Pope’s Opposition to Plan for an Appointed Assessor

Alexander Pope has no reversed himself again. Pope once said the assessor should be appointed, now he says the assessor should be elected. Where does Pope really stand. His last statement was that the county assessor should be elected in order to protect us taxpayers. If Pope is concerned for us taxpayers, they why is he abandoning us? Why is he running once again for another elective position? Why does he not stay in the position of trust to which we elected him?

I must admit it is becoming more and more difficult to understand exactly what Pope stands for, or what he wants to do in public office.

Is he leaving the assessor’s office because he believes the taxpayers will be better served by some other elected assessor, or that the taxpayers will be better off with someone appointed by the county supervisors, as he suggested a while back? Is it the problems of the assessor’s office because office lacs discretionary power, as Pope says, or does Pope have trouble following the guidelines set forth for county assessors by the state Board of Equalization?

I may be entirely confused about Pope’s motives in office, but it surely seems that his prime motive is to get elected to whatever elective office comes up for grabs, and that reliability, dependability in office, and straightforwardness comes in a poor second.

I do remember that Pope was appointed to the assessor’s office by the old majority of the Board of Supervisors, that he did then run for the office of assessor when the term expired proclaiming his desire to run the office for us, then in two years he was ready to quit the job in favor of another elective post, that of supervisor. He lost out on that race, but here he is again another two years later ready to quit the job he spent so much money and effort on getting for yet another run at another elective position.

Yes sir, I may be very confused as to what Pope wants to do or be in public service, but not half as confused as Pope seems to be.

DWAYNE B. SMITH

Long Beach