Showing posts with label Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez. Show all posts

Sunday, June 03, 2012

Letterbag: Noguez 'upper management is in on it. They all need to go.'

Current Seal of the County of Los Angeles, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have received hundreds of emails, tips and comments from "good" employees who work inside the Los Angeles County Assessor's Office. Today, I wanted to share this ONE note that speaks LOUDLY to the current criminal crisis inside the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration. Keep them cards and letters coming!. BTW. I totally agree. All of Noguez'es upper management need to be put in hand cuffs. Opps. I just said it....
r

Hi Randy:

I am sure you saw Noguez's email on his voluntary leave of absence that he sent on Friday. I just wanted to point out that in the body of the email he notes that normally the Chief Deputy Assessor would take over but that the position was currently vacant and the board of supervisor's have to appoint an interim Assessor. Noguez's creative reorganizing of the org chart to appoint his friend, Chris Carlos left that void. Further, the head HR was against the new org chart, until she was offered an elevation in her position.

The fact that you have no one to take over points to Noguez's incompetency but the head of HR had a fiduciary duty to say no, this does not make sense for the organization. But she got her promotion, so she scratches his back, he scratched hers.

Really, all of the upper management is in on it. They all need to go.

On another note, most of people on the Board of Supervisors endorsed Noguez, and I heard they are considering Auerbach to come back as interim? Auerbach who hand picked Noguez to succeed him to begin with? Yes we might might be getting rid of the most blatant offender but how is this going to make it any better?"

Name On File

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Paging George Renkei: Los Angeles County Assessor plays "hide and seek" with the media....

http://www.loscerritosnews.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Renkei-memo.jpg

My pet peeve is when politicians and their underlings run and hid from investigative reporters.
Yep. They are "above reproach" and sometimes find it "beneath" themselves to talk to folks like me....you know....community newspaper reporters.

Anyway....I was sent lots of copies of the "internal emaisl" sent out by Lost Angeles County Assessor John Noguez Chief of Staff George Renkei recently that talks openly about the RAIDS that took place a couple of weeks ago by law enforcement agencies at a dozen locations in two states inside the "institution" he is in charge of....

PAGING GEORGE RENKEI.....

Anyway....since Mr. Renkei has never had the courtesy of EVER RETURNING ONE of MY FIFTY EIGHT PHONE calls to him about how he is conducting business on behalf of the TAXPAYERS of Los Angeles County, I have decided to print ol' Jorge's internal emails about the mess he helped created during the past several years....
Yep....Paging George....

......ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.......GEORGE?

By Randy Economy
Los Angeles County Assessor John R. Noguez has yet to publicly respond to the massive raids that took place by members of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office of Public Integrity two weeks ago but his top staff member is speaking out for the first time in an email exclusively obtained by Los Cerritos Community Newspaper.
George Renkei, Chief of Staff to the embattled Noguez fired off an email to all Los Angeles County Assessor employees on April 30th, five days after several offices were searched, and evidence gathered in a massive “pay to play” probe that covers at least two different states.
Under the subject line “Update On The District Attorney’s Investigation,” Renkei tells employees “I am sure that you have heard or read that on April 25, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office served search warrants on several of our offices. The warrants sought records to an ongoing investigation into allegations of inappropriate activities.”
“Our office has been and will continue to be, fully cooperative with the District Attorney,” Renkei states.
“While the negative publicity about our department has been disturbing, it is particularly unfair to you, the Assessor’s office employees, who are dedicated to serving the public with integrity and professionalism.”
“I am proud of our team and the exemplary work that you do each and every day, and I hope that you are as well,” Renkei said.
“Despite recent events, I am confident that we will continue to provide the same high-quality service that the people of Los Angeles County have come to expect. Keep up the good work, and thank you for your commitment, patience and professionalism,” he concludes.
One employee, who spoke to Los Cerritos Community Newspaper on the condition of anonymity, questioned why Noguez has yet to make “any attempt to talk to his employees about the raids.”
“Noguez is hiding from all of us, and getting emails from someone who just had his office raided is a tad disturbing,” the source said.

To see the ENTIRE NOGUEZ INVESTIGATION AND TIME LINE visit LOS CERRITOS COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER BY CLICKING HERE!

Copyright. Los Cerritos Community Newspaper. Hews Media Group. Permission to republish granted with proper attribution to Los Cerritos Community Newspaper.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Should the Los Angeles County Assessor be appointed by politicians. Not a good idea in my book

It should be an interesting day at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration (Tuesday) when Supervisor Don Knabe starts a new debate on making the Office of the Assessor an appointed position instead of having the people determine who should oversee a TRILLION DOLLAR TAX ROLE. My opinion: Not a good idea, Don. Time for THIS ASSESSOR to step down.

Knabe urges Assessor job to become appointed instead of elected

By Randy Economy

Supervisor Don Knabe has decided that voters should not be allowed to elect any future Los Angeles County Assessor; instead the decision should be made by the five members of the Board of Supervisors.
On Tuesday, Knabe will ask that a study be launched that addresses if the assessor should become an appointed position.
“For several years, I have been advocating that the position of Los Angeles County Assessor should be an appointed position, rather than an elected role. Regardless of the outcome of the District Attorney’s Office investigation or the Board of Supervisor’s audit of the Assessor’s office, the issues being examined reinforce my long-standing view that the constituents of Los Angeles County would be best served by an appointed Assessor,” Knabe said in a statement on Monday.

