Tarrant Appraisal District board chair resigns after she was recalled by Keller council
The chair of the Tarrant Appraisal District board of directors resigned Wednesday.
Kathryn Wilemon’s resignation comes the day after Keller City Council voted to recall her from her position at council’s Tuesday meeting. She was has first elected to the TAD board in 2019; her term would have expired at the end of this year. From 2003 to 2019, she represented District 4 on the Arlington City Council.
Wilemon’s resignation is the culmination of calls for transparency at the embattled agency, which is responsible for setting the property values that form the basis of Tarrant County homeowners’ property tax bills.
Wilemon has not responded to requests for comment.
TAD board members aren’t elected by the public. Rather, entities in Tarrant County with taxing authority, like the Keller City Council, cast votes.
Had Wilemon not resigned, her recall would have been put to a vote by the taxing entities that voted for her in 2021. Those entities would have voted for a replacement to finish out her term. Because she resigned, all county taxing entities will nominate people to fill the seat until the end of the year, but the TAD board will ultimately select the replacement.
After the Tuesday vote, Keller Mayor Armin Mizani wrote a long Facebook post explaining the decision.
He wrote: “Ultimately, our vote this week to initiate a recall of the board’s chairperson was based on simple questions: Is TAD more accountable and transparent today than it was two years ago? Do our taxpayers in Keller have more trust in the appraisal process? Are Keller taxpayers afforded a level playing field when protesting their assessments, or when representing others during their protests? Based on numerous conversations, phone calls, and emails from our constituents over the past two years, the answer to those questions is a resounding ‘no.’”
When asked why the Keller council voted to recall Wilemon, Mizani and council member Jessica Juarez pointed to recent controversies at TAD, which seemed to start with complaints filed against Realtor and property tax consultant Chandler Crouch.
In November 2021, TAD’s director of residential appraisals, Randy Armstrong, filed complaints against Crouch with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. In the complaints, he invoked his position at TAD without permission to do so. An investigative report found no merit to the complaints.
The Star-Telegram has requested the report. The board’s attorney, Matthew Tepper, wrote to the state attorney general seeking to prevent the release of the full report, arguing attorney-client privilege.
At the board’s June meeting, hundreds of people showed support for Crouch but were forced to wait outside in triple-digit heat because the meeting room could accommodate only 14 people.
In September, Armstrong was suspended. Chief appraiser Jeff Law also was suspended for his handling of the situation.
Earlier this month, the TAD board agreed to create a committee charged with reviewing the agency’s conflict of interest policy for employees. The review was prompted by a Star-Telegram report that detailed a TAD employee’s potential violation of the policy, which involved selling real estate in Tarrant County while working the taxing agency.
“When you have residents that see these stories and this continues to get worse, something needs to happen,” Mizani told the Star-Telegram Tuesday night.
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 10:44 AM.
