Judge tosses old deeds to allow tax payment refund; ‘awesome news’
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – Tabernacle Baptist Church has taken another big step toward securing its long-term future. A judge has voided the deeds that led to its tax-exempt status being taken away, meaning it should recoup the money it rushed to raise to stop the church being taken to a tax sale by the city in October.
“We are nearing the end of our journey,” Shari Thompson said Friday morning. She is chair of the board of trustees of the city’s oldest church, the one that sits at the northwest corner of Eighth Street and West Avenue.
On the first day of a two-day trial in mid-October, she said the judge ordered the Cape May County clerk to remove two deeds from 2019, one early in the year that transferred the church into the private hands of the former pastor, the Rev. Charles Frazier and his wife, and the other from December, when trustees were able to get the building and land deeded back to the church.
Removing those deeds means the church’s status should never have changed from tax-exempt, which led to the city putting Tabernacle Baptist on the tax rolls for 2019 and 2020, billing it roughly $16,000 for the two years.
“It will be as if they never possessed the church,” Thompson said of the Fraziers. Those deeds “will no longer be in our title search. That’s awesome news.”
She wrote to Ocean City solicitor Dorothy McCrosson informing her of the news to ask about the city refunding the tax payments, but said the solicitor wanted more information.
“She wants to confirm that the county clerk doesn’t have any issues with it (the judge’s order). I guess that’s what she’s waiting on,” Thompson said. (McCrosson did not return calls to the Sentinel asking for explanation.)
Thompson said the church also “submitted our paperwork for (tax) exemption for 2021 and we’ve been given verbal confirmation we’ll get our tax exemption back as of January, so that is another big hurdle.
The saga of the church became public in August when Thompson appeared before Ocean City Council to plead for help because the church was facing a tax sale. The city solicitor said the local government’s hands were tied, that it could neither forgive the taxes nor prevent the tax sale. Inevitably, a private effort supported by City Council members, and then a combination yard sale and barbecue fundraiser at the church, helped raise the money to avoid the tax sale, which had been set for Oct. 1.
The church paid off the taxes but has been working to get those deeds voided and its tax-exempt status reinstated, an effort, McCrosson said at a council meeting, that could lead to the city refunding the tax payments.
Thompson said the trustees were expecting a management order from the judge about their efforts to work out issues with the Frazier family (the Rev. Frazier died over the summer), but was surprised when he ordered a two-day trial instead. She suspects the trial was because the judge lost patience with the family not cooperating with the mediation process.
They found that out on a Monday, and had to prepare to be in court the following Wednesday when two people on each side testified. On the first day the judge ruled about the deeds – the Frazier family did not object. The second day of the trial wasn’t until Oct. 26.
Thompson said lawyers on both sides are putting together their findings and if there is no agreement between them, the judge will rule by mid-December.
She said the trustees have been willing to resolve issues out of court, but the Frazier family has not.
Aside from the dealings that improperly put the church in the family’s name, which has been resolved, there are other issues still in contention.
Thompson said the Frazier family created a shell corporation in 2013, reincorporating the church after Hurricane Sandy, and took out a $50,000 Small Business Administration loan for damage to Tabernacle Baptist. There is about $38,000 left on that loan “and we cannot find proper documentation that they used those funds the correct way. We were able to find some receipts. They probably provided half (of receipts) …. We want them to assume responsibility for anything they incurred.”
She said the church trustees are willing to split the amount with the family. She said church members were not aware of the loan or the reincorporation.
“That is why we’re in court now,” Thompson said. “We want them to assume half of it. Some work was done; the workmanship was terrible. But our lawyer advised us to try to split it. We said, ‘OK, fine.’ We’re trying to get them to assume half of it and they can’t cough up the receipts for that anyway.”
In addition, they are concerned about two large ATM withdrawals with no receipts.
“They total like $11,000 – $7,000 one day and the next day $4,000. And there’s no record. It’s highly irregular. (We don’t know) where that money went. We put that on there too. What is that? That is part of what we’re arguing for.
“We were willing to negotiate if they would come to the table, but it appears that they don’t want to assume any of it so they’re not cooperating,” Thompson said.
“I don’t know even if the judge gives us that, if we win, if we’re ever going to recoup it. We may get a judgment and have to chase it,” she said.
Overall, however, everything is moving forward for the church.
“There’s still big things happening. Getting that order (for the deeds) was huge. Being able to recoup the taxes was huge. We’re grateful and moving on with ministry.”
Speaking of ministry
Last weekend church members were clearing out the rest of the items that didn’t sell at the yard sale because they’re getting ready for Sunday services the second Sunday of November and December at 4 p.m.
“We’re moving on with the ministries and we’re doing a Christmas outreach with local members of the community, putting together gift boxes for children locally in need and also through Operation Christmas,” Thompson said.
On Nov. 21, they will be assembling shoeboxes with necessary items to give locally and through Operation Christmas, she added. They are working with Erica Dice and she has engaged Young Life to volunteer to put the boxes together.