You would hope that an appraisal district in one of the state's most populous counties -- one that is home to the state capital, a town teeming with government employees and a robust press corps -- would try very hard to make sure everything worked like it was supposed to, right?

You would hope.

But in the case of the Travis Central Appraisal District, your hopes would be dashed.

Aside from the overall point of her story -- that it's hard to successfully challenge an appraisal in TCAD -- KXAN-TV reporter Nanci Wilson reports in today's featured video on the Texas Watchdog home page that two board members for the appraisal district appointed relatives to serve on the appraisal review board, the group that plays a key role in deciding whether or not you get a your appraisal changed.

Aside from that not being a very good idea, there's also a law against it. All four people have resigned, Wilson said.

And for the icing on the cake, you have to love the Internet's ability to let people -- including story subjects who feel they've been wronged -- respond back to a story online. Jesse Martinez, whom Wilson says was appointed to the appraisal review board by his brother, took to Facebook to respond to Wilson's story:

You are questioning the interquity (sic) of my family. You and the station that you work for should have their interquity (sic) questioned. This is not the end of this story. A correction will be made. You just do not know how much harm you brought to us.

Dude, no one put a gun to your head and forced you to serve on the Appraisal Review Board. Next time, don't let your brother appoint you to government boards.

Challenging appraisals an uphill climb: kxan.com

***

Spotted a good video piece of watchdog journalism? Shoot a note to jennifer@texaswatchdog.org. 

Photo by flickr user Images_of_Money, used under a Creative Commons license.