The top Tarrant Appraisal District board member now faces a recall

KELLER, Texas — The Keller City Council on Tuesday night voted to begin a process to recall the head of the Tarrant Appraisal District board.

The unanimous 7-0 vote, which included Mayor Armin Mizani, will begin a process that could result in a recall of Kathryn Wilemon, the chairperson of the appraisal district’s six-person board.

Board members are elected by taxing entities, such as cities and school districts, not taxpayers. The entities, as Keller did Tuesday night, can vote to begin a recall process of a board member but only if they initially voted for the member, Mizani said.

Mizani said the next step in the recall process would be sending the matter to a vote among other entities who voted for Wilemon.

Mizani at Tuesday night’s meeting explained the council’s frustration the appraisal district and accused the board of not being transparent.

“The discussion and possible action is based on one simple question in my mind: Is TAD today more accountable and transparent than it was two years ago?” Mizani said. “Do our taxpayers in Keller have more trust or distrust of the process? Are Keller taxpayers afforded a level playing field when protesting or representing others who protests their assessments? Can they do so without retaliation? The answer to those questions, when I hear from my constituents, is flatly, ‘no.'”

Mizani cited a spike in appraisal protests in Tarrant County and a recent controversy involving the realtor Chandler Crouch, who helps taxpayers protest their property values.

Last year, the Tarrant Appraisal District’s top two employees filed a personal complaint against Couch on county time, accusing him of “misrepresentation of facts and abuse of his dual positions as both a property tax consultant” and a realtor.

Randy Armstrong, the district’s director of residential appraisals, filed the complaint, and Jeff Law, the district’s chief appraiser, was aware of it.

The complaint said Crouch had a property listed for about $2.5 million in Colleyville, while he testified to the review board that the market value of the home of was around $880,000.

But Crouch, in a response posted on his website, said it’s not a violation “to list a house for sale and represent the client in a protest hearing,” as happened for the Colleyville home.

Both Law and Armstrong were suspended without pay over the incident, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

WFAA reached out to the Tarrant Appraisal District on Wednesday morning for a comment on the Keller City Council’s action against Wilemon. District officials did not immediately respond.