David Horowitz, Janet Seekins, Peter Van Nortwick and Daniel Weaver have different assessments of what constitutes the most important qualification to be Clark County assessor.
Experience in the office? Experience as a general appraiser? Management experience?
o Age: 64.
o Residence: Vancouver.
o Party: Republican.
o Profession: Financial consultant specializing in real estate.
o Money raised: Selected “mini-reporting” option to the state Public Disclosure Commission, which says a candidate will not raise more than $5,000 or more than $500 from a single donor.
o Quote: “I’ve given a lot to my community over the past 29 years and I felt I could bring my management skills to fix what I perceive is a broken department.”
o Website: Horowitz4assessor.com.
o Age: 53.
o Residence: Vancouver.
o Party: Democratic.
o Profession: Senior residential appraiser in the assessor’s office.
o Money raised: $11,135.
o Quote: “My job has always been talking to taxpayers. I enjoy working with them.”
o Age: 64.
o Residence: Vancouver.
o Party: Republican.
o Profession: Financial consultant specializing in real estate.
o Money raised: Selected "mini-reporting" option to the state Public Disclosure Commission, which says a candidate will not raise more than $5,000 or more than $500 from a single donor.
o Quote: "I've given a lot to my community over the past 29 years and I felt I could bring my management skills to fix what I perceive is a broken department."
o Website:Horowitz4assessor.com.
o Website: www.janetseekinsforassessor.org.
o Age: 43.
o Residence: Vancouver.
o Party: Republican.
o Profession: Real estate appraiser.
o Money raised: $12,086.
o Quote: “If I didn’t think the office wasn’t in trouble, wasn’t dysfunctional, I wouldn’t be running.”
o Website: www.van4assessor.com.
o Age: 64.
o Residence: Vancouver.
o Party: Republican.
o Profession: Retired business executive.
o Money raised: $7,720.
o Quote: “The management of that department has been homegrown for 30 years. It needs some new and innovative ideas.”
o Website: www.weaverassessor.com.
The assessor is responsible for determining the assessed value of 160,000 county parcels to try to make sure people pay a fair share of property taxes.
The assessor also supervises the GIS department, which maintains mapping data and produces the county’s road atlas.
The position currently earns $92,364 a year. The assessor supervises 46 employees in the assessor’s office, which has a 2009-10 budget of $7.9 million, and 21 employees in the GIS department, which has a 2009-10 budget of $4.5 million.
Assessor Linda Franklin isn’t running for a third four-year term.
Horowitz, Van Nortwick and Weaver are running as Republicans, with Seekins running as a Democrat.
The top two finishers in the Aug. 17 primary, regardless of political affiliation, will advance to the general election on Nov. 2.
Franklin, who had been Assessor Ben Gassaway’s chief deputy assessor for 23 years, was first elected in 2002 after Gassaway said he would not seek a seventh term.
Both Democrats, they endorse Seekins, who has worked in the office for nearly 30 years.
The other three candidates say it’s time for an outsider.
Of those three, Van Nortwick has made the boldest statements of what he would change. Those include shifting the burden of proof onto the county when a property owner challenges an assessed value to the Board of Equalization and getting rid of a tax exemption for government land.
He said Tuesday that he understands both issues would have to be addressed by the Legislature, and a county assessor can’t simply make those changes.
“If I’m elected, that’s what I want to fight for,” said Van Nortwick, who has been a licensed appraiser since 2003 and a certified general real estate appraiser since 2007.
Weaver, who serves on the Board of Equalization, said the county has the presumption of correctness during the appeals process and that’s regulated by the state.
Disputed case
Van Nortwick has repeatedly cited the assessment of a property owned by the parents of George Kolin, who is running for Clark County prosecutor, as an example of poor work by the department.
Van Nortwick said Kolin approached him about the assessment, which was done by Seekins.
The Kolins have previously appealed the value, and both the Board of Equalization and the state tax board sided with Seekins, a senior residential appraiser.
Van Nortwick contends the Kolins didn’t correctly argue their appeal.
There have been more than a few barbs exchanged in the race.
Weaver and Horowitz emphasize their business backgrounds and management experience. Both of them are certified public accountants, which prompted Van Nortwick to say that CPAs aren’t qualified to assess a “shack.”
Horowitz said that the assessor’s position “is a management job, and not all CPAs do tax returns.” He also pointed out Van Nortwick has been a certified general real estate appraiser (the highest level of certification) for only three years.
Van Nortwick has pledged big changes, including bringing in a new chief deputy assessor. Weaver and Horowitz both say they want to first take time to find out why the office runs the way it does.
“One of the things you do is establish credibility with the staff,” Horowitz said.
The other candidates
Horowitz is a financial consultant who specializes in real estate, a business he started in 1988. Previously, he was vice-president of finance and administration for Realvest Corp. in Vancouver and also a managing partner in a small home-building business.
He was prompted to run after a bad experience challenging his home’s assessed value. He lost the appeal, but cited customer service as one aspect of the office he’d like to improve.
Weaver was chief financial officer for Pinkerton Security in Los Angeles and Allied Security in Philadelphia.
Along with the Board of Equalization, he also serves on the Clark County Railroad Advisory Board.
“I worked hard throughout my whole career for my family, and I never had time to give back to the community,” Weaver said. He started volunteering on the boards, and hearing assessment appeals has given him an insight into how the assessor’s office works, he said.
As for Seekins, she has been a certified residential real estate appraiser since 1993.
While the other three have been critical, she has defended the office’s work. She points out that approximately one percent of property owners file appeals and the state Department of Revenue gives Clark County consistently high marks.
“Obviously, we are doing a good job,” she said.
Doing mass appraisals is different from the work done by private appraisers such as Van Nortwick, she said.
The assessor’s office has the county divided into six sections and physical inspections (from the outside) are done of properties from one section each year. So any given home will be looked at once every six years.
Stephanie Rice: 360-735-4508 or stephanie.rice@columbian.com.
