Los Angeles County Assistant Assessor George Renkei addressed the board to reiterate some of the problems assessors will face if the split-roll initiative is approved in November.
Renkei said the Assessor’s Office currently reassesses about 6,000 to 10,000 commercial or industrial properties each year because of changes in ownership. Under the split-roll initiative, the office would have to reassess approximately 59,000 such properties per year. This huge increase in workload would require the office to hire and train approximately 500 commercial/industrial appraisers – a process that takes more than five years.
The current hiring and training system allows the office to add a maximum of approximately 60 new appraisers per year, Renkei said, and that just keeps up with staff retirements and other attrition.
Statewide, more than 1,000 appraisers will be needed, Renkei estimated. Additionally, each county would need many new non-appraiser staff members to determine the number of employees working for each commercial/industrial property owner, to research the ownership of each property and share information with the other 57 counties, and more.
Several BOE members said they have been meeting with assessors and community college leaders in their districts to discuss the possibility of ramping up training courses for appraisers if the split-roll initiative passes. The board indicated that it will convene a working group very soon to continue these discussions.
Renkei addressed the board in place of Assessor Jeffrey Prang, who was not able to attend the BOE meeting due to illness.