Jelena ButlerBill Bennett is basing his bid for re-election as assessor of property on the experience he’s gathered over the past 18 years in the office, and that may well pull him through this election. And if he were not in his mid-70s and aiming for a well-deserved retirement in a year or two, his re-election might again be uncontested, as in the past two elections. But this time around, the equation is different — and there is a compelling reason to change the status-quo.
For starters, Bennett’s chief opponent, Jelena Butler, is a tech-savy commercial real estate veteran who offers a significant edge in assessment experience through her current professional work in the sales, leasing and marketing of commercial, industrial, residential and mixed-use properties. She’s more energetic and aggressive. And she clearly expresses the goal of taxpayer fairness by seeing that the value of land held for speculative development, along with businesses’ personal property, is appropriately assessed. She can point to several easy examples of questionably assessed land and property which, if assessed at higher values, could help local governments lower the overall tax burden for other property owners.
Her relevant experience for the job is much greater than Bennett possessed when he took over the assessor’s job in 1994 via a mid-term appointment courtesy of his then-fellow County Commissioners. Bennett had worked for Combustion Engineering and then in insurance. But he got the assessor’s job through politics on the County Commission — the same way his successor would get it if Bennett retires before his term expires.
Beyond that, Butler’s qualifications — and potential election — offer a timely change away from the reappraisal issue which for years has been used to justify the re-election of the incumbent. It’s time to let go of that one-two punch.
Now, as in the past, the current assessor can say that it wouldn’t be good for voters to turn out the incumbent on the eve of the state-mandated countywide property reappraisal, which occurs every four years. This year, for example, the person elected to the assessor’s office will assume office in September, and then begin readying the office for the countywide reappraisal slated for 2013.