Becky Marshall has some old family friends with deep pockets. Several thousand dollars of campaign contributions have come from outside of Gilmer County to the Marshall campaign that has ran the campaign on

“returning the Tax Office to the people.”

Continue to read below for the interesting twist to the story.
FYN questions why several LLCs listed below put so much money into the Marshall campaign.

(Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission)
March Report
GADT Land Investment, LLC Winder, GA Campaign signs $2,300
Harlan Holding & Investments LLC Monroe, GA Campaign signs $2,300
Wendell McNeal Conyers, GA $2,000
North Star Equity, LLC (Wendell McNeal) Conyers, GA $2,000
Gary Blythe Greenwood, SC (Marshall’s father) T-Shirts $1,300
Frank Elliott Hiawassee, GA (former Gilmer County Tax Commissioner) $450
(Water bottles)

For a total $10,350 invested into the Marshall campaign from outside the area.

Why so much interest from holding groups, LLCs and the former Tax commissioner of Gilmer County in this race? Are they just

“friends”

of the family?

The first time we spoke with Marshall about the contributions she told FYN

“I just go to the mail box, pull out the checks, and put them in the bank.”

FYN followed up by asking,

“Don’t you even know who these people are that send you all this money?”

Marshall,

“No, must be friends of my dad. He is helping me and I don’t know who all he knows.”

If Marshall could have answered the questions a little more direct FYN may have accepted that; but due to her evasiveness, we decided to look a little closer at the contributions.

We spoke with current Tax Commissioner Melba Bennett to see if she was familiar with any of the names on Marshall’s contributor list. Bennett did not know the names but thought it sounded like people who followed tax sales. Bennett expressed her concern for the citizens of Gilmer County and was worried about the possibility that these companies would take part in what is called Transfer of FIFA OCGA 48-3-19.

Bennett said that there are currently in the area of 10,000 FIFA’s recorded in Gilmer County for unpaid taxes. The Tax Commissioner has the authority to do what is called a transfer of FIFA. This bypasses the Tax sale process and the property owner has no recourse. The county gets the Tax money and the property owner is not guaranteed the company will work out any payment plan.

This particular problem is even to the point that it has been discussed and has been said to be a hot topic on the floor of the Capitol in Atlanta. FYN received this comment from Speaker Ralston’s office,

“Some concerns have been expressed in the last few years regarding the practice of tax commissioners selling liens to private companies for collection. Legislation has been introduced to address this issue as recently as last session, but it failed to receive final passage. Given the ongoing discussions involving this practice, I feel certain that this will be an issue that the General Assembly considers when it convenes this January.”

Marshall Guest
Press Secretary
Office of Speaker David Ralston

Bennett is also concerned that some of the contributors may want to take over Gilmer Tax sales. Gilmer currently uses Appalachian Mountain Services. We noticed that Appalachian Mountain Services had not made a contribution to either Chela Starnes Bailey or Marshall’s campaigns. The former Tax Commissioner Frank Elliott previously used a company named DTSI, which was owned by Richard Watson. DTSI has gone out of business. There is now a company by the name of DTS that is run by John Watson. FYN has reason to believe that Watson and (Marshall’s contributor of $4,000) Wendell McNeal, know each other. The final comment Bennett made to FYN,

“I am very concerned about what is getting ready to happen to Gilmer County after this election.”

FYN contacted Wendell McNeal in Conyers and asked him why he donated $4,000 to Marshall’s campaign. He seemed caught off guard by the question but when we told him we were looking at the campaign report and gave him the details he confirmed the contributions. He asked why it was any business of ours who he gave his money to. We told him we just wanted to know why someone in Conyers would invest in a Tax Commissioner campaign in Gilmer County. The phone went silent so I suggested perhaps I would understand if it was a friend. McNeal went with that and by the time we hung up the phone he said Marshall was a good family friend.

I spoke with Marshall thirty minutes later. I told her that I was looking into the LLCs and other campaign contributions. I asked her to tell me who McNeal was, you know the guy who gave you $4000. She said she asked her dad and he said he was an old family friend. She said she did not remember him but her dad assured her he was a friend.

FYN decided to look and see if McNeal

“the old family friend”

made any other campaign contributions. We didn’t have to look very far – it seems that Tax Commissioner Sonya Little of Cherokee County received $2,000 to her re-election bid from McNeal. We also found other campaign contributions McNeal made.

Marshall’s old family friend likes to make campaign contributions. FYN would only hope for the citizens of Gilmer County that McNeal would not expect anything in return for his kind act to an old family friend.

In Chela Starnes Bailey’s campaign contribution list FYN found, Affiliated Auctions and Realty LLC for $2,000. When Bailey was asked to answer for the contribution, she explained that she has done work with this auction group several times in Gilmer County. This was the only contributor outside of Gilmer County we could find for Bailey.

FYN welcomes a better explanation on the campaign contributions for Marshall.

A property tax FIFA is a lien placed against a piece of property for failure to pay taxes when due. Literally, “fieri facias,” means “cause it to be done.” Another term is “execution.” This is a judicial writ directing the sheriff to satisfy a judgment (such as unpaid delinquent taxes on real or personal property) from the debtor’s property. By law, a fi fa may be assessed against the property as early as 30 days after the due date. It may be recorded in the office of the Clerk of Court once the taxpayer has received a 30-day notice of such action.