Assessor candidates tout experience.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

The three-way race for Lane County assessor boils down to experience: One candidate comes from the department's ranks, another helps manage it and the third claims a background in both field work and management.

With the May 16 primary election looming, each is selling himself or herself as best-trained to run an office that is trying to shake off its status as the worst county tax department in the state.

Bill Mahn, 45, has been with the Lane County assessment and taxation department for 21 years and now serves as a commercial appraiser.

Anette Spickard, 37, is the department's No. 2 administrator, reporting to Assessor Jim Gangle, who will retire in January after almost 20 years at the helm.

And Gary Cook, 59, a senior appraiser/analyst with the state Department of Revenue, notes his track record as a manager and an appraiser with that department.

The winner will oversee a county tax department that, largely because of cuts in staff, officials have said, was called the worst at tax collection of Oregon's 36 counties by the state revenue department last year. The county's failure to keep up with the division of property and other land changes costs the county and its taxing districts $4.2 million annually in uncollected property taxes, the state department said.

Spickard said she designed and is responsible for the plan to eliminate the backlog by 2008, which includes adding about six people. That's part of the reason she was hired in 2004, she said, and it's her top priority.

But Cook said adding staff alone won't solve the problem. He wants the appraisers - the people who assess property value - to incorporate a broader understanding of the market when they assign values to individual properties.

For his part, Mahn doubts that the county can eliminate the backlog by 2008 because the field workers who see ways to streamline the system "are not being listened to," he said.

Mahn and Cook point to their years of experience as appraisers as crucial prerequisites for what they say is the highly technical job of assessor, overseeing accurate property assessments and tax collection.

"You wouldn't vote for a sheriff who had never been an officer," Mahn said in his campaign material. "Don't vote for an assessor who has never been an appraiser."

That's a dig at Spickard, who hasn't done field work in appraisal. But she sees it differently: "The job of the assessor is much bigger than doing the appraisals. They're trying to limit the discussion because that's the only thing they know."

Spickard claims 15 years of professional experience in finance, management, accounting, budgeting and local-government administration. She helps manage the 59-employee county department and a budget of $6 million, and said she's regularly sought out by cities and school districts that want to analyze the effects of tax levies.

Spickard would leave the appraisal work to the appraisers, she said, and concentrate on the bigger picture: the potential loss of federal funding, property-tax reform, the intricacies of property-rights Measure 37 and the possibility of a county income tax.

The county commissioners are reviewing a countywide income tax to fund more public-safety services and plan to put the issue before voters in November.

Some say the high number of property-tax appeals in Lane County indicates trouble in the tax department. But Spickard defended the department, saying the appeals constitute only a small percentage of all tax accounts and haven't substantially affected values that the county set.

In the race, Mahn said he has the support of his colleagues and would trade the current top-down management style for a more collaborative approach. He acknowledged a lack of management experience but said he's long on the main ingredient - knowledge of his co-workers and their skills.

"The big issue for me is working smarter with the resources we have," Mahn said. "I strongly believe in the people who do the work."

Mahn wants to establish a department presence in Florence and said he'd work to make the department more accessible to the rural areas. The department also should review whether property is being fairly assessed and taxed, he added.

Cook said his own insight, meanwhile, is in county tax departments and how they should run.

As a state appraiser and analyst, Cook said he helps Lane and seven other counties with their programs, budgets, staffing and assessment procedures.

"I see the best practices of counties throughout the state now," Cook said. "That will allow me to create the methods the appraisal staff will use."

Cook was an executive manager in the state's property-tax division for two years in the early 1990s, supervising three field offices until the position was dropped because of cutbacks. He also has owned appraisal and tax businesses and said that, all told, he has eight years of management experi- ence.

Cook said the county department isn't using its software effectively, and he also would try to build morale by recognizing outstanding effort. "It's a matter of making it a fun place to work," Cook said. "That will allow more work to get done."

The position pays $99,900 annually. If any of the three candidates receives more than half of the vote in the primary, that person's name alone will appear on the November ballot, although opponents may campaign for a write-in candidate.

If none of the three claims more than 50 percent of the vote in May, the top two vote-getters will compete in November.

GARY COOK

Personal: 59; wife, Nancy; children, Justin and Laura

Education: Bachelor

of science degree, business management, University

of Oregon 

Work experience: Senior appraiser/analyst, Oregon Department of

Revenue, property tax division; former executive manager, Department

of Revenue, property tax division; former owner of an appraisal and

tax business

Civic experience: Treasurer, Eugene Water

& Electric Board Employee Credit Union; founding member, McKenzie

River Emergency Action Service; vice president, Bandon Rotary Club

BILL MAHN

Personal: 45; wife, Tammy; children, Allison and Tim

Education: Associate of arts degree, Wenatchee Valley Community

College, Wenatchee, Wash.

Work experience: Commercial/industrial appraiser, Lane County;

former property appraiser and accounting clerk, Lane County

Civic experience: Administrator, Oregon Children's Choir 

ANETTE SPICKARD

Personal: 37; husband, Devon; daughters, Heather and Ashleigh

Education: Business administration degree, Loyola Marymount

University, Los Angeles 

Work experience: Deputy assessor, Lane County; former management and

budget/policy analyst, Lane County

Civic experience: Board member, Eugene School District; member,

Eugene School District budget committee; Lane Coalition for Healthy

Active Youth