written by Richard Thomas. Letter to Georgia Secretary of State.

September 14, 2009

Secretary of State
Attn: Roy White, Reg. Supervisor
Suite 802 West Tower
2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive S.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30334

Re: Dougherty and Lee County Taxpayers' Association, Inc. Dear Mr. White:

Pursuant to your letter and our phone conversation the morning of 9/14/09, and at your request, I wish to briefly summarize the structure, purpose, mission statement, and operations of the Dougherty and Lee County Taxpayers' Association, Inc.

Currently, the Dougherty and Lee County Taxpayers' Association is doing business as the Dougherty County Taxpayers' Association, Inc. (D.C.T.P.A.) and is operating as an all volunteer, conventional "C", not for profit corporation (not a 501(3)(c) organization). There are no salaries, and all expenses are disbursed from our general account unless otherwise paid directly by members.

Our volunteer membership depends solely on private donations from its members, and occasionally a fundraiser event or auction, in order to raise operating funds to meet its goals. We elected in 2007 to remain as a private "C" status corporation in order to: (a) protect the identity of anonymous donors (who may have business relationships with the city or county); and (b) to become politically engaged by endorsing candidates of our choice in local city/county elections, to challenge government incompetency, wasteful spending, and corruption.

Our 12 steering committee members (directors) are constantly volunteering their time, services, and personal funds to keep our organization solvent. As present, over $12,000 has been advanced to us by these committee members to meet budget "shortfalls" as a result of legal costs incurred by the property tax assessment suit (appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court) in 2008, and a (local) $6 million bond intervention suit and appeal (now pending).

In our two years of operating as a tax advocacy and "watchdog" organization for the citizens of Dougherty (and Lee) county, we have provided assistance to hundreds of property taxpayers in successful appeals of their cases, challenged city, county and school board authority, government waste, misappropriation of funds, fraud, and most recently, corruption at the city government level, now under investigation by the G.B.I. since July of 2009.

We are currently endorsing two of three new candidates for city commission elections this fall in our effort to "Sweep Albany Clean" (our latest campaign), and rid our community and local government of nepotism, cronyism, and corruption.

If you need additional information regarding our organization, please refer to nomoretax.net, our web site and link, which further explains our mission and structure.

As you can see from the aforementioned synopsis of our organization, it would not be fitting (or compliant) for us to elect non-profit 501(3)(c) status. We do not hold ourselves out to be otherwise.

Thank you for your letter of inquiry, and should the D.C.T.P.A., Inc. need to take any action to remain compliant with the State of Georgia, please feel free to contact me.

Sinerely,

Richard R. Thomas Chairman D.C.T.P.A., Inc.

cc: Hilliard Burt, Esq.