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Politics & Government

Union Calls on L.A. County Assessor to Resign

The office of John Noguez is being probed for an election contribution-tax reduction tradeoff scheme that is believed to have lowered property taxes on homes and businesses in Beverly Hills and elsewhere.

By a 92 percent landslide, union workers at the Los Angeles County Assessor's Office want their boss to resign because of the criminal probes against him, it was reported Sunday.

The Los Cerritos Community Newspaper was given the results of an overwhelming union vote, which had been emailed to employees Saturday. Members of the California Association of Professional Employees were surveyed last month by the union, and "by a factor of more than 9-to-1, the rank and file professional employees indicated they are ," according to a union statement obtained by the newspaper.

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that an election contribution-tax reduction tradeoff scheme may have been going on for more than a decade. A county property valuation appraiser named Scott Schenter is suspected of engineering improper tax breaks for up to a decade, before Noguez was elected assessor in November 2010.

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Schenter has been arrested, and faces up to 30 years in prison. He told The Times that Noguez had pressured him to lower tax assessments and extract campaign contributions for the elected assessor. Schenter ired co-workers by , Pacific Palisades and other Westside communities, which in turn reduced their property taxes. Noguez has denied wrongdoing and taken an unpaid leave of absence, while a criminal probe is underway.

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