David Gregory Republican Candidate for Property Appraiser
Graduating from Castleton University of
Vermont in 1977, with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology and a
minor in Education, I owned and operated an Amoco gas station and
general store while I attended college and with an apartment over the
store in Whiting VT, it was a perfect fit. Coming down to Citrus County
Florida for a winter break I met my future wife, Corl, plans changed and
I bought a home in 1978 and have been living in Citrus ever since. My
father, Bernard Gregory, a retired Army Sergeant with 22 years in the
military, having jumped with the 101st on D Day into
Normandy, came to Citrus with my mother, Rita, after I had made Citrus
our home. There are now 5 generations of our family who call Citrus
home.
I have the unique experience of having
worked with 4 different Property Appraiser Administrations with the
Property Appraiser office. Starting with Ron Schlutz, Melanie Hensley,
Geoffrey Greene and Les Cook, I’ve seen what works and what hasn’t over
the 14 years with the office. It is my aim to put the best aspects of
each administration into play and by keeping an open door policy with
the public addressing their concerns when they should arise.
Before the years at the property
appraiser office I ran my own business, Liberty Delivery, with 20 to 30
employees depending on the time of the year. We serviced all of Citrus
County and had a contract with Citrus County that was renewed every year
for 18 years! That was and is something unheard of today.
As I said to the Citrus County Building
Alliance, being the only candidate that has been cross trained in all
fields of the Property Appraiser office I offer the complete package
for the future of the builders and others who will need that expertise
as we transcend these difficult times that lay ahead. I was talking with
my barber yesterday she bought a home in Walden Woods and I explained
to her about having to buy the yearly stickers for the home, much like
getting your vehicle registration renewed each year and because you do
not own the land your home is on the land belonging to Walden Woods LLC
and even with an amended Tangible Exemption of $25,000 that still left a
Tangible tax bill for the owners of the park property of over $107,000
in 2019, subsequently the owners of the homes in the park and those who
may be renting homes in the park will see a bill for their share in some
form or manner.
Most of you have met people from
different areas of business that can do the talk but can’t do the walk, I
certainly have, in fact I’ve hired some during the years and having
discovered their talk was the only thing they were good at! This is
something you certainly don’t want in the property appraiser office. Not
only can I do the talk I can do the walk because of being cross
trained in all departments of the property appraiser’s office I know
where potential problems may arise before they ever appear. Part two
coming soon: CITRUS SLUSH
IT’S CALLED A “SLUSH FUND”
Mr. Gregory said,
“If I had been appraiser when Les Cook wanted to go to Tyler
Technologies for the Citrus County Property Appraiser’s office online
presence I would have gone online to see what kind of reputation the
company had. Well, I wasn’t the Property Appraiser and he didn’t, but as
one of the employees who would be working with the new system I thought
it important to investigate for myself what the new system would have
in store for us.” And this is what he discovered: Nassau County, New
York had been using Tyler Technologies for 5 years and had all kinds of
problems with them, not the least of which, was the fact the company’s
system had been taxing the buildings of county government for property
taxes! Nassau County is located immediately east of New York City. The
county, together with Suffolk County to its immediate east, are
generally referred to as “Long Island”. Two cities, three towns, 64
incorporated villages, and more than 60 unincorporated hamlets are
located within the county. At the time Mr. Gregory did his investigation
into Tyler Technologies, he said “this information was readily
available, over the ensuing years Tyler Technologies has worked out it
problems with Nassau County, New York and now has a 20 to 30 million
dollar contract with the county for it’s online presence.” 
Mr. Gregory also stated, “it’s not the end of the story and he had given this information directly to Gerry Mulligan 
who doesn’t want anything to do with it, least of all to publish it in
the Chronicle.” “After fulfilling the remainder of Geoffreys Greene’s
term and winning an election with no opposition Les Cook came to the
Meadowcrest office in Crystal River, calling all the staff into the
conference room and told them that he no longer wanted to use the “MARS”
program that had been used since the Administration of Ron Schlutz.”
Gregory said, “Cook told everyone in the conference room he was tired of
giving Schlutz’s relatives the license fee for the program every year
and that’s how the office got involved with Tyler Technologies.” Mr.
Gregory went on to say, “the crux of the manner
was the fact that the Meadowcrest Complex acquire in 2014 for 3.3
million dollars was greatly overpriced and nearly broke the BOCC Budget
and in 2019 the Property Appraiser’s Office had it valued at 2.5
million, loosing $800,00 in fair market value in the intervening years
and was and is still being assessed for property taxes!” “Buildings
owned by the County are not taxed by the County, any commercial
businesses in the complex would pay Tangible Taxes to the County. The
question where is the money going starting with the $39,000.00 from the
2014 Tax Bill that the County paid to itself?“
Before the Complex was bought the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners and the 
owners of the property, GULF TO LAKES ASSOCIATES LTD were signing off
on permit for a 1.5 million dollar remodel together. And Citrus 
County was left having to pay this bill, along with the 3.3 million
purchase price. Mr. Gregory stated and further said, “When I met with
Angela Vick, Citrus County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller, during my
run against County Commissioner Ron Kitchen, Ms. Vick admitted the
County was at wits end in trying to find a way to pay for all the
manners related to Meadowcrest Complex purchase, then she said, Thank
God, we finally figured out a way to pay it.” Mr. Gregory stated,
“According to the Florida Statute sited on the 2014 
Citrus County Tax Bill which the previous owner of the property
received but had sold the property to Citrus County making it fall into
the bracket referenced by F.S. 196.295 which reads between January 1 and
November 1 of that year by a governmental unit exempt under this
chapter for any means except
condemnation for use exclusively for federal, state, county, or
municipal purposes, the taxpayer shall be required to place in escrow
with the county tax collector an amount equal to the current taxes
prorated to the date of transfer of title, based upon the current
assessment and millage rates, on the land involved. This fund shall be
use to pay any ad valorem taxes due, and the remainder of taxes which would otherwise have been due for that current year shall stand canceled.” “The bottom line is Citrus County SHOULD NOT BE TAXING it’s own buildings!”
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