The shortest of the Sequoyah County Commissioners’ five executive sessions in the past six months — a 20-minute closed-door meeting Wednesday afternoon — resulted in what District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers said was “a tough decision,” one that shifts the fate of County Assessor Brandy Dobbs from the commissioners to the district attorney’s office.

When Wednesday’s special meeting reconvened into a public meeting, District Attorney Jack Thorp summed up the commissioners’ verdict arrived at during the executive session.

“At this point, it is my understanding, that the Sequoyah County Board of Commissioners would like a motion, that will ultimately have to be adopted by one of the three county commissioners, to move forward with an inquiry for an accusation of removal involving the Sequoyah County Assessor.”

Rogers then made the motion, which was seconded by District 2 Commissioner Beau Burlison and, along with District 1 Commissioner Ray Watts, unanimously adopted the motion.

So, as Dobbs asked the commissioners following the vote, what now?

Rogers advised that the district attorney’s office will handle the process going forward.

The district attorney’s office advised late Wednesday afternoon that official charges have not yet been filed.

“We made a tough decision today, not one that we were excited about having to make,” Rogers said after the meeting. “We’ll go to trial over this now, and a jury will determine the outcome. We’re just going to move forward with this. There’s a process we have to go through to get to that point, and we’ll follow the law to a T.

“There’s just a lot to take in. But as a board, we just have to make a decision that protects our citizens, so that’s what we did today. We’ll just let the process play out,” Rogers said.

“We’ve been through a lot of these executive sessions hoping that we would get a different result down the road. We’re just trying to protect our citizens. You guys elected us, and that’s all we’re trying to do.”

Rogers speculated that Thorp may be compelled to recuse himself from litigation “because he represents all the county elected officials.”

Without providing specific wrongdoings within the assessor’s office, Rogers said audits that have been conducted and input received from the Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC) were paramount in their decision to elevate the proceedings.

Wednesday’s meeting was the fifth executive session — and the second this week — the commissioners have conducted since August. Following Wednesday’s session, the commissioners had met in private for 508 minutes, which is about 8½ hours.

Present for Wednesday’s executive session were the commissioners, Thorp and County Clerk Julie Haywood.

Five minutes into the behind-closed-doors meeting, Thorp emerged for a nine-minute private discussion with Dobbs, who was accompanied by attorney Steve Hickman from the Tulsa law firm of Frasier, Frasier and Hickman.

Six minutes later, the commissioners returned to regular session “for the purpose of taking possible action on the employment, demotion, disciplining or resignation of the Sequoyah County Assessor.”

No accusations yet

On Thursday, Hickman said he and his client remain in the dark as to what accusations may be forthcoming from the commissioners.

Hickman said that in his discussion with Thorp on Wednesday, “I asked that question, and he said he didn’t know.

“The statutory procedure is for the board of county commissioners to sign off on a piece of paper that’s called an accusation that says what they’re claiming,” Hickman explained the procedure.

“The board of county commissioners has never said what they’re complaining about, so it’s not as though we can answer those things. They’re being very close to their chest with their cards as to what they’re even complaining about, because they won’t tell anybody,” Hickman said. “It may be related to the audits, and the audits are based upon how the county assessor’s office is running.”

Hickman, who said he has conducted audits in the past, said at the completion of an audit, there is a list of things “that you’re supposed to do,” which are signified by D-marks, which indicate a significant deficiency or a major issue found during the audit process. Those deficiencies are reflected in the audit and what is expected in order to correct them, “and she’s done each of those things.”

“D-marks in the audit are based on how the county assessor’s office did business even prior to her coming to work there, and are things that were never audited for before, so nobody ever pointed them out and said ‘you need to do this differently.’ Each time they said that, she’s gone in and done it differently. In fact, she’s gone in and checked, what we in the legal business call the green books — the Oklahoma statutes, and found other things, and has corrected them,” Hickman said, also pointing out that a check of the state auditor website reveals “the board of county commissioners in Sequoyah County gets markdowns all the time, too.”

He said that when the commissioners did not make a decision during Monday’s executive session and called a special meeting for Wednesday, “I assumed that’s because they were going to have somebody draw up the accusation, and then Wednesday they would sign off on it. But that didn’t happen, either. They don’t have one yet. They haven’t even begun drafting one.

“So other than the innuendos that they put out, there’s nothing there,” Hickman said.

“Ms. Dobbs has worked at the assessor’s office for a number of years, after she had worked in the real estate-related business many years before. She became chief deputy, and then when the county assessor resigned, the board of county commissioners appointed her, and she continued running the office as she had been taught,” Hickman explained. “About that time, the state has been more careful about teaching officers how to do their work. They’ve (the state) run a number of classes, and she and her staff have attended all the classes and learned a lot of things and have changed things, so she’s doing the best she can with what she knows, and as she learns something new, she does it right.”

Dobbs says she and her chief deputy are required to complete 60 hours of continuing education every three years, and that each member of her staff are required to complete 30 hours of continuing education in a three-year cycle in order to work for the county assessor’s office. Records show that Dobbs has completed 117 hours.

Cause for removal

The Oklahoma statutes stipulate reasons (22 O.S. § 1181, OSCN 2025) for removing an elected official from office.

“Any officer not subject to impeachment elected or appointed to any state, county, township, city, town or other office under the laws of the state may, in the manner provided in this article, be removed from office for any of the following causes: First—Habitualorwillful neglect of duty, which, for a state officer, shall include, but not be limited to, knowingly giving false testimony to a committee of either house of the Legislature, knowingly engaging in operations beyond the constitutional or statutory authority delegated to the agency that the officer is employed by or serves, or repeatedly refusing to provide information to a committee, either house or a member of the Legislature in a timely manner. For the purposes of this section, “timely manner” means no more than 15 business days from the date the request for information was received by the agency, unless extended by written agreement.

Second — Gross partiality in office.

Third — Oppression in office.

Fourth — Corruption in office.

Fifth — Extortion or willful overcharge of fees in office.

Sixth — Willful maladministration.

Seventh — Habitual drunkenness.

Eighth — Failure to produce and account for all public funds and property in his or her hands, at any settlement or inspection authorized or required by law.”

Hickman said Dobbs has not violated any item in this statute.

Dobbs on Thursday declined to comment.

How it started

Discrepancies within the data in the county assessor’s office were discovered by Dobbs beginning in 2023, and she said her office began “diligently working” with the OTC and the Centers for Local Government Technology at Oklahoma State University (CLGT/OSU) “to address and correct those discrepancies.”

“On July 12, 2024, my office sat down with the OTC and CLGT to outline a plan and steps necessary to rectify the discrepancies,” Dobbs said in August, noting that in the month that followed “we have already completed most of the items in the plan, which we received from the OTC.”

“We are confident we will be successful in meeting all deadlines outlined in the plan. As always, the assessor’s office is here for the taxpayers of Sequoyah County to answer any questions or concerns,” said Dobbs, who has been county assessor since June 2021. Prior to filling the vacancy left with Kelly Miller’s departure, Dobbs served as deputy tax assessor.

Dobbs also informed the commissioners about what she found and steps being taken to resolve any concerns. Response to an email requesting information from the OTC was not answered by press time.