John Barnes says opponent Melanie Hensley, who worked under the old appraiser, would act too much like her mentor. She denies the claim.
By AMY WIMMER SCHWARB
Published October 22, 2004
The campaign for Citrus County property appraiser sounds like a classic incumbent-versus-challenger matchup:
"Citrus County Needs A Change!" read Democrat John Barnes' fliers.
"The Experience We Need, The Service We Trust!" say Republican Melanie Hensley's.
Yet Hensley, 49, is running for political office for the first time, and of the two candidates, Barnes, 61, has the most political experience. He was a county commissioner, a county Mosquito Control Board member and ran for property appraiser four years ago.
Still, Hensley finds herself defending herself and the record of her longtime boss, Citrus Property Appraiser Ron Schultz, who was Barnes' opponent in the last race for property appraiser. Barnes presents Schultz - and by association, Hensley, Schultz's chief deputy property appraiser - as a litigious, argumentative type who would rather sue an adversary than work out their differences.
Hensley says that some of those suits - including those against Progress Energy Corp. and Time Warner Inc. - have garnered more money from county coffers, effectively saving money for residents. Hensley recently estimated that the suits claimed about $65-million worth of taxable value for Citrus County residents, which resulted in the companies paying $1.4-million more to the county.
At political forums, Barnes and Hensley have found themselves on the same side of many issues, including how to deal with constituent complaints about property tax bills and how to decipher the value of land that could one day be located near the Suncoast Parkway. (They agree the parkway should not enter into the equation until a route is selected.)
Hensley worked for eight years in the tax collector's office before moving to the property appraiser's office in 1986 as a secretary. She worked her way up through the ranks to become second-in-command. Schultz, who is retiring after 12 years as the Citrus property appraiser, named her chief deputy property appraiser five years ago.
She has been a member of Beta Sigma Phi since 1979, though most of her current civic involvement - the Rotary Club of Inverness and the United Way Board of Directors, for example - began in recent years.
In her candidacy, Hensley touts her property assessment training and her knowledge of the property appraiser's office. She says her approach to doing business - she hopes to repair the property appraiser's relationship with the County Commission, for example - differentiates her from Schultz, whom she calls her mentor.
"All I ask," Hensley said at a forum last week, "is that you consider the facts."
Barnes, of Homosassa, a Citrus Realtor whose long record of civic service includes everything from the Citrus County Fair Board to the Homosassa Lions Club, said he has other improvements in mind for the office.
In his last run for property appraiser, Barnes lost to Schultz by a 57-43 percent margin.
He describes county property records as "incomplete" and says the shoddy record-keeping is indicative of the kind of operation Hensley and Schultz run.
"I don't agree with that in any way, shape or form," Barnes said. "There's so many things I don't agree with and didn't agree with four years ago. (Schultz) has got some excellent people there, but unfortunately, they go with their manager's lead.
"There's a lot of things that Ron and I don't get along about," Barnes continued, "and that's carried forward to Melanie."
