Chief appraiser Mayo calls it quits

Linda Mayo

Chief appraiser Mayo calls it quits

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in News

Friday, March 5. 2010

Comments (57)

Chief appraiser Linda Mayo of the Lamar County Tax Assessors office resigned under pressure Friday afternoon.

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#1 D on 03/05/10 at 02:55 PM

What a shame, Lamar County lost a good employee.

#2 GM on 03/05/10 at 03:26 PM

There is obviously something going on in the Lamar County Tax Assessors office.

Mr. Geiger,
May I offer a suggestion?

The citizens of the county have a right to know what the shake-up in the tax office is all about. How about a straight forward interview with Mayo and ask the direct questions. As mentioned “her severance package” is being discussed. One question should at least be concerned with that severance package to find out if the package will have anything to do with how she answers the questions. If the package sugarcoats the facts, an interview would be a waste of time.

I am of the opinion that the tax office as ruffled the feathers of local elected leadership and that leadership is retaliating with a show of power. I am really wondering if job performance has anything to do with this shake-up.

#2.1 Joe on 03/06/10 at 07:08 AM

And people wonder why I left Lamar County for Alabama.

#2.1.1 M.S. on 03/06/10 at 12:27 PM

That's still a very questionable call.

#2.1.2 Anonymous on 03/09/10 at 10:07 AM

the only thing good that has ever came out of Alabama is I-20 and it is rough as hell!

#3 Anon on 03/05/10 at 04:14 PM

Guess the Board is going to get rid of everyone that works for the county and hire all new people...what a shame.

#4 Lamar Citizen on 03/05/10 at 04:15 PM

Are we as citizens going to keep letting the Board continue to fire/make employees quit?

#4.1 taxpayer on 03/05/10 at 07:13 PM

It seems it's time for the citizens to follow the example of the commissioners and make a clean sweep of the Board of Commissioners. Several have terms ending this year. Let's remove them too. There needs to be open and honest communication with the citizens regarding the justifications for the terminations in the tax assessors office and board. Without that, we must assume the Board of Commissioners is guilty of abuse of power.

#5 ann on 03/05/10 at 04:19 PM

She has not resigned yet.

#6 Anonymous on 03/05/10 at 05:10 PM

It is sad to see what is going on in our county.
How many people have lost their job with our county departments this year?
Just look at what Bill Brown is doing and getting away with it.
It is who you are... not job performance.
Get ready for the unemployment line if you work for our county.

#6.1 Anonymous on 03/06/10 at 04:49 PM

The drinking & driving, fish fries, or the social website surfing on county time?

#7 Anonymous on 03/05/10 at 05:59 PM

People who try to do a good fair job get booted out. This is because she raised property values on the big barnesville homes instead of letting the county people finance the county government. The county commission is run by barnesville buddies.

#8 Taxpayer on 03/05/10 at 08:44 PM

The Board of Assessors called a illegal meeting. They are suppose to let the citizens know 24 hours in advance. How long are we going to let this county officials go on do things illegal? The commissioners and Wayne Patterson are power hungry. We need to do something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#9 Anon on 03/05/10 at 10:02 PM

Glad she is gone..We had several problems and she would not work with us...

#9.1 Anonymous on 03/06/10 at 07:44 AM

Don't be too glad. She has NOT resigned yet.

Why should she "work with you" or work with anyone? She is supposed to assess the property value using the same method for everyone. Who do you think you are, someone special?

If people would leave her alone and let her do her job, everyone would have values set using the same standard. It doesn't matter much if our properties are assessed at 5x the value or 20% of the value, so long as they are all assessed on the same standards.

The total tax AMOUNT extracted from us all is set by the amount of money the county needs to run, not by the value of the property. The value of the property determines who among us pays a larger or smaller share of the big pot. When you get a deal on your property by beating up some little girl in an office you are shifting part of your tax share over to the rest of us.

We should get rid of the politicians who have secret meetings and ask people to resign.

#10 Anonymous on 03/06/10 at 06:35 AM

Mr. Chairman, here's your notice: You're next on the list to go, with Wayne Patterson right behind you. You were crooked before you ever went into that office, and it's just a matter of time before you're gone, too.

#11 Anonymous on 03/06/10 at 09:04 AM

Patterson is the problem. He is running off a lot of good people. He may be the single biggest mistake this county ever made. Bring back Bob Zellner.

#12 Anonymous on 03/06/10 at 09:13 AM

Who are the Barnesville buddies that you talk about? I am not sure I know who they are....do they run everything?

