I guess we're missing Callie. Right? But we can still help me. And and don't don't don't cry. Don't don't ask why. We have a quorum, don't we? That's all we need. Coffee's a little bit better than it usually is. Oh, you're fine. Yes. Someone's got our prayer right. Prayer we got. You're a blessing. Prayer. Okay. Alright. Good morning. We'll call this meeting to order. Welcome home from Thanksgiving. Welcome to winter. Welcome to Cali. The, let's go and get started. Roll call. Rick Barnes? Present. Callie Rigney? Here. Michael Alfred? Here. Allen Blaylock?
Eric Morris? Here. Gloria Pena? Here. Fred Campos? Here. Wendy Burgess? Here. Matt Bryant? Here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Eric Moore's gonna lead us in the invocation. If you please bow your heads with me. Heavenly father, we thank you for bringing us together today in service to our community. Grant us the wisdom to make sound and fair decisions, courage to do what is right, and humility to listen with open hearts. Guide us to lead with integrity, respect, and a spirit of cooperation, always mindful of the responsibility we hold on behalf of those we serve. As we make decisions today, Lord, give us the wisdom to be wise and prudent
leaders throughout this meeting. Please bless this meeting, our discussions, our actions today, and bless everyone in this room. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Matt Liege. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic for the Republic Thank you.
Alright. We have a short agenda today. We're just gonna open with public comments. First speaker is George Dodson. Good morning, board. And my speech will be very, very short. I just, appreciate the fact that, the board, had the investigation and, I'm I'm sure that you all will make the right decision. I appreciate, Joe Don's focus on, being open. He's been open with me on the IT and, that's a huge change from what
we had before. So, again, I appreciate what what you all do and thank you for what you do. Thank you. Daniel Bennett. Daniel Bennett, White Settlement. I totally agree with mister Dodson. You know, George and I have been at this a long time. Even mister Campos has been involved for a long time. It looks like we might get I'm hoping we'll get some procedures, some policies when conducting these, elections. I can go through every year when there's been a discrepancy.
Yesterday, I just threw together some notes. I gave it to the chief appraiser. They're not complete. They're rudimentary at best. It's just my thoughts in future appointment process, policy, and procedures. I really think there needs to be a committee, much like there was a committee for the director's manual, which took us five years to get it augmented. And it started before miss Pena. Let's try it with mister Deyat and mister Lasada. But it was going to happen under Michael Donner or Catherine Wildman. They even had a subcommittee. And the only thing they could come up with was taking public comments from five
minutes to three minutes. Then we have people come along, like miss Pena, that you looked at it and said, there's gotta be more than just this comptroller structure outline template. And there and there was, and you fixed it. Then we did it again. So it's growth. Right? Chandler and I witnessed so much in the past eight years. He's been actually taking the brunt of it. And I warned him what was gonna happen to him.
I said, when you step over that line, you'll know it. Well, today, we have an opportunity. Our opportunity rests with this board and our chief appraiser. And it was a cut and paste error. Almetum is a terrible system. This never worked. I had to hear from miss Burgess and mister Law how Almetto was wonderful. We didn't have air we had 20 n c 28 NCDs without an error. But when you got 20 people babysitting it, and you have 10 men 10 people on the Almetto team, you have 30 people in this building making sure that the tax roll was correct.
Well, they were doing their job. Now with this new system, I don't know how many people are gonna have babysitting the NCD, but I hope it's not 20. So I'm gonna pass this to, miss Woodell. Joe Don, I gave it to you in your email. You have this. I want this to go to the chair. It's just my thoughts. It's stuff that I've witnessed over the past eleven years. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Chandler Crouch. I'll wait till she gets back to start the timer. I won't give you bonus point bonus time here.
Playing fair. You're on. You're on. Oh, thank you for the opportunity to speak. And, I just wanna say once again that, today's meeting and the fact that there was an issue and it was dealt with head on is a very positive sign. I want to try to give a perspective that's gonna be a little bit different, and I think it's gonna be uncomfortable, especially for you guys sitting on this board. The time that we should be most concerned is if we are telling ourselves and
living as if there are no problems at all. That's what happened before I got involved. This board, the board that preceded you guys, guys, in this appraisal district operated as if there were no problems at all. The board showed up. They said, everything's running great. The chairman would, stamp, you know, they would, just go through the procedure and just vote on whatever the chief appraiser brought to them and everything was just hunky dory. And I showed up and started paying attention. And then we found out there's all sorts of problems going on.
