennessee, told 10News Thursday morning. “We’re happy to keep checking but we’ve checked everything we could think of at this point.”

Blakely said two people in her office performed a number of searches for various spellings for Graybeal’s name.

When asked bluntly by a WBIR reporter whether he earned a degree in engineering from UT, he said: “I graduated from ITT University with a degree in engineering and those credits were transferred over to UT.”

He said this occurred in 1993. He said he was at UT for two years but couldn’t recall what classes he took.

Rest of story RIGHT HERE.

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.

Another Knox Co. worker sues PBA

I'm seriously surprised that there haven't been more of these. Heh.

Another Knox County worker in the Old Courthouse downtown has sued the Public Building Authority, alleging mold in the building is causing health problems.

Deborah Scribner, an appraiser who works for the Property Assessor's Office, seeks in Knox County Circuit Court a to-be-determined amount of money, wants PBA to be required to fix a potential mold problem or move her to another county-owned building, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Court records state Scribner has worked in the Old Courthouse for two years and "at some point . . . began to experience unexplained breathing problems, fatigue and severe headaches."

Scribner has worked in the building's basement, according to the lawsuit.

Her lawsuit is similar to one filed in February by Knox County Clerk Foster Arnett Jr. The two are using the same attorney, Darren Berg, to represent them.

LAWSUIT: County employees allege mold problem in Old Courthouse

Leuthold back to property assessor

Leuthold

Craig Leuthold got his old job back today and will be working once again as the public information officer in the Knox County Property Assessor’s Office, a job he left last July when he took over as interim Trustee.

Leuthold, a former county commissioner, began working in the trustee’s office in January 1995 before taking the information officer gig in early 2011. The commission appointed him to serve as Trustee, but he lost to Ed Shouse in the May Republican primary.

As trustee, he made more than $110,000. He’ll make about $55,000 in the property assessor’s office. His first day on the job is today, according to county records.

Leuthold said part of his job also requires meeting with businesses to talk about personal property (machinery, vehicles, equipment, etc.), which also is taxes.

Well, that’s about it. I don’t think this was really a surprise, but it’s worth noting.

I guess the next question is whether he'll run in two year's for property assessor's spot. Tune in.

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.”

Property appeals can start Wednesday

Phil Ballard

The Knox County Property Assessor' Office at 8 a.m. tomorrow is expected to post online the results from the latest reappraisal.

In addition, the department will begin looking into informal appeals, which property owners can also begin filing in the morning.

County Property Assessor Phil Ballard said the new values will be available on his department's website, right smack here.

He said those who question the values can appeal online or call (865) 215-2006. He said folks also can appeal in person at offices in either New Harvest Park, downtown or the Cedar Bluff library. More instructions will be on the printed notices, which will go out within a day or two.

The informal appeals process runs through May 3. The county's Board of Equalization will then hear appeals throughout June.

State law requires the assessor’s office to estimate a value for each of the 193,437 real parcels in Knox County.

Property is then taxed on the basis of its assessed value, which — for residential property — is equal to 25 percent of the appraised value. In Knox County, the current property tax rate is $2.36 per $100 of assessed value.

However, the reappraisal, which takes place very four years, must be revenue-neutral.

Ballard said overall values for all assessed property, including residential, commercial and agricultural – not counting new construction – rose 2.86 percent. That means, the Knox County Commission will more than likely roll back the value to $2.29, or it must conduct public hearings before adopting a higher tax rate.

Four years ago, reappraisal sparked an outcry from property owners after residential appraisals rose by an average of 15.8 percent from 2005 to 2009. Many felt the appraisals were too high given the ongoing national recession, which was driven, in part by falling property values.

Five gone from property assessor's office

OK, by now you've probably heard that Knox County Property Assessor Phil Ballard has begun cleaning house. So to speak.

As of this entry, he's canned five people. On paper, however, three have been laid off, one resigned and one retired.

I'm not going to print their names. Think if would be kind of mean, actually, which is kind of funny, since I call the City County Building the “Deathstar,” and a lot of mean people work there, as well as some nice people, and at this point I'm rambling.

Anyhoo, here's the deal on them. (All were appraisers by the way.)

• Male, hired 12-1-89, earned $43,500. Laid off.
• Female, hired 1-8-2003, earned $29,300. Laid off.
• Male, hired 11-2-09, earned $28,300. Laid off.
• Male, hired 12-17-84, earned $27,700. Retired.
• Female, hired 7-1-94, earned $35,300. Resigned.
  

Ballard essentially said he let them go because they resisted working with the new office stuff.

I'm sure there are quite a few people who aren't buying that.

And, then somewhere in the middle . . . .

Election write-in choices crack me up

So, special shout out goes to my lone reader who voted for me in the election. Heh.

