Business as Usual for Berrios At County Assessor's Office

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 8, 2010 9:30PM

Remember in the weeks leading up to last month's election and many thought Forrest Claypool had Joe Berrios on the ropes in the race for County Assessor? How Berrios responded with campaign ads telling voters to "support the Democrat" and painting Claypool as a bogeyman?

Here's what "supporting the Democrat" begets. Berrios, who (among many criticisms) has filled his office at the County Board of Review in the past with relatives, is bringing them to the County Assessor's office. Berrios's son Joseph "Joey" Berrios has been hired as a residential analyst at a salary of $48,000. His sister, Carmen Cruz, is now Berrios's $86,000 director of taxpayer services. Berrios's daughter, Vanessa, who was hired by former Assessor Jim Houlihan 11 years ago, now calls her father "chief."

In addition to the new hires, Berrios fired 13 Houlihan "at-will" staffers (staff that serves at the behest of their boss) on his first day in office. Asked about hiring his family when that was one criticism of how he does business, Berrios said "They've got experience, and I'm hiring people with experience," before adding, "I won the election."

Simply saying "fuck you" would have been more polite.