Montgomery appraisal district board fires chief appraiser

The Montgomery Central Appraisal District will undergo a leadership overhaul after the board of directors fired its chief appraiser and voters elected three new members.

Chairman Bruce Tough confirmed Thursday that the board unanimously voted to terminate Janet Jennings-Doyle’s employment during an April 30 meeting. He declined to provide any additional information.

Jennings-Doyle was fired due to “work-related misconduct,” including policy violation and “lack of candor,” according to a statement from the board in meeting minutes.

“All of this has resulted in damage to the district and exposed it to even greater potential damage, including the loss of confidence from the taxing entities that the district reports to,” the minutes state.

According to the minutes of the board’s April 30 special meeting, Board Member Arthur Bredehoft moved to terminate Jennings-Doyle immediately.

Jennings-Doyle began work at the district as interim chief appraiser in October 2022 before being named to the position in December of that year.

She could not be reached for comment.

Sherry Hunter is serving as interim chief appraiser.

New board members

Former Conroe Mayor Webb Melder and longtime residents Pete Palmer and Gary Beck were elected May 4 to fill the atlarge positions created by Proposition 4 last year. The new board members will take office July 1.

Proposition 4 added the three new positions to districts with a population of 75,000 or more. The additional members increased the board to nine voting members. Five members are appointed by governing bodies of participating taxing entities, and three are now elected in the general election by residents.

The board of directors is responsible for hiring the chief appraiser, adopting its biennial reappraisal plan, and adopting its annual budget.

Melder said he, Palmer and Beck have a learning curve ahead. He said Palmer and Beck both have experience with the district as members of the appraiser review board.

“I’ve got my ears wide open and I’ve got to educate myself,” Melder said.

Melder said hiring a new chief appraiser was not a high priority.

“(I) didn’t detect any sense of urgency to find a new chief appraiser,” Melder said of the current board. “The last thing I want to do is show up as a newbie and try and dictate something when I have no years of experience of time on the board.”

Palmer said the chief appraiser position must be addressed once the new members are seated. He said the board faces some challenges.

“I’ve got to gather a lot of the facts and come to a good conclusion and develop a plan of action,” Palmer said.

Suits, exemption delays

Last year, the district faced a record number of property lawsuits and a delay in applying homestead exemptions to 11,000 homeowners, causing a revenue shortage for taxing entities, including Montgomery County.

“In 38 years of doing this, we have never had a year quite like this one,” Tax Assessor-Collector Tammy McRae said during a special commissioners’ court meeting in August. “We lost a lot of value last year.”

At that time, McRae said the district had 19,500 tax appraisal protests pending.

The district’s budget has also continued to climb, reaching $15.5 million in 2024, a 17% increase over 2023.

During a budget presentation in July to Montgomery County commissioners, Jennings-Doyle said the budget increases are not in operations but were to cover costs for the district’s appraisal review board and legal fees. The budget also included $4.8 million to replace the district’s antiquated software.

According to information presented by Jennings-Doyle, Montgomery County has grown 31.4 percent in the past five years. With more than 370,000 parcels, it ranks 10 out of the 254 counties in Texas.

In 2021, the appraisal review board handled about 52,000 property tax appraisal protests. For 2023 that number was just below 100,000 protests.