With Gail Rauch stepping down because of term limits, Snohomish County voters will elect a new assessor in November for the first time in 12 years. First, however, they must narrow a three-candidate field to two in the Sept. 16 primary.
The office administers the assessment and levy of property taxes in Snohomish County, and it’s the job of the assessor to run the office effectively and efficiently, ensuring a high level of customer service. Fair and equitable assessments are a must, and a working knowledge of the office’s operations makes a big difference.
Two current employees in the assessor’s office, Cindy Portmann and Kent Hanson, are in the race, and they present the best choices in the primary.
The assessor’s office is functioning well. As chief deputy assessor the past nine years, Portmann has been in charge of day-to-day operations. She has overseen several key technological improvements, including one that gives citizens access to a variety of county property-tax data on the Web.
Her experience puts her in a good position to weigh options for further improvement, and to make the most effective use of limited staff and other resources. She says she has gained a reputation for being frugal with the office budget.
Hanson argues that as the only accredited appraiser in the race, he is better qualified than his opponents. Hanson, a member of the office leadership team that Portmann currently leads, says that as an appraiser, he would be in the best position to help choose the tools staff members need to do their jobs well. Such accreditation is a point in his favor, but shouldn’t be considered a requirement to lead the office.
Hanson has concerns about the quality of the office’s assessments, saying that improvements are needed to better ensure accuracy. As assessor, he says he would establish methods to ensure better quality control, working with employees to come up with those methods.
Candidate Stuart Stavig works for a national accounting firm, but lacks experience in the assessor’s office. He says he would improve communication between the office and taxpayers, and be an advocate for changing the state’s regressive property tax structure. The latter role is a political one better suited to policy makers, not the person in charge of managing the mechanics of the county’s tax assessment process.
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