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WatchOurCity
L.A. County Assessor's Race
| Tuesday September 7, 2010, 6:00 am, UPDATED WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2010 12:00 AM WatchOurCity.com Trillion Dollar County Assessment Tax Roll, Million Dollar deals, Some Benefiting John Noguez, Assessor Candidate Gary Townsend, Chief Deputy for current L.A. County Assessor Rick Auerbach is actively managing John Noguez's campaign for County Assessor. Townsend may cut a deal with multi-national oil corporation today at hearing to reduce $150 million property tax assessment burden in exchange for campaign contributions for John Noguez's Assessor's campaign. The Editor, WatchOurCity.com Huntington Park, CA - Huntington Park mayor John Noguez is the front runner in a November runoff race with John Wong for L.A. County Assessor. What are the stakes involved? The Assessor's office is the most obscure and least understood of the elected bodies in L.A. County. And yet, it has the most direct impact on the lives of ordinary residents and business interests. The assessor's tax roll forms the basis for combined billion dollar budgets of all 88 cities, school districts, and many county entities. Budgets for social services such as welfare and food stamps are partly figured from tax rolls and administered through county agencies and non-profits. The County of Los Angeles is the 12th largest economy in the world. The County is also number one in the entire United States in terms of property tax rolls assessed on a yearly basis. According to the "County Assessor 2010 Annual Report", the County's tax roll for current fiscal year is over 1 trillion dollars. To be exact, according to county figures, the total property tax roll is $1,089,524,149,015. Digest that for a moment. The $2.9 million property overtax in the City of Bell is, in contrast, infinitesimally insignificant, statistically. Politically, Bell's property tax issues are front page news on the L.A. Times. This tax roll includes everything from residential property, boats, commercial property such as hotels, downtown office buildings, historic core office buildings, fixture acquisitions, machinery, oil rigging gear, new construction and so on. Why don't we know much about the Assessor's office? Besides paying property tax bills or requesting a reduction in one's property tax valuation to get lower taxes, most county residents have limited interaction with the Assessor's office. The County Assessor is the least understood of all the elected bodies in the County, and yet, it is the most powerful. While the Sheriff has police powers, the D.A. powers of indictment, and County Supervisors power of budget control, non touches the lives of regular residents and powerful business interests more directly where it counts, in the pocket book, than the Assessor's office. The Sheriff The Sheriff's office is probably the most visible county body. If you're lucky to live in any high crime area where Sheriff's air support is called, you've no doubt been witness to helicopters and black-and-whites chasing down some bad guys. Sheriff Lee Baca is always at the ready with press releases, multiple times a day. You hear about the Sheriff's office taking over Maywood's failed police force after that city's municipal fail was staged by Bell's Rizzo, Spaccia, Ed Lee and Maywood City council. The District Attorney Then there is County District Attorney Steve Cooley. Everyone knows what he does, that is, putting bag guys in jail, except that in southeast cities, his record is alarmingly abysmal with political corruption cases. It seems that Cooley's office goes guns a-blazing after an elected official only if a residency violation is sniffed, such as happened with Linda Guevara in Huntington Park, and only if that violation was committed by a foe of a friend, such as Guevara was to Rosario Marin, a Cooley Republican comrade. But with voter fraud and looting of public funds on an endemic and unprecedented scale in Bell, Huntington Park, Maywood and surrounding southeast cities, Cooley just looked the other way. When Bell residents complained about voter fraud in Bell, the D.A. was somewhat dismissive, resulting in no action. Even in the face of fast breaking news coming from Bell city hall about corruption on a grand scale, the D.A. was blasse, stating that there was nothing the office could do since looting was done legally, and voter fraud could not be proven. At the same time that Cooley went after Huntington Park councilwoman Linda Guevara for not living in the city while serving in public office in 2002, another local elected official was living in Huntington Beach while serving in Bell city council. Rolf Jansson, upon learning of Guevara's indictment, immediately quit Bell city council and devoted himself to being a Bell High School Vice Principal. It was well known in Jansson's case, as in Guevara's case, that each lived in a different city than the one they served as public officials in. The difference was that Rolf was friends of friends, and Guevara was foe of