This this software system, I mean, the staff can tell you now, you're gonna get some honest answers about how bad the software system is. We found out that the narrative coming out of the board was just, I I think that the board didn't know what was going on. I think that they didn't care to dive any deeper. They were just happy that they didn't have any problems to deal with. That's the most dangerous position to be in. Okay? This organization is being run well when there are problems and they're being dealt with. We have at the point that there are there's an absence of problems, that's the
biggest issue. I just wanna say that over and over again. It's gonna be the temptation of the board because you guys, several of you are elected and the others are appointed. You are being appointed based on what people think about the job that you're doing. And if they keep hearing that there's problems coming out of the appraisal district, on the surface, that's gonna feel bad and it's gonna look bad, but it's not. This is the type of problem that, yes, there are some things that were avoidable and should not have happened and I'm sure y'all are gonna deal with it, but the only reason we're dealing with it is because he was honest and you've dealt
with it going head into this thing. And y'all are y'all are dealing with this appropriately. I just wanna say that over and over again. Don't expect for there to be no problems. Expect to deal with the problems and deal with them appropriately just like we are today. And then deal with them with wisdom. Your prayer was beautiful. It was just so spot on. Humbly with wisdom and and and everything you said. This is what has to happen. We have to realize that where we came from before you guys sat here was a situation where the chief appraiser was not Bobbitt, the guy before him, was lying over and over again. And and in the midst of a letter of correction got caught in lies over
and over again, and it was just all swept on under the rug. This is entirely different. He needs to be praised for being honest even though there were mistakes, and just I just want the board to realize problems are not always bad. It's a sign of help. Thank you very much. Thank you. Alright. We have no further, public speakers. At this point, the board will recess to executive session, pursuant to the, parts of the Open Meetings Act, code five five one. From executive session. In the executive session, after the last meeting, it was announced that we were waiting
on an investigation, forensic firm, and we have received that investigation. That was completed by an independent forensic firm, and the investigation did not reveal any new material information that was not discussed at the last meeting, and all this pertains to the twenty four election board member election. We also, it was also time, interestingly, to also do the chief appraiser's annual review.
And as a result of that annual review, we took the information from the '24 the conversations we've been having from twenty four election and, including them as part of the annual review. We're we are having, that review written, as we speak, to move forward. And so I'll just give you some notes out of that. That. Three things that were areas of concern for the board and three things that we consider to be corrective needs, moving forward.
One was that the, on a on a in the area of communication that the board and the public have not been informed of serious elections. So we talked about that in conduct conjunction with twenty four election, but then also as it relates to the overall process of the annual performance Number two was employee oversight. We recognize a failure to manage TAD staff members sufficiently to, prevent some serious errors
that negatively impact TAD. An example out of the elections conversation was that the TAD numbers were wrong. I mean, the, election numbers were wrong, were incorrect, going out to the entities, and so, therefore, it was recognized that there was not a a sufficient oversight of that process. And then number three, adequate priorities prioritization, recognizing a failure to prioritize time and efforts to certain important matters. And so those were our three specific areas of concern. One One was communication, one was employee oversight, and third one was adequate prioritization.
Corrective, acts then that we wanna see written in the evaluation, moving into the new year. One is that members of the board of directors will be informed promptly of all serious matters affecting the TAD. Number two, improve employee oversight to include providing proper training, resources, and supervision. And three, as it relates to adequate prioritization, it prioritize time and efforts to ensure direct involvement in all matters of the tax code.
The the specific issue on the third one that makes sense to the election was that the election, the tag the tax code provides the responsibility for the election 100% to the chief appraiser. So when we had a problem in the twenty four election, then the if a 100% of the responsibility is for the chief appraiser, then 100 100% of responsibility lies with the chief appraiser for the mistakes that were made as well. And so we're emphasizing that there needs to be priority, given to those issues moving
forward. As it relates to the, the where we're at as of right now on the, review of the twenty four election, this will conclude a discussion of the twenty four election. We have done the investigation. We received the information that we requested through the, through the investigative firm. And as a result of that, we're adding these issues to the appraisal, the performance review for the chief appraiser as we move forward. For the board members, I'd enter open discussion and or, a motion to accept that
report. So moved. We move that we accept that report out of the executive session. Is there a second? Second. There is a second. Further discussion? Hearing no further discussion. So is this where I have my comment here or do I just accept what we You can make a comment here. We have a motion on the floor so it'd be a motion in germane to the to the motion. Well, can I replace the motion as far as and do the second? Amend the motion. Amend the motion. Unfortunately, my position hasn't changed on this matter so I will move to, terminate mister
Bobbitt effective immediately. It's been moved that we amend the motion by striking the motion and replacing it with the termination of, the chief appraiser effective immediately. Is there a second to the amendment? Hearing none, that motion fails for a lack of a second. Back to the main motion then, which was to accept the that, report out of the executive committee. As further discussion? Hearing none, are we waiting on to vote online? Just sent it. There it is. I don't either. Did just pop up Okay.
I think the four is to accept. Yes. I've got you, mister Alfred. Motion carries unanimously. Is there any further discussion on any item before the board? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. It's been moved. And multiple seconds. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Our next board meeting will be a meeting at the end of this month to fill the empty position, on the board. That meeting will be announced at a later date. Thank you.