The Tarrant County Appraisal District is adding three new at-large members to its governing board.
The change comes as a result of last year’s passage of Senate Bill 2, authored by Texas Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston). The new law requires counties with a population over 75,000 to elect three members to their board of directors, reported The Texan. The members will be elected to staggered four-year terms.
The five other board members who comprise the governing board are elected by taxing entities from the Tarrant County Appraisal District (TAD).
Several candidates are running for each of the new board positions.
Vying for Place 1 are Eric Morris, Sayeda Syed, and Trae Fowler. Morris, a lifelong resident of Tarrant County, is a former Haltom City Council member; Syed is a mechanical engineer and has lived in Tarrant County for 16 years; and Trae Fowler is the former mayor of Haltom City and owns a construction business, reported The Texan. Fowler is a lifelong resident of Tarrant County and owns 29 parcels of land in the county.
Vying for Place 2 are Callie Rigney and Eric Crile. Rigney is a Colleyville city council member, and Crile is a firefighter who lives in north Fort Worth, reported The Texan.
Vying for Place 3 are Chuck Kelley, Matt Bryant, and Lee Henderson. Kelley is a former Colleyville city council member who currently works in information technology; Bryant is a former Carroll ISD school board member and owns 60 rental properties in Tarrant County; and Henderson, self-described “tax appraisal watchdog,” has served on Fort Worth’s planning commission and is currently a national public policy and advocacy strategist, reported The Texan.
In a social media post, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare endorsed Morris, Rigney, and Bryant, describing the trio as “pro-taxpayer advocates.”
TAD has been a magnet for controversy, including a recent ransomware attack and accusations of not being receptive to taxpayers. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, TAD’s director of information systems, Cal Wood, was recorded last year saying he would support deceiving the public when it came to the technical issues the public was experiencing with the website, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
TAD’s chief appraiser, Jeff Law, resigned last year after a no-confidence vote, reported the Fort Worth Report.
Taxpayer advocate Chandler Crouch claimed that when he approached TAD regarding the errors that many Tarrant County residents reported regarding the tax assessments for their properties, TAD refused to help and instead accused Chandler of representing too many clients and conducting fraud, DX reported last month.
Chandler accused the Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector Wendy Burgess of covering for wrongdoers and not representing the interest of taxpayers despite being the only elected official on the board. Burgess was defeated by former Tarrant County GOP chair Rick Barnes in March’s Republican primary.