Yup, got me a write-in vote for the criminal court judge, Division I job. Yeah, that’s right, unchallenged incumbent Steve Sword better watch out. I’m gaining. So, too is Aragorn King of Gondor. He got a vote, too.

Anyhoo, I pulled the list that the good folks down at the Knox County Election Commission keep of the names folks wrote in during last night’s elections.

Some funny stuff.

And you can click right smack here for all 35 pages of it. (Yeah, you’re welcome.)

In the meantime, here are some that immediately stood out to me. Note, that some repeat throughout each race (I assume the same person was filling them in), and that I’m spelling them exactly as they appear.

A sampling:

Presidential Candidates: I Pee Freely, Mickey Mouse, Roseanne Barr, Cobra Comander (one of my favorites even though it was spelled wrong – funny stuff); Al Green, Al Sharpton, Donald Trump, Eddie Murphy, Homer Simpson, Jerry Sandusky, Ron Regan, Snoopy, Someone Honest, Stephen Colbert (six votes); and Willie Nelson.

Criminal Court Judge, Division I: Any One, Anybody But, Anybody Buthim, Aragorn King of Gondor, Barack Obama, Ben Dover, Bill Clinton, Bob, Brian Moneyhun, Bruce Pearl, Chuck Norris, Dennis Francis, Emmit Smith, End Corruption in Knox Co, Greg Issacs, Mike Donila (now that’s what I’m freakin’ talking about!); Pam Strickland (that will drive some people crazy); Scott Moore (heh); Vermin Supreme; What The F—K (KNS Editor Tom Chester ironically would kill me if I actually spelled out the word on this family blog); and Yellow Dog.

Property Assessor: Any Honest Man, Anyone Else, Ben Dover (popular choice), Both Are Crooks, Donald Duck, Goofy, Jerry Sundusky, Lump Lambert, Mackay, Mick Mouse, Mickey Mouse, NA, Neither, No one, None, None of the Above, Noneoftheabove, Poop (hahahahahahaha); and Spongebob.

County Law Director: Any Honest Man, Bill Locket (whaaaat???); BobBowman (there ya go); Bubguarder (heh); H H Hill, Incumbents Leave, Open Air, Ted Nugent (I’d vote for him); and Vincent T Bugliosi.

Campaign finances for Knox contests

Man, you'd think with the kind of coin Phil Ballard and John Whitehead are spending on advertising, that they were running for county mayor or something.

Not property assessor.

Anyhoo, candidates were required to turn in their first quarter financial documents today, so that means . . . Nothing.

Yeah, really, no one cares about this stuff.

But, I figured I'd bore you with it anyway. I've got the property assessor race and the county law director race (anyone else find it silly that we have to elect a law director?).

If you want information about the school board races, we got a school reporter for that. Or you can click right smack here and look up the candidates on your own.

The elections are March 6. I think.

Soooo, a quick glance at Ballard, the property assessing incumbent, shows that between Jan. 16 and Feb. 24 he raised almost $16,000. He also spent close to $62,000 and has $6,800 in folding paper left over. Ballard also has almost $6,000 in outstanding loans. Click here for the details.

Whitehead, his opponent, raised $25,750 during the same period and spent $38,000. He has almost $15,000 on hand going into the final week. Whitehead has no outstanding loans listed. Click here for the details.

Over in the law director's race, incumbent Joe Jarret raised $21,400 from mid-January to the middle of this month. He also spent $23,100 and has $8,100 left. In addition, Jarret has $1,500 in loans outstanding. Click here for the details.

His opponent, Richard “Bud” Armstrong, raised almost $9,100 during the same period and spent almost $23,000. Armstrong has $3,200 on hand. Click here for the details.

As always, I don't support any of the candidates. Write in my name, blah, blah. Have a good one.

Ramblings on county election coverage

Ah election time. Hate this stuff. When all the phonies come out. Things get dirtier than usual. The chickens come out, too. And that's when you'll REALLY find them. Yapping and lying on local message boards, blogs and our own lovely KNS commenter sections. (Check out all the newbies who start up accounts. Or should I say . . . . Nah. Whatever.)

Anyhoo, I suppose I should address a few things about a couple of the Knox County races before some knucklehead accuses me of favoring one candidate over the other. It will happen. Trust me. During elections, people turn into these weird creatures called voters. And voters are stupid creatures.

I'm covering two races: the property assessor's contest and the one for law director. I wrote a story today about the assessor's race – you can click right smack here for it – and tomorrow I'll have a story about the law director's race. (No link up yet. Because the story isn't online yet. Duh.) Our schools reporter will have a story on Wednesday about the board of education races.

In between, I've been running around, checking out all sorts of rumors. None so far have really amounted to much. I'm sure there will be more soon.

