LOCAL ELECTIONS: COUNTY ASSESSOR : 7 Candidates Succeed in Stirring Up Only Yawns of Indifference

Los Angeles County assessor candidate Jay Curtis last week stood on a lonely Hollywood street corner preparing to announce a plan to rewrite a section of Proposition 13 that allows different taxes to be levied on similar properties.

Curtis carefully chose a site only a few blocks from TV stations, with a good visual backdrop of similar houses that have different tax rates. But no one showed up. Even a dog running loose in the neighborhood ignored the event.

“You talk about rejection,” Curtis lamented. “The dog wouldn’t even come up and let us pet him.”

Much like comedian Rodney Dangerfield, the seven contenders for the low-visibility assessor’s job clamor for respect, but they are encountering apparent indifference.

Curtis also was scheduled to speak earlier this week at the University Club, but the event was called off for lack of interest. Only a handful of people signed up to attend, the club manager said.

In his first reelection bid, incumbent John J. Lynch faces six challengers, including four current or former employees of the assessor’s office, in the June 5 election.

The employees seeking the top job are Kenneth P. Hahn, Sid Delgado and John Carl Brogdon. Hahn is not related to County Supervisor Kenneth F. Hahn, who has endorsed Lynch. Lynch’s former secretary, Monica Anderson, also is running.

The other contenders are Joe Gardner, a retired county administrator, and Curtis, an attorney and president of the Los Angeles Taxpayers Assn.

The challengers contend that Lynch is a bully who has failed to get tax bills out on time. Lynch said he is a tough boss but fair. He blamed billing delays on problems with a computer system installed by his predecessor.

If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, the top two vote-getters will face off in November.

The assessor’s race has been overshadowed by feisty battles for governor and attorney general. And the candidates themselves have not had much money to spend on campaigns.

Only Curtis and Lynch paid the $62,775 to publish a 200-word statement in the official sample ballot, which is sent to 3.8 million voters.

“What price democracy, at $313.87 per word?” grumbled Brogdon, who said he could not afford the statement. His campaign has been limited to attending candidates’ forums, buttonholing voters at shopping malls and handing out photocopied campaign flyers during theater intermissions.

To qualify for the ballot, candidates had to collect 20 signatures and pay $953.

Gardner also complained that he is having trouble getting support because voters mistakenly believe candidate Hahn is a relative of the popular supervisor.

Hahn, the candidate, acknowledged that he expects to benefit from the well-known Hahn name, but said he makes it clear, when asked, that they are not related.

The Los Angeles County assessor, who will earn $130,869 a year when the new four-year term begins Dec. 3, oversees the largest single property-taxing jurisdiction in the United States, in terms of land value. The assessor’s chief task is to determine the tax bills for 2.2 million commercial and residential properties.

Assessors lost much of their power in 1978 after voters approved Proposition 13, which limited reappraisal to changes of ownership and new construction. Still, the Los Angeles County assessor, who oversees a staff of 1,600 and an $83-million annual budget, expects to review about 500,000 properties this year.

Lynch acknowledged that the duties of his office are a mystery to much of the public. “I spend a lot of time telling people what I do,” he said.

In 1986, Lynch, a 14-year veteran of the lower ranks of the assessor’s office, surprised himself by topping a field of 12 candidates to win the job vacated by Alexander Pope.

Lynch, 53, did have some things going for him. He was a Republican Party activist in the San Fernando Valley who was endorsed by tax fighter Howard Jarvis, whose portrait now hangs on the wall above Lynch’s desk. And he was one of only two candidates with a campaign pitch in the sample ballot.

To get the statement in the ballot, Lynch filed an affidavit claiming he was indigent and unable to pay the cost of the statement. The county later rejected Lynch’s claim, but it was too late to remove his statement from the booklet.

Lynch said he did not learn until after the election that only those living below the poverty level are considered indigents. He said he has since paid the printing costs.

During his first term, Lynch made headlines by throwing county auditors out of his office and being accused of assaulting an employee during a heated argument over the worker’s union activities. Lynch denied the assault allegation.

The worker filed a complaint with the Civil Service Commission, but the matter was dropped when Lynch agreed that there would be no reprisals against the employee, and the employee agreed not to file a lawsuit.

In ordering auditors out of his office, Lynch contended that an audit was unnecessary because it would review only procedures established by his predecessor. In 1988, the county grand jury conducted a management review, which found millions of dollars in billing backlogs. Lynch blamed the backlogs on a computer system inherited from his predecessor, and said he has corrected most of the problems. A routine follow-up audit is planned, but is not expected to be completed until after the election.

Lynch, who has been endorsed by Jarvis’ widow, cited a reduction in taxpayer appeals as evidence that his office is operating effectively. He also noted his office each year has produced higher property tax rolls.

A look at the challengers:

- Anderson, 39, left the assessor’s office in 1988 after working as executive secretary to Pope and Lynch. When she filed for the office in March, she called Lynch a “bully,” and said she was “appalled at the way he treated taxpayers.” But Lynch said Anderson once sent him a birthday card calling him “the best boss I ever had.”

- Brogdon, 61, supervising appraiser, is a 33-year veteran of the assessor’s office. He pointed out that he has worked longer in the office than any candidate, including the incumbent. He also is a former Culver City councilman.

- Curtis, 47, former chief tax counsel of the West Virginia State Tax Commission and former director of taxes for Pacific Enterprises, is making his first try for public office. He is now in private practice. Curtis has spent $40,000 of his own money on the campaign and raised another $50,000--more than any of the other challengers.

He has proposed a complex plan to change the way property taxes are levied in the event of a successful court challenge to a section of Proposition 13 that requires new home buyers to pay higher taxes than longtime owners of similar properties.

- Delgado, 51, a chief appraiser, is a 27-year veteran of the assessor’s office who is the highest-ranking challenger. Delgado has been endorsed by the Service Employees International Union Local 660.

A former assistant to Pope, Delgado ran against Lynch in 1986. After the election, Delgado said he was “exiled” by the new assessor to the South El Monte office. Lynch insisted that he has never retaliated against any political opponent in his office.

- Gardner, 59, retired in 1984 after working for county government for 25 years. He served as the Board of Supervisors’ liaison to the county’s 86 cities. Gardner, president of the Baldwin Hills Estates Homeowners Assn., unsuccessfully ran for assessor in 1986.

- Hahn, 50, an appraiser specialist who has been in the assessor’s office 10 years, is running for the first time. He joined the county 23 years ago as a social worker.