Make New Assessor Jobs Count

This month, Webster J. Guillory assumed the reins of leadership from his former boss and predecessor as assessor, Bradley L. Jacobs. Guillory took office and then did what has been done in the past: He warned that without additional help, he would have difficulty meeting a June deadline to complete the county’s tax rolls.

Not wanting to hold up the tax bills, the Board of Supervisors complied and agreed to let the new assessor hire 10 new employees.

Along with this agreement came peace between warring elements in county government. In return for this loosening of the purse strings, Guillory agreed to do the board’s bidding by applying for a state loan to help pay for additional computer upgrades that would speed his office’s work.

The loan had been a particularly sore spot between Jacobs and the board. Indeed, for his failure to apply for it, supervisors had censured Jacobs and set his pay at $104,000. That made him the 11th-highest-paid assessor in the state, though the county ranks second in population and assessment roll value.

Guillory and the board clearly have moved in the direction of better relations. But in shaping a new era of good feelings, some of the presumptions of the election season have been modified.

The campaign had to do with whether the assessor’s office was doing a good enough job. Chief among the critics was Guillory’s runoff opponent, James S. Bone, who made the operation a central theme. In the face of criticism, Guillory had argued that the county did not need extra money because appeals were being processed in a timely manner.

The question now is whether anything has changed to put the county in a position where it needs 10 new people to process assessments. We know that there have been many transactions during a busy time in the local economy, but that was no mystery during the election.

During the campaign, Guillory did not rule out applying for the loan but scored a political point by saying, “There is an insatiable appetite for money in government.” That’s the kind of argument that is likely to resonate with taxpayers.

But days in office, the new assessor prevailed on the supervisors to fill positions sooner rather than later at the risk of not being able to recruit successfully.

No doubt the county needs qualified people and it needs to have the job done. But it doesn’t seem too much to ask that the campaign itself be an authentic forum for projecting the assessor’s staffing needs in the year ahead.