Well, good morning. Uh, welcome to this specially called TAD board meeting. Uh, I'd like to start us off an agenda here that tells me what to do next, but we do uh prayer and pledges. I'm gonna ask uh Mike to lead us in the prayer and then I'll ask Alan Block to
lead us in pledges. You all rise. >> As always, please. Please. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation indivisible
indivisible. Lots of people want to pledge to that Texas flag and and I get it. I understand why. Uh, next thing is roll call. >> Mr. Barnes, >> present. >> Callie Riggnney. Mike Alfred >> here.
>> Alan Bllelock. Eric Morris. Gloria Pena. Fred Campos. Wendy Burgess. Matt Bryant. We have a quorum. Uh, thanks for being here this morning. Uh, next thing on the agenda is public comments. We have one person.
>> Well, that is loud. Oh, okay. Um, Chandler Crouch, >> you're the one and only >> for later. You're the only one during public comment. >> Left my phone in the car. So, is the um
timer are going to come up here. There we go. Okay. Well, this is uh interesting to be meeting on this date. Uh I uh put out a video at like 11:30 last night. I tagged most of you guys in. I apologize. I didn't have your um
Facebook, but um it basically is just me giving my two cents on what's going on here today. Uh I had more to say than what three minutes would allow. And so, um I'll have more to say on that. Before I get into that, I just want to say Mr. Bllelock and Mr. Alfred, thank you for
your service on this board. It's uh unpaid and uh thankless position. Oftentimes you receive criticism from me and everybody else out there and I just appreciate your service and if we have more people willing to serve, whether we agree on everything or not, which I do happen to agree with you guys on a lot
of things, um but whether we agree or not, um I just appreciate your service. I think if we have more people doing what you're doing, we'd be better off. Um, yeah. I just think that, uh, just want to say this. I really, really, really don't like
walking in the room and knowing how some people are going to vote, no matter having a high degree of confidence knowing how some people will vote, no matter what information is presented in public comments or during the discussion on the board. That makes me sick. I hate
it. I hate it. I don't care if it's an issue that we agree with. if you would be voting the way I would be voting. Um, but I know that that dynamic exists. I just feel like it goes against the fabric of what a board is supposed to be about. Like the decision about what's going to happen in this room is being
made somewhere else. It it just makes me sick. So, just want to say that. And maybe I'm wrong sometimes. So, I don't make that accusation often times, but um it feels like that and I don't I don't like it. Today feels like one of those times where it's like something's going on here. It's a little bit weird. we're
showing up today for some reason. Don't really know why. I can speculate. Maybe it's a good reason. I know that Mr. Blleock, it's a respectable thing that you resigned to give up your seat so that somebody else is going to focus full time on this job. You can focus on your next job. I appreciate your service
uh at the uh Texas House. And so, I think this is a good thing and I understand um there could be multiple reasons why we're meeting today of all days. I just want to say there's one big glaring issue with meeting today in my book. It's that you guys are going to
make a decision that another board is going to have to live with. And I cannot put my finger on a reason why that decision has to happen today. I can put my finger on a couple reasons why some people might prefer for it to happen
today. Um but there is no reason why it has to happen today. And out of the six candidates, I can think of four that would have a justifiable reason or or could be justified as as getting your vote um because they've been in this room a number of times and they have
served or they've been actively involved. So, I just wish you well and uh pray for wisdom in your decision. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um so, the only agenda item, we have one agenda item today, but it shows on the on your agenda that we're going to recess to executive close session. Uh we are not. uh we're going
to do everything out here. Um and so we will not be going uh into close session. I want to share a couple of thoughts as to why we are here um and why we are here today uh because it wasn't just randomly thought up um
as it relates to the Texas property tax code. So if any of you would like to have your own copy of this book, uh we can make them. I'm not going to buy it for you because they're expensive, but you can certainly get your own copy. uh in what I do as a tax assessor collector. This is kind of our Bible
tells us everything that we do and and this board it literally literally to the word tells us everything that we do. So whenever folks are questioning decisions that are being made by this board and why and how, go read your go read your own document. It tells us exactly what
to do. But I'll share with you here section 6.0301 board of directors and populous counties. Uh this this section applies only to appraisal districts established in a county with population of 75,000 or more. Uh you would think in the state of
Texas there's a lot of those and there just simply isn't. There's a lot of counties. There's 254 of those. There's only so many that are what's considered populous counties. Section C or C of 6301 says this. The appraisal district is governed by a board of nine directors. Five directors
are appointed by the taxing units that participate in the district in the manner prescribed by section 603. Three directors are elected by majority vote of the general election for state and county officers by the voters of the county in which the district is established. The county assessor
collector serves as an exopicio director. And before you start trying to read Robert's rules to define that, exficial simply means I'm here by other title. It doesn't have anything to do with votes. Uh I have full voting power on this board. Uh F of that paragraph says if a vacancy
