Johnson defends efforts to improve assessor's office

By Dan MacArthur
North Forty News

Larry Johnson welcomes a visitor into his bright and tidy corner office with the same booming voice and hearty handshake he used to personally greet the thousands of residents protesting their property tax assessments in the four years since he took office.

Now as then, Johnson betrays no signs of being besieged, despite the brutal criticism he's received from three competing candidates as well as members of his own political party. Johnson was relegated to the second line on the primary election ballot, winning 38 percent of the delegate votes at the Republican county assembly--barely beating the threshold required to remain a contender.

Dominated by the "vocal minority," according to Johnson, "the assembly is 400 to 500 people making a decision and isn't necessarily reflective of the public."

Johnson similarly dismisses the derision of critics and defiantly defends his efforts to restore what he describes as an assessor's office in disarray when he took the helm.

"I'm here to tell you I inherited it," he insisted, repeatedly rapping the table for emphasis.

A realty broker and appraiser, Johnson started working for the assessor's office in 1989. He was elevated to deputy assessor during the tenure of his former boss and current opponent Steve Miller, who was term-limited in 2002.

The staff was growing increasingly unhappy, according to Johnson, and it became apparent something had to happen. "I knew it would not get done if I didn't take on the position of assessor," he said.

Johnson shut out opponent Russell Beers in the August Republican Party primary, leaving Johnson with no challenger in the November general election.

Since then, Johnson said, he and his limited staff have been scrambling to clean up the mess made by Miller. He attributes the problem primarily to a number of backlogs, principally one dating back to 1987 in appraising some 12,000 remodels and additions that seriously distorted the value of real estate in the county. Now he said that backlog has been reduced to 5,800.

"This wasn't a Larry Johnson issue," he insisted. "I had no control over any of this going on."

Johnson said his office is finally starting to gain the upper hand. After posting a state record of 17,275 protests in the 2003 reappraisal, Johnson said protests for the first time declined to 14,679 in the 2005 reappraisal. He points to that as proof that progress is being made while at the same time increasing efficiency is saving taxpayers thousands of dollars.

"You don't clean this thing up overnight," said Johnson. "The bottom line is we've turned the corner and it's heading back down. I'm going to need another four years to get this office stabilized."

Johnson also dismissed criticisms about hiring outside consultants to develop and implement the computer models needed for the 2005 reappraisal. He said it was the best and most economical and timely option at the time.

Despite his earlier rejection of the idea, Johnson said he actually supports creation of a citizens' committee to advise the assessor's office. Last year, he first supported the idea and then reversed his position when it appeared to be becoming politicized, he said. He conceded that he should have been more forthcoming about the reasons for his change of heart. "Of course it was a major flip," he said.

Johnson, 59, was born and raised in Fort Collins. He earned an undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Northern Colorado and maintains appraiser and real estate broker licenses. Johnson has real estate, appraisal and management experience.