O.C. Assessor Says Staff Doing Its Best in Pinch

Assessor Bradley L. Jacobs, under attack from Orange County supervisors for failing to stand behind hundreds of disputed property valuations, defended his actions Friday and said he is doing the best he can with a budget ravaged by the county’s bankruptcy.

“This department is doing a very fine job,” Jacobs said. “We have always been very lean and tight in this department. We are short on resources. . . . Everything is aggravated because of the bankruptcy.”

Supervisors said this week that they are considering a number of severe sanctions against Jacobs, including censuring him, for refusing to defend a number of his assessed valuations that are now under appeal by property owners. They said Jacobs could cause the county to lose valuable tax revenue at a time when it is trying to make up a $1.7-billion loss in the county’s investment portfolio.

But Jacobs, an elected official, countered that his actions have not resulted in any losses to the county.

Jacobs said that by not presenting a case during the appeal hearings, his office is essentially standing behind the original assessed value and is leaving it up to the appeal board to set the value.

County officials said he is not doing enough to protect the county’s interests. Sources said the county’s counsel is drafting a legal opinion that will say Jacobs is violating state law by not defending the valuations.

“It’s crucial we handle these appeals. We’ve got to do everything we can to keep these resources coming in,” Supervisor Roger R. Stanton said.

Jacobs, who was the target of the supervisors’ anger for a different incident last November, said he had to stop defending some of the disputed assessments because he has neither the staff nor the money to do the job.

He said he was forced into the decision because his staff is swamped with putting out this year’s property tax roll--which he considers a more important function of his office.

“That is our first priority,” he said. “There are only so many appeals we can do and still complete the 1995 tax roll.”

Jacobs, the county’s assessor for 20 years, said his staff can handle only about 800 appeal cases a week. Currently, up to 1,400 cases a week are scheduled by Kathy Goodno, the clerk of the board, who is responsible for scheduling the appeals.

He said Goodno needs to reduce the number of cases being scheduled for hearings. He also said the clerk needs to schedule only cases that are in jeopardy of running past the two-year statutory hearing deadline.

Goodno said she has met with the assessor and will take his suggestions into consideration when scheduling the appeals.

“We’re willing to work with him,” she said.

But even refining, the scheduling of hearings won’t ultimately solve the problem, Jacobs said.

“In the long run, we are going to need more staff and more money to pay them,” he said.

Jacobs said the downturn in property values throughout the state over the past couple of years has caused many county property owners to appeal their assessments, creating a burden on his office.

As of March, there were more than 61,300 appeals pending--about a two-year backlog. Jacobs said that number is closer to 40,000 now. Part of the backlog was created when the county filed bankruptcy, which caused a stay in the appeals hearing process.

Supervisors have harshly criticized Jacobs for complaining about his budget woes. They say he needs to make do with his current resources like all the other department heads who are dealing with the new fiscal realities caused by the bankruptcy.

The cuts to Jacobs’ office are no more severe than other departments have suffered, supervisors have said.

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Since the bankruptcy, Jacobs’ budget of about $17 million was cut about $250,000. This fiscal year the office budget is being slashed by another $1.3 million.

Jacobs said Friday that he is being punished for having run an extremely frugal operation in the past.

During an interview in his office near the Hall of Administration, Jacobs pointed to a chart he made showing that his office staff has remained relatively flat over the past 20 years, while the county’s work force has swelled to nearly 100% of its 1975 level.

Jacobs refused to comment on the supervisors’ frustration with him.

This is the second time in less than a year that Jacobs has stirred the ire of the Board of Supervisors.

About a month before the county’s December bankruptcy declaration, Jacobs and former Clerk of the Board Phyllis A. Henderson were criticized for allowing about 100 assessment appeals to exceed the two-year deadline before scheduling hearings. That cost the county about $1.6 million.

Other supervisors said this week that they were so troubled by Jacobs’ actions that they were considering a host of sanctions, including calling for a grand jury investigation into the assessor’s office, initiating a internal audit of his office and officially censuring him.

Jacobs declined to comment on any possible sanctions against him.

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