Denton CAD chief appraiser presents defense of her work to Board of Directors

“We are blessed beyond belief to have you (Hope) and Don leading DCAD. The job performance of you (Hope McClure) and Don Spencer has been A+ off the charts. Much progress has been made and we just need to keep working together to stay the course and continue this positive trend.” — Quote attributed to a current Denton Central Appraisal District board member, Jan. 7

These are just a few of the quotes from Denton Central Appraisal District Chief Appraiser Hope McClure’s new 10-page rebuttal of 46-year central appraisal district veteran Richard Petree’s report for DCAD’s Board of Directors. In McClure’s document, she accuses the consultant of plagiarizing his own work and does her best to put to rest Petree’s claim about a toxic culture at the appraisal district.

Petree, a consultant with Abilene-based Western Valuation and Consulting, disputed her plagiarism claim and stressed to board members Thursday afternoon at the DCAD Board of Directors meeting that he had written “every word of that report.”

McClure released her written response to reporters Wednesday evening, posted the document on the appraisal district’s website and then presented it shortly after Petree finished his presentation at Thursday afternoon’s meeting to a packed room. Some of those in attendance included Denton County Judge Andy Eads, county Commissioner Ryan Williams, Lewisville Mayor TJ Gilmore and a representative from state Rep. Tan Parker’s office.

Williams, Gilmore, Parker’s representative and several other people were there to request that the board delay its vote on the $2.7 million increased budget McClure’s office is requesting, noting that most appraisal districts don’t start discussing their budgets until August. The board agreed to table it until the July 28 meeting.

“I hope this report can serve as closure on Denton CAD’s past,” McClure wrote in a Wednesday evening email to the Denton Record-Chronicle. “My sole focus is moving forward, rebuilding and rebranding the Denton Central Appraisal District.”

But McClure’s document is more of a 10-page defense of why she is the best person for the top job at the appraisal district. After a one-page description of how the appraisal district works, McClure spends another page highlighting her qualifications, education — an MBA from Texas Woman’s University — and supplemental education — certified tax administrator, 2016; certified chief appraiser, 2015, and registered professional appraiser, 2011.

Eads was upset that McClure had delayed Petree’s report and questioned the language she used in her document when she wrote “DCAD.” (Is it the staff, a manager, the deputy chief appraiser?) He called her rebuttal sloppy.

He also pointed out that in his 16 years of public service, he has rarely had to come to the appraisal district. But since McClure took over in 2020, he’s been there several times, Eads said, because property owners’ requests for exemptions are late and on a nine-month delay.

“This entity has a huge transparency problem and has a huge credibility problem,” Eads told board members.

According to the appraisal district, there’s about a six-month waiting period to get a homestead exemption. The deputy chief appraiser, Don Spencer, said the district has a backlog of about 7,300 requests, due in part to explosive growth in Denton County and understaffing at DCAD.

Both McClure and Spencer praised their staff for their dedication, hard work and willingness to serve the community. A couple of board members asked what else they could do to appease taxpayers, such as returning their phone calls within 48 hours.

“I can only squeeze so much blood out of a turnip,” McClure said.

McClure has been in defense mode since she accepted the job as chief appraiser in 2020. Over the past two years, she has faced criticism for the way she has been running the office. Eads has called it mismanaged and one mayor called the way McClure and her staff handled protests in 2021 illegal, according to a Jan. 11 editorial in The Dallas Morning News.

The Denton County Commissioners Court considered litigation but instead decided to send the DCAD Board of Directors a letter that outlined commissioners’ frustrations: “We are writing to bring our grave concerns involving the Denton Central Appraisal District to your immediate attention. A series of occurrences in the past two years have exhibited a lack of transparency and mismanagement on the part of the Denton Central Appraisal District.”

On May 13, The Dallas Morning News’ Watchdog columnist dropped a report about how most Denton County homeowners were still waiting on their appraisal notices. He pointed out that the final deadline for protests was 45 days behind neighboring cities and that critics blamed McClure who blamed lack of employees.

“The constant bumbling at Denton CAD illustrates how county chief appraisers face little oversight, only a board of directors,” wrote Watchdog columnist Dave Lieber. “It’s difficult to dislodge incompetent chief appraisers. That’s one more indication of how Texas’ property tax system continues to fail property owners. In this case, local governments that depend on getting good numbers in a timely way are the victims.”

Then came a column about Petree’s leaked 50-page report, which board members had commissioned.

Petree said at Thursday’s meeting that his report is mostly positive and offers several recommendations for McClure to improve as a leader.

At the meeting, Petree claimed he didn’t leak the report and said he normally tries to meet with a chief appraiser before he releases his report on a district, but he simply didn’t have enough time to meet with McClure.

In response, McClure went into attack mode to dispute Petree’s criticism. She delayed the release of his report to board members because she said she didn’t receive it until 3 p.m. Friday, May 27, before the board met the following Tuesday, May 31, which didn’t give them enough time to review Petree’s report.

Since the report had been leaked, McClure told board members she decided to allow Petree to present his original draft and she would prepare her own presentation in the spirit of transparency.

One of the board members asked McClure why she had put together her document, and McClure said she had taken offense to Petree’s claim that he had found “serious problems with the culture that need immediate attention.”

Petree said his claim about a toxic work culture at the district was based on his interviews with current and former employees.

In response, McClure conducted her own anonymous survey of current employees. She said that 75% of the staff responded. Her findings included:

• For employees who had worked there two years or less, a majority found the culture at DCAD better than their previous employer.
• For employees who had worked at DCAD more than two years, a majority found the culture better now than under the previous administration.
• A majority of the employees trust that McClure cares about their interests and the best interest of DCAD.
• A majority also feel that they’re treated fairly and equally at DCAD.
• All of them enjoy working with their co-workers.

McClure claimed that the toxicity she has experienced is with the three largest taxing entities, whose representatives were in attendance Thursday, and asked them what she could work on to improve their relationships and then invited them to come sit with an appraiser.

She said she was “willing to do anything to help build that [relationship]” because she needs their support.

She also mentioned that she has been wearing many hats and handling all communications, which was why she hired an interim spokesperson, Emer Sanabria.

In his report, Petree warns board members it could be difficult to find good employees because the appraisal district community is small and “hesitant to apply to districts in turmoil.”

In her rebuttal, McClure argued that since she took over, Denton CAD has received more than 500 job applications from applicants at appraisal districts for Tarrant, Collin, Dallas, Travis and other counties.

“I have poured blood, sweat and tears into this district” to make it better over a period of time, McClure told board members Thursday.

She also offered several more arguments in her document that don’t relate to Petree’s report but to her critics, including that her mother, who used to work for DCAD but wasn’t a chief appraiser, had nothing to do with McClure landing the chief appraiser job.

“Denton CAD found numerous other [discrepancies] with Petree’s audit, but it feels repetitive to continue to break apart this report,” McClure wrote at the end of her document. “So we will conclude by saying, Denton CAD was expecting more from this report. We are disappointed with not only the quality of the report, but with Petree’s approach.”

At the end of the meeting, McClure said the culture is good but could be better. All agreed that they should focus on the future. The board thanked Petree and asked McClure to develop a plan for the future of DCAD.

“This is a high-stress job,” one board member said. “People have hated tax collectors for 2,000 years.”