Commissioners list accusations for removal of county assessor

Sequoyah County Assessor Brandy Dobbs now knows the accusations the board of county commissioners are leveling against her in their attempt to have Dobbs removed from the office she’s held since June 2021.

The commissioners on Monday emerged from a 33-minute executive session seeking the suspension of Dobbs from the assessor’s office, and claiming 20 instances of “willful maladministration in violation of her statutory duties” by:

• Allowing the assessor’s office to be designated as Level One non-compliant by the State Board of Equalization (SBOE), such designation resulting from Dobbs’ failure to satisfy the requirements of the equalization study conducted by the Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC), and that Sequoyah County is the only Oklahoma county classified as Level One non-compliant;

• Causing the assessor’s office to be designated as Level Two non-compliant in the 2023 equalization study by the SBOE, despite numerous attempts by the OTC to provide necessary guidance, and that the county is the only Oklahoma county classified as Level Two non-compliant. Consequently, this situation affected the chargeable valuations used to determine state aid for school districts, leading to a shortfall of $400,000 in school budgets this year;

• Causing the assessor’s office to be designated as Level One non-compliant due to Dobbs’ failure to satisfy the requirements of the performance audit conducted by the OTC, compounded by a lack of competency in valuing unsold properties, placing the office on a trajectory for Level Two non-compliance by December 2025, and that the county is the only Oklahoma county non-compliant in both the equalization study and the performance audit;

• Failing to adjust the fair cash values of at least 80% of arm’s-length residential transactions for tax year 2022, an oversight that resulted in a financial loss to the county and its school districts of more than $350,000, a loss that will continue to compound annually for years to come, and that because these errors were not corrected in a timely manner, they can no longer be rectified due to the Frankenberg Law, and recovery is possible only if the properties sell again;

• Failing to adjust the fair cash values of at least 90% of arms’s-length residential transactions for tax year 2023, an oversight that resulted in a financial loss to the county and its school districts of more than $400,000, a loss that will continue to compound annually for years to come, and that because these errors were not corrected in a timely manner, they can no longer be rectified due to the Frankenberg Law, and recovery is possible only if the properties sell again;

• Failing to uncap the fair cash values of unsold properties in the county and adjust them with the market by 3% or 5% annually, resulting in valuations of 70% to 75% of fair cash value from 2022 to 2024, 82% in 2021 and 83% in 2020, causing a total loss of about $250 million in taxable value, including an additional $82 million from 2021 to 2024 due to neglected adjustments, which compound year after year;

• Submitting conflicting timesheet records to the county clerk’s office for payroll and time accrual purposes;

• Committing a series of compounded and excessive errors in the preparation of the tax roll, necessitating corrections that were not adequately performed, thereby imposing an undue burden and expense upon the county treasurer’s office and the county clerk’s office;

• Implementing changes to the tax rolls that failed to accurately reflect the names of record titleholders as indicated on recorded deeds or other duly authorized documentation;

• Failing to maintain current and accurate records, including the timely and correct transfer of newly filed deeds with accurate details such as name, acreage and fair cash value as set forth in the deeds;

• Failing to accurately update title ownership records upon the filing of joint tenancy termination affidavits, transfer-on-death affidavits, probate decrees or other similar legal instruments evidencing a transfer of ownership;

• Failing to maintain regular office hours and sufficient staff to adequately serve the public;

• Arbitrarily and erroneously removing taxpayers and property structures from the tax rolls, resulting in substantial loss of revenue to the county;

• Failing to promptly add new structures to the tax rolls despite receiving notifications from taxpayers regarding new construction, repeatedly overlooking these updates, which resulted in significant loss of revenue to the county;

• Failing to update taxpayer addresses despite specific notifications from the county treasurer, county clerk or taxpayers, resulting in the failure of tax statements for the subsequent year to be delivered to the correct addresses and causing numerous statements to be returned as undeliverable;

• Causing numerous erroneous tax statements to be sent, which resulted in the accrual of penalties, the filing of liens and the revocation of homestead exemptions;

