BOMA Breakfast with San Diego County Assessor David Butler
BOMA San Diego’s Government Affairs Committee met with San Diego County Assessor David Butler for October’s Breakfast Series Event held at the University Club atop Symphony Towers.
During the breakfast, topics discussed included a review of the property assessments process and impact on the county’s taxes given the current state of the economy. In 2008, assessment appeals skyrocketed to a record 42,000 due to changes in the market. Butler stated that the County of San Diego has been proactive this year to work with these appeals and they continue to make thoroughly detailed assessments to support their findings.
Butler addressed his opposition to the Split Roll tax, stating it is not feasible as the county does not have adequate staffing and the department lacks the needed experience in order to take on the role of appraising all commercial buildings yearly. He noted that if properties were to be appraised annually, the process would have to be phased, which would not be ideal.
A native San Diegan, David Butler began working for the Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk’s office in August 1976, and was recently appointed to the position of Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk by the Board of Supervisors in March 2009. He is responsible for the functions and policy decisions as Assessor, Recorder and County Clerk, and supervises four executive managers and over 450 staff members with a total budget in excess of $58 million.
David received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Sciences, University of California, Riverside in 1973. He is currently a member of the California Assessors’ Association, California Recorders’ Association and California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.
BOMA Alert- Federal Stimulus Funds for Commercial Energy Efficiency Upgrades - Letters of Interest Needed
Per discussions over the past three weeks and with consensus from the Board of Directors to move forward, I am sending information regarding the bid BOMA California, ConSol, and Lime Energy are putting together to apply for a $20,000,000 federal Stimulus funds grant for energy efficiency upgrades to existing buildings.
We need your assistance at the local level to help distribute this information to members that might participate in the program so we can get letters of interest for the grant packet.
If successful, BOMA California will administer these funds which can be used to buy down up to 50% of the energy efficient improvement costs for projects on California properties. Many of the proposed improvement will have a pay back of less than 24 months.
Please click here to review a description for a more detailed explanation. We need interested companies to fill out the spreadsheet and letter of interest, and send back to me by Noon on Friday, November 20th. The spreadsheet has default answers that appear in the building type and energy projects columns (click on arrow at right of these cells). Expressing interest does not contractually bind companies, but will be used to show how much interest our members have in the program to increase our chances of being awarded the grant. The letters of interest will determine the amount of money BOMA California can apply for (up to $20,000,000).
ConSol and/or Lime Energy are available to assist you in determining applicable energy improvements and filling out the attached spreadsheet – contact information for individuals at these companies are in the one-pager.
The BOMA California Board thinks this is an excellent opportunity and benefit to our members. We need to respond quickly to strengthen our chances of being a successful bidder for these funds. I look forward to hearing from you.
Respectfully,
Matthew Hargrove
BOMA California Administration
mhargrove@cbpa.com
