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Noguez denied being aware of any of this. However, he acknowledged that he spoke to Schenter on behalf of tax agent Patricia Younis outside the assessment hearing rooms. Younis, who gave $3,000 to Noguez's campaign, got a roll reduction of $8 million for a condo complex on Ocean Front Walk.
Billionaire developer Robert Maguire III had given $1,000 to Noguez. He was a Salari client. Schenter reduced his Bel Air mansion from $5.5 million to $4 million.
John Noguez raised more than $1 million for his 2010 campaign for county assessor. His opponent raised just $40,000.
John Noguez
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Rouhollah Esmailzadeh, president of a lighting company, also was a Salari client. His Brentwood mansion was reduced from $9.2 million to $6 million. Esmailzadeh had already given Noguez $1,000. But on Oct. 28, 2010 — around the time the Schenter reduction went through, and just before the assessor's election — Esmailzadeh gave another $4,000 to Noguez's council account.
Schenter did a poor job of covering his tracks. He may have believed that if he was caught, Noguez would back him up.
After Owen Harris made his initial discovery, Schenter wrote in an email to a friend: "Things were good for a while, last week my supervisor is attacking me again. I thought with the new assessor this would be over but you know I am in trouble again."
Under questioning from his supervisors in Culver City, Schenter was quick to point the finger at Noguez. In an affidavit, he said Noguez had told him to "look into some of the listed properties." He also said he realized that Harris would not have approved the lower values but that he wanted to give property owners a "fairer shake."
In a lengthy memo, he also claimed he was the victim of a "double standard."
At hearings, "I was the sole assessor's representative to make all value decisions," he wrote. Why was it OK for him to lower values without a supervisor's approval during appeals hearings but not while acting as a front-line appraiser?
Schenter bragged about his abilities as a representative, writing that the hearing officers told him, "You are Rain Man! How can you do calculations and values in your head without a calculator?" He added, "I was put in these value decision duties because my supervisor knows that I know value and am capable of making proper decisions."
Indeed, had Schenter made his changes at the Assessment Appeals Board, or in the cafeteria across the hall, most would never have been reported to supervisors in the assessor's office. Had he been just a little higher in the bureaucracy, he might have gotten away with it.
Schenter resigned at the end of January 2011. The assessor's office never disclosed the misconduct to the public. Instead, each of the affected properties was reappraised, and a few months later the property owners who had received unauthorized reductions got a form letter in the mail.
"We regret that an assessment error occurred on the above referenced property. A review was performed to correct the error," the letter stated. "We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you."
Schenter's resignation set the stage for an internal battle over the access granted to tax agents, especially to Salari. Not long after, appraisers began complaining that agents were trying to trade on Noguez's friendship. Ultimately, the appraisers' union intervened, writing to Noguez to share concern that such influence "jeopardizes the impartiality and integrity of the office."
At the root was a fundamental disagreement over the role of the assessor's office.
On one side were young-gun assessor's representatives, such as Andrew Stephens and Mark McNeil, both promoted to top management roles by Noguez. They had imbibed the "taxpayer-friendly" approach that says appraisers are not supposed to "defend" a particular value. Instead, they are supposed to work with property owners or their agents to arrive at the fair market value, whatever that may be. On the other side were "defenders of the roll," who treat tax agents more like adversaries.
David Zoraster, who came over from CB Richard Ellis, turned out to be in the latter camp. He worked at the assessor's office 30 years ago and hadn't had a chance to learn the new approach. That put him on a collision course with Ramin Salari.
The confrontation came over two apartment complexes in Hermosa Beach, owned by a publicly traded real estate firm. In securities filings, the firm put the value of the buildings at $63 million and $55 million, respectively. Salari wanted to reduce both to $35 million.
Zoraster thought that was way too low, and set about finding comparables that would support a higher value. On Nov. 30, 2011, Zoraster sent Salari an email informing him that he would be personally handling the case before the appeals board.
The next day, Salari forwarded Zoraster's message to Noguez; his chief of staff, Chris Carlos; and Eric Haagenson, a top deputy.
"This was not my understanding," Salari wrote. "Please advise." The day after that, Carlos removed Zoraster from the case.
That was the last straw for Zoraster, who resigned in protest.
What followed was a dramatic showdown at the Assessment Appeals Board between the two factions within the assessor's office. McNeil wrote up a lengthy memo on the encounter, later obtained by the Weekly.
Zoraster told McNeil he had resigned because "I refuse to sell my reputation to this department."
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hello my name is tirso rodriguez i have a problem in 2007 i person led is on made me make plans he said we where going to build on our property 1810 -1804 s vermont los angeles ca 90006 so i added my brother on the title i purshased the property for 320000 .00 dollars my property taxes where loan fair now there is a power to sell my property iv been here for 17 years this was our dream for our family as a car dealer now i am loosing it because someone lied to us we never built i was cond for about ten thousand dollars please help me pay the right amount to clear this matter or lead me in the right dirrection
Wow, John Noguez and Ramin Salari are two more Frank McCourts, only in the L.A. Tax Accessor's office.
Wish you would investigate LA County Dept. of Public Works. Little fiefdom gives their division heads and officers FREE leased cars of their choice, which they drive to and from work in orange county and beyond, they also get FREE GAS, as well as FREE car cleaning and washes performed by county employees for their personal/public vehicles. Many of these division heads live in Orange County and the Valley. Why are public servants given free gas and cars to drive to and from work? That is something they do in fortune 500 companies, not public agencies. I guess when you have a billion dollar budget managers can give themselves raises and have their personal vehicles paid for with County taxes.
