Officials say probe, lawsuit needed for accuracy

Subhead

Lemon, local officials address SCAD board; Crooks says requested information cannot be released

Image
Body

Four Scurry County taxing entities want to make sure mineral valuations were done correctly. Scurry County Appraisal District (SCAD) officials said they want the same thing, but will not violate the law for those entities to prove their point.
During today’s SCAD board of directors meeting, Dallas attorney D. Brent Lemon and representatives from Snyder ISD, Scurry County Hospital District and Western Texas College discussed their goal concerning mineral values.
Snyder ISD Superintendent Dr. Eddie Bland said the goal is not going after SCAD  employees or the board of directors, but to make sure the valuations are accurate. Bland said the probe is not targeting a single company, but Chief Appraiser Larry Crooks said information requested from Lemon indicates that only one company’s valuations have been targeted.
“That information you have requested from Kinder Morgan is confidential. I can’t turn it over to you,” Crooks said.
Crooks also said Lemon and U.S. Consults, LLC, had requested similar information from the Pecos County Appraisal District and were denied the information through an Attorney General’s opinion. SCAD’s attorney, Kirk Swinney, has requested a similar opinion from the Attorney General.
Crooks said the information being requested is also available through the state Comptroller’s office and suggested Lemon go that route for the information.
“I am not going to stand getting sued by Kinder Morgan. All these years, we have had a good relationship with Kinder Morgan,” Crooks said.
Lemon said he is trying to calculate what the correct valuations should be. 
“With the previous error, it is worth taking a closer look at (T.Y.) Pickett,” he said. “We are wanting to look at the top producers. There is a large variance in the formula required by the comptroller and the numbers sworn to by the SEC and Railroad Commission filings. There is a big difference between that and Pickett.”
Lemon said he has tried to be cooperative during his probe and did not understand why the district or Pickett would not provide the information. He added that he wanted to know the formula numbers used by Pickett in calculating values.
“If they are accurate, my job is done. If not, let’s get it fixed,” Lemon said.
SCAD board chairman Fred Cross asked Lemon how it would be determined if the numbers are accurate.
“The consulting experts will let us know,” he said.
“So it goes back to personal opinion. If Pickett is confident enough with the numbers, I am comfortable with Pickett,” Cross said.
Crooks said the entities and Lemon should listen to Pickett’s Stephen Campbell and the process used in determining values before passing judgment.
“As long as the numbers are verified,” Lemon said.
Board member Joe Taylor asked the taxing entity representatives if they would have hired a lawyer and threatened a lawsuit if Pickett had not been used for determining mineral values. Cogdell Chief Executive Officer Ella Helms said she would talk to Taylor privately about that issue.
“I don’t think any of us would complain,” Bland added.
Crooks said replacing Pickett could be more expensive and with no guarantees future valuations would be error-free. In 2016, the comptroller’s office discovered that Pickett made a clerical error inputting values. 
Crooks kept referring to Pecos County and Kinder Morgan’s valuations there.
“Kinder Morgan thinks they are being singled out and are probably getting fed up,” he said. “If the entities want to challenge the values, it has to be the entire mineral values and not one company.”
Helms said Lemon has been looking at the top three producers in the county.
After Lemon and the local officials left, Crooks told the board that the June 13 Appraisal Review Board (ARB) protest hearing for the case had been canceled. Crooks said Lemon could not attend on that date and another date will have to be agreed upon by the review board’s attorney and Lemon.
If the ARB favors the current valuations, the entities can challenge that result in district court, Lemon said.
Crooks said SCAD is not required to provide Lemon information prior to the meeting because the burden of proving errors lies with the entities.
To date, SCAD has paid Swinney $6,823 for his services for reviewing information in this protest.