Los Angeles County Assessor Jeffrey Prang is in search of reelection this 12 months, and voters can be sensible to offer him a 3rd time period.
The general public might not be accustomed to Prang or the county assessor’s workplace, and that’s not a nasty factor. He was elected to the job in 2014 to fill the spot left vacant by John Noguez — who garnered loads of consideration, and never in a great way. Noguez was charged in 2012 with accepting bribes for decreasing property house owners’ assessments, and spent the remainder of his time period on a paid depart of absence. (After an appellate court docket dismissed the case towards Noguez on a technical violation in 2020, the Los Angeles County district lawyer’s workplace refiled the fees, and the case continues to be pending.)
Prang has carried out an admirable job of dispelling the darkish cloud his predecessor left over the division. He has labored to modernize the workplace by upgrading its pc system (a mission that's nonetheless unfolding) and digitizing information. He has tackled the backlog of evaluation appeals and put in place a $45 submitting payment to scale back meritless appeals, and is creating new methods to recruit and practice assessors to fill the vacancies in his division.
All of this whereas educating himself on this esoteric work. The assessor’s job is to appraise newly constructed, improved or bought properties and enterprise property to find out how a lot property tax the house owners should pay every year. The workplace additionally handles appeals of choices made by its appraisers.
Usually, elected county assessors come from the ranks of the division. Prang was not an appraiser by coaching nor had he labored in actual property. He had a few years of expertise in native authorities — together with a stint on the West Hollywood Metropolis Council. Eight years after his election, he has turn out to be a pacesetter amongst state assessors and is a member of the chief board of the California Assessors’ Assn.
Three persons are operating to unseat Prang — all deputy assessors who consider they might do a greater job operating the 1,300-employee division. Mike Campbell and Sandy Solar have each been of their jobs for a few years, however haven't any administration expertise. Nor might they provide specifics on how, if elected, they'd handle the complaints about Prang’s administration, which heart primarily on vacancies within the division and frustrations with the brand new pc system. The third challenger, Anthony Lopez, didn't reply to our interview invites and has no marketing campaign web site.
Prang’s newest time period has not been with out issues. Earlier this 12 months, San Fernando Valley Democratic Sen. Bob Hertzberg, who's operating for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, criticized Prang for shifting too slowly to course of 1000's of claims allowed beneath Proposition 19, a 2020 state poll measure that expanded the eligibility for property tax transfers. However the issues had been the results of complicated language in Proposition 19. Hertzberg wrote and the Legislature handed a invoice in 2021 to make clear the foundations, and the assessor now has to get by means of the backlog of functions. Prang says that the criticism is unfair and that assessors had warned state officers they'd not be able to course of claims in simply the few months allowed within the measure. (The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., which has endorsed Prang and certainly one of Hertzberg’s opponents within the supervisor’s race, says the backlog will not be the assessor’s fault.)
And in 2019, his workplace was accused in a whistleblower lawsuit of giving favorable therapy to related taxpayers, together with Rand Corp. and John Barger, the brother of county Supervisor Kathryn Barger. The lawsuit was filed by three staff of the assessor’s division and additional recommended that particular tax therapy was a “quid professional quo” for marketing campaign contributions, however didn’t cite any particular claims and likewise accused county attorneys of purposely shedding appeals. Prang stated not one of the circumstances cited within the lawsuit contain marketing campaign donors and calls the claims unfounded. The go well with is pending earlier than the county court docket.
The assessor’s workplace is a big company and wishes sound administration. And of all of the folks on the poll, Prang is one of the best one to deal with the challenges.
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