With a Field of 16 Candidates, It’s Anybody’s Race

With no primary to winnow the field of 16 to two, the Los Angeles County assessor’s race is a cavalry charge of candidates in a mad dash for the $141,000-a-year job.

County government insiders see the main contenders as acting Assessor Rick Auerbach, 52, and former Assessor John Lynch, 63, but they quickly point out that in a field so large, any candidate could capture the winner-take-all sprint.

“A nobody buried deep in the bureaucracy could win,� says one observer. “It’s a real crapshoot.�

These political handicappers say as little as 20% of the vote could determine the winner.

“Nobody knows who anybody is,� said candidate Don Garcia, staff chief of the Board of Supervisors’ assessment appeals board. “They should care because the tax bill is the biggest bill you get in a year.�

Garcia said he is banking on drawing votes from the 300,000 people he said he has helped with their tax appeals. About 75% of those appeals were decided in the favor of taxpayers, he said.

The race will determine who will complete the unexpired term of former Assessor Kenneth P. Hahn who retired in January because of his own and his mother’s illnesses.

Hahn’s term runs until Dec. 2, 2002, and the county Board of Supervisors appointed Auerbach in February to serve as acting assessor until Tuesday’s election.

Because the race is to fill an unexpired term, no primary is required, county elections officials said.

Anyone with at least 20 valid signatures on nominating petitions and $1442.03--a figure based on a percentage of the salary--could enter.

The race has also attracted nine current or former members of the assessor’s office staff: John Carl Brogdon, F. Eugene Driver III, John E. Hasley, Desmond Kester, Dan Kumaus, Peter W. Lee, John Loew, Mark McNeil and Yolanda Salazar.

The other candidates are Wayne Bannister, chief of the county’s office of urban research; Khalil Khalil, an engineer and financial consultant; John Y. Wong, an assessment appeals board member; and Albert T. Robles, South Gate city treasurer.

Name recognition is crucial, and Lynch stands to reverse the circumstances many experts say led to his defeat in 1990.

That year, Hahn, who shares the name but no relationship with the late, extremely popular county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, upset Lynch.

Now the tables have turned in Lynch’s favor.

Lynch has the same name but no relationship to Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lynch who lost by a whisker to Gil Garcetti in the last district attorney’s race.

One of only three county officials elected countywide, the assessor manages a $108-million budget and oversees a staff of 1,450.

Few voters may be able to name the assessor, but the office “becomes more visible in that everyone who owns property gets a tax bill,� said Auerbach, a 30-year veteran of the office.

The office also assesses the value of personal property, such as businesses, manufactured homes, boats and airplanes.

Auerbach, who was assistant assessor responsible for all line operations before his appointment, is campaigning on his record during his nine-month stewardship.

Auerbach points out he has opened assessor’s offices on Fridays, provides assessment information over the phone, established an ombudsman called a property owner’s advocate and opened new offices in Sylmar and Culver City.

Lynch counters that Auerbach opened the offices on Fridays only “because he is running for reelection. I always had them open.�

Lynch also says Auerbach’s establishment of regional offices means some taxpayers must travel great distances to resolve tax problems.

However, Auerbach questions Lynch’s managerial ability and is concerned Lynch has the same name as the deputy district attorney.

Auerbach may have received a boost from Robles during a recent candidates forum on Adelphia Cable Television. Robles announced that he had dropped out of the race and was endorsing Auerbach.

Why then did he appear on the cable show if he had dropped out of the race weeks earlier?

“That was an opportunity to tell my constituency that I was no longer a candidate and that I was supporting Auerbach,� he said.