The assessor of Los Angeles County, responsible for putting a price on real estate and thus creating the local property tax base, has one of the most important jobs around.
Or, rather, the office of the assessor does. There are very real questions about exactly why voters are charged with electing the person who oversees the valuation of 2.36 million assessed properties in the county. There is also the matter of more than 280,000 personal property assessments, including boats and planes. It all adds up to a total Los Angeles County property assessment value of just over $1 trillion. The largest county in the United States by population is also likely the most valuable one, considering the cost of homes and commercial properties in these parts.
It’s a very technical skill, involving both math and the psychology of real estate. There is a lot of management to do in an office with 1,600 employees. So how is it voters are supposed to decide who has those skills on the basis of a political campaign? And consequently the office has a history of incompetents and scoundrels being at its head — along with some good guys, and it has always been a guy since Anthony F. Coronel in 1850. One Kenneth Hahn, who was absolutely no relation to the esteemed longtime county supervisor of the same name, served in the office from 1990-2000, and beat very good incumbent John J. Lynch almost certainly on the strength of the name confusion alone. But as it turned out, Hahn, who had worked as a midlevel assessor for years, was competent in office.
Contrast that with the current incumbent, Assessor John Noguez. Elected in 2010, Noguez is a longtime political player in the Corridor of Corruption cities in the county’s southeast, and he is currently on paid leave from office after being indicted on 24 felony charges related to corruption in office. Almost as soon as he took office, the former midlevel appraiser allegedly accepted $185,000 in bribes from a wealthy property owner and helped lower the appraised values for others as well in order to help save them millions of dollars in property taxes. If convicted, Noguez faces more than 30 years in state prison.
So, yes, this position should be an appointed one.
Meanwhile, since it is not yet that, the June 3 election to replace Noguez, who is not on the ballot though he is still collecting the $192,000 annual salary while awaiting trial, has garnered a great deal of attention and 13 candidates are on the ballot for the office.
Many of the candidates currently work in the Assessor’s Office, and understandably express outrage at the ignominy Noguez has brought upon them. Some of them were actual whistle-blowers on their former boss. One, Jeffrey Prang, was a top deputy to Noguez who was brought into the office by him and was also instrumental in getting him to step aside. Another, John Wong, was defeated by Noguez four years ago, served for years on the county’s Assessment Appeals Board and is a strong candidate.
But John Morris, currently an assistant district attorney for the county, has the strongest, most concrete plan for reforming the office of assessor. He has a real estate license, has worked as a real estate attorney and has published research on real estate fraud. While some of the current midlevel staffers are right to say they know how the office works and therefore are well-positioned to fix what’s wrong, Morris is convincing when he says, “As an outsider, I’ve got nothing to hide. I would root out the political problems and establish transparency.”
Morris has a plan to establish internal controls that would prevent future assessors from exerting undue influence over the re-evaluation of property. He said he would refuse to accept campaign contributions from any employee of the Assessor’s Office. And yet he says he understands the issues that property owners with legitimate valuation disputes have with the office. It now takes over a year for a hearing before the appeals board to determine the contested evaluation of a property. He understands the unfortunate dynamics within the office whereby staffers are reluctant to lower any assessment at all, including for good reasons, because of the Noguez scandal. He says he would empower midlevel staffers to make their own professional judgments so as not to further crowd the appeals board.
There are some questions about Morris’s career in the District Attorney’s Office, where he has been bounced around to a number of jobs and offices, none of them terrifically important ones. But we think as assessor his quiet competence would be a welcome change.
