Hundreds show support for Realtor who helps Fort Worth area homeowners protest appraisals

Tarrant Appraisal District’s most raucous meeting to date concluded with a resolution to the conflict at hand, but critics of the government agency say the work isn’t finished.

Hundreds gathered in front of the Tarrant Appraisal District on Thursday morning in support of Chandler Crouch, a tax consultant who helps homeowners protest their property tax appraisals for free.

Crouch, a broker and founder of Chandler Crouch Realtors, is under investigation by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation after TAD Director of Residential Appraisal Randy Armstrong filed complaints against Crouch using his TAD title.

TAD annually appraises all of the properties in Tarrant County. The appraisal values are used to calculate property owners’ property tax bills using tax rates set by taxing entities, like cities, the county and school districts. Because property values have skyrocketed in the last 10 years — a rise of 171% since 2011 — homeowners have seen a corresponding surge in their property tax bills.

After nearly four hours of impassioned public comment from Crouch’s supporters, the TAD board unanimously agreed to send a letter to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation clarifying that TAD did not sanction the complaints filed by Armstrong.

That’s the request Crouch’s attorney made in a letter dated May 12, 2022.

But, many speakers Thursday, including Crouch himself, demanded more systemic change in the form of greater transparency from the agency as well as resignations from Armstrong and Chief Appraiser Jeff Law. Law is implicated in the issue, because Crouch said he reached out to him in November 2021 regarding the complaint, but the board said it did not know about the issue until its June 10 meeting.

Upon calling the meeting to order, the five-person board as well as Law and Tax Assessor-Collector Wendy Burgess went into a closed executive session for about 45 minutes. The legal reasoning for the closed session was personnel matters.

Starting at about 10:15 a.m., the board started to hear three-minute comments from the public. Comments lasted nearly four hours.

The meeting took place in a room big enough for only 14 spectators. Security escorted members of the public in and out of the room to provide comments.

As a result, some people waited outside in near 100-degree weather for up to five hours. Some claimed they were not permitted to enter the building to use the restroom.

TAD employees and representatives of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office barred certain credentialed media from entering the building, claiming the room was full.

“We haven’t had this many people come to a TAD meeting ever,” said board chair Kathryn Wilemon when asked why the board was unprepared for the crowd.

Dozens of residents detailed perilously rising property tax bills and getting bullied by Armstrong and the Appraisal Review Board. They also touched on other problems that have plagued the agency in recent years, including a $12 million software glitch that led to an “explosive” audit, protest deadline confusion, errors in tax statements and failure to send protest notices.

Then, there’s the rise in property tax protests.

Between 2015 and 2019, the number of annual protests at TAD more than tripled.

In his first two-year term, TAD board member Richard DeOtte started pushing for an audit of TAD to determine the cause of increased protests. The explosion in protests was an aberration among large metropolitan appraisal districts in Texas, DeOtte noted.

It even garnered the attention of state Sen. Jane Nelson, whose district included much of Tarrant County. In April 2020, she wrote to the board requesting an investigation into the rise in protests.

While DeOtte’s push wasn’t received well by all members, in June 2020, the board narrowly voted to consider a review. But when it came down to initiating the review, the board voted not to.

Wilemon said Thursday the issue has been resolved. DeOtte disagrees.

“What [this complaint against Crouch] has done is wake up a sleeping giant,” Richard Ramirez told the board during the public comment. “Today is not the end.”

At the end of the public comment period, DeOtte, who ran for the seat in 2020 to promote transparency, expressed his disappointment with the handling of the situation.

“I don’t understand the complaint. I don’t know why it wasn’t dealt with in the beginning. I don’t know why it percolated for seven months,” he said.

When asked why Law delayed communicating to the board about this issue, Wilemon said she’d withhold comments until the results of an internal view are shared.

During the public comment period, Wilemon challenged speakers on their allegations of corruption on the board, but at the end of the meeting, she acknowledged the agency has work to do.

“We are concerned. We have a bad reputation,” she said. “But it’s not going to continue with this board.”

Despite his previous struggles to get board member support for reform measures, DeOtte left Thursday’s meeting optimistic the issue would lead to more rigorous efforts for transparency at the board level.