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Despite
A: Main, Main, News
February 18, 2025

Despite local confidence, OTC ‘remains concerned’ about assessor compliance

By Lynn Adams Staff Writer 

When it comes to calculations and numbers, there’s rarely any wiggle room on findings. Either you’re right or you’re wrong.

When it comes to calculations and numbers, there’s rarely any wiggle room on findings. Either you’re right or you’re wrong.

But when it comes to evaluating success, it appears it may be more subjective depending on one’s perspective.

Such is the case surrounding efforts to remove Brandy Dobbs as Sequoyah County Assessor.

Dobbs, who has served as county assessor since June 2021 after five years as a deputy in that office, believes her office has been “diligently working” with the Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC) and the Centers for Local Government Technology at Oklahoma State University (CLGT/ OSU) to address and correct discrepancies Dobbs discovered beginning in 2023.

Brandy Dobbs

“On July 12, 2024, my office sat down with the OTC and CLGT to outline a plan and steps necessary to rectify the discrepancies,” Dobbs said in August, noting that in the month that followed “we have already completed most of the items in the plan, which we received from the OTC.”

“We are confident we will be successful in meeting all deadlines outlined in the plan,” she said.

The OTC, however, sees it differently.

“The Tax Commission remains concerned about whether the Sequoyah County Assessor will take the necessary steps to address the assessment deficiencies that resulted in a Category II noncompliance finding by the State Board of Equalization (SBOE),” according to a prepared statement released Thursday afternoon by Emily Haxton, External Communications & Press Coordinator for the OTC. “Additionally, there are ongoing concerns about the consistent application of proper valuation methodologies for Sequoyah County in future years.”

Furthermore, Haxton said the SBOE seems inclined to escalate penalties against the assessor’s office.

“During the Dec. 1, 2024, SBOE meeting, some board members stated that if Sequoyah County’s assessment deficiencies are not corrected by the June 2025 meeting, they are prepared to move the county to Category III non-compliance,” Haxton’s statement said. So when the Sequoyah County Board of County Commissioners, after meeting in executive session five times in the past six months for 8½ hours, emerged last week calling for “an inquiry for an accusation of removal involving the Sequoyah County Assessor,” it has not been specified if the commissioners were relying on the OTC’s view of the situation or if they lacked confidence in Dobbs’ assurances that her office was successfully complying with the plan set forth by the OTC or if they had simply done an about-face on their unconditional support in August when they expressed “a lot of confidence in Brandy.”

Following the plan

While Dobbs awaits the outcome of the inquiry for her removal, her attorney, Steve Hickman from the Tulsa law firm of Frasier, Frasier and Hickman, makes the case that the assessor’s office have simply been following a course of action set forth by the OTC. He says whenever Dobbs was given a course of action, even if the plan deviated from the way the office had done business for years, “She’s gone in and done it differently.”

“In fact, she’s gone in and checked, what we in the legal business call the green books — the Oklahoma statutes, and found other things, and has corrected them,” Hickman said in defense of Dobbs. “Ms. Dobbs has worked at the assessor’s office for a number of years, after she had worked in the real estate-related business many years before. She became chief deputy, and then when the county assessor resigned, the board of county commissioners appointed her, and she continued running the office as she had been taught,” Hickman explained. “About that time, the state has been more careful about teaching officers how to do their work. They’ve (the state) run a number of classes, and she and her staff have attended all the classes and learned a lot of things and have changed things, so she’s doing the best she can with what she knows, and as she learns something new, she does it right.”

Dobbs says she and her chief deputy are required to complete 60 hours of continuing education every three years, and that each member of her staff is required to complete 30 hours of continuing education in a three-year cycle in order to work for the county assessor’s office. Records show that Dobbs has completed 117 hours in the current cycle.

On July 15, 2024, Dobbs received an 11-page memorandum — Work Tasks for Compliance — from the Oklahoma Tax Commission Ad Valorem Division. Not only did the SBOE place the county in Category II noncompliance, but provided Dobbs with a written plan “to enable Sequoyah County to attain acceptable compliance status” with the SBOE.

The memorandum stipulated that the OTC’s Ad Valorem Division would “provide general assistance and direction” to the assessor’s office, and will conduct “regular reviews of work progress,” as well as “make determinations about performance of the various work tasks required.”

The memorandum further stipulated that “existing data in the Sequoyah County CAMA database appears to be reasonably accurate and may be utilized to generate values for 2025,” and that the county had “requalified its 2024 sales to better match OTC rules.”

If the outlined approaches are performed by the assessor’s office, along with the Ad Valorem Division monitoring and reviewing the county’s efforts throughout the implementation process, then the SBOE would, at its June 2025 meeting, be in a position to move the county into compliance.

At the outset of the assessor’s office implementing the OTC plan, the Ad Valorem Division even rendered an opinion “that the Sequoyah County Assessor’s Office and staff, with continuing training and assistance, will be capable of implementing the proposed steps necessary to achieve compliance.”

According to the plan, which includes generally accepted mass appraisal methodology, current steps are for the assessor’s office to work with CLGT/OSU staff to “create new residential neighborhood factors that match current sale indicated fair cash value.”

Awaiting accusations

But Hickman and Dobbs don’t know what accusations may be forthcoming from the commissioners.

