Rolf Kleinhans, who is running for assessor, and Keith Royal, who is running for sheriff, responded to the candidate’s questions that were posed here over the weekend. If others respond, I will post them here. The responses were voluntary. Rolf and Keith, thanks for your comments.
Rolf Kleinhans for Assessor:
Question:
Why isn’t it a conflict of interest for the county Association of Realtors and the Real Estate PAC to endorse your campaign for assessor, where your office will assess the value of real estate in our county?
Answer:
The purpose of the Assessor’s Office is to identify all taxable property within Nevada County, and to establish the value of that property. The assessed value determines the appropriate tax, as lawfully applied, by the Auditor/Controller’s Office.
The NCAOR and CA Real Estate PAC believe that accurate and fair assessments are in the best interests of both individual property owners and the county. They have endorsed me for the Office of Assessor because I have 25 years in the industry, and have the education, certifications and skill sets necessary to actually work in the office.
They have chosen to make an investment in future good government based on my appropriate qualifications and management experience.
Keith Royal, running unopposed for sheriff:
Questions:
Why isn’t it a conflict of interest for your spouse to manage the campaigns of a supervisor (who will approve your budget) and now an assessor?
Why are we considering spending so much money to expand the jail when we can’t keep it full with our county’s own inmates anyway?
As to the first question, Elected Officials across the State support and endorse other candidates for public office, including Supervisors. I have supported publicly all our current Supervisors, based on one reason, I believe they are the best qualified and will do the best job representing their constituents. I have no expectations, nor have any of our current supervisors ever provided me any favors regarding my budget. Even at times, the Supervisors and I agree to disagree on specific issues.
As for my wife helping another candidate for Assessor, again that’s because she wants the most qualified individual in that position and truly cares about the quality of government. As such, I believe we all have a responsibility to identify and promote the person we feel will best protect and serve our community.
With that said, I do not believe there is a conflict of interest in supporting the most qualified candidates for public office.
To your second question, I too don’t believe we should spend money on a major expansion of the jail at this time. However, I do believe it’s imperative that we plan for the future. A change in the culture of our current courts, or a change with the release of 40-50K prisoners at the State level could dramatically impact our jail population, and as such, we should prepare now how best to expand when it becomes necessary. More importantly, this preparation is underway because currently we do need to replace our existing electronic security system which is no longer vendor supported, and to do so, requires consideration as to any future expansion to the facility. These are dollars well spent as they will save the County substantially in the future.
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