JASPER, Tenn. - When Marion County commissioners were asked to sell several parcels of land for back taxes this month, the request stirred a lengthy discussion on the rules governing those proceedings.
Commissioner Mack Reeves said he is asked frequently about when delinquent tax sales are going to occur in the county, and that the standard answer is: "We don't have enough [properties] to have one."
County Mayor David Jackson said officials try to package available properties together to cut down on the advertising costs.
Marion should adopt a procedure for delinquent tax sales, Reeves said. He recommended Hamilton County's policy as a model.
At the last two board meetings, he said, nothing was said about any back-tax sale, even though that sale took place Nov. 15.
"I don't feel like we're handling this appropriately," Reeves said. "The December meeting was after some of this was done. I just feel like every person in this county should have the opportunity to look at those [properties] and bid on them if they so desire."
Commissioner Tommy Thompson said when he came on the board years ago, he called the tax sale practices the "Marion County Land Grabbers Association."
Since then, he said policies like advertising sales in a local newspaper have helped.
"I know where you're coming from," Thompson told Reeves. "But [current procedures] are 120 percent better than what we were doing before all of this. We can improve on it, I know."
Commissioner Louin Campbell agreed property sales should be more widely advertised.
"I don't want to see it go back to the good ol' boy network like it used to be where [land] was sold out the side door of the courthouse before the public even saw it," he said. "I didn't know anything about [the most recent sale]. There's a couple of pieces of property there that I could've made money on myself, just like these people are going to."
The county mayor's office maintains a list of available land and the public can see it during normal business hours.
"We're doing everything according to law," Jackson said.
Reeves said he wasn't suggesting any laws were being broken, but that "sometimes the law is not crystal clear."
There is a one-year redemption period after a tax sale in which the owners can pay up and redeem their property, County Attorney Billy Gouger said. If they don't, a court issues an order confirming the sale and deeds are transferred.
Unbought properties wind up as assets of the county for resale.
"The bare minimum legal requirement is any person can go in the county mayor's office and submit an offer on those properties that is equal to the total amount of taxes, penalties, interest and attorney's fees that are owed," Gouger said. "That's the process that we've been following. That's what the law requires."
Hamilton's policy "goes above and beyond that," he said.
Reeves said the board's delinquent tax committee should meet to examine the policies for selling land, and that he's just "trying to generate more money for the county because any money we generate helps us in other deals that come along."
That committee will craft a proposal for new tax sale procedures and present those to the board at its Feb. 27 meeting.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.