GAINESVILLE - Hall County Commissioners Monday agreed to wait for District Attorney Lee Darragh's investigative findings concerning alleged wrong doing in the Board of Tax Assessors office.
That wrong doing centers on recent allegations that the Board of Assessors chairman overcharged his per diem pay by nearly $50,000.
Three weeks ago Former Chief Real Estate appraiser James Cantrell and former Chief Personal Property appraiser Lyman Martin accused Emory Martin Junior of checking off 477 days worth of per diem pay he was not entitled to, totaling $47,000.
Cantrell and Lyman Martin cited Georgia law, which states that an officer or employee who knowingly makes a certificate or writing which contains any statement he knows to be false shall upon conviction be punished by imprisonment for not less than or not more than five years.
Both Cantrell and Martin said their goal was corrective action, perhaps in the form of a county commission performance review, since the Commission appoints Board of Assessors members.
Commissioner Bobby Banks called for action, saying he'll wait to hear from the D.A., but not for long.
"As long as he comes back to us within a reasonable time, but if not then we need to instigate our own plan," Banks said. " I don't want the public to think we're going to sweep this under the rug; it's something that needs to be looked into."
Banks continued: "I'm not condemning anybody, not saying anybody's guilty, I'm saying we need to look at it."
Chairman Tom Oliver proposed overviewing all county boards, including the county commission, to assure policies are followed.
"We want to see what our guidelines are, what our responsibilities are, what our meeting schedules are and how we deal with this," Oliver said. "We're going to check with other counties to see how they do it; we think it's something we're going to create a policy for."
Thursday
October 17th, 2024
11:26AM
