With property tax notices going out in less than a month, Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves wants Rick Kenny, the north Fulton appointee to the Board of Assessors, to step down.
Kenny was revealed in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article last month to have been disciplined by the Georgia Real Estate Commission and Appraisers Board for being "negligent" in overappraising a duplex for $210,000 in 2005, during the peak of the real estate bubble and before his appointment to the assessors board.
After the house went into foreclosure, Fannie Mae ordered a review appraisal that found the value should have been $76,000, according to state and county records.
Rather than face a hearing and risk having his appraiser's license pulled, Kenny agreed to pay $5,000 in administrative and legal costs and take six hours of classes on mortgage fraud, according to the citation issued in August. Kenny hung up on a reporter Thursday, but in a previous interview, he insisted he did nothing wrong and said he settled with state regulators because he'd racked up $2,000 in legal fees and wanted to put the matter behind him.
In a letter dated Thursday, Eaves told the four other assessors board members that commissioners have read the state's findings, which were sent with the letter. "Because the existence of the decision could adversely affect the County," the letter said, "the Board of Commissioners has determined that it is in the best interest of the County for Mr. Rick Kenny to resign from his position on the Board of Tax Assessors."
The board is charged with setting county-assessed home values -- which, when calculated against millage rates, determine how much property owners get taxed each year. It also hears the first level of appeals. While commissioners appoint the members, they cannot force them to resign before their terms are up. Kenny’s term ends in June 2013.
Assessors board Chairwoman Salma Ahmed defended Kenny and said it's his decision whether to resign. The matter was not discussed at Thursday's board meeting, she said.
Eaves' letter was sent a day after two taxpayer advocates, Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation Executive Director Barbara Payne and Georgia Property Taxpayers Committee President R.J. Morris, publicly asked commissioners to demand Kenny's resignation. Ahmed disputed several of their assertions, such as that Kenny had been "convicted" and that tax values are "upside down."
"There is a lot of damage being unnecessarily done," Ahmed said. "What was said yesterday [Wednesday] was extremely discouraging for those of us who serve on this board."
North Fulton Commissioner Liz Hausmann said she's disappointed that Kenny didn't inform her, nor her predecessor in the seat, state Rep. Lynne Riley, of the citation. She's concerned it could compromise the integrity of assessment notices, but at the same time, she credited him with helping turn around a board that was in shambles when Riley nominated him in 2006.
"He's a professional in an industry that went through a major collapse," Hausmann said, "and this incident happened during that collapse."
Riley said she doesn't think Kenny should resign.
"I have full faith and confidence in the professional abilities of Rick Kenny," she said.
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