4 compete for San Bernardino County assessor’s seat in November election
Next month, San Bernardino County voters will have their first chance to choose a new assessor since the death of former assessor Bob Dutton in 2022.
Dutton served as the county's assessor-recorder from 2014 until his death in July 2022, a month after voters reelected him to a fourth term. The Board of Supervisors appointed assistant assessor Chris Wilhite to lead the department through January 2025. On Nov. 5 , voters will select someone to fill the remaining two years of Dutton's term.
The assessor appraises the value of all property within San Bernardino County for tax purposes, but does not set tax rates or collect taxes.
Four candidates for assessor-recorder are on the ballot:
Gomez appears twice on the Nov. 5 ballot — she is a candidate for both the assessor-recorder seat and a third four-year term on the Victorville City Council.
Gomez, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story, has been a somewhat controversial figure in the High Desert. On Tuesday, Oct. 15, she was convicted of four charges related to disrupting two Victorville City Council meetings . In addition to sparring with her fellow council members, Gomez was arrested in 2018 for trespassing after she refused to leave an area of Hesperia City Hall off limits to the general public .
In March, she ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate District 23 seat .
Josie GonzalesGonzales served on the Board of Supervisors from 2004 through 2020. Before that, she served on the Fontana City Council from 1998 through 2004. She was one of the five candidates who sought appointment to the assessor's office after Dutton's death. Undeterred by the supervisors' choice of Wilhite, she announced her run for assessor in November 2023 .
"This position is the most important office, in my opinion, in any county," Gonzales said. "It is the revenue generator for, I would say, probably 85% of the general fund that comes in that then goes to pay for all the services."
She said that companies are leaving the county because they feel they've been over-assessed, although she was not able to provide any specific names.
"These individuals are angry," Gonzales said. "They're angry that they were, I would say in their opinion, disproportionately misassessed."
Should she be elected, Gonzales said that two years from now, real estate agents and escrow companies will be saying the assessor's office is running better. She also intends to get the office much-needed technological upgrades — something discussed at length when the supervisors were considering who to appoint to replace Dutton. She also wants to have a "seamless" relationship with the office of San Bernardino County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector Ensen Mason.
Gonzales doesn't have any experience as an assessor, but she says her connections and long track record in county government are important.
"I don't claim to have been" working as an assessor, she said. "I claim to have the experience of knowing the individuals that are in the right places that will make things happen."
As for the actual work of the assessor's office, the staff has that covered, Gonzales said.
"You have a well-trained staff that knows these things there," she said. "The most important part of being an elected official, and in this case, the assessor's office, is you're a public servant. You are there to mitigate and mediate between the (public) and what is being imposed by the laws and regulations that are coming to us from the state."
Gonzales is being advised on her campaign by Bill Postmus, who served with her on the Board of Supervisors before narrowly beating Williamson in the 2006 assessor-recorder race.
Postmus served as assessor from 2007 until 2009. He resigned after he was arrested for felony possession of methamphetamine and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia during a widespread corruption investigation. He was eventually sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to accept a bribe, conflict of interest, misappropriation of public funds and asking for and receiving bribes.
Gonzales said she had a close relationship with Postmus prior to his life falling apart.
"I told him that after he served his time, if he stayed clean, and he did everything he was supposed to do to find his way back through life and to be able to serve, then I would let him run my first campaign for assessor," she said. "It's not so much about him helping me, it's about me helping him."
Dara SmithSmith is the only candidate in the race who has not previously held elected office.
"This is one of those offices that you definitely want to have qualified people in it," Smith said. "You really are trying to service everyone."
She works as a deputy assessor for Los Angeles County, one of the largest property assessment agency in the country.
"The assessor-recorder's office touches directly all aspects of (the public's) important events in their life," Smith said. "Whether you're getting married, having children or deaths in your family, buying your first home or multiple properties or running a business, that is impacted at the assessor-recorder's office."
If elected, Smith has a 100-day transition plan for the assessor-recorder's office. She also proposes to release an annual public report on the assessor-recorder's operations, which would include metrics on the office's response times and public education efforts. Like the other candidates running, Smith wants to update the technology in use at the assessor's office. She also seeks to aggressively recruit to fill holes left by retiring employees.
Smith sees public education as a key part of her job, if elected, including letting the victims of natural disasters know how they can get their damaged or destroyed property reassessed.
"We have a large military veteran community," she said. "Many of them are homeowners, and a lot of them aren't aware that when you purchased the property, you may not have been 100% disabled, but over time, you could have reached that disabled threshold where you will then qualify for a lot of benefits."
As a result, she said, the program went from 3,500 veterans in Los Angeles County qualifying for the program to more than 55,000 of them qualifying.
"Those are significant savings, especially if you have low income or fixed income," she said.
Smith said she's worked with Los Angeles County real estate agents and funeral home directors to get relevant information to residents who might otherwise not think to check in with the assessor's office during major life changes.
Her whole family believes in public service, she said. Her husband is a military veteran now works public safety in San Bernardino County and her daughter is a school teacher.
"We are public service and this is an extension of that," Smith said. "And to be honest, if there was a qualified candidate, I probably would not have put my name in the hat."
Donald WilliamsonAccording to Williamson, the only person he fired during his three terms as San Bernardino County assessor between 1994 through 2006 was a staff member who refused to help an elderly customer.
"He wouldn't help her. He said she'd been in before and there was no point to it," Williamson recalled. "And I said 'Yeah, but I'm asking you to come in here and help me help her.' And he said again he wouldn't do it. So I said, 'OK, just go home then.' "
If he's returned to office, Williamson said, he's going to bring that sort of dedication to public service to his work as assessor-recorder.
"That's me, I like to help people," he said. "Got a problem, come to me."
Since leaving office, he's taught at San Bernardino Valley College and has worked as a property tax consultant.
"Even though I didn't run for office, I still helped people," Williamson said. "Most of the people I help now, I helped their mom and dads, maybe their grandparents."
He pledges to lower property taxes through aggressively making sure property is assessed fairly.
If elected, he hopes to reopen an assessor's office in Fontana that was closed after his departure.
"One of the first things I do when I get back, we're getting that (Fontana office) back," he said. "I don't want seniors to drive any further than they have to, and they like to come in."
For Williamson, a return to office means another chance to help people in need, he said.
"I like helping people. People knew who I was and they always asked me 'Hey, I got this problem, what do I do about it?' I just got a call the other day."
More on the San Bernardino County assessor's office
