Guillory Takes Lead in Race to Succeed County Assessor

Assistant Orange County Assessor Webster J. Guillory held a commanding lead against opponent James S. Bone late Tuesday and pledged to continue managing the assessor’s office in the tradition of his boss, Bradley L. Jacobs.

“We’re very pleased the people have responded,” Guillory said. “The criticism was political bantering. People knew better. We’ve consistently been on top of the job at this office.”

Guillory, 54, who was hired by the county office 21 years ago, said his intention is to continue making the assessor’s office user-friendly and independent from political whims and pressures.

“The assessor’s office is a nonpartisan office and it has to maintain that kind of posture,” he said. “What we do is provide even-handed and fair treatment to everyone. The public understands that.”

The veteran county official, who is registered as an independent, said he plans to keep politics out of the office.

“In the past, we’ve been very careful not to take the office in one direction or the other for political purposes,” he said.

Guillory said he believes his appeal lies in his broad range of experience with both business and government.

“Basically we’re running a large business within government. For certain, I’m experienced in that,” he said.

His challenger, Bone, 57, is an accountant who ran on a platform of reforming the office. Bone came into the election with heavy support from local political leaders, including the entire board of supervisors, nearly all of the state and federal elected officials from Orange County, the influential fund-raising Lincoln Club and the Republican Party.

“I was optimistic going in,” he said. “I had all the endorsements. I worked extremely hard. But it appears that there’s a backlash against Republicans at all levels and I got caught in it.”

The campaign battle had centered over how the assessor’s office was being run. Bone asserted that the office was failing to process appeals in a timely way and overtaxed businesses along the way. But Guillory contended that the office was effective and efficient under Jacob’s supervision.

Jacobs, the assessor for 21 years, decided not to run for reelection after a rift developed between him and the county Board of Supervisors. The board was unhappy about his refusal to apply for a state loan that would help his office process property tax appeals quicker.

Jacobs came under fire for failing to lower assessments quickly during the recession of the early 1990s, during which the market value of many houses and other real estate fell markedly.

Yet, after the county’s historic bankruptcy in 1994, pressure also mounted on Jacobs to keep values stable to retain county revenue.

Jacobs’ defiant refusal to apply for the $6.8-million state loan to help process appeals prompted the supervisors to warn assessor candidates about a potential pay cut based on job performance.

Even though the office has been criticized by many and the entire Board of Supervisors supported Bone, Guillory has maintained that the office did its job well. Guillory points out that the State Board of Equalization, which oversees the assessment process, gave Jacobs good marks last year for the way his office calculated property values.

Bone, 57, earned a bachelor degree at San Diego State University in 1965 and a master’s in business administration at International University in San Diego in 1971.

Guillory worked as an engineer in private industry before being named assistant assessor in 1977. He earned a bachelor degree in aerospace engineering from Northrop University in Inglewood in 1966 and a master’s in engineering from the University of Southern California in 1972.