News

Commissioners appoint interim tax assessor

Darlene Burgess is sworn in as tax assessor and tax collector on Monday, Jan. 4, 2016.

By Bill Moss, Published: December 30, 2015

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners appointed the county’s internal auditor as interim assessor and tax collector on Monday to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Tax Assessor Stan Duncan on Dec. 31.

Endorsing an organizational structure that County Attorney Russell Burrell recommended, the board appointed Darlene Burgess to the tax agency posts and put the office under the authority of the county manager for the first time. The county's property assessment and tax collection functions had been split between an appointed assessor and an elected tax collector until 2009, when the county joined 98 other N.C. counties and abolished the elected position.

“We think that it’s certainly a manageable organizational structure to add this," County Manager Steve Wyatt told commissioners. "I believe that in North Carolina what you’re seeing is more and more counties going to the structure that your county attorney outlined for you.”

“Whenever Mr. Duncan informed me he was retiring, I chose to turn over managerial operations of the tax office to the county manager until this meeting," board Chairman Tommy Thompson said. "We have been in good hands since then. Even though Mr. Duncan retired, we’ve not lost any ground and I’m sure most of you have already received your new listing in the mailbox.”

Burgess was sworn in Monday as interim tax assessor and tax collector. By resolution the board committed to appointing a tax assessor and tax collector by July 1.

A Hendersonville native and graduate of Brevard High School and Gardner Webb University, Burgess started working for the Henderson County tax collector as a paralegal in 1993 and later was put in charge of delinquent tax collections.

She became Henderson County’s first internal auditor in September 2006. Working under the county manager, Burgess is responsible for ensuring that county spending follows local, state and federal regulations and that county agencies follow procedures in the use of equipment and supplies. She also tracks county departments' performance to ensure that they meet performance goals. She worked for the tax collections office before she became internal auditor. 

Wyatt has called on Burgess to do special projects. One was to report on the purpose and function of more than 50 advisory boards and committees the Board of Commissioners appoints.
The resolution on the commissioners' docket says that the board will appoint a permanent assessor and tax collector by July 1. State law requires each county to appoint an assessor for a term of two or four years and to appoint a tax collector for a term that the county may set.

"If the board agrees to go along we'll reassign some of the things to different people and then we'll have to set some priorities," Wyatt said of Burgess's duties. The timing is favorable, he added, because Burgess is busy closing out the budget year in May and June and working with external auditors in July and August.
Henderson County assessor since 2003, Duncan was put in charge of all tax administration when longtime Tax Collector Terry Lyda, an elected official, retired in 2009.
After an evaluation by consultants and experts, the Board of Commissioners determined in 2009 “that the appointment of one person to hold both offices is in the best interest of the efficient operation of the property tax functions,” the resolution says. At that time the board changed the tax collector job from elected to appointed. With Duncan’s retirement, the Board of Commissioners “wishes to further refine the organization and operations of its property tax functions,” the resolution says.

After Duncan announced his retirement on Dec. 18, Thompson, the board chair, signed an executive order appointing Burgess acting assessor and tax collector. She will report to the county manager, a change from a contract relationship under which Duncan reported to the Board of Commissioners. Thompson said last month that he favors putting tax administration under Wyatt's authority.