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Sam M. Gattis III

Sam Gattis had been Orange County's accountant and tax supervisor since 1953 when the commissioners made him County Administrator in July 1963, with a raise. The News of Orange County wrote that he had in practice already been the county's manager, the commissioners' right-hand man and supervisor of the agencies under them.

Source: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough): July 11, 1963, p. 15

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Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 18 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Mrs. C. W. Stanford becomes chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party At the county convention in Hillsboro, R. O. Forrest resigned the party chairmanship because he was running for county commissioner, and the new executive committee elected Mrs. Stanford of White Cross, who had been vice chairman, with J. Dumont Eskridge as vice chairman and S. M. Gattis III as secretary. People: Robert O. Forrest, Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 22, 1952, p. 1
  2. Alex Heard is elected president of the Orange County Young Democratic Club Meeting at the courthouse, the Young Democrats elected Alex Heard, a University political science professor and author living in Chapel Hill, to succeed Donald Stanford, and voted to send their delegates to the October state convention without endorsing any candidate. Heard went on to lead the state bond campaign in the southern half of the county. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 3, 1953, p. 1
  3. County commissioners name Samuel M. Gattis county accountant and tax supervisor The Board of County Commissioners chose Samuel M. Gattis, 28, assistant clerk of Superior Court since 1951, to succeed Ira A. Ward as county accountant and tax supervisor from October 19. Ward had resigned in August to become secretary-treasurer of the Hillsboro Building and Loan Association, and Mrs. Joe Howard of Efland had been acting accountant. People: Ira Ward, Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 8, 1953, p. 1
  4. Samuel M. Gattis becomes county accountant and tax supervisor Samuel M. Gattis, appointed by the county commissioners while the property revaluation was under way, took office on October 20 as Orange County's accountant and tax supervisor. Lucius Cheshire, who had left the job in 1951, returned to Gattis's old post as assistant clerk of Superior Court. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 22, 1953, p. 1
  5. New building in Chapel Hill township adds at least $2 million to the county tax books County tax supervisor Sam Gattis estimated that new taxable construction in Chapel Hill township during 1954 came to at least $2,000,000. His office added 206 new buildings in the Chapel Hill area to the rolls, 25 of them found by investigation after their owners failed to list them. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 26, 1955, p. 1
  6. Orange County begins suing over taxes five or more years overdue The county began a drive to collect taxes overdue by five years or more, mailing the first batch of more than 400 letters that gave owners six weeks to settle or face civil suits. The commissioners had handed the problem to Chapel Hill attorney Emery Denny Jr., who would handle the suits for a percentage. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 3, 1955, p. 1
  7. Commissioners pass a $34,000 school bond order with no one objecting No one appeared at the public hearing on $34,000 in school building bonds, and the commissioners went ahead with the order, which needed no popular vote. The money was to go with other funds toward a new facility for the Chapel Hill unit and additions to county school buildings. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 22, 1955, p. 1
  8. A new special fire district gives Chapel Hill township a third county tax rate Tax Supervisor Sam Gattis explained that some Chapel Hill township property now fell under three county rates: 62 cents for the county tax, 77 cents inside the special school district and 87 cents inside the special fire district, so owners might get two or three tax bills. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 29, 1955, p. 1
  9. Orange County commissioners decide the county does not need a county manager At a special meeting the commissioners studied the state law allowing a county manager and agreed unanimously that the work such an officer could be given did not justify creating the post in Orange. At the same meeting they finished the job and pay classification begun in July, raising the salaries of Accountant and Tax Supervisor Sam Gattis, Tax Collector Carl Davis and Welfare Superintendent Jane Parker. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 8, 1955, p. 1
  10. County commissioners cut the tax value of White Furniture Company's Hillsboro plant by about a third A majority of the commissioners agreed to lower the real estate valuation of the White Furniture Company's Hillsboro plant by some 32 percent. The company had paid its county taxes under protest for two years and had an appeal before the State Board of Equalization and Review; Vice President Steve White called the valuation an injustice, and Commissioner Edwin S. Lanier asked to be recorded against any cut. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier, Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 8, 1955, p. 1
  11. Orange County sells $1 million of its school construction bonds Orange County sold the first $1 million of the $2 million in school bonds approved in 1956, at an interest rate of 2.94 per cent, and the county accountant and the register of deeds went to New York on March 10 and 11 to sign them. The commissioners put half the money into short-term government securities until the building contracts came due. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 13, 1958, p. 8
  12. Tax collector Carl C. Davis resigns to become manager of the county ABC system Carl C. Davis, Orange County's tax collector since the job moved from the sheriff's office, told the commissioners he would resign, effective May 1, to become the first county manager of the Alcoholic Beverage Control system at $5,000 a year. The same day the commissioners lent the ABC board $30,000 from school debt service funds to open its first store, then going up on US 70 north of Hillsboro. People: Remus J. Smith Sr., Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 5, 1959, p. 1
Show all 18 dated events
  1. Commissioners set merchants' inventories for taxation at 70 percent of wholesale cost After merchant groups from Chapel Hill and Hillsboro protested a new sworn-statement listing that had raised inventory listings about 30 percent, the commissioners adopted a policy of taxing business inventories at 70 percent of wholesale cost, the rate used for real property. Tax Supervisor Sam Gattis reported some 70 Chapel Hill township firms listing $980,000 against $712,000 the year before. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 19, 1959, p. 1
  2. The N.C. Business and Professional Women's Clubs build a state headquarters off Smith Level Road The state federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs had finished a new state headquarters off Smith Level Road near Chapel Hill and asked the county commissioners to exempt it from property taxes as a nonprofit group. The request led the commissioners to plan their own review of the county's tax-exempt properties. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 15, 1961, p. 13
  3. The commissioners create the post of County Administrator and give it to Sam Gattis Sam M. Gattis, county accountant and tax supervisor since 1953, was given the newly created title of County Administrator with a raise in salary. The News wrote that he had long served in fact as the county's manager. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 11, 1963, p. 15
  4. Appraisers begin the county property revaluation in Chapel Hill Township Associated Surveys of Greensboro, holding a $52,000 county contract for the ten-year revaluation of property, began interviewing owners in Chapel Hill Township in the last week of 1963 after finishing field work in Little River, Eno and Bingham townships. The new values were to apply to 1965 taxes. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 2, 1964, p. 4
  5. Orange County begins appraising University property to see whether any of it is taxable County Manager Sam Gattis said county appraisers would begin assessing University property to see whether UNC must pay property tax, after a state revision made property not used wholly for public purposes, such as parking lots, rented faculty houses, vacant land and the Carolina Inn, open to county taxation. The University had been exempt for at least 105 years.Search the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 15, 1974, p. 1
  6. Orange County planners issue a ten-year planning guide centered on Chapel Hill Township The county Planning Department, working with the Planning Board and state planners and paid for in part by a federal 701 grant, issued A Planning/Management Process for Orange County, meant as a ten-year guide for managing growth in Chapel Hill Township and later the rest of the county. Its land classification system and development plan had not been adopted by the commissioners when it went to press. People: Sam M. Gattis IIISearch the index · Orange County Planning Department, A Planning/Management Process for Orange County, North Carolina, with Recommendations for Sound Land Development (1976), scan p. 11

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