![\"300x353](\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/f7d386cda247d25aaf49a91f11b12a131.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\n\r\n![\"300x336](\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/be41851deed923ff3a098230bc8803e4.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\n\r\n![](\"http:\/\/www.woodlawnforrest.com\/WFFramedButler.png\")
<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\nAnd the answer is a saw sales owner who previously promoted\r\ndevelopment in an agricultural region of Lowndes County,\r\na realtor whose job is to promote development, and a preacher\r\nwho previously chaired a board that wanted to take tax money\r\nfrom the county without rural citizens being able to vote on it.\r\nNone of them appear to have any experience in agriculture.\r\nThese are the people who oversaw the recent revaluation of rural\r\n(and commercial) properties that would drive development into parts of Lowndes County that the Comprehensive Plan says should be agricultural.\r\nNow I know all three of them, and they’re fine people.\r\nBut perhaps some rural people need to ask them some questions.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThe\r\n\r\nlist on lowndescounty.com<\/a>\r\nof Lowndes County’s elected\r\nTax Assessors\r\nis not remotely correct: Doyle Kelly is no longer\r\nserving due to illness, yet he’s still on that list,\r\nalong with Mike Hill and W.G. Walker.\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\nThe\r\n\r\nTax Assessors’ own website<\/a> lists only two members:\r\n \r\nW G Walker, Chairman\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\nBilly Bruce, Valdosta Daily Times, 15 March 2008,\r\n\r\nLowndes BOA say they’re qualified<\/a>,\r\n \r\nThe three-member Lowndes County Board of Assessors (BOA) may be\r\nexempt from the annual training courses required of every other\r\nassessor in every county in the state.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\nBut don’t tell them that makes them one bit less capable of doing\r\nthe same work to manage the local tax digest.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\nChairman Doyle Kelly and members Earl Wetherington and W.G. Walker\r\naren’t buying it.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\nThey say their independence from being under the authoritative\r\nthumbs of the elected Lowndes County Commission enables them to\r\nserve the citizens directly, without political interference.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\nWell, they don’t seem to be capable of listing their own membership\r\non their own website.\r\n \r\nThat story also notes:\r\n \r\nChairman Doyle Kelly—Kelly, an insurance salesman, is in his\r\n10th year on the BOA and was elected Nov. 3, 1998 after serving to\r\nfinish the term of Ernie Nijem, who passed away. Besides the annual\r\nSt. Simons training, and his 10 years on the BOA, Kelly completed\r\nthe 40-hour certification for assessors course, a 20-hour exempt\r\nproperties workshop and a 20-hour specialized assessments workshop.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\nWalker told me some time back that when he was on the County Commission\r\nhe promoted and almost succeeded in implementing a plan to run county\r\nwater and sewer all the way from Hahira to Moody Air Force Base.\r\nThat would have massively promoted development in the agricultural\r\narea of northernmost Lowndes County.\r\n \r\nFor the identity of the current third Tax Assessor, we must turn to the VDT.\r\nJoe Adgie, VDT, 20 March 2015,\r\n\r\nLowndes Board of Assessors recommends new assessor<\/a>,\r\n \r\nCounty assessors W.G. Walker and Mike Hill have sent a letter to\r\nlocal state representatives recommending the appointing of a new tax\r\nassessor for the county.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\nThe new assessor would replace Doyle Kelly, who is resigning from\r\nhis post March 31 due to health reasons.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\nThe assessors recommended to state representatives Amy Carter, John\r\nCorbett, Dexter Sharper, Jason Shaw, and state senator Ellis Black\r\nthat Leroy Butler be appointed by Governor Nathan Deal to replace\r\nKelly….\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n“Mr. Butler is a person of integrity respected in Lowndes\r\nCounty, his resume is impressive and he has indicated a willingness\r\nto serve,” the letter says. “Equally important, he’s\r\nalready familiar with the valuation of property in Lowndes County\r\nthrough his years as a Grand Jury appointee to the Lowndes County\r\nBoard of Tax Equalization.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\nGovernor Nathan Deal,\r\nExecutive Order,\r\n28 May 2015,\r\n\r\nBy the Governor<\/a>,\r\n \r\nIT IS HEREBY ORDERED,\r\n \r\nThat Leroy Butler, Jr. of Lowndes County, Georgia is appointed\r\nas a member of the Lowndes County Board of Tax Assessors,\r\nfor a term of office ending December 31, 2016,\r\nto succeed Doyle Kelly, who resigned.\r\n \r\nThis 28th<\/sup><\/small> day of May, 2015.\r\n \r\nNathan Deal\r\n \r\nGovernor\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\n \r\nHe was the only county member outside Valdosta\r\non\r\n\r\nthe CUEE board\r\nthat pushed school board “unification” back in 2011<\/a>\r\n (although his church is in the city).\r\nAbout school consolidation\r\n\r\nhe said<\/a>:\r\n \r\n“We did no poll of individuals in the county,\r\nso we don’t have any; anything we say would be speculation.”\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\nWe need to come up with some strategies whereby we get more parental\r\ninvolvement.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\nWhich is great, but he added:\r\n \r\nIt takes money to do that. And that’s why I’m looking at CUEE.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\n \r\n\r\nThe Lowndes County Board of Education\r\n\r\nunanimously voted to oppose\r\nschool consolidation<\/a>,\r\none day after the Valdosta Board of Education \r\nvoted 8 to 1 to oppose consolidation<\/a>.\r\nAnd the voters of Valdosta (county citizens outside Valdosta didn’t get to vote)\r\n\r\nrejected consolidation 4 to 1<\/a>.\r\n \r\n![](\"http:\/\/idx-images.cisdata.net\/acnt\/images\/633\/AR429633\/file_manager\/mikephoto3.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\nMike Hill runs\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMike Hill Real Estate<\/a>\r\n\r\n
\r\nMike Hill\r\n
\r\nW G Walker\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n![](\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/DKT97g00aIs\/mqdefault.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\nW.G. Walker has been an elected Lowndes County Commissioner\r\nand\r\n\r\nwas a Planning Commisisoner until 2012<\/a>, appointed by the city of Dasher.\r\nHe has been re-elected repeatedly as a Tax Commissioner.\r\n\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
<\/a>\r\nThe new appointee is Rev. Leroy Butler, Jr., Minister & Elder of Woodlawn Forrest Church of Christ<\/a>, 1515 N. Forrest Street,\r\nValdosta, Georgia 31601.\r\n\r\n
![](\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/pLMGycMrQzs\/mqdefault.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\nHe also said,\r\n\r\nin another meeting<\/a>:\r\n\r\n
\r\n
![](\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6058\/6272352177_396ce82869_m.jpg?w=625\")
<\/a>\r\nThe only obvious source of money from CUEE’s consolidation plan\r\nwas the taxpayers of Lowndes County,\r\nwhom he didn’t ask for their opinion.\r\n![](\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/govt\/loco\/2015-07-14--tax-assessors\/small\/SCAN1601.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\nMany rural landowners were no doubt surprised to find their valuations\r\nalmost or more than doubled, but that’s not the main issue.\r\n
![](\"http:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/valdostadailytimes.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/0\/18\/0188cd27-c78a-536f-8598-aeff967ba081\/53e1ea9e24b68.image.jpg?resize=300%2C201\")
<\/a>\r\n“If you\r\nare appointed, you are beholding to the people who appointed you. If\r\nyou are elected, you answer to the people who elected you. That’s\r\nthe only people we answer to. And that review comes up every four\r\nyears.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n