How about reporting it to the LA County fraud hotline? I'm a LA County employee and I drive my own vehicle for County business. Managers make it difficult to get A county vehicle. It's not fair division heads to take cars home with free gas and free cleaning. THE ABUSE MUST STOP!
Wow seems like the Assessor's office is not the only entity who is greedy. The news sources here are acting like desperate children needing attention. OK so some attribution should have been forthcoming, but perhaps in an attempt to protect your identity you were LEFT OUT. Why not publish a breaking story on your own? How about looking into a corrupt judicial system here? I for one have had been victimized by judicial lying and file tampering. Our court system is likely in really bad shape in terms of corruption. Los Angeles has always been known as tops for cutthroat scaming. I suggest we worry about all the trees that have been cut down. Who profited from that? We have no shade and no oxygen.
County Fraud is ramped: Supervisor / DA/ DPW/ DRP/ CAL BAR it's all exposed here. West Hollywood mayor they are all bought out... this guy forgot to blow somebody before the left in the morning with his boy friend caught driving his car.
That mark schenter seems like a real charlatan ! I wouldn't be surprised if he were taking kickbacks on his own accord!!! Cancer research??? Come on ! How low can you get????
I wonder what retired Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach thinks about his endorsement of Current Assessor John Noguez as his replacement.
- TK
The corruption of the Assessment Appeals process in L.A. County was well under way on Rick Auerbach's watch. It was only EXPOSED after Noguez took office after the 2010 election.
Great story. No political or economic system can survive rampant corruption. While this article deals with the County Assessor's Office, similar corruption plagues all of Los Angeles, especially the Los Angeles City Council. LA Weekly has already done some of the work in this area, but a lot more needs to be done.
Even in yesterday's State of the City speech, we see the Mayor trying to find ways to funnel millions of tax dollars to his political cronies under one scam or another. It seems that the major distinction between this penny ante corruption in the Assessor's Office and City Hall's mega corruption is that there is dissent within the Assessor's office while the corrupt City Council votes together more than 99.3% of the time. Just the unspoken City Council rule that all members will retaliate against any councilmember who does not support the corruption in another district is a serious breach of the public trust. The 99.3% statistic alone was enough for the DA to launch a RICO investigation, but let's be real -- Cooley care about corruption? Ha!
Bad as the Assessor's corruption may be, it comes not enter into the truly vile realm of the deliberate falsification of fire response times so that the City Council could cut $200 M from the LAFD budget while continuing to give millions of dollars to Eli Broad, CIM Group and other developers. The LA City Council willingly traded lives for dollars.
give it rest Hews. so annoying. We all know you broke the story...woopee...now i never want to read LCCN or anything by randy economy cuz you sound so desperate...i hope you go bankrupt... and, i'm actually on your side on this story. maybe if someone gives you a trophy you'll calm down?
Nice job Gene, you think you could have attributed Los Cerritos Community Newspaper since we first gave you the lead in February that the DA was investigating Noguez? You would not even have known about all this if it was for LCCN and Randy Economy.
I always thought it was fishy that both Hiward Jarvis and the unions were endorsing Noguez. Now I know why. While you can be collaborative ultimately the tax agent has to prove their case. Instead of spending time doing their homework they pay off the Assessor and go to parties instead.
GOOD!!! Thank you LA WEEKLY!!!I just want to add few comments, guys like Mark McNeil, Andrew Stephens, Eric Haagenson, Carlos, and JOHN NOGUEZ should be in jail for stealing public money.From my understanding son of the LA County Supervisor Knabe was running Noguez Assessor's campaign. Four members of the LA County Board of Supervisors Molina, Yaroslavsky, and others (not Antonovich) were endorsing John Noguez.Having so many FACTS it is surprise Board of Supervisors didn't ask John Noguez to RESIGN and PUNISH OTHERS. WHY???They are still FREE. What about DISTRICT ATTORNEY OFFICE? They should take action!!!
Sad to say, in Los Angeles County, the role of the District Attorney is to look the other way no matter how blatant the corruption. Councilmember Tom LaBonge ran the worldwide fraudulent SAVE the SIGN campaign to raise millions to give to a developer for the virtually worthless Cahuenga Peak. It has nothing to do with the Hollywood Sign.
When it was clear that no one would give the millions of dollars that Football Tommy wanted to shovel into Fox River Financials' pockets for Cahuenga Peak, TPL and CD 4 devised the fraudulent scam that the Hollywood Sign on Mt. Lee was in danger. Even their post victory video falsely states that "Cahuenga Peak is the home of the Hollywood Sign!"
Fraud has become a way of life and Angelenos do not blink an eye. LaBonge involved Hollywood school children in his worldwide Bait and Switch scam and no parent complained that his/her child was being taught how to be a criminal. The students in Hollywood know that the H Sign is on Mt Lee and not on Cahuenga Peak. Thus, they learned that if you want $, it is OK to lie. "Our teachers and councilman told us it was OK to lie to get money."
We saw this dishonesty on display again at the City PLUM on Tuesday 4-17-12 when Huizar did not like a citizen's poster of the Millennium Tower next to Capitol Records, and he asked Kevin Keller to say that the picture was "misleading." Kevin Keller told the TRUTH and said it was not misleading. Thereupon, Councilmember Reyes says to Mr. Keller, "So you're saying that this picture is misleading," trying to lead the truthful Keller into providing false testimony. The entire audience caught his dishonest ploy -- as did Mr. Keller who stuck to the truth!!!
Angelenos do not understand that corruption is virtually ubiquitous among Los Angeles elected officials and department heads, yet the DA never notices anything.
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