a friend (full disclosure: Linda Guevara provides public records to the editor at WatchourCity.com). Currently, Bell councilman Luis Artiga is reported to be living in Chino while also living in Bell, according to media reports. Yet, Steve Cooley's office pretends not to notice. Cooley, however, did manage to get his old friend, former D.A. Philibosian, a million dollar gig defending the city manager in Cudahy against, ahem, Philibosian's friend and current D.A., Steve Cooley himself ("The Steve and Bob Show: Ex-D.A. Philibosian has a good friend in Cooley", Jeffrey Anderson, L.A. Weekly, 8-17-06). Cooley's office also managed to look the other way when its own deputy D.A., also serving as mayor of Compton, looks just as bad as Bell officials taking pay for meetings not attended, totaling all of $65,000 a year, all the while jerry-rigging and gaming the CalPERS benefits formulas for maximum personal benefit ("Part Time Compton Mayor Absent from Meetings", A.P., 9-5-10). Cooley did manage to convict, twice, Mario Beltran, the Bell Gardens councilmember, and favorite campaign manager for both John Noguez and George Cole in Bell and Huntington Park elections. Beltran's punishment was to quit his city council seat and prohibited from public elections for five years. Beltran could even continue to run political campaigns, as he so ably did right after his convictions, putting his friend Sergion Infanzon in his old seat. Turns out, the D.A.'s office only slapped Beltran on the hand more for show than for anything else. Mario Beltran was responsible for hiring former D.A. chief investigator Steve Simonian as Bell Gardens city manager. The D.A. didn't even feint interest when, after Simonian investigates shenanigans in Bell Gardens for the D.A.'s office, he suddenly jumps ship and crosses to the other side, ending up with a lucrative Bell Gardens City manager appointment, all the while sitting as an elected councilman in La Habra Heights, and also collecting CalPERS points from multiple agencies. Simonian was selected in Bell Gardens in highly unusual circumstances, without interviewing other candidates, in closed session, in an effort led by then Bell Gardens councilman Mario Beltran ("Bell Gardens gets interesting again", Ken Roderick, L.A. Observed, 9-29-08). In 2007, Huntington Park candidates for city council filed a complaint with the D.A.'s office about Mayor John Noguez, accusing him of using an illegal name. The D.A.'s office does nothing, even after an investigative report was published in the L.A. Weekly about mayor John Noguez ("Name Game in Huntington Park: Records show that rising star John Noguez really John Rodriguez", 2-8-07, Jeffrey Anderson) , except to stamp as "Received" the complaint letter. Neither did the D.A.'s office do anything when John Noguez was running for public office in Huntington Park while living in Montebello. John moved into a Huntington Park apartment one month before the candidate statements were due. Noguez and a partner bought the 4-unit apartment building on the northeast corner of Stafford and Clarendon. Presumably, one unit was Noguez's official domicile while running for public office. Neighbors interviewed never saw Noguez there. Then, a Huntington Park building inspector had to do some inspecting of the unit, and reported that the unit was completely empty, this while his campaign for city council was officially on. In Bell, residents have complained for years about voter fraud and other malfeasance, and fiduciary fails, only to be rebuffed by the D.A. When Bell's then-mayor George Cole was sitting on two elected bodies at the same time, Bell city council and Central Basin Water District, and double dipping on public salaries and CalPERS points, all the while receiving multi-million dollar contracts from both the Central Basin Water Board and the city of Bell, Steve Cooley merely winked and looked the other way, and continues to do so, even though the statutes of limitations has not run out yet. So the D.A.'s office doesn't touch the daily lives of residents here much, except when it advances his political interests or the interests of his friends. The County Board of Supervisors The Board of Supervisors are a bit more reclusive than either the D.A. or the Sheriff. While Bell, Maywood and Huntington Park boil in a cauldron of corruption, Supervisors quietly went about their business, with little said about Bell, and even less done. Their silence was deafening. All Supes, with the exception of Antonovich, endorsed John Noguez for County Assessor. One Supervisor, not Zev Yaroslavsky, had his arm twisted to endorse Noguez, being reluctant at first. Another Supervisor, Gloria Molina, who represents this area, has staff who actually worked for the Noguez 2007 reelection campaign in Huntington Park and actively helped George Cole's hired gun to run Bell's 2009 campaign, the twice convicted Mario Beltran, whom the FBI is checking into. One of Gloria's staff members was even mentored by George Cole in running the Southeast Democratic Club, which interviewed candidates from