Jacobs Aide Will Seek Assessor’s Post Again

County employee Larry L. Bales will challenge his boss, Assessor Bradley Jacobs, in the 1998 election, Bales announced Thursday.

It would be Bales’ third attempt to dislodge Jacobs, the county’s elected assessor since 1978. Jacobs hasn’t formally announced his decision to seek reelection.

In a news release, Bales claimed that Jacobs over-assessed properties during the 1990s economic recession, resulting in tens of thousands of taxpayer appeals. He criticized Jacobs’ decision not to apply for up to $21 million in state funding to help clear appeals cases. Jacobs argued that the county didn’t qualify for the money and might have had to pay it back.

Bales touted his history of exposing abuses in the office; he testified in the mid-1970s before a county grand jury that indicted Jacobs’ predecessor, then-Rep. Andrew Hinshaw, for bribery and misuse of public funds, including using county assessor employees to help his congressional campaign.