Federal investigators recently raided the homes and offices of Contra Costa County’s top two tax assessors, outgoing Assessor Gus Kramer and his second-in-command, newly elected Vince Robb, targeting one of the most powerful and impactful county departments.
The June 9 raids at the Martinez office and their residences couldn’t have come at a more critical time — just a week after Robb’s election and three weeks before the July 1 assessment roll deadline. The multi-billion-dollar assessment, due at the start of each fiscal year, sets the basis for how much property owners and businesses pay in taxes.
Neither Kramer nor Robb have been arrested or charged in the case, but the raids brought regional media attention and a cloud of scrutiny to the office. Kramer, who has been the assessor for more than three decades, didn’t run for reelection and is set to leave office at the end of the year. Robb, who has served as Kramer’s No. 2 assessor, beat two other challengers in the race and will assume office in January.
The assessor’s job is a crucial one since local cities depend upon property taxes for revenue. Richmond’s annual budget, which is about $250 million, includes about $55 million per year in property tax revenue.
What does a county assessor’s office do?
- Discovers/assesses all property
- Produces and delivers an assessment roll by July 1 of each year
- Values all real property
- Audits all entities doing business in the county and valurd all taxable personal property
- Establishes and maintains a set of more than 12,000 maps for assessment purposes, delineating every parcel of land
- Assists taxpayers with questions about property ownership and assessment
— Source: Contra Costa County
Locally, one of the more important properties Contra Costa’s assessor values is the Chevron refinery. The refinery pays more than $9 million annually in property tax revenue to Richmond. (If you include the refinery’s settlement payments, the refinery accounts for nearly 24% of Richmond’s general fund.)
Last year’s assessment roll reflected a total net assessed value of $290 billion for more than 382,000 properties, an increase of $11.67 billion — or 4.18% — over the previous year. This represents the highest total assessed value in the county’s history, according to a press release. Cities with the highest percentage increases in assessed value included San Pablo, with 5.81%, and Danville, with 5.28%. Richmond, with $20.6 billion in assessed value, saw an increase of 3.5%.
Kramer told Richmondside recently that his office was in the final stages of finishing the tax roll and did not anticipate that the raids would delay the work.
“The feds’ interference in our daily operation, though it was substantial, was not substantive,” Kramer said. “We’re on all eight cylinders, very smoothly and we’re going to finish the race in true fashion.”
Kramer said that in his 32 years as assessor, only once did the office get close to missing the July 1 deadline.
“We have (usually) closed early and given ourselves plenty of wiggle room,” Kramer said. “So at the end there would be a large margin of time to make any small corrections or finetune it. When you close a multi-billion dollar roll there are always little outliers that you catch, one or two properties or something wasn’t correct but those are no problem.”
County Board of Supervisors has limited power over assessor’s office
Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, whose district includes Richmond, confirmed that the county is on track to finish this year’s assessment.
However, he said the county Board of Supervisors is troubled by the FBI investigation.
“We are concerned when the number one and number two persons running the office are under some type of investigation, we don’t know the details,” Gioia told Richmondside, explaining that the supervisors have limited power when it comes to elected positions. “Our main concern is ensuring that there is continued integrity and good operations in the assessment process and in the assessor’s office.”
When asked about the raid timing and whether there are concerns that the Trump Administration is targeting Contra Costa County, Gioia said he couldn’t speculate. But he acknowledged Kramer’s prior controversies.
“I mean, we just don’t know,” Gioia said. “Obviously, there has been controversy around this assessor in the past on other issues, not on this issue let me be clear. I mean, so we really can’t comment further other than we know that the federal government executed, you know, two search warrants on both Mr. Kramer and Mr. Robb.”
One of those incidents saw the county’s district attorney investigate land deals associated with Kramer in 2011 though no charges were filed. Afterward, two deputy district attorneys blew the whistle that former District Attorney Mark Peterson squashed that investigation to protect Kramer. Peterson would later resign in 2017 after being charged with felony perjury for spending thousands of campaign finance dollars on personal needs.
In 2019, a Contra Costa County civil grand jury formally accused Kramer of breaking state law by “creating a hostile work environment” in his office. Though the Board of Supervisors censured him, the case ended in a mistrial and Kramer remained in office. Gioia and three other county supervisors endorsed Robb in the recent election.
When asked by Richmondside if he believed the raids were politically motivated, Kramer said it appeared so but said he had been advised to not express his opinions for “political reasons.”
“It certainly seems to me that way,” Kramer said. “Everything I see in this is of a pungent political nature.”
“While everyone is entitled to due process and the investigation should be allowed to proceed independently, these developments are deeply concerning,” Kathrani wrote. “The people of Contra Costa County deserve transparency, accountability, and confidence that their government is operating with the highest ethical standards.”
Kismat Kathrani, who finished last in the June 2 assessor race, posted a statement on his Facebook page on June 12, saying he’s received multiple requests for his opinion on the FBI investigation.
He continued by saying, “Public trust is earned through integrity, openness, and accountability. I encourage everyone to follow the facts as they emerge and allow the investigation to run its course.
“Our community deserves answers, transparency, and leadership that puts the public first.”