“The statutory procedure is for the board of county commissioners to sign off on a piece of paper that’s called an accusation that says what they’re claiming,” Hickman explained the procedure.

“The board of county commissioners has never said what they’re complaining about, so it’s not as though we can answer those things. They’re being very close to their chest with their cards as to what they’re even complaining about, because they won’t tell anybody,” Hickman said.

The commissioners were scheduled to meet Tuesday in executive session — the third closeddoor meeting in the past eight days and their sixth executive session in six months — to adopt the accusation(s) for removal, with the case to have been sent to the district attorney’s office. But with Tuesday’s weather forcing the courthouse to close, the meeting is postponed until further notice.

The Oklahoma statutes stipulate eight reasons (22 O.S. § 1181, OSCN 2025) for removing an elected official from office.

“Any officer not subject to impeachment elected or appointed to any state, county, township, city, town or other office under the laws of the state may, in the manner provided in this article, be removed from office for any of the following causes: First — Habitual or willful neglect of duty, which, for a state officer, shall include, but not be limited to, knowingly giving false testimony to a committee of either house of the Legislature, knowingly engaging in operations beyond the constitutional or statutory authority delegated to the agency that the officer is employed by or serves, or repeatedly refusing to provide information to a committee, either house or a member of the Legislature in a timely manner. For the purposes of this section, “timely manner” means no more than 15 business days from the date the request for information was received by the agency, unless extended by written agreement.

Second — Gross partiality in office.

Third — Oppression in office.

Fourth — Corruption in office.

Fifth — Extortion or willful overcharge of fees in office.

Sixth — Willful maladministration.

Seventh — Habitual drunkenness.

Eighth — Failure to produce and account for all public funds and property in his or her hands, at any settlement or inspection authorized or required by law.”

Hickman said Dobbs has not violated any item in this statute.

Dobbs has declined to comment.

Establishing noncompliance

In addition to her statement, Haxton cited the statutory guidelines on monitoring valuation progress and determining the extent of noncompliance.

Title 68 O.S. § 2830 stipulates the following: A. The OTC shall monitor the progress of valuation in each county as it occurs each year. Such monitoring may be conducted by periodic audits of assessments through visits to the county or through an analysis of assessment activity by means of a computerassisted monitoring program.

B. The OTC shall establish guidelines for determining the extent of noncompliance with the applicable law or administrative rules governing valuation of taxable property. Such guidelines shall establish three categories of noncompliance. The categories shall be respectively denominated as Category I, Category II and Category III. Each category shall represent progressive degrees of noncompliance. Provided, if the Tax Commission finds that a county assessor is not annually valuing taxable real and personal property within the county as required by Sections 2817 and 2829 of this title, the Tax Commission shall certify that the county is not in compliance with such statutes and shall be required to take action as prescribed by this section for the appropriate category of noncompliance according to the guidelines established pursuant to the provisions of this subsection. The OTC shall be authorized to take action as prescribed by this section for each category of noncompliance as follows: Category 1: The OTC shall notify the county assessor of the nature of the noncompliance and shall indicate the action required to correct such noncompliance.

Category 2: The OTC shall order the action to be taken in order to bring the county into compliance. The OTC is authorized to do any or all of the following: 1. Impose a schedule of required actions by county officials to bring the county into compliance; 2. Establish deadlines for bringing the county into compliance; or 3. Impose changes in procedures in the assessor’s office, if necessary, to facilitate continued compliance.

Category 3: The OTC shall notify the board of county commissioners and the county assessor of the affected county that the county is in violation of law or regulations relating to the valuation function for the administration of the ad valorem tax. The OTC shall conduct a conference, within 30 days after such notice, in that county with the board of county commissioners, the county assessor and the county board of equalization, to formally notify the county of the extent of noncompliance and the measures necessary to correct it. The Oklahoma Tax Commission is authorized to do any or all of the following: 1. Impose a schedule of required actions by county officials to bring the county into compliance; 2. Establish deadlines for bringing the county into compliance; 3. Impose changes in procedures in the assessor’s office, if necessary, to facilitate continued compliance; 4. Place the county valuation function under the temporary supervision of a qualified OTC employee; 5. Require additional training for the assessor, deputies or members of the equalization board; or 6. Provide written or oral reports to the board of county commissioners and the county board of equalization of the progress in regaining compliance status for the county. Such reports shall be public records.

The OTC shall periodically conduct a review of the extent of noncompliance in each county determined to be in Category 3 noncompliance. When the OTC determines that such a county is in substantial compliance with the applicable law or administrative regulations governing valuation of taxable property, the Commission shall so certify.

C. The OTC may request the Court of Tax Review to order a county determined to be in Category 3 noncompliance to reimburse the OTC from the county assessor’s budget as established in Section 2823 of this title for all costs incurred as a result of the assumption of the valuation function by the Commission. The salary of the county assessor shall not be paid during the time that a qualified employee of the OTC is supervising the valuation function in the county, but shall be restored as of the date the Commission certifies to the board of county commissioners that noncompliance has been corrected.

D. The county assessor shall have the right to appeal an order issued by the OTC to correct Category 2 noncompliance or to appeal a decision finding Category 3 noncompliance in the manner provided by Section 2883 of this title.

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