City Council Candidate Owes Money To IRS

City Representative Ann Morgan Lilly said that an anonymous person left an envelope outside her door that had notices of federal tax liens for her opponent, Lyda Ness Garcia’s law office.

According to the federal documents, Garcia, at one point in 2005, owed the Internal Revenue Service more than $104,000. “I’m very concerned because the city budget for 2011 is over $300 million and I’m concerned that someone who has this kind of tax lien against them would be involved in the fiscal responsibility of the city budget,” said Lilly.

Ness Garcia, who opened her practice in 2001, said the liens stem back to the early years of her practice, when after growing her customer base, she hired her first Certified Public Accountant who advised her to amend her past federal tax forms. She gave the CPA the green light to do it, and that’s when the IRS audited Ness Garcia’s office and hit her with hefty financial penalties and fees.

“I was an inexperienced business owner. I entrusted what I thought was a responsibility to someone who I thought should have been an expert to handle it. I can promise you, I have seriously learned my lesson. And I have never entrusted that kind of responsibility on anyone ever again and since then,” said Ness Garcia.

The political challenger and family law attorney said she’s still in the process of finding out just how much she still owes the IRS, but suspects it’s ‘about the same amount that it would take to pay off a school loan.’ Ness Garcia still operates her family law business.

Lilly also said she believes Ness Garcia won’t work well with City Manager Joyce Wilson. “I know she doesn’t like the city manager, but I do.”

Ness Garcia responded by saying she thinks the city manager model of government is a good one because it provides continuity when the city representatives are replaced and allows programs and ideas to be fulfilled. “I think Joyce Wilson is a very intelligent woman”, she said, and added it’s Lilly who she believes is lacking.

“Because she’s not proactive, because she doesn’t have the leadership qualities, Joyce has had to rise to the occasion and has had to fill that lack of leadership that we currently see in our city representative”, Ness Garcia said of Lilly.

Ness Garcia has repeatedly accused Lilly of being inaccessible and stagnant while in office. Lilly said Ness Garcia is inexperienced and wouldn’t have the time to represent such a big district. “My (advantage) is experience and that I have the time, you know my children are grown, my grandchildren are grown, and I have the time to spend, and to work hard at this job, and I have the background of the last 6 years,” said Lilly.

Her challenger is not convinced. “She’s had the time in the last 6 years and has been completely inaccessible, every day I get a story about people who have e-mailed her or call her and she hasn’t responded to them, so whether or not she may have the time, she’s not putting the energy and effort into it,” said Ness Garcia.

She also responded to Lilly’s accusations that Ness Garcia wouldn’t have the time to be in office. “Yes, I am a single parent and I know what it’s like to manage a business, being a good parent, and I know how to multitask and I’ve been doing it well for the last 20 years.”

After ABC-7’s interview with Ness Garcia for this story a packet was dropped off at the station, with documents for a court case in which Lilly was sued by a then-tenant who wanted to buy property from her that she eventually sold to someone else.

Lilly says she settled out of court last year and paid nearly $20,000 in attorney fees for the people who sued her.

However, according to court documents, specifically a summary judgement, Lilly lost the lawsuit and in 2010, was ordered to pay more than $117,000 to the plaintiffs – on top of the nearly $20,000 in legal fees.