This story is part of our Voter’s Guide to the 2016 Knox County Primary Elections.

The three-way Republican primary for the Knox County property assessor job is shaping up to be a heated showdown, hinging on the accuracy of the appraisals that determine how much residents pay in taxes—and how big Knox County’s budgets can be.

Two of the candidates, former assessor John Whitehead and real estate agent Andrew Graybeal, say the appraisals are wildly inaccurate. But Jim Weaver, who is the current chief deputy in the office, says they are mostly correct. He says the office has reduced errors and improved technology since he came on board under current assessor Phil Ballard.

But there is another level of accusation, and in some cases a bitter history, among these candidates. Graybeal says the office has basically always been run as “a fiefdom,” with the job being handed off among buddies to the benefit of their own. Whitehead claims the current office has a practice of exchanging favorable appraisals for campaign contributions, but Graybeal says ethical problems in the office go back to Whitehead’s days.

Whitehead won the property assessor job twice before hitting term limits in 2008 (you cannot serve more than two back-to-back four-year terms at a time), when Ballard, who had been a protégé and friend, was elected. But that relationship soured, and Whitehead and Graybeal both ran against Ballard in 2012—Graybeal as a Democrat. Ballard prevailed, but this year, it’s his turn to hit the term limit. And this year, the primary is a winner-take-all affair, since no Democrats are running.

Before becoming Ballard’s right-hand man, Weaver spent a full career in the State Comptroller’s Office helping assessors in counties across East Tennessee. He says his wider perspective helped bring the office into the 21st century in terms of training and technology.

Although Graybeal is the only candidate with no experience in the assessor’s office, he sees that as an advantage. “It’s been a torch-bearing office,” he says. “The next in line inherits, and then it’s just status quo. They haven’t had a fresh set of eyes in 20 years.”

Accuracy and Access

Graybeal says he’s back for another round because of the slim margin of his loss to Ballard, despite Ballard being backed “by the Republican political machine.” Graybeal switched parties shortly afterward.

As a real estate broker, Graybeal says he has seen many inaccurately-high appraisals in the tax assessor’s records. He says some of them are due to a poor transfer of information to a new computer system, creating patterns of errors in data related to square footage and the number of rooms in a house. But he also blames appraisers for making too few trips to look at buildings in person. In West Knox County, he says he has seen homes appraised at more than twice their value.

“They’re not just off by a small portion. It is grossly off,” Graybeal says. “I’m sure we owe money to the taxpayers.” He says Weaver has been in a position to correct these problems, but hasn’t.

Like Graybeal, Whitehead finds the appraisals riddled with errors, which he blames on the computer system transfer. For example, he says wood-veneer houses transferred as vinyl and vinyl houses transferred as wood. 

“If I had been in (Weaver’s) position, I would have been all over that quality control,” Whitehead says. “The main thing is no matter how fancy that computer gets, it still goes back to: garbage in, garbage out.”

Weaver called the claims about problems with the computer conversion “a political ploy,” saying there were a few bumps but none that much affected values. He says every year since 2009, no more than 2 percent of property owners asked for their valuations to be reviewed or appealed, showing almost all the appraisals have been correct.

For his part, Weaver points a finger back at Whitehead, saying the former assessor left so many errors, they took more than one term to fix.

The new computer system made Knox County’s assessments available online for the first time, Weaver points out, making it far easier for property owners to get information they need to file appeals. “Knox was the last county in the state to put their assessments online,” he says. “Prior to that, there was no transparency here.”

Weaver vows to continue the office’s current emphasis on training. He says that under Whitehead, the office provided less than 300 hours of training over eight years, while employees have received more than 6,600 training hours since Weaver came on board, much of it paid for by the state.

“I think the more training we do, then when I leave office… someone may come out of here to be the next assessor. And I’m not afraid of that,” Weaver says. “Previous administrations I think were afraid of that, because they didn’t want to train and then have someone come up and run against them.”

Ethics Accusations

Graybeal questions the fact that Weaver’s campaign treasurer is Archie Johnson, chairman of the Knox County Tax Equalization Board. The board is a group of citizens, appointed by the city and county mayors, who hear appeals when citizens disagree with their property appraisals. A person unsatisfied with Weaver’s handling of their appraisal could find themselves arguing his case before Weaver’s former campaign treasurer. (Weaver acknowledges that Johnson is also a campaign donor, although his $100 donation was not high enough to meet the reporting threshold.)

Weaver says he sees no conflict of interest. “Somehow that’s implying he and I could control something, and that’s just not true,” says Weaver, who says Johnson isn’t a personal friend.

Graybeal and Whitehead say they have both represented taxpayers appealing assessments before the equalization board, and both claim they have won every case—although not necessarily at the county level. Whitehead says most of his were won when he appealed past the county board of equalization to the state.

He and Graybeal both claim the assessor’s office is refusing to help people who don’t offer something in return.

“You shouldn’t have to contribute to his campaign in order to have somebody listen to you in your office,” Whitehead says.

Ballard calls accusations of special-interest influence “campaign fodder” and Weaver calls them “totally absurd.” Weaver says property owners can call or see him any time.

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Andrew Graybeal

Job: Real estate broker since 1993

Age: 43

How long in Knox County: Entire life

Education: Fulton High School, Bachelor of Science in electronic engineering

Prior political experience: Ran for Knox County assessor in 2008; briefly a candidate for Knox County Board of Education (7th District) in 2014 but withdrew before election in favor of Patty Bales

Family: Wife, Trish Graybeal, and three children

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Jim Weaver

Job: Chief Deputy Assessor. Previously, worked for Tennessee State Comptroller of the Treasurer for 30 years

Age: 68

How long in Knox County: Since early 1970s

Education: Two-year degrees from Cumberland College, bachelor’s in business administration from Austin Peay State University

Prior political experience: None

Family: Wife, Rochelle Weaver (a retired Beaumont Academy teacher), and three sons

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John Whitehead

Job: Semi-retired. Worked in assessors office 1972-2000 in a variety of jobs, including commercial appraisals and as chief deputy

Age: 67

How long in Knox County: Entire life

Prior political experience: Won Knox County Property Assessor in 2000 and 2004, but couldn’t run in 2008 because of term limits. Ran and lost to successor Phil Ballard in 2012

Family: Wife, Levera, and four grown children

Education: Carter High School, associate degree from Knoxville Business College