Assessor-Recorder  
Candidate Name: Gerardo Sandoval
                                                                                         
Phone Number: 415 643 8507
                                           
E-mail: info@sandovalforassessor.com
                                           
Signed voluntary spending limit?  No
                                           
Campaign Manager: Jim Stearns
                                           
Major Endorsements: San Francisco Tenant's Union, Matt Gonzalez, Ross Mirkarimi, Tom Ammiano, Aaron Peskin, Chris Daly, Sophie Maxwell, Eric Mar, Sarah Lipson.
                                           
Paid Slates: None
                                           
Mayoral pick in Nov, 2003: Angela Alioto

Dec, 2003: Matt Gonzalez

1. Why are you running for Assessor-Recorder and what are your qualifications?

The number one issue at the Assessor’s office is the raid of San Francisco’s treasury by large corporate property owners. Last month, SBC Park won a $3.6 million refund which will take funds away from vital city services. At least $100 million more is at risk this year alone. 

My top priority will be to address this challenge by strengthening the office’s ability to defend appeals in front of the Assessment Appeals Board. My experience as a trial attorney/public defender will be crucial to this endeavor. I will work with my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors to increase funding to defend these appeals, and improve the training and supervision of the appeals team.

As a trial-tested attorney, I know how to negotiate a winning settlement. As Assessor, I will personally handle the largest appeals myself, working to guarantee the city can continue to fund services for our children, seniors, and all City residents.

My educational and professional experience:
Education:   
Law Degree, Columbia University 
Masters Degree, UC Berkeley, City Planning 

Public Service:  
Finance Analyst, San Francisco Mayor’s Office
Attorney, Skadden Arps
Public Defender, San Francisco
	Supervisor, District 11

2. What will be your top 3 specific priorities if you become San Francisco¹s next Assessor?

My top priority will be to address this challenge by strengthening the office’s ability to defend appeals in front of the Assessment Appeals Board. My experience as a trial attorney/public defender will be crucial to this endeavor. I will work with my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors to increase funding to defend these appeals, and improve the training and supervision of the appeals team.

Another top priority is to institute accountability controls. We must change the system that allows individuals to access and change property records without approval of a supervisor. I will have zero tolerance for violation of privacy, favoritism and corruption.

Finally, we must continue the drive to modernize the computer system in the office to ensure that all clients of the Assessor-Recorder’s office are well-served, and that vital records such as titles and licenses are safe, secure and correct.

3. Do you support Proposition 13?
No, not as it is.

4. Will you advocate for statewide reforms to Proposition 13 from your position as the Assessor of one of California¹s most influential counties? If so, what changes will you propose and actively work towards reforming?

Yes. I would propose studying a split role for commercial and residential properties and reforms to guarantee that corporations cannot hide behind the corporate veil to hide transfers of property and avoid tax assessments.

5. Describe your management experience? How many employees have you
supervised at one time? What type of organization(s) have you managed?
As Chair of the Board of Supervisors' Budget committee last year, I shepherded the passage and negotiation of San Francisco's Budget: a $4 Billion spending plan that covered 24,000 city workers. As a trustee of the San Francisco  Retirement Trust, I oversee the pension benefits of thousands of City workers. I am intricately familiar with managing large staffs and large-scale finance.

6. How many Assessment Appeals Board hearings have you attended in the past 6 months? What was your general impression of the proceedings? I believe the board needs to be strengthened, as outlined above.

7. Given historically high and rising property values, will you vigorously oppose assessment appeals and how?
I will personally handle all large assessment appeals and seek to expand the Office's capacity to fight the raid on City revenue by large commercial property owners. Currently the entire Assessor's budget equals the amount one corporate property owner typically spends on one assessment appeal. To fight unfair reassessments the Assessor's Office needs to be able to hire more and more qualified hands.

8. Do you think the property capitalization rates currently used by the Assessor¹s office are supported by the evidence showing dramatically lower "cap rates" in San Francisco real estate market while interest rates have been at record lows?

9. Will you adopt GIS and other technology so that every San Francisco parcel is depicted on a map accessible via the internet showing its assessed value, ownership and transaction history, along with any deed and financing documents filed with the Recorder¹s Office?
Yes.

10. Of the GP's "10KV," which speaks most to you and why? They are: 
Grassroots Democracy develop participatory systems that encourage us to control the decisions that affect our lives

Ecological Wisdom operate our human societies with the understanding that we are part of nature and learn to live within the ecological and resource limits of the planet.

Social Justice create a system that promotes equality and dignity for all.
As a public servant in San Francisco I have dedicated myself to providing a voice to our City's marginalized communities. As a Budget Analyst with Mayor Art Agnos' Administration, in the midst of our City's largest financial crisis to date, I led the charge to find every dime available in City Hall to keep DPH open for business as it sought to address the AIDS epidemic. As a Public Defender, I provided thousands of San Franciscans with their constitutionally protected right to counsel. And as a Supervisor I sought to bring services and attention to a corner of the City often neglected by our political class.

Nonviolence develop effective alternatives to our current patterns of violence at all levels, while eliminating the injustice and powerlessness that leads to violence.

Decentralization devolve power and responsibility from larger and more distant institutions down to individuals and communities, with the eventual goal of a decentralized, democratic society.

Community-Based Economics redesign our work structures to encourage employee ownership and workplace democracy, while at the same time establish basic security for all and a fair distribution of wealth and income.

Feminism replace the ethic of dominance and control with cooperative ways of relating to each other.

Respect for Diversity cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, reclaiming our country's shared ideals-the dignity of the individual, democratic participation and liberty and justice for all.

Global Responsibility learn from and be of genuine assistance to grassroots groups in the rest of the world.

Sustainability think in terms of the long range collective future of the entire planet and not the short-range, narrow interests of one country or group of people. 

11. Please attach a copy of your bio or resume and a list of your current endorsements.

12. Do you support a gross receipts tax on all San Francisco business activity to either replace or augment the payroll tax? If so, what are some of the components of the tax system you would propose
Yes.

13. What are your most favored methods of raising money for San Francisco?  Under what conditions would you favor sales taxes?
I support implementing progressive forms of taxation and limiting the use of sales taxes for raising revenue.