southeast cities under the guise of handing out endorsements for the March 2009 elections. During the Club's candidate interview sessions, George Cole sat side by side with this Molina staffer. Not surprisingly, the Southeast Democratic Club went on to endorse George Cole's candidate slate in Bell: Teresa Jacobo and Luis Artiga, both incumbents, both we later learn, are making $100,000 for part-time work. Such interviews and endorsements were a mere formality; election fraud won the day for George Cole's team. Such cozy relationships makes one wonder. Supervisor Don Knabe, who also endorsed John Noguez for Assessor, has his son directly involved in managing Noguez's Assessors' campaign. Knabe Junior is a partner in Englander and Knabe Associates, who is John Noguez's campaign manager and is getting paid handsomely. The Assessor's Inner Sanctum And here is where an even more obscure L.A. County player comes in: Chief Deputy Assessor Gary Townsend. Gary Townsend is the second in command in the County Assessor's office. It is Gary who is also actively involved in raising lots of cash for Huntington Park mayor John Noguez. Gary is betting on a November landslide for Noguez, and multi-million dollar fees for dozens of tax reps who cut deals with the Assessors' office on behalf of powerful business interests who have lots to loose, or to gain, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on whose doing the property valuations, and more importantly, whose approving the appeals of those valuations. Huntington Park and Bell style politics invade the Assessor's office With John Noguez, the Assessor's office will be run like Bell and Huntington Park. In an editorial published on May 6, 2010 (see side panel), the Times endorsed John Wong for County Assessor. The Times editorial board interviewed the Assessor candidates right before the Primary elections in early June. Huntington Park's John Noguez failed to make the cut. Evidently, the Times did its homework on Noguez (with evidence that they researched reports on WatchOurcity.com a few days before announcing their endorsements), and decided that while Noguez is well connected politically, decided, based on evidence, not on a whim, that Noguez will not make a good County Assessor. He would politicize the position and inject corruption from southeast cities of Huntington Park and Bell into the Assessor's job. Noguez's campaign platform for the Assessor's office is based on "fiscal responsibility". Yet, the public record in Huntington Park shows that under Noguez's leadership, the city has been anything but fiscally responsible. City Manager Greg Korduner announced in early June that Huntington Park is running a $1.2 million deficit, climbing to $1.8 since then. The shortage is so severe that the city is approaching vendors and contractors requesting a reduction in monthly invoices in exchange for extending contract terms. In one case, a contractor was approached with such a deal by the city's finance director, but before the contractor had time to mull over the offer's benefits, Mayor John Noguez intervened, directing city staff not to deal with this one vendor because it had not given a contribution to Noguez's Assessor's campaign. In an earlier report by WatchOurcity.com, it was noted that Huntington Park's current deficit is directly the result of John Noguez's public policy proclivities. For example, Noguez has given over $500,000 in gifts of public funds to a shady business group known as META 2000, run by Vicente Ortiz, of Tacos Don Chente, a friend of Noguez. There are other documented examples of Noguez' re-directing public funds for private interest, especially favoring campaign donors. In the Assessors office with a trillion dollar tax roll, and tax deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, John Noguez would take the George Cole and Robert Rizzo southeast cities ethos with him. Noguez is not even warming the Assessor's seat yet, but already his handlers are heating up business interests for campaign contributions. Opportunities for corruption in Huntington Park and Bell are infinitesimally minuscule and pale in comparison to the gargantuan opportunities available in the Assessor's office. Just one tax appeal deal brokered and approved in the Chief Deputy Assessor's office has the potential to completely underwrite the entire financial mess in Bell and have some spare change left over. The beauty of it is that any such multi-million dollar deals are washed under a trillion dollar property tax roll, the largest on American soil. Huntington Park is right next to the city of Bell. George Cole, Bell's former long-time mayor and "Don" of the southeast cities, is currently under investigation by the Attorney General's office for under-reporting about $3 million in government contracts which he failed to disclose to the State. It was Noguez who helped to send some of those millions in jimmy-rigged contracts to Cole's Oldtimers Foundation. While the Times alarmingly noted that Bell residents are paying the second highest property taxes in all 88 cities