occurs in an appointed position on the board of directors, each taxing unit that is entitled to vote under section 603 may nominate by resolution adopted by its governing body a candidate to fill the vacancy. The taxing unit shall submit the name of its nominee to the
chief appraisal within 45 days after notification from the board of directors of the existence of the vacancy and the chief appraiser shall prepare and deliver to the board of directors within the next five days a list of the nominees. The board of directors shall appoint by majority vote of its members
one of the nominees to fill the vacancy. Regarding today's meeting, on November the 10th, I received a letter from board member Alan Bllelock announcing his resignation from the TAD board. He continues to serve until he is replaced and that is what we are here to do
today. So for those that are questioning his ability to continue to serve, you now need to go read the Texas state constitution. This is a state organization, not a county organization. And the state appointments, they serve until replaced. And so uh Mr. Bllock
continues to serve until we make a decision later today about who his replacement may be. The term for Mr. Mr. Bllelock expires on December the 31st, 2027. Today's appointment is to fulfill that vacancy. So that person will serve through December 31st of 2027.
This started the process outlined in the tax code regarding a vacancy on the board. That same day, November the 10th, the chief appraiser notified the taxing units of the resignation regarding the deadlines outlined in the tax code for this process. nominating resolutions to
fulfill this vacancy were due within 45 days. That deadline fell on Christmas Day. This leads us back to the tax code, section 106, which states, and I quote, "If the last day for the performance of an act is a Saturday, Sunday, or a legal, state, or national holiday, the
act is timely if performed on the next regular business day." Therefore, nominations nomination letters were accepted until December the 26th at 11:59 p.m. Out of a possible 90ish taxing units, we received nominations
from only 13 of all of our taxing units across the county. Those are the city of Arlington, city of Berles, city of Collieville, city of Fort Worth, city of Halum City, city of Keller, city of North Richmond Hills, city of South Lake, city of Waga, Carol ISD, Eagle
Mountain, Sageno ISD, Grapevine Collville ISD, and Mansville ISD. Regarding el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el eligibility. I refer back to the tax code section 60301 where it reads and I quote to be eligible to serve on this board of directors. An individual other than the county tax
assessor collector must be a resident of the district and must and before you ask where does the tax assessor have to live. You have to now go read a whole other section of the code that tells you about tax assessor collectors. must be a resident of the district and must have been have resided in the
district for at least two years immediately preceding the date the individual takes office. An individual who is otherwise eligible to serve on the board is not ineligible because of membership on the governing body of a taxing unit. An employee of a taxing unit that participates in the district
is not eligible to serve on the board unless the individual is also a member of the governing body of an elected or an elected official of a taxing unit that part that participates in the district. Those nominations today for uh for today's appointment include
included Mike Alfred, Becky Renfro, Barbola, George Dodson, Kzia Farrar, and I mess that up every single time. Saya Sed, and Clayton Walters Walters. As a point of information, Mike Alfred
has removed his name from from this uh nomination list effective last night. The bio or resume for each of these has been shared with all members of the board. I announced this meeting casually to all current members of this board at
our December the 1st meeting. So people have known about today's meeting for 29 days now. I was notified at that time by board member Pena that she would be unable to attend today's meeting due to a to schedule travel and we appreciate the that I have received no other no
other notifications. any other board member who isn't here today. The question about meeting today is an interesting question to me. My office was open for business yesterday. My office is open for business today. My office is open for business tomorrow. The only day that we're closed is on
January the 1st for New Year's Day. As I drove in today's parking lot, I noticed that there was about as many cars here today as there are at any time in this building. In other words, this building is open to serve the taxpayers of Taran County for business today. Unfortunately, there's some board members that don't think that's
important enough to be here. And so, the reality is this was called as expected, called as announced, and called as notified as far back as our last meeting. This meeting was officially called pursuant to legal requirements and standard TAD protocols on December
the 10th. I do want to thank the board members that are here uh that chose time to be here that chose time to fulfill their obligation. As was stated to me by one of the board members sitting up here today said of course I will be there. I committed to that when I committed to
serving the taxpayers through membership on this board of directors. I appreciate that sentiment and thank each of you for taking time to be with us today. Some of you I also know actually rearranged family travel time to be here and so we appreciate your service to
this board. At this time we have nominations in front of us. Uh I want to confirm that everybody received the bios that were sent out. uh you've had ample time to review those and that we are now in the position of um making a an appointment
to fulfill the position from that Mr. Bllock is departing um to go out into what he might think is greener pastures. Uh is there anything from anybody on the board?
