An appraiser charged with felony identity deception has resigned her seat on the St. Joseph County Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals.
Prosecutors have charged Gloria Niedbalski with the felony, alleging that she swatted Republican County Council member Amy Drake. During the council’s Dec. 9 meeting, prosecutors say Niedbalski posed as Drake’s elderly neighbor and asked the Department of Child Services to check on her children because she had left them alone. That turned out not to be true.
At that Dec. 9 meeting the council had voted to re-appoint Niedbalski to the board but Drake had voted against her and nominated someone else to the board.
County Assessor Mike Castellon says Niedbalski emailed her resignation to him on Monday. Castellon says he has notified council President Bryan Tanner that the council needs to appoint her replacement.
The five-member board hears appeals when property owners think their assessments are too high. County commissioners appoint three members and the council appoints two.
Niedbalski has her initial hearing before St. Joseph Superior Judge David Francisco on March 24. A magistrate last week ordered her to have no contact with Drake.