of L.A. County, Supervisors slowly rushed to announce that they are spearheading legislation in collaboration with Sacramento politicos to refund the $2.9 million overtax back to Bell residents. This lethargic rush of activity by Supervisors came after all but one County Supervisor endorsed John Noguez for Assessor, who in Huntington Park, is directly responsible for the 6th highest property taxes in the entire County. Noguez was the author of several measures brought before the voters, and urged them via campaign mailers to "enthusiastically" vote for them, and then rigged the votes on election day with absentee ballots. It is a real head scratcher when L.A. County Supervisors condemn Bell officials for imposing high taxes, then embrace Huntington Park's mayor John Noguez, who brought to this city the 6th highest tax rate.........out of 88 cities, only four notches down from Bell. In November 2009, the city of Huntington Park placed Measure "E" on the ballot. Mayor Noguez sent a slick and very expensive full-color brochures to the city's voting residents urging them to vote for a tax assessment of about $2 million dollars in order to help patch a budget shortfall. The shortfall has only gotten worse, but residents are taxed nevertheless. WatchOurCity.com noted in a report ("Measure E Wins, They Play, you Pay", 11-4-09): "The city's Utility Users tax, Measure E, won by a nail-biting slim margin of only 30 votes, with 541 voting "Yes" and 511 voting "No"." We learned that in Bell, all of approximately 360 voters passed a city bond totaling up to $70 million dollars, and city charter initiatives. We also learned that most of those voting in Bell were absentee, with help from off-duty police officers; same thing in Huntington Park. In Bell, even the dead voted, sometimes twice, and sometimes from as far away as Lebanon, according to Times reports. The bulk of contracts given by Huntington Mayor John Noguez in rigged bidding conditions are awarded to friends and campaign donors. George Cole's Oldtimers Foundation is located in the city of Huntington Park. George Cole and John Noguez shared a campaign treasurer and campaign managers. In the case of John Noguez's 2003 campaign for city council, George Cole and his Oldtimers employees donated several thousand dollars to John Noguez's campaign. John Noguez and his campaign manager then, Edward Escareno, rigged a $3.9 million contract to the Oldtimers Foundation. Noguez's campaign manager and roommate, Escareno, was in 2005 quietly convicted of "Grand Theft" of public funds, a felony. Noguez's campaign treasurer then was Conrado Terrazas, who was also George Cole's employee at the Oldtimers Foundation. A Huntington Park city staff member who complained about the legality of awarding a sham $3.9 million dollar contract to George Cole's Oldtimers Foundation was summarily dismissed by the city manager at the direction of George Cole, John Noguez and Edward Escareno. That employee is now working in a nearby public agency and remembers well the events leading up to being unemployed. During the 2007 election season, both John Noguez and Bell's George Cole used Mario Beltran as a campaign manager who within a week after the March election was over, was indicted, and later convicted. Then, convicted a second time. This campaign manager was a staffer to local area State Senator Ron Calderon, who kept Beltran on his staff despite the twice conviction. Mario Beltran is under investigation by the FBI for cutting a multi-million dollar tow truck deal with an already federally convicted felon, all caught on FBI wiretap while Beltran was still a councilman in Bell Gardens. State Senator Ron Calderon's brother, Tom, is president of the board of George Cole's Oldtimers Foundation. We now know that Bell's elections were rigged. Exactly the same players and the same folks were committing election fraud with absentee ballots. George Cole, Mario Beltran and John Noguez were running a well oiled vote rigging machinery with the complicit and active aid members of the police departments in Bell and Huntington Park. Assessor's Office Plays Politics Today Tuesday, the Assessor's office is holding a hearing to determine if a certain multi-national corporation with oil interests will be granted reduction on $150,000,000 property and equipment tax valuation. A reduction in this assessment is in the hands of Gary Townsend. The temptation here is to do a Quid Pro Quo: Townsend will grant the tax reduction in exchange for badly needed campaign contributions for John Noguez. The money will not actually go to Noguez directly but will be more likely filtered through tax reps, law firms or other donors. WatchOurCity.com has reviewed copies of contributions to John Noguez's Assessor campaign. The amounts include tens of thousands of dollars from such tax reps who represent business and commercial tax interests before the L.A. County Assessor's office. The Supervisors know this full well. On a trillion dollar assessed tax roll, cutting a $150,000,000 tax deal does not even register in the Assessor's