Candidate for
Assessor/Recorder/Clerk; County of San Diego

Property assessor for 20 years, partner in the largest audit and tax consulting firm in the world, nationally recognized tax expert, small business owner and flower farmer, Ernie has the broadest and best background possible for the office of Assessor of San Diego County.

Ernie is considered an expert in state and local tax administration having been involved at all levels of tax administration for over 28 years. A graduate of San Diego State University with a degree in Business Administration, Finance, he first worked eight years for the California State Board of Equalization as a Tax Auditor. Then in 1978, Mr. Dronenburg won his first of five consecutive 4-year terms as an Equalization Board Member. He served as Chairman of the Board of Equalization, as well as a member and the Chairman of the Franchise Tax Board, on five different occasions. In 1998 he was termed out of office and joined Deloitte & Touche LLP, as the National Partner in Charge of the State Tax Controversy and Government Relations where he is today.

During his years in office he served as Chairman of the Board of Equalization, Property Tax Committee. For the 20 years he was on the Board his duties included being a local property tax assessor, assessing complex property located in all 58 California counties. He also personally wrote the initial Prop 13 Property Assessment Rules, major changes in the sales taxation and he heard more than 20,000 tax appeals. Among the significant pieces of tax legislation that Ernie has been sponsor and principal drafter of is the California Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

Ernie has held the position of president and/or board member on almost every major state tax association in the United States, including, in 1997, being appointed by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives to be a commissioner on the IRS Restructuring Commission, President of the Federation of Tax Administrators and Western States Association of Tax Administrators. During his time in office he has received many awards and distinctions but in his last year in office he was given two significant tributes that have never been given to any other state tax administrator. The first was the 1998 Distinguished Public Service Award by the National Tax Executives Institute (TEI), an honor he was truly proud to receive, and then the State Board of Equalization named its only major conference room, in its Sacramento headquarters building, the Ernest J. Dronenburg, Jr. Conference Room. He left the State Board of Equalization in 1998 due to the term limits initiative passed in 1992.

Since joining Deloitte Tax LLP in January 1999, Ernie has served more than 50 of the Fortune 500 clients of the firm. His practice includes property tax, income tax and sales tax consulting in the 14 western states. He has lectured and spoken at Universities and Professional conferences, workshops and symposiums. Ernie left Deloitte Tax in May of 2006 because of age limitation on firm partners. He started his on Taxpayer's Advocacy firm the day after he left with Deloitte Tax as his main client. He is serving most of the same clients as he did as a partner with the addition of some local businesses.

In an effort to serve his local community in July of 1999 he agreed to an appointment to the San Diego County Board of Education. His fellow members elected him President of the Board in January 2000 and reelected him in January 2001. He was elected to his own four-year term in March 2002. In 2005, because he had moved his residence, Ernie resigned from the Board.

He and his late wife Kathy had lived in San Diego County for over 50 years. Kathy was a member and Vice President of the State Board of Education for 12 years. She died on March 9, 2002 of breast cancer. They had three children Kristen 37, married and a structural engineer and mother of two children, Amy 35 a worker in a sheltered workshop, and Stephanie 30, formerly a kindergarten schoolteacher and now the mother of two year old identical twin boys. On November 15, 2003, he married Marilyn Herlihy. Marilyn and Ernie have seven grandchildren and they live on a 33 acre flower farm in Fallbrook, California. In his leisure time Ernie is an avid sailor and sports fan.