California Elections : 12 Candidates Crowded Into Chancy Race for Assessor

The chanciest political contest on the June 3 ballot is the crowded race for Los Angeles County assessor, an elective office that could disappear before the winner is determined.

Twelve candidates, most of them little known to the public, are seeking the $83,000-a-year job being vacated by Alexander Pope, who is running for the State Board of Equalization.

The candidate with the most visible campaign--largely due to huge freeway billboards emblazoned with his familiar family name--has been former assemblyman and Los Angeles Councilman Gordon Hahn, brother of Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and uncle of Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn.

Even with his name, it will be difficult for Hahn to obtain a majority vote, meaning a runoff election could be required in November. The challenge for the rest of the candidates is to finish second and make the runoff.

Even an outright winner on June 3 could end up a loser. On the same ballot, if voters approve Proposition B, a county Charter amendment, it would nullify the election and permit the Board of Supervisors to appoint the next assessor.

Proposition B has been harshly criticized by all of the assessor candidates. Many are blaming it for diminishing interest in the race and drying up campaign contributions.

Gordon Hahn, 67, who served in the Assembly and on the Los Angeles City Council in the 1940s and 1950s, said he expects to spend up to $100,000 in the primary. He is drawing on the family’s political stature for his comeback attempt.

His bright orange “HAHN” billboards are almost identical to those used earlier by his brother and nephew. His press releases extol the family’s “long and proud history of public service” and he began a recent interview by saying the name Hahn “stands for honesty in government.”

Hahn said his brother has helped him by appearing at fund-raisers and political gatherings but is not helping finance his campaign with direct contributions. One of the most aggressive candidates has been Los Angeles businessman Jim Keysor, a former four-term San Fernando Valley Democratic Assemblyman, who claims that he will spend “in the six digits” in the race, including a considerable amount of his own money.

Another candidate who has a previously demonstrated vote-getting ability is Frank A. Hill, a property tax consultant who nearly upset Pope by garnering 47% of the vote in a hard-fought 1978 assessor’s race.

Elected by voters countywide, the assessor oversees an 1,100-employee department that determines the tax bills on homes, commercial properties and certain kinds of business equipment by establishing their taxable value.

Thus far, most of the debate has focused on how to streamline the handling of huge volumes of paper work in the assessor’s office.

All of the candidates say they would move more rapidly into computerization and most are promising to expand hours at field offices that are now open to the public only two days a week.

Much of the attention in the race has focused on Hahn, the biggest and clearest target for the other candidates.

Keysor, vice president of a family-owned plastics firm and an unsuccessful candidate for Los Angeles City Council in 1981, has criticized the addition of another Hahn to local elective office. He charged that Gordon Hahn’s candidacy smacks of “nepotism” and poses potential conflicts of interest. For example, he said, the city attorney might have to sue the county assessor over disputed tax assessments in a redevelopment project.

“Jimmy has to sue his uncle,” he said.

However, a spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission said the only potential conflict in such a case would be if one of the Hahns had a personal financial interest in the outcome. Also, said Fair Political Practices Commission spokeswoman Lynn Montgomery, Supervisor Hahn could vote on his brother’s salary, because they are not financially dependent on each other.

Since leaving public office, Hahn has been a real estate consultant and broker and was a longtime paid adviser to the late Los Angeles real estate magnate Ben Weingart.

Hahn has stressed his real estate and government experience in the campaign. He cites legislation he authored to require registration of lobbyists in Sacramento, his legislative efforts to obtain state funds for the start of the Los Angeles freeway system in 1947 and his efforts to bring the Dodgers to Los Angeles.

“I’m running now because . . . I didn’t see anyone running that had the background to make the post of assessor really effective,” Hahn said.

However, some of the candidates who now work as deputy assessors say the kind of experience Hahn is touting is not what is needed. Sid Delgado, an assistant to Pope who is making his first bid for elective office, said, “Someone with (technical) experience should be running the office.”

Webster Guillory, a top manager in the Orange County assessor’s office, who is also seeking his first elective office, said Hahn is contending that “experience of some 20 years ago is experience today.”

“What’s he done for you lately. . . . I’m already doing this thing, so I know what it’s all about,” Guillory said.

Keysor, 58, has endorsements of prominent Democrats, including state Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Los Angeles), Secretary of State March Fong Eu and Reps. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles) and Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton). He also has the endorsement of United Teachers of Los Angeles, the union representing Los Angeles city schoolteachers.

Like Hahn, he cites his legislative accomplishments, including a state law he authored that allowed voters to register by mail. He also points to his business and management experience as an executive with the nation’s largest manufacturer of plastics for phonograph records.

Here is a look at the lesser known candidates.

- Glenn Buchanan, 63, is a commissioner on the Los Angeles Building Advisory Appeal Board. An appointee of Mayor Tom Bradley who has been active in the Democratic Party, he has promised to seek tax refunds for property owners who he claims were overcharged on their tax bills in the early 1980s.

- Delgado, 47, has received the endorsement of the Mexican American Political Assn. and the union that represents Los Angeles County deputy assessors. His boss, Pope, is remaining neutral in the contest, but Delgado said he has the support of the San Diego and Ventura county assessors. He said he designed many of the existing computer systems in the office.

- Craig (Freeze) Freis, 42, was an unsuccessful Los Angeles City Council candidate last year who lists his occupation as “tax reduction advocate.” He claims the endorsement of Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and proposes a plan to reduce tax assessments in neighborhoods where crime rates drop. “If you can reduce crime, you can reduce taxes,” he said.

- Joe Gardner, 55, is a retired county government administrator who heads a small sports promotion firm. Gardner said as assessor, he would push for state legislation to eliminate large tax bill differences on side-by-side homes caused by Proposition 13.

- Guillory, 42, is managing deputy assessor of the Orange County assessor’s office. He said he has the endorsement of his boss, Assessor Bradley Jacobs, black activist and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson and Los Angeles City Council members Dave Cunningham and Robert Farrell. He proposes installing full-service public computer terminals in outlying assessor offices.

- Hill, 65, is a tax consultant who represents clients before the assessment appeals board in the assessor’s office. Unlike several other candidates, he opposes efforts to reduce property tax inequities by amending Proposition 13. The assessor office needs “a complete shake-up,” starting with closer monitoring of how time is spent by employees, he said.

- John L. Lynch, 49, is a field appraiser in the assessor’s office. Lynch, who has been active in the Republican Party, said he has the endorsement of anti-tax crusader Howard Jarvis.

- Gary Passi, 30, manages a small real estate development business and is a data processing specialist.

- Henry E. Vagt, 56, is an escrow agent who challenged Pope in 1978. To eliminate inequities in property tax bills, he said he would propose legislation to tax all properties on full market value but at a lower rate.

- James H. Withycombe, 59, is an appraiser in the assessor’s office and former real estate broker. He said he would give workers a strong voice in the management of the office. He is running because the assessor should be “somebody from the department.”