• Repeatedly refusing to provide the treasurer’s office with personal property records despite their requests, acknowledging that while these records are not public, they are essential for the treasurer to effectively fulfill their responsibilities;

• Inconsistently applying annual valuation increases, leaving 2,876 parcels unchanged and increasing 1,266 parcels by 3% or less from 2021 to 2024, resulting in a “huge loss” in taxable value; and

• Misrepresenting the extent of the 2024 deed processing backlog to the OTC, claiming to be nearly current when data entry lagged significantly, only reaching 980 deeds after “extreme pressure” from the OTC.

As a result of the accusations, the commissioners are claiming a loss of $1.15 million for the county and school districts, and a loss of about $332 million in taxable value.

The charges were filed in the county clerk’s office following the meeting. Dobbs will have at least five days to answer the accusations, according to her attorney, Steve Hickman from the Tulsa law firm of Frasier, Frasier and Hickman. It is expected that the case will be decided in a jury trial.

Beau Burlison

Ray Watts

Jim Rogers

On Feb. 12, the commissioners voted unanimously to launch an inquiry for an accusation of removal of Dobbs as assessor, shifting Dobbs’ fate from the commissioners to the district attorney’s office. After that meeting, District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers said audits that had been conducted and input received from the OTC were important in the commissioners’ decision to elevate the proceedings.

Because he represents all the county elected officials, Sequoyah County District Attorney Jack Thorp has recused himself from the case. LeFlore County District Attorney Kevin Merritt has been assigned to represent the prosecution.

A first hearing in the case is scheduled for 10 a.m. March 6.

Cause for removal

Oklahoma statutes stipulate 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 maintains Dobbs has not violated any reasons in this statute.

Dobbs has declined comment.

Following the plan

Emily Haxton, OTC external communications and press coordinator, said in a Feb. 13 prepared statement said the OTC “remains concerned about whether the Sequoyah County Assessor will take the necessary steps to address the assessment deficiencies that resulted in a Category II non-compliance finding by the State Board of Equalization (SBOE). 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 December 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.

But Hickman said Dobbs has 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.

An OTC memorandum

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.”

How it started

Discrepancies within the data in the county assessor’s office were discovered by Dobbs beginning in 2023, and she said her office began “diligently working” with the OTC and the Centers for Local Government Technology at Oklahoma State University (CLGT/OSU) “to address and correct those discrepancies.”

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. As always, the assessor’s office is here for the taxpayers of Sequoyah County to answer any questions or concerns,” said Dobbs, who has been county assessor since June 2021. Prior to filling the vacancy left with Kelly Miller’s departure, Dobbs served as deputy tax assessor.

Dobbs also informed the commissioners about what she found and steps being taken to resolve any concerns.

Confidence expressed

Following August’s executive session, Rogers assured that the commissioners were monitoring the progress within the county assessor’s office, and said the board is committed to supporting Dobbs.

“As county commissioners, it’s our job to make sure that we oversee and make sure that any situation that comes up, that we address that situation,” Rogers said in August. “We feel like at this point — we’ve had an opportunity to visit with the OTC — and they feel like there’s a lot of improvement going on there.

“I want everybody to know this right here — we want that office to be successful. We want you to have what you need to be successful,” Rogers told Dobbs in August. “We want her office to be successful, we want you guys to be successful, we want you to have what you need to be successful. The last thing we want to do is take anybody’s job.

“Like I said, the auditors have stated that things are looking good, that we’re getting to a point that things are improving. So hopefully we continue on that path,” Rogers said in August.

Burlison reiterated in August that the commissioners want the county assessor’s office — and every county office — to be successful, and Watts added, “We had all the confidence in the world of her — still do. All three of us appointed her. There’s a lot of confidence in Brandy.”

Besides, as Rogers admitted, the commissioners are still trying to understand practices within the county assessor’s office — “this is pretty Greek to all of us. It’s a crash course, and we’re learning on the fly.”