#12.1 Anonymous on 03/06/10 at 12:29 PM

They run JM and NT.

#13 Anonymous on 03/06/10 at 10:06 AM

Thrash is in the middle of all of this.

#14 Anonymous on 03/06/10 at 08:55 PM

Funny how you post only what you want to!!!!

#15 Bob on 03/06/10 at 11:23 PM

What's wrong with Thrash?

#15.1 beenhereallmylife on 03/07/10 at 09:25 AM

yea, it seems as if she is the only one who is standing up to people and representing the people. Maybe she is stepping on some toes who don't like it - or maybe she is exposing some things going on that some don't want exposed. When she came by my house when she was running I told her I wanted her to get in there and see what is goin on and make some changes. She will have my vote again

#16 Anonymous on 03/07/10 at 05:11 AM

What I'm hearing is the new board of assessors called an illegal secret meeting to get an appraiser they could control. I thought the new people were appointed to improve things and follow the law. Not to turn back the clock. It looks like the changes that were made were just to get the old system back again. You watch now. They will try to bring back some of the old problem people. I'll bet money on it.

#17 Anonymous on 03/07/10 at 08:23 AM

Wayne Patterson is NOT the problem. He is a paid employee and works at the direction of the Commissioners. He is not an elected official.

#17.1 Anony on 03/07/10 at 09:20 AM

So what, KR ain't either but that still dont stop him from abusing power.

#18 Anonymous on 03/07/10 at 05:16 PM

Why do these problems with not following laws always reappear? It seems every time employees or officials are changed things get worse instead of better.

#19 Looking in on 03/07/10 at 08:39 PM

Linda has been exceptional in continuing to educate herself and her staff with classes pertaining to their positions. Knowledge is too much of a threat to Lamar County commissioners.

#20 Anonymous on 03/08/10 at 09:30 AM

Why is someone here saying this person hasn't resigned yet, but this article states she did?

#21 Linda Mayo on 03/08/10 at 10:46 AM

I would like to set things straight. At the time this article was printed I had not reigned. I had planned on resigning at the meeting thursday but John Hamrick decided with a few commissioners and Wayne Patterson it was in my best interest for me to resign friday. They thought I would damage things. Amagine that. I did not resign until Sunday afternoon. The 2 board members called a illegal meeting, without the chairman. If anyone would like to ask me any qustions or talk to me email me at linda_mayo_24@yahoo.com leave me your number and name and I will contact you back. There's lots of things taxpayers really need to know. We need to stop this control problem. Again thanks to everyone that has stood with me on these problems.

#21.1 Anonymous on 03/08/10 at 10:09 PM

If this is really you, Linda, why dont' you make your comments known to the public instead of whoever contacts you? If the public needs to know, then let them know!!

#21.2 SodaBob's Daddy on 03/09/10 at 07:49 PM

In my opinion Linda Mayo got booted because she tried to get property values inside the city fair in comparison to values outside the city. Everyone in this area knows, or should know if they did a little research, the county is funding Barnesville.

By the way, I don't care if Mayo makes typos. I care if people are still having these illegal meetings. There isn't anything that was going to fall apart or explode over following normal legal procedures.

This post was checked by free iespell spellchecker. http://www.iespell.com/

#22 WI John Galt on 03/08/10 at 02:21 PM

Ms Mayo your written statement is full of grammar and spelling mistakes. Just like your performance very poor!!!! It was never about control but about performance!!!

#22.1 Anonymous on 03/08/10 at 02:24 PM

I have to agree with Mr. Galt. It is amazing that a public official would write in such a manner.

#22.2 GM on 03/08/10 at 03:29 PM

Are you pointing fault or is this something you have all the facts on? Why is the performance poor? What do you base it on? Did you work in the tax assessors office and was privy to all the work done there. Was you in a management position there.

You can't base a person's job performance from writings in a blog. The owner of the paper writes and never uses caps but I don't use that to base his writing skills on.

Therefore, are you stating an opinion or is it facts?

#23 Anonymous on 03/08/10 at 02:58 PM

What does "Amagine" mean? I "Amagine" that is what is wrong with all the property evaluations in the county. An ignorant person running the show! I salute the member of the board who finally had the courage to rid that office of the problem. Now lets get someone in there who can do the job. I "Amagine" the board will start looking for someone soon. LOL!!

#23.1 GM on 03/08/10 at 07:16 PM

You said, "I salute the member of the board who finally had the courage to rid that office of the problem."

Now if we could only find someone with the courage to use their name instead of anonymous when they have something to say.

