Brimner responds: ‘A hit dog will holler’

Editor, The Sun:

In response to Mr. James Burke’s comments in the July 25th edition of the Wakulla Sun regarding my letter explaining a 2023 Florida DOR analysis of our tax roll:
First, I acknowledge and appreciate Mr. Burke’s service as Interim Property Appraiser from April 2020 through October 2020, during which he assumed all supervisory responsibilities of the office. I also appreciate his many years of service and his temporary services as a consultant when I took office. However, not all his advice was taken. As an example, Mr. Burke advised me to include funds to pay for spouses/partners to attend conferences at taxpayer cost. This did not happen. I take my wife to conferences, but I take her at my cost.
Observation 1: Mr. Burke suggested I downplayed his and the staff’s efforts in preparing the 2021 tax roll. This is not the case. I stated, “My first year was spent building the infrastructure of an office and few changes were made in 2021 assessments,” which implicitly acknowledges the work done by him and my staff without my close oversight.
Observation 2: Mr. Burke implies I was incorrect about lacking the necessary information to manage the office. My actual statement was that the destruction of all paper records “deprived me of this office’s historical actions.” As Mr. Burke knows, my first year involved fundamental changes to office operations, including:

Cleaning up the work environment for safety and morale.
After addressing these basic management issues, I focused on review of our appraisal functions, discovering significant inconsistencies in property assessments. Identical properties were categorized differently, and lots in the same subdivision were valued inconsistently. These issues indicated that prior statistical analyses were manipulated to meet Florida DOR requirements.
As Mark Twain noted, “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” I prioritized fair and impartial assessments over merely passing statistical checks. Once the underlying problems are resolved, the statistics will naturally align.
If re-elected, I will continue to focus on fair and impartial assessments so taxing authorities can further lower millage rates. I humbly request your vote on Aug 20th.
Sincerely,
Ed Brimner, CFA

Implementing professional work standards.

Demanding accountability.

Revising internal purchasing procedures to prevent theft of public funds.

Consolidating multiple bank accounts into one for better transparency.

Addressing longstanding IRS liens from 2015.