Chairman, uh, out of an abundance of caution, I will be abstaining from the vote on my replacement. Okay, we do have speakers. Oh, yes, we do have speakers. First person to speak is
Ethan. Is it close? Close. >> Thank you, chairman of the board. My name is Ethan Close. I represent the city of Arlington as their treasurer. I have dealt with TAD for 16 years that I've been with the city. Um, as you
stated, we were the first to nominate someone. As we look at the candidates that are in front of you, we would strongly encourage while we're only able to nominate one for this position, we would strongly encourage you to look at
the people that have been an active participant of TAD and have what we feel is the experience to be in the position on this board. We did not know that Mr. Alford had decided not to do this. We think that he has been a great member of
this board doing a terrific job going through the legal aspects of of board. We appreciate um and as I said we have nominated say who has been very active. All of you are well aware of the
contributions that she makes. Uh Mr. Dodson would be an excellent candidate as well. Those are the three that we highly recommend in this position. Um and we agreed that you had uh called this particular [snorts] meeting for
this date. We just didn't feel that it was necessary to have a special meeting for this. There was no reason not to allow the new board members to participate in this process when you meet on January 14th. Uh but with that said, you're here, you're about to vote.
We would really like for you to consider those that have actively been participating within TAD. As you've now seen um from your times on this board, having an experience and knowledge of the property tax code and having
experience of this particular organization is a huge um leap of knowledge for everyone. And having someone that already has that base knowled would be a
large benefit to all of the entities, to all of the citizens, and to y'all as you make this decision. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, next speaks George Dodson. >> Good morning, everyone. I too want to
recognize Allan Bllelock and and Mike Michael Alfred for their service on the council. I really enjoyed working I work closely with Allen on on the IT uh subcommittee.
U I come this morning in a different position as usual as a candidate for appointment to the open board position. I've been coming here for for over six years is probably seven seven years by
now uh about the conditions of the very bad conditions of appraisal software and the need for better backups and overall uh IT operations. IT operations. Of course, uh some some of the some of the
public may not realize this, but uh it is everything uh about TAD. Uh you can't uh you can't get to first base or third base or any base if you don't have accurate information. And uh I've been
coming here uh mentioning that uh as I said for for almost seven years and the past chief appraiser never called me once. Uh I kept offering my my aid. U I
any anyway I think I thank each of you for allowing me to become an IT committee member. It's been great to see the progress that of IT improvements in the past two years at at TAD because everything TAD does is
dependent on IT operations. It's essential to dramatically change out uh the IT servers appraisal software uh the infrastructure and overall IT operations of IT. I
believe uh my IT consulting experience has been helpful uh together with my executive management experience and city county city council experience can be useful to the board. I hope you will
take that into consideration as you vote for candidates of your choice. Again, I thank you for allowing me to be part of the IT committee and I'm very open to continuing in that committee whether or not I'm on the board. But thank you again for your consideration and I appreciate very much.