Rest of article visit Los Cerritos Community Newspaper.....

Friday, April 13, 2012

ASSESSOR NOGUEZ MUST RESIGN: Los Cerritos Community Newspaper demands that Noguez step down

"It all adds up – unlike Noguez’ tax revenue projections – that he must resign."

--Los Cerritos Community Newspaper Editorial

Time for Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez to resign.

Los Cerritos Community Newspaper is the first news agency in Southern California to demand that Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez step down from his position.

This is long in coming. LCCN has been the leading outlet to cover misstep after misstep of Noguez and his flock of taxpayer supporter cronies.

Here is the opinion from LCCN from Friday's edition.

OPINION: Assessor John Noguez Must Resign

At this week’s LA County Supervisor meeting, LA County Assessor John Noguez told the supervisors that tax revenue for the quarter would be “off by $50 million” and that “he did not see it coming”.

As you have read in this newspaper since February, the only one who could not see this coming was Nogeuz and anyone who defended him. There were plenty of warning signs that this deficit was coming, including articles citing the slide in the LA Times.

It all adds up; Noguez must resign.

First, he hired an ex trash hauler executive, Dr. Chris Carlos with no experience in appraisals or property tax assessments, named him his chief of staff, and then paid him more than anyone else, over $16,000 per month. Carlos ex-company, Athens Disposal, was under indictment when he was hired. Carlos has since resigned due to the revelation of pay and inexperience in articles published by LCCN.

Second, the operations, policies and procedures inside the assessor’s office-and this is before the $50 million deficit was revealed-is in shambles, no doubt in large part due to Carlos. Assessor’s representative Scott Schenter was able to secure large tax reductions for over 170 properties, 20% of those properties reduced by the “Shadow Assessor” Ramin Salari who banked 50% of each reduction. An assessor’s supervisor should have reviewed the properties in question, but mysteriously they were not.

Third, LA County DA’s Public Integrity investigation of his office, two are ongoing right now.

Fourth, the pay-to-play politics-run by Carlos-that is rampant at every level, including inside the office. It was revealed that many large political donors to the Noguez campaign have received preferential treatment by Noguez and his cronies. There were even donations from internal staff at the office to his campaign.

Fifth, the subpoena recently issued to Noguez by a San Diego attorney representing a client suing Salari. Salari, under oath during a deposition, said he did not know Noguez . When asked repeatedly, Salari finally took the fifth. After LCCN revealed that Salari knew Noguez, the San Diego attorney subpoenaed Noguez. Not surprisingly, the case was settled by Salari in about a week.

Sixth, Noguez allowing a private company to come into his office and shoot a video that promoted a private company. LCCN revealed this gaff the next day and the private company immediately pulled the video, probably at the behest of the assessor’s office. The next day LCCN received a letter from Noguez attempting to explain the video.

Lastly, the current $50 million deficit, the damage that will be caused to cities, schools, public safety, etc in Los Angeles and the upcoming internal audit. None of the Supervisors, with a combined experience of over 100 years had ever seen anything like this deficit, or the arrogance displayed by Noguez at the meeting.

It all adds up – unlike Noguez’ tax revenue projections – that he must resign.

Meet Randy Economy

You may know me from my role as the Senior Advisor and Official Media Spokesman for the Recall Gavin Newsom campaign that established a worldwide blitz of interviews. I conducted more than 2,200 media interviews on behalf of “The People’s Recall” during a 10-month period from November 2020 to September 2021. The iconic magazine Mother Jones in a dramatic feature article called me “A ‘Superhero Pirate’ Radio Host, (and) Gavin Newsom’s Strangest—and Most Dangerous—Threat. Meet Randy Economy, the man behind the effort to recall California’s governor.” I appeared on more than 330 media outlets around the world in my capacity with RecallGavin2020. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Newsmax, NBC Nightly News, ABC News, as well as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Politico, and dozens of other media outlets aired featured reports on my work on behalf of “The People’s Recall.” I am and will always consider myself to be a journalist. Sometimes I think I bleed ink. My talents as an Investigative Journalists in California earned me FIVE top awards from the prestigious Los Angeles Press Club in 2013, 2014, and 2016. I am tenacious. My reporting over the years has led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California. While working for a tiny community newspaper in Southeast Los Angeles County, I worked doggedly to expose the biggest public corruption case in Los Angeles County history when I unearthed a massive pay to play scheme inside the Assessor’s Office that led to the arrest of then Assessor John R. Noguez and four others. However, politics has been in my DNA since I was a child. I have worked on more than 300 political campaigns as a consultant and advisor since 1982 for candidates from all sides of the political spectrum including Democrats and Republicans, and even Libertarians. I am also a small business owner, serving as the President and CEO of Hot Water Studio & Production, LLC. My company works with media outlets across the state, nation, and world exposing public corruption via several new media platforms. I have also overcome personal challenges. I am legally blind with zero vision in my right eye and only 40 percent vision remaining in my left eye. I sometimes wear an eyepatch due to my failed vision. (Hence the nickname of “America’s Political Pirate.”