books; it is like stealing a cup of water from the ocean. No one will notice. This statistical insignificance is a weakness in the Assessor's office, and is being mined by Gary Townsend, taking advantage for political and financial gain. The California State University, in a web page highlighting prominent alums, notes that Gary Townsend is "Currently the chief deputy for Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach, Gary Townsend began his career in politics when he was an elected delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. During his recent career, he has served as chief deputy to City Councilman Mike Woo, district director for Congressman Matthew Martinez and chief deputy assessor for Kenneth P. Hahn." Fears by the L.A. Times of politicizing the Assessor's office come too late; it already is. Actually this weakness in the Assessor's office is being gamed all the time, and is the County's dirty little secret. County Supervisors are aware of this, or should be. If County Supervisors are not aware, it would be an exact mirror of Bell, with Rizzo gaming the system, giving out loans and cutting lucrative deals all with, or without, city council's knowledge, allowing council members, in this case Supervisors, the plausibility of denial. If they didn't know, then it is fiduciary fail, just like in Bell. While the boys in the front office, County Supervisors, are complaining of a $50 million dollar budget burden with welfare and food stamp payouts to the county's poorest residents, in the back room, dudes in the Assessor's office are cutting deals left and right affecting hundreds of millions of dollars in tax rolls and rolling the dice for long term losses on short term political gain, undermining belt tightening and underpinning penny-wise pound-foolish public policy. |
Gary Townsend,
Chief Deputy for
the L.A. County
Assessor,,
is actively
managing John
Noguez's campaign
for Assessor.
Chief Deputy for
the L.A. County
Assessor,,
is actively
managing John
Noguez's campaign
for Assessor.
John
Wong
Wong
John
Noguez
Noguez
| Saturday, May 29, 2010 Huntington Park Mayor John Noguez runs for County Assessor John Noguez Fails L.A. Times Endorsement for L.A. County Assessor |
| Editor's Note: The Times editorial board suggests John Noguez is open to corruption and extreme politizing of the Assessors office. Since 2003, the public record and campaign contribution filings of mayor Noguez gives strong evidence to reach such conclusions. |
| (The following is reprinted from L.A. Times May 6, 2010) L.A. Times Endorses John Y. Wong for L.A. County Assessor The businessman would keep the L.A. County assessor's office focused. Every now and then, California voters snap, and it's no wonder. It's all those irritating questions: Should we change the law to help out an insurance company? How about a giant utility? Who should we put on the Board of Equalization? Who should be the next county assessor? It's not that we don't appreciate the privilege of voting. It's just that Californians go into each election season expecting to be able to select their leaders and find out that they instead have to wade through complex ballot measures and figure out what a Board of Equalization is. Four years ago, The Times' editorial page tried to be helpful by suggesting that some jobs really ought to be eliminated, like, say, lieutenant governor. Perhaps others, like county assessor, ought to be appointed. We haven't grown any fonder of the office of lieutenant governor, but on reflection we realize that choosing among county assessor candidates is one of those burdens that voters must continue to shoulder. The assessor runs the office that appraises real estate and calculates property taxes, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors would have an unmistakable incentive to appoint an assessor who would always value property on the high end, to maximize county tax receipts. Voters would more likely want an assessor who would tilt toward the low side, to keep taxes down. What every county actually needs is an assessor who doesn't tilt at all but whose decisions are as accurate and as evenhanded — and as free from political influence — as possible. There's the rub. Voters must try to pick someone who is relatively free from politics, because they don't want valuation decisions being made as rewards or punishments for political support. We don't want to end up like neighboring San Bernardino County, whose assessor resigned last year and is currently under investigation for political corruption. But voters must make their decision using the political process and without knowing much at all about the candidates. This can lead to some interesting results. Former Los Angeles County Assessor Kenneth P. Hahn, elected in 1990, did a credible job through his tenure, but it's fairly certain that he won that first race because at least some voters thought they were getting county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, or at least a member of his family. They weren't. The assessor was not from the legendary Hahn