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PAGE 2A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. AUGUST 20. 2020
Reeves wins tax commissioner runoff;
Gartrell wins school board race
Staff reports
Wrapping up one of the
strangest election periods
ever, Daniel Reeves won the
tax commissioner post and
Tommy Gartrell won school
board post one in last Tues
day’s runoff election - an
election process that began in
May.
With the original May pri
mary delayed due to COVID,
the races stretched over four
months with candidates hav
ing trouble reaching out to
voters due to the numerous
restrictions imposed by the
pandemic.
These two local races
went to runoffs as there were
initially three candidates
seeking the office and the
victor must get a foil majority
(more than 50 percent of the
votes cast), and none did in
the primary vote. The con
gressional races also went
into runoffs.
Daniel Reeves won a tight
race against Amy Gibson,
2,503 to 2,348.
Following the decision,
Reeves said he greatly appre
ciated all his supporters. He
acknowledged the close re
sults, saying it had been “a
very competitive race.”
Reeves, who has worked
in the tax office for the past
nine years, said he will put
people over politics and cre
ate a tax office that the
county will be proud of.
In the school board race,
challenger Tommy Gartrell
easily beat incumbent Donna
Enis, 2,947 to 1,896. Enis
had been the top vote-getter
in the primary but failed to
make the 50 percent mark.
“I’m extremely grateful to
the people who voted and
humbled by the number of
them who placed their confi
dence in me,” Gartrell said in
a statement made to the
Progress. “I thank Donna
Enis for her service and for
running a dignified cam
paign. My prayers and best
wishes to all the students and
staff who returned to school
this week. The other board
members and the superin
tendent have graciously
reached out to me already, so
I’m excited and anxious to
get to work in January.”
The local runoffs saw
4,949 voters of the total
23,037 registered voters in
action, giving a 21.5 percent
turnout. Most people chose to
cast ballots on election day
(2,449); with 1,733 voting
early at the election office
and 764 sending in absentee
ballots.
In congressional action:
Marjorie Taylor Greene won
the GOP’s District 14 runoff
adding 1,067 votes here over
John Cowan’s 516; Andrew
Clyde won the District 9 race
with 1,784 to Matt Gurtler’s
1,441.
On Democratic ticket, the
runoff for District 9 saw
Devin Pandy pick up 186
votes here on his way to the
party nomination over
Brooke Siskin.
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In meeting to “calm nerves,”
new tax commissioner says they have
2020 work under control
&Consignin£ ‘Women ^9
"A Unique Consignment Shop"
Summer Clearance Sale
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@piekensprogress.com
Recently sworn-in and
elected Tax Commissioner
Daniel Reeves, along with
Chief Tax Appraiser Roy
Dobbs, offered assurances to
the governing authorities
with the county and schools
that despite recent turmoil,
they see no problems with
tax bills for this year.
In a called board of com
missioners meeting on Au
gust 13, with the top school
officials also on hand,
Reeves, who was both ap
pointed acting tax commis
sioner for 2020 and won the
election for the next term last
week, said “I don’t see any
thing, barring something
weird with the vendor, that
would keep us from hitting
the same dates as usual.”
Dobbs, who has worked
with county taxes for
decades, explained that his
office first completes their
property value work and then
that figure is reconciled with
the tax commissioner’s of
fice, which is an accounting
function. Dobbs said there is
always the possibility that the
outside vendor who prints
and sends the bills has trou
ble reconciling everything,
but this is something they
deal with every year.
He added that one big
worry is should the vendor
company have COVID is
sues, it could create serious
delays. In Pickens County,
tax bills are usually mailed to
property owners to arrive in
October.
Commission Chair Rob
Jones said the meeting was
called as an informational
session to “calm nerves” re
garding the tax digest for
2020 after previous tax com
missioner Darrin Satterfield
resigned earlier this month.
The resignation followed a
report from an outside attor
ney specializing in labor is
sues that found management
problems.
The report has not been
made available to the public
despite three different open
records requests from the
Progress. The Progress was
denied on a final attempt to
gain access Friday. At that
time the newspaper requested
specifically a four-page sum
mary that was presented to
both Satterfield and Reeves.
The Progress argued that
since the investigation was
complete and the summary
was given to the tax officials,
it should be considered an
open record. As in the previ
ous two requests, the county
countered that the entire 500
report is exempt from open
record statues due to attor
ney/client privilege.
At the Thursday, August
13th meeting, Commission
Chair Rob Jones began by
saying, “Hopefully we can
get back to normal [with the
tax office] if that’s even pos
sible.”
And it didn’t appear to be.
Despite a generally coop
erative tone, the meeting
ended with two additional
points of possible conflict.
First, the commissioners
said they intended to proceed
with a planned audit of the
tax commissioner’s office,
saying the audit would allow
Reeves to start fresh.
Reeves replied that they
didn’t have anything to hide
with the audit, but he wanted
their attorney to take a look at
it.
In later comments, County
Attorney Phil Landrum said
the audit is a fairly standard
procedure when an elected
office changes hands. He said
the outside auditor could start
as early as this week. This
was not a forensic audit, just
a standard governmental
audit.
And Reeves’ remark re
garding their attorney
prompted a followup when
Commissioner Becky Den
ney asked if they had their
own attorney outside the
county attorney?
They did, according to
Reeves. Attorney Jim Crew
serves the tax commis
sioner’s office.
The commissioners
replied they had not ap
proved an outside counsel for
the tax commissioner’s of
fice.
After a meeting between
Landrum and Crew, it was
clarified that Crew worked
only as court ordered on tax
sales and was not paid di
rectly out of taxpayer dollars,
thus his work meets the crite
ria for an additional attorney.
Landrum said the situation
was slightly more confusing
as former tax commissioner
Satterfield previously had an
outside attorney represent
him.
Jones said an executive
summary of the report on the
mismanagement would be
given to Reeves, as he had
been “out of the loop” on the
issues it cites.
Reeves pledged “to put
people over politics” and cre
ate a tax office that the
county will be proud of. He
said if there are problems
cited in the report which still
need to be addressed to create
a better environment, he will
fully address them.
In other remarks during
the meeting, both the county
finance director and school’s
CFO stressed the importance
that the tax office work as
quickly as possible to get the
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County CFO Faye Harvey
said there is no way they will
make the September 1 dead
line with public notice and
advertising requirement, so
they need to request an exten
sion, as they have had to do
previously.
Pickens School System
CFO Amy Smith said they
need to publish five-year his
tories and other material be
fore setting a tax rate as and
asked if they could “get [in
formation] to us as quickly as
possible.”
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