>> Thank you. >> Uh Kzie Ferrar. >> Good morning members of the board. My name is Kzia Ferrar and I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this morning um as you consider my nomination to serve on the Tarant appraisal district board. Uh before I begin, I would like to acknowledge uh
both Mr. Blocklock and Mr. Alfred's service to this board. Your dedication and leadership have made meaningful impacts and you both leave behind very large shoes to fill. I also wanted to recognize the significant progress that this board has made over the last couple of years uh to improve the ter to to
improve Taran County through collaboration, transparency, and steady leadership. While the progress is commendable, I believe there's always room for continued improvement and I encourage the board to remain focused, forward thinking, and committed to progress as you continue strengthening the Tarant appraisal district for all
taxpayers across Taran County. So, a little bit about me. I'm a lifelong resident of Mansfield, a community that has not only shaped me personally, but also professionally. Because of that, I take very seriously the responsibility that ensuring that tax uh property appraisals are fair, accurate, and
transparent. I rec I recently completed four years of service on the Mansfield ISD school board where I served as vice president and most recently as president with my term concluding in May of 2025. That experience gave me a strong understanding of public governance, fiduciary responsibility and
accountability as well as firsthand insight into how critical decisions impact all of the communities that we serve. I'm also very aware that there are many proposed tax changes that are being discussed and this next legislative session promises to be a very important one. Tarant County is now
considered a forerunner in appraisal practices across the state and I know the work that this board does over the next few years will be vital. It's essential that this board continues to work collaboratively together along with our state legislators to ensure that Tarant County property taxpayers are
well represented. I'm honored to have been nominated by two school districts and two cities, and I view this as a reflection of the trust they have placed in my ability to govern fairly and responsibly. If appointed, I can assure you that I will serve with honesty, integrity, and respect for not only my fellow board members, but most
importantly for the taxpayers that we all serve. Thank you so much for your time and consideration this morning. >> Thank you. Uh we do not have any further speakers, so we'll move forward with the agenda. um to the board members present. So at
this point we'll u open the com open the the floor to nominations from the list of candidates other than the Mike who has removed his name from this list. >> I'd like to select Kzia Ferrar to fill Alan Block's vacancy. [snorts]
>> Kazia Ferrar has been nominated. Any further nominations? Hearing none, any discussion on that nomination? Seeing none, we'll move forward to a vote and Mr. Bllock is recusing himself from this vote. All in favor of Kzia for
our wait. Motion carried 100%. >> Motion carried unanimously. Uh, is there anything else to Congratulations Kzia? Is there any further uh anything else to come before
the body today? I got two more things before you get up and start heading to your car. I want to offer the opportunity. We allowed Allan to say a few words last time, but uh this will be his final meeting. So, uh, so first I want to thank everybody that
I've served with, uh, those here today and those that are not here, uh, for for being thoughtful, uh, board members and constructive in our discussions on everything we do. Uh, it's truly been a pleasure to serve with all. uh want to
talk a little bit about why I got on the TAT board in the first place and it's uh something that Mr. Dodson and Mr. Crouch uh both remarked on uh back before I got on the board in 2023 and 2022. Uh and
that was concerns about IT related issues. Those concerns are what drove me to serve on the TAD board. That's why uh I got here in the first place in January of 2024.
uh in that time uh we had uh a number of IT challenges you know existing challenges that culminated actually in a ransomware attack and [snorts] uh you know I led the IT committee and worked extensively
with staff who did a fantastic job on that activity recovering from that attack and we got the got the function of of the appraisal district going very very quickly uh much more quickly than our peers and other appraisal districts
across the state that have received similar attacks. Uh we've also gone through updating the IT infrastructure as Mr. Dodson noted and they uh kindly participated in the IT committee uh to to harden the network to strengthen it
to uh make it far more reliable and we've embarked upon this KMA conversion to instill greater trust and accuracy in the appraised values that this entity puts to the public and to our
constituency and our taxpayers in the city. uh that process has gone very well and uh we'll be Tad will be running on the new system this coming year and I I look forward to that. I I'm very proud
uh that we've come so far in this accomplishment. I'm very uh thankful for staff and the hard work and the efforts they've put in to to get us there. So, I feel like I accomplished the main goal I had in serving on TAP.
