What Jim Brzytwa Plans To Do and How It Will Benefit You

By Jim Brzytwa

Jim Brzytwa will expand access to public records, reduce fees and charges, humanize contact with the public, improve dispute resolution, and free up $34 million-plus in idle public funds

• I will work to expand internet access to all public records maintained in the office of the Assessor - County Clerk - Recorder (ACR).

The California Public Records Act (Government Code Section 6250 et seq.) establishes that access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in the state. Central to the Assessor's function is the annual production of the local assessment roll. This public record compilation contains, among other things, the description, valuation, assessee (usually, the owner), and mailing address information for each taxable property in Riverside County. The Recorder maintains micrographic or digital images of all public records, such as deeds and financing documents, filed for record in the County. Presently, to view these documents, or obtain copies of them for a fee, you must visit the ACR offices. With today's technology, there is no good reason why many ACR public records should not be accessible electronically over the internet or at public kiosks maintained by the County. Think of all the time and expense that a person could save by not having to visit the ACR for this information.

• I will work to reduce fees and charges for services.

The general rule in California is that governmental fees and charges are not to exceed the actual or estimated reasonable costs of providing services. (Some fees and charges are set by law.) Because of misunderstanding of or indifference to this general rule by staff, many ACR fees and charges are made in excess of what the law allows. Certain statutory fees, some of which were established years ago, now produce revenues far in excess of what is reasonable in light of today's transactional volumes, technological advances, and profitable sales of public record data to private, for-profit entities. Getting excessive fees reduced will save the public, on a collective basis, many hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

• I will work to speed up the property tax assessment process.

Since 1978, California's Proposition 13 has limited property tax reassessment to change-in-ownership and completion-of-new-construction events. Most changes in ownership of property are triggered by property sales and most taxable values are set at the property sales price. With the combination of the Assessor and Recorder functions within the ACR, there is no good reason why the assessment and valuation of newly purchased property should not be accomplished within weeks of the sales date. Expedited assessment and valuation will minimize the surprise of supplemental assessment taxes and speed up the distribution of needed tax proceeds to cities and tax districts. Presently, some supplemental assessments are not completed until nearly 18 months after a property is purchased. Such delay is inexcusable. I will develop procedures that will trim the enrollment of the majority of change-in-ownership reassessments and supplemental assessments down to a period of weeks rather than the many months that it takes now.

• I will work to insure that phone calls to the ACR staff during business hours are answered by people and not by computers or machines.

Isn't it frustrating to call a business or government office only to be greeted by a computer or an answering machine? Often you must listen to minutes of confusing, multiple choice instructions in order to try to connect to an appropriate party. Then, when you seem to be getting close to where you want to be, you are advised that, "All lines are busy, so please stay on the line for the next available representative, or try again later." With a staff of over 500 employees, almost all of whom have a telephone, there is no good reason why phone calls cannot be answered in person. Properly trained receptionists can quickly direct calls to an appropriate employee. And, if individual phone numbers are published in the phone book or county directories, there is no good reason why the staff should not answer their own phones. I will insist on person-to-person phone contact with ACR employees during normal business hours.

• I will work to resolve taxpayer disputes as simply and directly as possible.

The office of the ACR exists to identify which property in the County is taxable and to establish the assessed value of that property. This is the basis on which your property taxes are determined. Because the property valuation process requires the exercise of appraisal judgment, disagreements as to the ACR staff's value conclusions do arise. There are formal processes where property assessment disputes can be resolved, namely assessment appeals hearings and lawsuits. These proceedings can be intimidating, time consuming, and expensive. But, they often can be avoided if taxpayers and staff could just come together informally and honestly try to settle their disagreements. I have learned over the years that negotiated settlements of disputes between parties produce results that are almost always better, and certainly more predictable, than having appeals boards or judges deciding these matters. Too many times, however, disputes go to formal proceedings before staff has ever even talked to aggrieved taxpayers. I will maintain an open door policy where any aggrieved taxpayer can discuss his or her issues with me. And, I will insist that staff make every effort to personally contact taxpayers and establish a dialogue whenever informal or formal complaints are made about property valuations.

• I will work to unlock a $34,000,000 Recorder's fund that grows from inflated recording fees.

34 million dollars is a lot of money. As of December 31, 2005, just short of 34 million dollars was sitting in a county account called the Recorder's Automation Fund (formerly called the Recorder's Trust Fund). Since then, this account has continued to grow by approximately $800,000 each month. This account is funded by recording fees that were authorized to convert recorded document storage to micrographics, and to support and maintain modernization of the recording system. For the most part, these purposes have been maxed out. Nearly every document recorded to date is maintained in micrographic form. And, today's documents are stored in digital image format. The present recording process is pretty much the best state-of-the-art digital imaging, storage, and retrieval system now available.

So, why is all this money just sitting in the Automation Fund? County staff claims that it can only be used for recording automation efforts. But things are automated! When a fund has outgrown its purpose or needs, it should be redirected to other purposes. The County Board of Supervisors controls all county general funds. The Board can create, transfer, or abolish county funds as the public needs dictate. I will ask the Board to evaluate this issue and propose alternate uses for the millions of dollars sitting idle in the Automation Fund. The public should be invited to express its views as to how this money should be used, whether it be public safety, social services, traffic management, or other pressing public needs.

Phone: (951) 686-8476 - email: jbrzytwa@electbrzytwa.org - web site: http://www.electbrzytwa.org