Candidate for
Clerk-Recorder-Assessor; County of Santa Barbara

Public service has been Larry Herrera's passion ever since he served as a playground director near his home during his youth and then as an intern for the Mayor of Los Angeles in his early twenties. With his BA and Masters in Public Administration degree in hand, he came to our County eager to make a difference and excited about his new home. As someone who has a twenty-year history of public service, he has demonstrated the experience needed to lead a major county department. His vision for the future of the department is guided by several core values he reviews every day. It's really quite simple:

Make it easy to vote, and make every vote count How a person votes is not nearly as important as encouraging them to participate in democracy. He's worked hard to continuously improve how we conduct elections and has saved taxpayers over $760,000 with a precinct level ballot counting system that was implemented during the March 2000 elections. This innovation has led to fast, accurate reporting of election results such that the public knew the results of November's election just 76 minutes after the polls closed. He implemented the voter registration 1-800 number, the polling place locator on the Internet and the bi-lingual voter outreach program.

Our public (customers) always comes first. Nobody wants to wait in line or not have the information they need now available. Under Herrera's direction, the assessment appeals process has been streamlined and easier to utilize. Assessment information is now available quickly and efficiently on the Internet.

Make the department a national model for others to follow. When the market value of real estate in Santa Barbara declined in the 1980s, the Assessor's Department provided lower annual assessments to over 20,000 home and business owners. Larry sponsored ordinances for lower taxes for El Niņo flood damage and secured an ongoing program for disaster tax relief. Merging the recorder and assessor functions of his department has saved taxpayers over $600,000.