Letter: Disliked HSO St. Croix Meadows appraisal story

Dear Editor,

Meg Heaton wrote an article regarding the St. Croix Meadows’ appraisal that the school district paid for. The Star-Observer and Ms. Heaton were provided with documentation substantiating the fact that Paul J. Daley, one of the appraisers who worked on the appraisal, was convicted of five felony counts of theft by swindle for embezzling $140,000 from an employer and that he is not licensed in Wisconsin.

When the HSO was presented with this information they said they had to interview the superintendent to investigate both sides of the issue. They also talked with Jeff White, Paul Daley’s supervising appraiser. Per the HSO Mr. White said “he was not aware of Daley’s conviction until recently.” White also stated that licensing officials have told him that “Daley’s conviction would not preclude him from getting an appraiser’s license.”

Maybe White, the superintendent and the HSO can explain why there is a consent action filed in Minn. on 5/3/2002 that states, “Conditional Appraiser license granted (to Paul J. Daley) based upon withdraw of real estate salesperson application, comply with terms of probation, written statement from supervising appraiser aware of nature of conviction.” White and Daley are brothers-in-law. It doesn’t seem likely that White would not know of Daley’s felony convictions and probation status “until recently” due to their familial relationship.

Daley’s first name is not John, as Heaton incorrectly stated in her article. It’s Paul.

I wonder why the HSO allowed the school district an opportunity to state their opinion on the White/Daley appraisal before they would run the story but they did not call Ms. Gehrke for her input into the bogus charges against her? Instead they chose to run a slanderous headline finding her guilty.

Dianne Kiel, Hudson

Tags: opinion, letters, money