Gotta love this plan: a now-former county appraiser "secretly and improperly slashed tens of millions of dollars from the taxable values of Westside properties in late 2010" in the hopes that the richies he'd helped would donate money to his boss. The LA Times reports that Scott Schenter said LA County Assessor John Noguez "had promised him a promotion in the summer of 2010 in the midst of Noguez's successful election campaign." He says Noguez was pressuring him to bring in more and more donors, and hinting and implying that he should look into working with some wealthy Westsiders. His supervisor eventually found that he had "reduced the taxable value of 151 properties in Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and other Westside communities without any explanation or authorization." Only about six of the homeowners ended up giving money to Noguez. Noguez says he never offered Schenter a promotion and had no idea what he was up to. Meanwhile, criminal investigators are looking into all the alleged shenanigans.
· Ex-appraiser says he cut values in hopes of donations to assessor [LAT]
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