Sunday's Internet Edition, July 20, 2008.
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The only item that was handled before the board went into Executive Session was public input. Stayton and several employees of the Lee County Appraisal District spoke. Lynette Green, Deputy Chief Appraiser, Cheryl Jurk, Appraiser, and Penney Oppermann spoke in support of Stayton and against the manner in which the Board handled her termination. Each person who spoke also said that they felt there was no support from the Board for the employees of the District and that there was not equal pay for females.
Stayton said, “I want my dismissal to be held in a public meeting as opposed to an Executive Session and I want to know the reason for my termination.” At that point, the Board’s attorney suggested to Doug Spacek, acting Chairman of the Appraisal Board, that they go into Executive Session for attorney advice before going into public session to handle the termination of Stayton.
Spacek has been chosen as acting Chairman, replacing Brademan and Virginia Jackson, Lee County Tax Assessor and Collector, was named as Secretary.
Prior to the vote, an amendment was offered by Fred Jones, which would have placed Stayton on probation for six months, with monthly reporting to the Board being required on (unspecified) job duties and requirements. At the end of this time, the Board would evaluate her performance and determine whether to dismiss. This amendment did not receive a second.
Billy Buetow, seconded by Kenny Mostyn then made a motion, to terminate the services of the Chief Appraiser, Amelia Slayton, effective as of 5:00 PM on November 5, 2004.
The vote on the motion to terminate was 2-1 in favor of termination, with only Fred Jones opposed.
After this vote, Billy Buetow nominated Sheri Winn to become Interim Chief Appraiser at the salary specified in the budget. The vote was unanimous in favor of this action.
The final item on the agenda was to authorize the Chairman, Doug Spacek, Fred Jones, and the new Interim Chief Appraiser, Sheri Winn, to sign checks and authorize expenditures for the District.
Stayton gave a written statement to the press following Commissioners’ Court this Monday in which she had requested that the Commissioners add an agenda item to their next meeting where they would discuss and take possible action to veto the recent Appraisal Board actions and to remove the County’s designated representative on the Board, Billy Buetow. Stayton also pointed out that the newly selected Chief Appraiser was hired at a salary of $50,000 per year while her (Stayton’s) salary was $48,000.
Her written statement regarding her actions after the Lee County Appraisal District Board of Directors’ meeting on November 5 at approximately 3 p.m. is as follows:
“Since the Board of Directors had terminated me effective at 5:00 pm on November 5, 2004, there were several things that I wanted to make sure were correctly completed and the following was the first thing that I needed to make right.
“At 3:10 pm, I went into the Lee County Appraisal District office, since I had not accepted Penney Oppermann’s resignation but Douglas Spacek and Billy Buetow thought that they could, I re-hired Penney Oppermann as the Assistant to the Chief Appraiser at the salary budgeted for that position. Penney then asked Kim Frank, the receptionist where Michael Matthijetz was and told her to call him into the office. I then told Penney that I had something for her to type. We went to her desk, about that time Michael Matthijetz came to the door and I told him that he was fired, effective at 3:15 pm, that day. I then promoted Cheryl Jurk to Senior Appraiser at the salary stated in the budget because she was the next in line for the position. I gave Kim Frank a raise to the salary stated in the budget for the receptionist because she had completed her 3-month probation. The next thing that I was going to do was to get with Lynette to finish the report that was due to the Comptroller’s Office and go over the accounts that she needed to talk to the field appraiser from the Comptroller’s office about. But before I could do that, Douglas Spacek came to the office with the Board’s attorneys, threatened to call the sheriff’s office on me, took the keys from the employees and closed the office down at about 3:30 pm. I tried to explain to them that there were no provisions in my termination only that it was effective at 5:00 pm that day. Penney had typed that I had fired Michael Matthijetz, promoted Cheryl with a raise, given Kim her raise and re-hired her. I signed what Penney had typed and left it lying on Penney’s desk for her to make the adjustments when she returned to work. The attorneys then told me to leave so I left.”
The Board of Directors’ actions taken in Executive Session are not subject to the Open Records Act, and as such are not public.