Tarrant Appraisal board election numbers skewed; chair wants investigation
The 2024 election of the Tarrant Appraisal District Board of Directors had a “significant calculation error” that resulted in Tarrant County College having far more votes than it should have had, chair Rick Barnes said.
The 2024 election put Directors Michael Alfred, Alan Blaylock, Wendy Burgess, Fred Campos and Gloria Pena on the board.
TAD Board of Director elections start with all taxing entities in the county (school districts, the county and cities) submitting their nominations publicly between Sept. 1 to Oct. 14 to the chief appraiser. The chief appraiser then ensures each of the nominees are in good standing with the property tax code’s requirements. Next, the chief appraiser assembles the ballot and sends it to the taxing entities with information about how many votes they get, determined by how much of the county’s total tax revenue they generate. Votes are made publicly by Dec. 14 at midnight.
From 2013 to 2023, Tarrant County College had between 290 and 317 votes. In 2024, it had 505 votes — nearly 200 more votes than its highest voting year. This year, it is back down to 315 votes.
In 2024, TCC gave 289 votes to Burgess, 141 votes to Blaylock and 75 votes to Pena.
Due to its sharp increase of votes for Tarrant County College, all the other taxing entities were shorted the number of votes they are entitled to, Barnes said.
Barnes, who is also the county’s tax assessor-collector, called a special meeting to confront the issue. The meeting will be at 9 a.m. on Nov. 3.
“This failure of accountability and communication is unacceptable,” Barnes said in a statement. “The Chief Appraiser and senior staff had a clear obligation to immediately inform the Board’s Chairman and members upon discovering the error. Their failure to do so undermines public trust in both the election process and the integrity of the institution itself.”
Chief Appraiser Joe Don Bobbitt did not immediately respond to the Star-Telegram’s request for comment.
Barnes said he has strongly urged the TAD Board of Directors to initiate an in-depth administrative review to determine how the error occurred, who was responsible and what corrective action is warranted.
The appraisal district appraises the market value of residential, commercial and industrial property for tax purposes.
This story was originally published October 23, 2025 at 2:12 PM.