BOA agenda 070918 - Laserfiche WebLink

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property owner, once the property owner has broughtforward a tax exemption certificate from the 341 Department of Revenue, the statute seems to require the county must accept that and cannotlook behind 342 it. Aside from the issue of identityof the entities, what authority does LeAnn Brown think the Board of 343 Adjustment hasto look behind the certificate issued by the Department of Revenue? 344 345 LeAnn Brown answeredshe thinks that is interesting andwill be a question of first impressionbecause the 346 statute is new. Whether a county has the authorityto look behind the certificate has not been litigated. She 347 has never seen a tax exemption certificate issued to the ownerof this property as Southeast Property 348 GroupLLC or Wild Flora Farm LLC, so she has not asked that question yet because she is not past the 349 identity question. She thinks the county staff should have looked at the document and said the property 350 owner is Southeast Property Group LLC and the certificate is issued to Wild Flora Farm. Done. She thinks 351 that would have been correct. She asserts that the county looked behind the certificate and made an 352 argument that the legalformalities of corporate ownershipand individual ownershipsomehow have no 353 meaning and issued an opinion which blended together a bunch of legal entities. She added that one 354 reason she wanted to bifurcate the hearing was because itis difficultfor her to answer questions until she 355 can see what she is talking about.She is 100 percent certain that the Board of Adjustment does not hold a 356 taxcertificate with the name of the property owner on it, even if we assume that a post-issuance merger 357 somehow has play here. 358 359 Andy Peteschsaid that was quite a bit of time that LeAnn Brown had and asked for 60 seconds.360 361 KarenBarrows granted that time.362 363 Andy Peteschsaid the question is what would this board would do with this information if they got it. Ifthis 364 boardstarts going behind the Department of Revenue,there will be attorneyfees awarded to Kara Brewer 365 andSPG and Wild Flora Farmbecause that is absolutely outside the scope of this board’s authority. Ifthis 366 boardwants very specific additional documentation with respect to whether Wild Flora Farm LLC is what 367 the Department of Revenue intended when it issued the certificate, that can be addressed. The rest is 368 entirely unnecessary to determine that entity question.369 370 Karen Barrows asked whether there were any other questions.371 372 Barry Katz asked whether he understood correctly thatregardless of the Board of Adjustment’sdecision, it 373 was going to be appealed to Superior Court. 374 375 Andy Petesch, standing with LeAnn Brown, said they could jointly respond. AndyPetesch said it was 376 uncharted watersand they are unsure how a court will treat an appeal of this decision.LeAnn Brown said it 377 is fair to say whatever the boarddoeswith this case, it will end up as an appeal somewhere. She believes 378 there are three or four appeals on this case already. She will have to appeal because without the 379 subpoenaed documents,her hands are tied to make burden of proof to this board. 380 381 Barry Katz said that was his understanding. He anticipated this. He then asked Andy Petesch whether the 382 fees he alluded towould be directed at LeAnnBrown’s clients. 383 384 Andy Peteschsaidthe county would be liable for attorney’s fees, under state statutes. 385 386 LeAnn Brown said it is troublesome to her that the board would consider thethreat of attorney’s fees when 387 making a decision on this matter. Having read the statuteseveral times, she does not think it is a foregone 388 24