Now, we had some secondary goals uh related to customer service, related to ARB processes and other things. And again, I need to commend Jodon and staff and the ARB teams for uh
taking a much more thoughtful uh customer centric approach to to how they interact. It's it's been noted by the public and and I feel that that was an incredible accomplishment for the team and for the board. Uh we've uh been
fiscally responsible and will continue. I trust the board will continue to do so. Uh that said, I am thankful uh for the graciousness that everyone has shown with me in resigning and uh moving on
from this board. As everyone knows, I have other things uh that I'm working on in my life uh that make it not possible for me to continue to serve here. And and I understand [snorts] some of the considerations about timing. Uh it's
regrettable. Uh but uh for me, it is what it is. So in closing, I just like to say thank you again for everybody and thanks. >> Thank you. Thank you for your service and we wish you well in your next end endeavors. Mike,
>> thank you. There we go. Uh Allan, that was very well said. I kind of like to just say ditto to all the things about how we've worked so well together. I will say uh even for some of
the members that we have had disagreements with on certain issues um I've been very impressed how well we have all worked together. We collaborate very well. Um Rick, I want to commend your leadership. It's been outstanding
this year and it's been a pleasure to work with you uh on this board. Uh for me, I've got a very demanding practice. I'm at the peak of my career and uh we are so blessed at my firm that we've got
more work than body's able to do it. And with uh what I've got coming up this year, after thinking about it, praying over it, I just decided that I don't have enough time, enough bandwidth with a
boutique law firm that is me and one other partner. and uh court appearances where judges are not very accommodating to my schedule. And in fact, I going straight from here to the court to the courthouse right after this today. And
um it just makes it very difficult to meet the fiduciary needs that this board um you know requires of a board member to be here in me not knowing in a given day if I'm going to be hailed into court by a judge that is not very understanding about my responsibilities
to the tab board. So really enjoy getting to know and work with everybody here staff and fellow board members and you Jodon and Rick again I just want to commend you and your outstanding leadership. It's been uh wonderful to serve with you and every other board member this year. So, thank you.
>> Thank you. And congratulations to the success of your firm. This other side of me was thinking, man, when a law firm says we have more work than we have bodies, I never know if that's a good thing to say. [laughter] >> Um, but I think it was a good comment.
Um, I also want to thank uh thank these two for their service uh serving on a board. Nobody does these jobs for pay. Um the I'm not sure we've got more than a cup of coffee uh each meeting. So, thank you to everybody up here for
serving and even to and thank you to the ones that aren't present with us. We we've had a good year in 2025. Uh it's been busy. Uh there's constantly something it seems like with this board. This board's not supposed to not doesn't have to meet more than quarterly. Uh and
I would love to get to the day where we can meet quarterly. Uh we just always seem to have something going on. And I think in a county this size, we may never reach that point where we're so settled down that we can only meet every uh once a quarter. Uh but also thank you to the staff uh for the work that they
do. Uh not just the ones that are here present, but the walls behind us are full of people working hard uh on even today on December the 30th when apparently we're not supposed to do anything. Um and I appreciate the work that they all do uh on behalf of the
taxpayers of Tarant County. Um I look forward to 2026. I think we're going to see some new new opportunities moving forward and those aren't necessarily coming from us. There's a lot of stuff coming out of Austin that we're going to have to start getting ready for going as we start preparing for the new legisl legislative session. All you got to do
is listen to the governor talk and then listen to the lieutenant governor talk and when both ends of that building are talking about the same topic. I guarantee you that's going to be a big topic for us as we move forward into into the in preparation for the 27th for the next legislative session. So, thank you to everybody. Uh, thank you for
those of you that come publicly as well as not only those that are here, but those that watch us. Uh, I talked to somebody recently that says, "I watch every one of y'all's meetings." I'm like, "Who in the world would want to do that?" Uh, but there's people that do. And so, thank you for tuning in and paying attention to what we do. I think
the work that we do here is important for the taxpayers. Uh, and uh, we got a lot of those in this county that are extremely concerned about the taxes that they have to spend to to live in this state. And so, uh, we we continue to do great work. Um,
happy new year to everybody that not just sitting up here, but all of you, uh, 20 2026 is going to be a great year. With that, is there anything else from any other member of the board? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. >> Some moved.
>> It's been moved that we adjourn. I'm sure there's seconds. All in favor say I. All opposed. Motion carries.