Appraiser board questions dismissal of complaint agains Stites

<br>TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ The Oklahoma Real Estate Appraiser Board is questioning whether a state legislator was given favorable treatment when the Insurance Department dismissed a complaint against him.

Thursday, October 3rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ The Oklahoma Real Estate Appraiser Board is questioning whether a state legislator was given favorable treatment when the Insurance Department dismissed a complaint against him.

Several members of the board told the Tulsa World they didn't know the complaint accusing Rep. Chad Stites, R-Tulsa, of inflating the value of a home during an appraisal had been filed and dismissed.

The members said the agency lacked legal authority to make such a move.

Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher said he had no contact with Stites about the complaint and would look into how it was handled. The appraisal board is an adjunct body of the Insurance Department.

Mark Bardsley, vice chairman of the board, filed the complaint against Stites on Dec. 7 for allegedly inflating the value of a home he appraised in north Tulsa, records show.

Another licensed appraiser reviewed Stites' appraisal and concluded that the ``the final value is ... very high for this neighborhood,'' records show.

A screening panel reviewed the complaint to determine whether Stites should receive disciplinary proceedings before a hearing panel. The screeners referred the case to a three-member hearing panel and a subpoena for documents relating to the appraisal was issued March 15 to Stites.

The panel can recommend disciplinary actions up to revocation of an appraiser's license. The Real Estate Appraiser Board makes the final decision based on the panel's recommendation, under state law.

Neither the panel nor the full board heard the complaint, which was dismissed April 30 by Board Prosecutor Danny Honeycutt.

``I have determined that there is not sufficient evidence of a statutory violation for this complaint to proceed to the hearing panel,'' states Honeycutt's letter to Stites.

Several board members say Honeycutt wasn't authorized to dismiss the complaint. State law does not say that complaints may be dismissed by the Insurance Department's legal staff.

Honeycutt said the complaint was dismissed under ``prosecutorial discretion.'' He said Stites did not ask for special treatment but ``he did let me know he was a legislator.''

Stites said the complaint was ``groundless'' and that he received no special treatment. The complaint was also filed with a professional organization but immediately dismissed, he said.

``I've never talked to him (Fisher) in my life,'' Stites said. ``All I know is I got a letter saying it was groundless and baseless.''

Board Member Travis Parsons, who has served on the appraiser board under three governors, said he believes the way Stites' complaint was handled ``is a violation of the statute and the rules by staff.''

``I think they have far exceeded their authority. It has to come to the board. I think it smells,'' Parsons said.

He has placed an item on the agenda for Friday's regular meeting to discuss dismissals of complaints by legal staff without board approval. The board also will discuss whether it needs to study gaining ``100 percent independence'' from the Insurance Department, with which it has clashed in the past.

Also on Friday, a Tulsa County judge will hold a hearing on whether to overturn the sale of another north Tulsa property that Stites appraised.

Stites appraised the foreclosed home on behalf of Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz. Stites' company, Real Property Dynamics, later purchased it at a sheriff's sale, a violation of state law.

Glanz's department is conducting a criminal investigation.

Stites said he is unsure whether he will attend the hearing Friday. He said he has not been asked to testify.

The Tulsa lawmaker has also come under fire for his handling of a code-enforcement complaint by the city of Tulsa.

In June, he cursed and threatened city officials who called him about repairs on a dilapidated duplex he owned that was declared a nuisance by the city in March.