According to early, unofficial election results, Contra Costa County voters on Tuesday elected two officials who perform two lesser-known but still important county jobs: the assessor and the clerk-recorder.
The assessor’s job is to ensure that your home or business is assessed at a fair value, so you won’t end up paying too much or too little in taxes. The clerk-recorder is, among other things, the person who runs county elections and handles things like making sure ballots are properly counted and that there are places to vote in your neighborhood. (And if you haven’t voted yet, here’s some information about your local polling places.)
A common misconception about primary elections is that they’re less important to vote in than general elections, but in these races, the candidates that get a simple majority of the votes cast will win. If that doesn’t happen, the top two vote-getters will compete in a run-off in the November general election.
Clerk-recorder and assessor candidates
June 2 primary election
Full election results are here.
For more info.: Visit Richmondside’s voter guide or the Contra Costa County elections page.
This is the first time since 1994 that there isn’t an incumbent running in the county assessor’s race. Assessor Gus Kramer is retiring after serving eight terms.
The assessor candidates are:
- Kismat Kathrani, a software technology engineer who is promising to produce “fair, accurate and transparent property assessments for all residents.”
- Vince Robb, the current assistant county assessor who says he wants to “ensure the fair and accurate assessment of every residential, commercial and business property in Contra Costa County.”
- Nick Spinner, a senior systems engineer who promises “transparency, integrity, efficiency and service” in the assessor’s role.
According to unofficial results, Robb is well in the lead, with 69% of the votes.
The clerk-recorder candidates are:
- Kristin Braun Connelly, the incumbent clerk-recorder who says “my top priority continues to be conducting fair, impartial, and accessible elections and keeping your data and voting systems secure.”
- Pratima Sonavne, a business owner who says she is “committed to transparency, efficiency and public trust in county services.”
According to early unofficial election results, Connelly appears to have won the job.
What does the clerk-recorder do?
The clerk-recorder has three primary functions:
- Oversee the filing of birth certificates, marriage licenses, death certificates, fictitious business name statements and other official documents.
- Serve as county recorder, overseeing the documentation of property-related activities.
- Supervise elections in Contra Costa County. The clerk-recorder’s office runs polling places and designs the county ballot and voter information guides that are sent to the county’s 730,000 registered voters, among other duties.
“The clerk-recorder is the head of a department that is the touch point of many important parts of life,” said Dawn Kruger, the communications and media relations coordinator for the clerk-recorder office.
They also distribute and receive mail-in ballots, set up voting booths in every precinct and tally election results.
“We are the folks who actually run the election on the local level,” Kruger noted.
What does the county assessor do?
The elected assessor oversees a department that assesses all property in Contra Costa County, produces an official assessment role every year by July 1, audits all entities doing business in the county and maintains a set of more than 12,000 maps for assessment purposes.
Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, who is running for reelection unopposed, told Richmondside that the assessor’s decisions on property value have a direct effect on how much property tax is collected. “The assessor impacts the tax revenue received by every entity in the county,” Gioia said.
Property taxes are a major source of funding for every municipal agency. Richmond’s annual operating budget of about $250 million includes about $55 million per year in property tax revenue.
In particular, Gioia notes, is the value the assessor places on the Chevron refinery property in Richmond. The refinery provides more than $9 million per year in property tax revenue to the city.
“Assessed values directly impact the tax collected,” Gioia said. “It’s an extremely powerful position.”
Although Prop. 13 limits how much property taxes can be increased annually, Gioia points out that the assessor has some discretion when a property is sold or when developments are built on vacant land.
