Maverick on Board of Supes

VERONA — When Tracy Pyles attends Sunday church, he receives his richest reward from the working-class people of the Pastures District who are grateful for his watchdog mentality about taxpayer money as a county supervisor.

“The little old ladies thank me and encourage me,” said Pyles, 60, whose family lived in a rented house in Deerfield until he was in high school.

Serving his fourth term as an Augusta County supervisor, Pyles is at the center of the reassessment storm.

Outrage began spreading like wildfire among property owners last month when the county released reassessment figures showing an average increase of 27.7 percent in residential values. Values have increased only marginally or declined in reassessments elsewhere.

As taxpayer angst has swirled, Pyles has stood alone among the seven supervisors in questioning the accuracy of the numbers compiled by Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal Company. In turn, Pyles, never shy about filling the role of outsider, has won a growing crowd of backers, something his colleagues appear to have noticed.

Supervisors last week gave Pyles approval to investigate Blue Ridge’s methodology and to seek a legal opinion on whether the county can roll back the values to 2005, the last time a reassessment was conducted.

Supervisors Gerald Garber, of Middle River, and Nancy Sorrells, of Riverheads, oppose a rollback.

“[W]e are to keep our hands off ...” the process, Garber said. “I’m supposed to stay out of it.”

Sorrells questioned whether Pyles had done enough to educate his constituents about the reassessment process.

“It’s a complicated ... ,” Sorrells said. “I don’t think Tracy has helped them [constituents] work through the system.”

It’s not the first time Pyles has stirred ire by raising hard questions over data.

He found errors in a regional landfill study in 1996-97 that led to changes in the contract Augusta County had with the cities of Waynesboro and Staunton.

Pyles is known as a relentless numbers-cruncher, relying on sources such as the U.S. Census, the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia and others to make his case to supervisors about various issues.

He credits his work as a corporate commodity manager at American Safety Razor in Verona with helping sharpen his skill in breaking down facts and figures.

“We have to look at a lot of numbers about our forecasts and our production rates,” Pyles said.

But something deeper propels the James Madison University graduate.

Pyles battled throat cancer three years ago, undergoing radiation, chemotherapy and surgery while his weight plunged from 232 to 160 pounds.

“I didn’t think God saved my life to sit on the sidelines,” said Pyles, who since has beefed his weight back up to a robust 210 pounds. “This is the only thing I do well. This is where I can make the most difference.”

That, Pyles said, frequently has him standing against his fellow supervisors, a position that sometimes is difficult.

“You have to be willing to accept some discomfort,” he said.

The sense of being an outsider has been acute during the reassessment fight.

Pyles’ doubts surfaced last fall and were reinforced by the many examples he came across of home values increasing greatly in his rural district.

Commercial reassessments also raised red flags.

“How do you come up with a $41 million assessment of Hershey in October and it’s $32 million in January? What happened there?” Pyles said.

Pyles might know had he attended meetings as a supervisors liaison to the county assessors board, said South River Supervisor Wendell Coleman, one of Pyles’ frequent foes.

Representatives from Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal and the county commissioner of revenues office were there, said Coleman, also a supervisors liaison.

“He could have interjected and learned more,” Coleman said.

Pyles said that while he did not regularly attend the meetings, he studied the materials provided. When he asked questions, Pyles said, “I didn’t get answers.”

The clash with supervisors over reassessments, Pyles said, is different from others he’s faced.

“This is the worst one. I have no partners,” he said.

Nonetheless, the man who describes himself as “working-class Deerfield” remains driven.

“I hear their questions,” Pyles said of property owners. “More than that, I hear about not having enough money for the heating bill.”

That helps fuel Pyles’ boundless determination.

“When you look at the will of the people, it’s there.”