Fulton County spending big bucks to defend itself in class-action lawsuit

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has discovered Fulton County will spend big bucks on lawyers to defend itself from a class-action lawsuit alleging tax assessors illegally overvalued thousands of properties.

Channel 2's Mike Petchenik first reported on the allegations in May, after now-former board of assessors member R.J. Morris brought them up during a board meeting.

“The state constitution says you are supposed to tax people fairly. They were unfairly taxed, we just need to give them their money back,” Morris said.

He estimates that over a two-year period, the county collected upward of $36 million in excess taxes from more than 18,000 homeowners across the county through a practice called “sales chasing.”

Morris said his research showed appraisers assessed homes at their sales prices, but left values of surrounding properties untouched.

“These homeowners were robbed,” he said.

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After Petchenik’s report first aired, an Atlanta attorney, Mitchell Graham, filed a class-action suit against the county seeking to recoup the money.

Graham has subpoenaed Morris as a witness.

Morris said he learned last week the county will not pay for an attorney to represent him during a deposition.

The attorney, Carmen Alexander, told Morris in a June 29 email that she had been retained by Fulton County to represent him.

Reached Wednesday by our investigative partners at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and AJC.com, she would not confirm that she was no longer representing Morris, and referred questions to Fulton County.

“The board had decided the budget was too tight this year, and even though they had already hired an attorney, they called up that attorney and told her she was no longer hired,” he said.

Morris alleges it’s retaliation for raising an issue about Commission Chairman Robb Pitts’ re-nomination of Brandi Hunter to the assessors board. The board has tabled the nomination for now.

“I did my job and found out the board members in the previous years had not done their jobs. They had hurt taxpayers,” he said. “They don’t want to reward me. They want to punish me for doing this.”

Pitts told Channel 2 Action News it was his understanding that the county attorney's office decided Morris was not acting in his official capacity when he blew the whistle on the alleged sales chasing.

Jessica Corbitt, a Fulton County spokesperson, told our investigative partners at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and AJC.com that the county had initiated the process of setting up an attorney, but ultimately did not provide Morris counsel because his participation in the litigation was "unrelated to his duties as a former member of the Board of Assessors."

"As such, the department is not required to provide legal representation on his behalf," Corbitt told our investigative partners at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and AJC.com.

“I don’t know if I should be mad at him or think that dementia is starting to set in with him because you can look on the agenda and see it was an official action by an official board member,” Morris said.

Acting on a tip, Petchenik filed an open records request with the county and learned the board of commissioners has agreed to hire former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears and her law firm as outside counsel to defend the lawsuit.

An agreement Petchenik obtained says the county will pay Sears and her partners $400 an hour to litigate the case.

“I think it’s something the county attorneys could handle,” said Morris. “The case is not that complex.”

Pitts told Channel 2 Action News he supported hiring the outside attorneys.

“We have a small staff of county attorneys and this is one that’s going to require, I believe, in my opinion, some real knowledge and expertise in this area,” he said. “We want the best possible legal representation, and if outside counsel is necessary, I completely support that.”

Cox Media Group