#24 Anonymous on 03/08/10 at 03:36 PM

Small town politics are a joke. This is why I hate politics in general. He said she said. I shouldn't have even looked at this forum today.

I'm not from this town but I've lived here 6 years and call it home. There is corruption and power struggles in every town in America. That is the very definition of politics today.

I'd rather dig ditches and sleep well at night knowing that I put in a honest days work than ever be an elected official of any kind. ALL elected officials have big heads and even bigger egos, that's why they run in the first place.

Forget it people, you'll never know the truth and life with go on. Unless you plan on a torch & shovel march Frankenstein style.

#25 CChester on 03/08/10 at 06:45 PM

Like you all have never made any typos!!!!!
Thats right Lamar is ran by perfect people...lol Thats a joke..

#25.1 Anonymous on 03/08/10 at 07:00 PM

Lamar County is run by perfect people, not is ran!!!!!!!

#26 Anonymous on 03/08/10 at 08:33 PM

One should have to pass an IQ test before being allowed to post on this forum! It would take much less time to read all the posts!

#27 abbycadabby on 03/09/10 at 06:08 AM

our county is in a hell of a mess, with all that has happen in the last few months I have no faith in any elected official

#27.1 jsimmons on 03/09/10 at 09:40 AM

I have never had more hope for the future of this County. It is great to see some leadership in this County that are cleaning house!!!!!

#28 Anonymous on 03/09/10 at 06:42 AM

"Amagine" if we all had an IQ! I "Amagine" we would not even be on the blog.

#29 Anonymous on 03/09/10 at 07:04 AM

#28..we DO all have an IQ..some lower than others.
#27..how many of these officials are republican?

#30 Anonymous on 03/09/10 at 10:06 AM

The Beatles did not realize that they misspelled the name of their song. it should have been "amagine." Boy- those English rock stars can't get anything right!

#31 Anonymous on 03/09/10 at 07:45 PM

Ya know the sad thing? Half of you are probably working on the tax payers dollar,which I pay , and are spending your time on this Blog! Quit throwing stones at people and look at your own life, I'm sure theres alot there you can fix!

#31.1 jsimmons on 03/10/10 at 08:12 AM

Very, very, very well stated.

#32 Anonymous on 03/10/10 at 09:06 AM

When we can't attack or dispute the content of what someone says, we can at least attack the way they say it.

#33 Anon on 03/10/10 at 10:13 AM

Poker Anyone?

#34 abbycadabby on 03/10/10 at 12:16 PM

It concerns me that just a few people are making decisions for our county that are probably illegal ie closed door meetings. I have known many of these control freaks for years, some were bullies in school and have never outgrown it. Maybe we need a tea party for our sad little county..

#34.1 Anonymous on 03/10/10 at 05:51 PM

We do need a tea party but not to support the republicans. They all need tossed out from any party. I'm voting against anyone who is in office especially locally.

#34.1.1 abbycadabby on 03/11/10 at 02:16 AM

I agree and plan to tell every elected official and Mr. Patterson when and wherever I see them. I will not vote for anyone in office, county, state, federal, I do not care a rats patuddy if you are a Democrat, Republican or Liberterian I will not vote for you. On the local level this begins with Abbott and ends with ???. Isn't it a shame Roberts and Patterson can't be voted out? I normally am not very political, I'm still not, but I do believe in honesty, integrity and government for the people...

#34.1.1.1 Anonymous on 03/11/10 at 10:25 AM

Right you are. Most of out local decisions are made by persons who are not elected and who seem to have lifetime jobs. We have no influence over them at all. In Washington the big money is what talks not the people. Across the country people are brainwashed by the media and Internet lies. To think I fought against the communists in the 60's only to have this happen to our country.

#35 Anon on 03/11/10 at 12:32 AM

Again, Poker Anyone?

#36 Anonymous on 03/11/10 at 02:14 PM

What does poker anyone mean?

#37 anon on 03/11/10 at 08:15 PM

When my mother retired she had worked in this office for 34 years and made $34,000.00 per year! The office was 20 yrs behind the times! There were many times the county had to hire qualified people to run this office. Most of the people she trained who were competent went to work in neighboring counties as cheif apps. making from $100.000 to 150,000. per year! No one wants to Run anything for less and have to put up with THE BOARD AND COMMISSIONERS! They hired someone for a little over that but she needed more time to qualify for chief. They gave her the job knowing she wasn't qualified and it wasn't until the crap hit the fan that they blamed it all on her and fired her for not being qualified! Thank God my mother doesn't have to deal with these folks no more!

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