Hamilton County residents in early voting that has begun for the March 3 election are being asked to determine if the county's Assessor of Property office is being run fairly and efficiently.
They are being asked, like a jury, to take the facts in evidence and render a verdict to the best of their abilities.
Hamilton County Commissioner Randy Fairbanks, the "plaintiff" or challenger in the race, alleges "things are going on that shouldn't be going on" in the office that assesses the value of residential and commercial property in the county, and he maintains that "defendant," first-term incumbent Marty Haynes, doesn't have "the experience to run that office."
Only voters who choose a Republican ballot in the election will sit on the assessor "jury." No one qualified to run as a Democrat in the primary, so anyone who chooses a Democratic ballot to have a say in who the party's presidential nominee will be won't be able to vote in the assessor's race. Thus, the Republican primary winner is all but assured of winning the August general election.
Fairbanks, the current chairman of the county commission, said he had no intention of running for assessor until he was approached by some employees of the assessor's office who were uncomfortable about some things going on there. Ultimately, he decided "I can do something about this, I can right this, I can bring some positive changes," he told Times Free Press opinion editors.
In December, he suggested at a meet-and-greet event that he would be offering evidence of a pattern of unethical behavior in assessments. Last week, in a mailer to some 30,000 homes and with early voting beginning in a few days, he alleged such had occurred with Creeks Bend Golf Club in Hixson.
Fairbanks says the 2017 assessment of the golf club was reduced 28.7% by Haynes as a favor to the club's owner, who also had been a donor to his campaigns. Haynes said he had been a member of the club and had held campaign fundraisers there.
Haynes says neither he nor the club's owner had requested the reduction. It occurred primarily, he says, because a 2011 FEMA map being used in appraisals for the first time placed most of the golf course in a floodway. And Hamilton County commercial properties, as an entity, hadn't been adjusted since 1992, he says.
However, he understands that because the office doesn't have the notes that were made on the property at the time of the appraisal, the adjustment "does look bad." But when Fairbanks made the allegation at a recent Pachyderm Club meeting, Haynes freely suggested Fairbanks could take up the matter with the office of the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury.
Fairbanks alleges there are other examples of improper appraisals but could provide little backing. And, he admits, "it's hard to prove absolute[ly] what's going on" and that it would be "up to the public to decide."
The public, he says, will need to decide if the Creeks Bend example "is too big of a coincidence, for sure bad, or just smells bad."
Haynes, meanwhile, says he has eliminated the office's take-home car policy, saving money, and expanded office hours to serve the public without additional costs to the taxpayer. He also says he has been trying to bring new technology to an office that was far behind some of its state counterparts when he was elected in 2016, and he has offered employees more paid opportunities for professional development.
In the future, he says, he wants the office's personal property reports to be available online and for appraisers to have a better way to make their reports that could provide more transparency in the whys of appraisal decisions and save work hours.
(MORE: Opponent Randy Fairbanks accuses incumbent Marty Haynes of favoring political allies)
Fairbanks points to a high turnover in appraisers within the office - including some retirements - since Haynes' arrival, to what he says is a "toxic," clique-ish office environment, and to what he believes is a coerced politicization of the office.
He also feels, as a certified public accountant, he would bring a knowledge of business valuations, experience in personal property and "an ability to get along with people" to the post.
In Haynes' tenure, he has been named East Tennessee Assessor of the Year, seen his office earn the state's first three-star designation by the Tennessee Office of Assessing Officers and helped seven appraisers receive advanced professional designations. "Most" people in the office, he said, "are pretty happy."
In the end, we don't believe Fairbanks' "evidence" is enough to turn Haynes out of office. Although the Creeks Bend appraisal seems like an outlier, we believe the floodway designation explains the change. If it wasn't an outlier, we would like to have seen a pattern of proven suspicious appraisals - that we thought Fairbanks might offer - to show Haynes was up to no good.
While we think Fairbanks could serve the office well, we feel the efficiencies, the push for improvements, and the recognition of Haynes and his office recommend Haynes' re-election.