dynasty. By the way, there's a Hahn on this year's assessor ballot as well, also unrelated to the late county supervisor, the judge and former mayor or the current City Council member and candidate for lieutenant governor. Those who want to be elected and aren't named Hahn have sometimes taken more brazen approaches. In Tennessee, assessor candidate Byron Looper legally changed his middle name from "Anthony" to "Low Tax." And voters elected him. He was eventually indicted for official misconduct, and later convicted of and imprisoned for murdering an election opponent. Fortunately, no Los Angeles candidates match his record, although there is one repeat candidate on the ballot who changed his middle name to "Lower Taxes." But why go halfway? If a candidate is going to play the name- change game, he might as well change his first name to "Assessor" and try to run as the incumbent. In recent years, some of Los Angeles County's best assessors, including the recently retired Rick Auerbach, were those appointed by the Board of Supervisors to fill a vacancy and then reelected for one or more terms by voters. That kind of antic always seemed inappropriate when the board tried to pick the sheriff ahead of election day, but for assessor it seemed like the best of both worlds — the supervisors in effect nominate, but voters still have the power to oversee their decision. This time, though, when Auerbach left, the board chose a man who also is planning to retire and who is not seeking the post at the ballot box. A majority of the 13 assessor candidates are currently employees who have worked a decade or two — or three — in the assessor's office and think they have what it takes for the top job. Most of them don't. Experience is good, but voters should look for an assessor with more than expertise in real and personal property valuation, and more than complaints about how people in one division of the office ought to do things more like people in another division of the office. Candidates should have sufficient management experience to be able to lead an office of nearly 1,500 employees with an annual budget of more than $160 million, appraising 2.5 million parcels of property. Several candidates have previously held political office or have worked on politicians' staffs, and that should by no means be considered disqualifying. Huntington Park Councilman John Noguez is a longtime employee of the assessor's office and has won support from Auerbach and two county supervisors. Of all the candidates, however, the most appropriate choice for the job is businessman John Y. Wong. Although not a deputy assessor, Wong — who has run before — knows the office, its staff and its processes well through his role as chairman of the Assessment Appeals Board. He has run successful businesses and is an expert on the principles and technicalities of real estate valuation. He understands the issues that face property owners in an era of fluctuating values, and he is the best candidate to keep the focus on fair valuation and public service rather than office politics or political advancement. (Credit: L.A. Times Editorial) |
| Breaking News: Wednesday, September 8, 2010, 12:00 a.m. George Cole Abruptly Quits...Again! The L.A. Times reports late Tuesday that George Cole, ex-Bell councilman and Don of southeast cities, resigned as Director of the Oldtimers Foundation located in Huntington Park on the heels of investigations by the Attorney General's office into financial dealings with Bell and Huntington Park. AG investigations into George Cole's Oltimers Foundation were triggered after inconsistencies were discovered in state required filings of financial reports submitted by the Oldtimers Foundation. The reports were filed under "penalty of perjury" stating that the non-profit had not received any government funding at all. However, this statement was contradicted by financial reports from officials in the cities of Huntington Park and Norwalk stating that all combined, Cole received about $2.9 million in contracts from those cities. The spokesperson for the Oldtimers Foundation was quoted as stating that is a "mistake". George Cole similarly quit as Bell councilman back in 2008 (as reported by WatchOurCity.com on October 8, 2008). Cole and Rizzo orchestrated salary spikes, voter indebtedness, voter fraud, and Maywood's failure. L.A. County Assessor candidate John Noguez is a political intimate of George Cole, having both run campaigns sharing the same campaign teams. Two of those contracts given by Huntington Park officials to Cole's Oldtimers Foundation was a jimmy-rigged $3.9 million contract fixed by Noguez and awarded to Cole, along with a $600,000 Senior Housing management contract. Cole contributed over $3,000 to Huntington Park mayor John Noguez's campaign. Cole received the $3.9 million dollar contract from Huntington Park within months of the campaign contribution. |
George
Cole:
the Brains
behind
Rizzo's
Salary,
Charter Law
effort &
Illegal tax in
2007
Cole:
the Brains
behind
Rizzo's
Salary,
Charter Law
effort &
Illegal tax in
2007