In the upcoming election for Orange County Tax Assessor, of course I support Claude Parrish.  I’m his "ex officio" appointee to the Orange County Republican Central Committee.  Parrish is a long-time Republican activist, who moved to Orange County a few years ago and is doing the right thing in challenging incumbent Webster Guillory, one of just two Democrat elected officials in Orange County government.  Parrish is endorsed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the National Tax Limitation Committee, and former Republican Governor George Dukemejian.  Parrish has been a prodigious vote getter in Orange County, having won six times in the county for his two successful races for Board of Equalization (primary and general) and his race as the California State Treasurer four years ago (winning primary and general in Orange County but losing general statewide to Bill Lockyer).

     It is puzzling to me, therefore, that Parrish has not been endorsed by peripatetic taxpayer crusader, Supervisor John Moorlach, who appears instead quite preoccupied with whether a 32 year old candidate for county Treasurer is qualified to serve.  The Treasurer’s office is certainly important.  But so is the Assessor’s office, which has oversight and taxes some of the most important and expensive real estate in America.

     There is no question about Parrish’s qualifications for the position of Assessor, after eight years at the BOE, hearing tax appeals.  Parrish has all the right endorsements and has the courage to take on a long-term incumbent, something that deserves special recognition.

     Further, I know personally that Webster Guillory is no friend of Proposition 13.  While I was a member of the Board of Directors of the Orange County Fire Authority, I lead the opposition to Guillory’s request that the Fire Agency spend $20,000 on a legal brief supporting his position in the so-called "Poole" case.  Guillory got sued on a claim he was not enforcing tax protections under Proposition 13 properly.  I made sure Guillory’s request that more taxpayer money be spent to undercut Prop. 13 at the Fire Authority was canned.

     But $20,000 in tax savings pails in comparison to the waste in Guillory’s own office.  Total Buzz at the O.C. Register reported last week that county union leader Nick Berardino has accused Guillory, of a “systematic waste of taxpayer dollars” related to a botched $21 million upgrade of the county’s computerized property tax system.  At a recent meeting of Moorlach’s Board of Supervisors, Berardino played a video in which anonymous employees in the Assessor’s office describe an upgraded computer system that doesn’t work, is behind schedule and over budget. They also describe a climate in which staff is intimidated by management to keep their concerns quiet. Their faces are blacked out to conceal their identities.  Berardino says that Guillory is assigning county staff to do work on the computer system that a contractor was hired to do, in effect, making the county pay twice for the work. He wants the DA to investigate.  Further, he says that Guillory wasn’t tracking staff time on the project — and therefore not accounting for the cost — until Feb. 23 when a memo went out to staff about how to record time spent on the project.

     In these circumstances, there can be little question that Republicans across the county should be lining-up to support Claude Parrish in his challenge to Guillory.  And the first in line to support Claude should be John Moorlach, who has staked his political reputation on fiscal responsibility.   I need to call you out, John.   It is now time for you and your staff to break with the incompetent, anti-Prop 13, liberal Democrat Guillory, who has failed taxpayers greatly, and join with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association PAC in endorsing Claude Parrish for Assessor.  Say it now, right here!  It will be the right thing to do.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.