With that said, I can't write about everything. I wish I could, but we've only go so much space in the newspaper and apparently people also like to read about UT. Cause, you know, they're football program is doing so well. Heh. Whatever.

But, without fail, someone is going to say: What about this? Or what about that? Or, you got duped again KNS because you didn't bother to check this out. Or, you're scared of the candidate. Or, just something stupid like all of the above.

(I get it, people. We're not going to make you happy unless we completely praise your candidate and bash his/her opponent.)

Soooooo, I'll throw up (or puke) some of the things here that didn't make the paper. Or, I'll link to some other blog posts around the community that I find interesting or make me laugh. Or maybe I won't. Depends on the mood and time, I suppose.

And as far as that stuff goes about hating elections? I lied.

As always, if you vote early or vote on election day, write-in my name.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. The election is March 6.

Charter review committee picks, thoughts

OK, so the Knox County Charter Review Committee, which will look into possibly amending the county’s governing documents, met for the first time tonight. I’ll have a story about it in tomorrow’s paper.

Here’s some quick thoughts.

As you may (or may not or don’t care to) know, the committee is comprised of nine commissioners (only Chairman Mike Hammond and Jeff Ownby aren’t on it), and nine of their appointees and nine picks from county Mayor Tim “Sasquatch” Burchett.

Soooo, the members had to select a chairman tonight. They chose former commissioner, former Trustee’s Office worker and current Property Assessor’s Office worker Craig Leuthold.

Here’s what happened:

Commissioner Amy Broyles nominated fellow Commissioner Sam KmcKenzie. Commissioner, Colonel, Doctor Richard Briggs – who actually appointed Leuthold to the committee – nominated Arghhh Larry Smith. Commissioner Mike Brown nominated Leuthold.

In the first round of voting, Sam and RRRRRRR Larry each nabbed six votes and Craig got nine. In the do-over, Sam got five, R. Larry got one and Craig got 15.

There were some top county leaders who were secretly hoping Sam would get the nod.

Just saying.

The committee ended up picking Ann Acuff as vice chair. Acuff recently retired from the county after serving mucho decades as the county’s deputy financial minister(ess).

Sam was selected as the committee’s secretary. Whatever that is.

Couple of other things. Commissioners initially thought they would have to sign off on any recommendations that the committee made. In other words, to get it to the ballot where the people get to make a decision, the commission would have to approve that.

Nope.

Apparently, the charter – that document that could get amended – says it goes to the election commission. So, that eliminates a layer of BS.

You know, provided it doesn’t get too political on that committee.

And it will. I feel sorry for some of the newcomers. They have no clue. Heh.

Now, in the meantime, a few folks have commented on the so-called oddity of some of the mayor’s picks. You see, a few of the people he selected don’t always see eye-to-eye with him. Don’t kid yourself. He’s got the support he needs.

One week left to qualify for county office

Folks now have one week to qualify for the county offices up for re-election in the March 6 primary. I know: joy, joy.

The obvious, so far, is incumbent Law Director Joe Jarret facing off against former county Commissioner Bud Armstrong (both have already returned their petitions); and incumbent Property Assessor Phil Ballard against former assessor John Whitehead. (Both have announced but neither has turned in a petition yet.)

Steven Sword is seeking re-election for criminal court judge, division I.

The other four county races are for school board seats. Only incumbent Karen Carson has returned her petition, but others have picked up one, so we could have a few contested races.

Here's the breakdown so far:

• 2nd District: incumbent Indya Kincannon
• 3rd District: Elaine Davis and Bobby Edington
• 5th District: Karen Carson, Brian Bruce
• 8th District: Mike McMillian and Conley Underwood.

Property assessor finances released

On Friday, the good folks at the elections office sent me the campaign financial disclosure statements for Property Assessor Phil Ballard and his opponent, former assessor John Whitehead.

So far, they're the only two to announce their intentions to run for the office. The primary will be next March.

Personally, I don't see anyone else jumping in that has a spoiler's chance, but you never know. I hate calling elections early, but the word - at this point - is that it's Ballard's race to lose.

But, I will tell you, this is going to be a dirty, mud-slinging race. These two do not like each other, and already I've been given a bunch of information about each of them that doesn't paint pretty pictures.

I've checked out some of the rumors and haven't found anything. I still have a list of things to go though. I'm not sure when I'll write an actually story on the race - remember, we've got some time - so, I'll probably throw everything that does pan out into one big story.

Then again, maybe they'll be nothing. Maybe this will be a clean race. I somehow doubt it, though. That's no disrespect to either men. But, again, they are not exactly pals.

In the meantime, the two released their latest finance reports. (I think I already said that, but whatever.)

Ballard has almost $54,300 cash on hand. You can check out his most recent report by clicking right smack here.
Whitehead has a little more than $24, 400 cash on hand. You can check out his most recent report by clicking right smack here.