Tarrant County Commissioners Court votes to recall Tarrant Appraisal District board chair

Tarrant County Commissioners Court voted to recall Kathryn Wilemon from her position as chair of the Tarrant Appraisal District board of directors during a March 7 meeting.

The court voted 4-1 to recall Wilemon, who resigned from the position a day after Keller City Council initiated the recall process. Commissioner Gary Fickes provided the sole dissenting vote.

Keller City Council voted unanimously to initiate the recall process during a Feb. 21 meeting. During council discussion, a lack of transparency and accountability were cited as the main reasons why they supported the move.

Wilemon was elected chair of the board in 2021. Board members are elected by taxing entities, such as cities and school districts, instead of taxpayers.

Several people spoke in support of moving forward with the recall of Wilemon during the public comment portion of the commissioner’s court. Local Realtor Chandler Crouch and Keller Mayor Armin Mizani also spoke during public comment.

Mizani made a statement Feb. 23 after it was confirmed that Wilemon had resigned. He mentioned distrust in the appraisal process and a rise in protests of assessments, according to the statement.

Between 2017 and 2021, protests of appraisals saw about a 14.3% increase filed with the Tarrant Appraisal Review Board, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts website.

During the March 3 meeting, Mizani urged the court to vote to recall, because the process had already begun before Wilemon resigned.

“Bottom line: Keller believes that the replacement of a board member that is subject to a recall be limited to those jurisdictions that voted for the board member initially, even though the board member resigned as a result of that effort,” he said.

Chapter 6 of the Texas State Property Tax Code designates two paths for filling a vacancy left by the director of the board. If the recall process is completed, the taxing entities that voted during that process will nominate and vote on a list of candidates to determine the director’s replacement. If a vacancy occurs on the board unrelated to recall, then the taxing entities will nominate a list of candidates which will then be voted on by the board.

The Tarrant Appraisal Board voted to file for a notice of vacancy on March 3 after Wilemon announced her resignation.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify the recall and vacancy processes designated by the Texas State Property Tax Code.