D Brady asks Ben Larson…

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Retired

It cost about $800 for a person to take the Assessor Board Certified exam.  Are you going to take before the election or do it on taxpayer time and money if you are elected and have you ever completed a state property assessment or audit? 

— D Brady

Responses

Ben Larson

Hi and thank you for your question.  My plan is to begin preparing for the assessor role immediately after the election in June.  This allows me over 5 full months to get the necessary certifications prior to the start date of 1/1/2027.  In addition, there is a procedure for a temporary tax appraiser certificate to be issued by the board of supervisors while the Assessor elect has up to 12 months to complete the training and obtain the necessary certifications.  Given my history of completing extensive training and continued education in the banking industry over the last 23 years, I have no concerns of meeting these deadlines. 

I have completed continued education every year over the last 16 years in state and federal real estate testing. 

I spent nearly 4 years as an operations manager for Bank of America where I took a branch that was failing it’s audits to where we were achieving perfect operational scores the last year I held that position.  I created daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual tasks which were appropriately delegated to each employee.  The system proved to be very successful and lead to everyone working together to achieve that success.  I’m confident in achieving similar results to correct many of the issues I have seen pop up on the CA Board of Equalization Practices Surveys involving the Humboldt County Assessors office over the last 12 years.  There are plenty of opportunities for improvement.  

Ben Larson

I don’t see what the word retired has to do with your question. 

It seems like it’s meant to cause confusion for those who don’t click and read my response.  Maybe the LoCo can update that to include some relevant words to the question being answered. 

For example “How do you plan to prepare for your first year as assessor regarding completing the necessary training”.