This is unfortunate. I personally would like to see Gene Bryan subjected to a grand jury investigation. His mishandling of the appraiser's office may well have inappropriately deprived the citizens of Wyandotte County of more money than any other group ever.

Don't give up T.J.

While I'm at it, why is the UG hiring temps when regular employees are being furloughed? It seems to me that it makes more sense to let the regular workers do the work rather than send them home and let an inexperienced worker do the work. How dumb is that?

Bad link, Nick, couldn't find the ruling.

Will correct it and try to post PDF on here soon. Thanks, John.

My problem is TJ Reardon sounds way too much like that dirtbag Ed Powers -- relying far too much on personal attacks and not nearly enough on ideas that will actually make a difference for Wyandotte County.

I also would like to see the appraiser's office fully investigated, and follow that with an investigation of the Board of Tax Appeals as well -- I'd even submit my own experiences with both of these as evidence of something fishy going on.

"After the Wyandotte County Election Commissioner validated over 900 of the signatures", the UG and BPU filed objections in November.
Judge Barry Bennington ruled that less than 400 of the original signatures in Reardon's petition were valid.
I'm lost on that one. The Wyandotte County Election Commissioner's validation is no good?
Nick, please explain this to us.

Finding an honest judge in Kansas is a chore. That would be one explanation, Joseph. And Ken, you're right on track. I've filed a formal complaint against Erin Hatton as part of my appeal to the Court of Tax Appeals as it's called now. Here's the text of the complaint. See if anything rings a bell.

DOCKET NO. 2009-5579-EQSC

FORMAL COMPLAINT AGAINST HEARING OFFICER

This complaint is against Small Claims Hearing Officer, Erin Hatton and is submitted as an Addendum to my appeal from Small Claims.

On Sept. 28, 2009, a Small Claims hearing was held in reference to the above property. The hearing officer was presented with the following information:

The County’s sole exhibit was a list of “comps” all but one of which fell outside professional standards regarding price differentials, age and style. These comps were not relevant however given the fact that on cross-examination the county admitted that the comps were not used in the evaluation of the property. Instead, the Appraiser’s Office had simply reduced the previous year’s evaluations by 4%, except for the subject property.

In response, I presented numerous comps from the Heartland MLS system that were stylistically similar to subject save for the fact that they were superior in condition and statistically to the subject property. In addition, an analysis was provided comparing the actual sales price of every house sold in Edwardsville during the previous 180 days for under $200,000.00 to the appraised value assessed by the county. Since the county data was from 2008, the Appraiser’s value was reduced by 4% per the County’s testimony.

The result of the analysis was that every house in Edwardsville sold during the previous 180 days was appraised by the County, on average, for 141% of the actual sales value. Only one property in the entire sample sold for more than the County’s appraisal. My comps also demonstrated that stylistically similar, but statistically superior properties to mine sold in the $100,000.00 range and when adjusted for condition suggested a value for my property in the $70,000.00 - $80,000.00 range.

Restricting the analysis to units selling at, or below, $150,000.00 demonstrated that the County’s appraisal was, on average, 171% of the actual sales value and further, not one unit had sold for a price equal to, or greater than the County’s appraised value.

In her Decision Ms. Hatton focused on an MRA estimate which magically mirrored the County’s 4% reduction (denied my property). She further referenced the County’s market estimate and while admitting that the comps were “not highly similar to the subject” that the County’s market estimate supports its currently-assigned valuation”. However, no where in her decision did she indicate that the County had admitted that it had not used their own market estimate in establishing value.

No where in her decision does she mention my comps and the statistical analysis of the Appraiser’s consistent overappraisal of properties in Edwardsville (resulting in a budget crisis for the City as a result of successful appeals of the Appraiser’s values). The entirety of my data based statistical analysis was ignored despite the fact that am a licensed real estate broker and have, among other experience, prepared literally thousands of Broker Price Opinions for banks establishing the sales prices for their Real Estate Owned properties. One can only imagine how this Hearing Officer treats citizens with no statistical data to support what they know intuitively are the excessive and outrageous over evaluations that have plagued Wyandotte County throughout Gene Bryan’s corrupt reign.

It should be noted that I have found the employees of the Appraiser's office to be honest and courteous. Unfortunately, they are stuck with a boss who I am told is forced on us by the state. The Appraiser's are apparently assigned by the state and the fear is that if we dump this loser we'll get one just as bad. I don't know how you could get any worse. How do you get any worse than to be wrong virtually all of the time?

What I've discovered about the appeals process is that unless they can couch their decision in some aspect of the Appraiser's figures you're screwed. Present them all the data you want and it is ignored. A black man accused of raping a white woman in 1950s Mississippi would get a fairer hearing.

Just as a giggle, I did a comparison with properties that sold for over $1,000,000.00 in Leawood to see how they were treated. On average they were assessed at under 68% of their actual sales values and when compared with houses in the inner city of KCK the same house if moved to the NE section of KCK would be taxed 280% higher than it would in Leawood. That's holding mill levies constant. However the average mill levy in Wyandotte County for the year I compared was 137% of the average mill levy in Johnson County. So the actual differential was 383% higher for the same house moved from Leawood to KCK.

The system is corrupt. That's why we drastically need T.J. Reardon's investigations and that's why the system itself is going to fight back. I trust the election office in Wyandotte County and I trust our local Wyandotte County employees to give us a fair shake as best they're allowed to do by their state imposed master, but I don't trust any judge in the state of Kansas, top to bottom, nor do I trust anyone with the Court of tax Appeals office. You can't sit and hear thousands upon thousands of appeals year in and year out and not notice a pattern, particularly when that pattern is as pronounced as it is in Wyandotte County.

We need a new county appraiser. It would be almost impossible to do any worse than Gene Bryan. We need a criminal investigation into the appraisals that have occurred during his tenure. This investigation specifically needs to examine the appraisals by price range (i.e. 0-50K, 50-150K, 150-250K and so on).

Presently, even with all of the masking that goes on with the aggregated data Wyandotte County, as a whole, is over appraised by 105% according to state data. The system is corrupt, it's unfair and discriminates on those least able to bear the burden of the inequities. We need more petition drives, not less, until we force the state and these sleazy judges to actually give us an honest hearing.

Joe, fire Gene Bryan.

This is an unfortunate decision, and this decision hurts those least able to fight back.

You don't have to look very hard to see that WYCO is immersed in corruption. Trust me not all cities and counties are run this way.

Politicians that don't listen to their citizens are voted out all the time, city managers that don't manage are fired all the time, tax appraisers that overappraise are fired all the time.

ITS TIME FOR ANOTHER PETITION, WE ALL NEED TO HELP WITH THIS ONE, NOT JUST TJ.

The investigation needs to be expanded to the state level. COTA needs to be investigated as well as the system that imposes weasels like Bryan on a county. We need to know why millionaires in Johnson County pay less than 68% of the actual value on their properties while rates of 200% are commonplace throughout Wyandotte County. We need to know why COTA sits and stares year in and year out at a mountain of evidence that we're being over appraised and does nothing about it. These investigations need to be criminal in nature. The amount of money that has been bilked out of the citizens of Wyandotte County by Gene Bryan and his COTA lackeys is astronomical.

Sen. Steineger has been very helpful, but we need to get our entire legislative delegation on board with seeing that Wyandotte County is treated fairly because presently, it is not.

I am curious to know how did the judge realized that less that 400 of the signatures were valid, those signatures have been checked before by a Commissioner. Who is telling the truth here? How many signatures does a grand jury need to be granted? I am just curious...
Motion to File Document Under Seal