Fort Worth Weekly: Culture of Deception

This is a link to the original article written on Fort Worth Weekly.

Skyrocketing property valuations, culture of deception, and baseless allegations. What's the worst that could happen?

On June 10, 2022, I stood up early in the meeting to address the five-member board of the Tarrant Appraisal District (TAD). I had come to inform the board that I would not allow any further attacks by Randy Armstrong, TAD's director of home valuation. It is clear as day that Armstrong, and by extension, TAD do not appear to be my supporters. Mainly because I devote most of my spare time to assisting residents to challenge their exorbitant property values. This pushed Armstrong to file a complaint against me.

During the meeting, I stated that there is an item on the agenda regarding the letter that my attorney addressed to the board. There haven't been many information regarding what's going on up until now. Someone filed complaints against my licensure as a property tax consultant in October 2021. I initially dismissed the complaint as unfounded. But for the board, this becomes significant because of who filed the complaint and how Jeff Law, the chief appraiser, strongly supports it.

I went on to say that an investigator with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) purportedly indicated that the complaints were made by TAD, not a TAD employee. Armstrong's use of TAD letterhead and the personal knowledge revealed in his accusations indicate that he is allegedly utilizing TAD resources.

Despite the fact that the topic was just discussed and not voted on, the board members decided that Law should look into it, in spite of having been aware of the allegations since November and has done no action to curb Armstrong's alleged misbehavior.

Law, who usually deals with personnel issues, agreed to oversee the probe. However, that is a conflict of interest according to Gary Losada, a former TAD member.

For Losada, Law should not be allowed to probe his own activities due to a history of withholding embarrassing facts from the board, something we've heard before in the form of a whistleblower complaint. We revealed details from a series of anonymous letters purportedly written by one or more TAD employees a year ago ("Shining a Light on TAD," June 2021).

Law was singled out by the whistleblower, who claimed that the top appraiser used his position to conceal software flaws that resulted in incorrect property tax estimates over the years.

It pains me to know that TAD's board of directors declined to hold Law accountable for failing to handle significant claims like mine. TAD's leadership may have set the appraisal district on a road that would eventually force the board of directors to evaluate if maintaining Law as chief appraiser is worth the financial risk.