Andrew Crockett
Andrew M. Crockett ran for election for Santa Clara County Assessor in California. He lost in the primary on June 7, 2022.
Crockett completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Andrew Crockett was born in Monterey, California. Crockett earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2007 and an associate degree from De Anza Community College in 2012. His career experience includes working as a healthcare financial analyst for the County of Santa Clara Health System finance department. Crockett has worked as a certified public accountant (CPA) and a certified property tax appraiser. He has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1]
- California Society of Certified Public Accountants
- Association of Government Accountants, Silicon Valley Chapter
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
- County Employees' Management Association (CEMA), union member
- CEMA Political Action Committee
- SEIU Local 521
- Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee
- Silicon Valley Young Democrats
- San Jose Lodge No. 10, Masons, former treasurer.
Elections
2022
See also: Municipal elections in Santa Clara County, California (2022)
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Santa Clara County Assessor
Incumbent Larry Stone won election outright against Andrew M. Crockett in the primary for Santa Clara County Assessor on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Larry Stone (Nonpartisan) | 67.4 | 203,579 |
 | Andrew M. Crockett (Nonpartisan)  | 32.6 | 98,459 | |
| Total votes: 302,038 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
To view Crockett's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2022
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released May 12, 2022 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Andrew M. Crockett completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Crockett's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Competence: Modernize the Assessor’s Office to ensure accurate and timely assessments. This will include updating the office’s database information technology software, streamlining work processes, and restoring trust and communication between management and the Assessor’s workforce to improve morale, efficiency, and aid in the attraction and retention of employees. Additionally, I will adopt the cutting edge Sustainable Accounting Standards Board procedures, allowing this office to lead in carbon neutral civic management.
- Housing: Enhance housing accessibility in Santa Clara County by focusing the Assessor’s Office on public outreach and education efforts so that all residents have a good understanding of the services the Assessor’s Office provides. Additionally, I will make the Assessor’s Office public data publicly available, providing critical data to help nonprofits and government agencies craft precision-guided fact-informed legislation to address the housing crisis. This would include establishing a policy of waiving the rediculous $47,195, highest-cost-in-the-nation “property characteristics file” fee for civic organizations working to address the shortage of affordable housing and other property-related challenges.
- Honesty: Transparency and accountability are key to building trust. As a CPA, I know that numbers can be easily manipulated. I promise to fight such deception by using independent audit & review services for any official statistical or financial statements issued by the Office. Presently the office undermines the public trust by issuing an unreviewed, unattested Annual Report with only self-verified numbers. Further, I will issue annual audited financial statements for the office, for presently the office issues none, let alone independently audited ones. It avoids this basic duty by having its finances commingled with Santa Clara County’s broader financial statements, which blurs and obscures how money actually flows through this office.
It is why I became a civil servant CPA, and it is why I am running for Santa Clara County Assessor: to restore trust in our government services. This trust is especially essential with government finance, for when people don’t trust the system they finance with their taxes, the cynicism spreads like contagion, infecting our other government institutions by extension. The Assessor’s Office is the financial back-end of government, and is particularly susceptible to opportunistic politicians who depend upon public resignation to stay in office for decades without scrutiny or challenge. It is time to end this era of distrust with a renewed dedication to public service, transparency, and accountability.
I look up to those who are courageously themselves.
I look up to those who are compassionate, especially when circumstances make compassion difficult.
I look up to those who true their actions by scientifically grounded fact.
I look up to those who seek to understand before they act.
I look up to those with the humility to admit error, and continue to reach for their goals.
I look up to the trustworthy and empathetic.
I look up to those who lead with forgiveness and a charitable heart.
I look up to those who shoulder hardship for the sake of service.
I look up to those who embrace the duty to lift up the downtrodden.
I look up to those who seek excellence in whatever they do, knowing excellence is an unending process.
The empowerment of citizens is not just the right to vote, but the active cultivation of civic virtues among citizens including exercising the right to vote, defending other citizen's right to vote, a commitment to respect other citizens (especially one's political opponents), as well as the duty to make political participation an inviting & hospitable environment.
Fact-informed civil discourse goes back to the birth of modern democracy in the Enlightenment era, written about in books like "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals" by philosopher David Hume. In Social Democracy, there is a recognition that valuing fact-informed discourse is a key part of citizen empowerment - as it creates a civic common ground where we productively discuss the issues we face together. When citizens can see the value in data collection & understand how scientifically grounded analysis of that data is produced, the resulting factually informed & involved citizens can more effectively improve their communities & their own lives.
When I speak of public service & data transparency, it is in service to this vision of engaged citizens, armed with the relevant factual data, empowered as voters & civic servants. In this paradigm, the Assessor has a duty to engage in public education & outreach about the services of the office. Additionally, as a steward of public data, the Assessor has a duty to see that its information is used for the benefit of our community & society, for doing anything less would be failure under this philosophy.
As a good communicator, I recognize communication flows both ways. My ability to listen to the concerns of the employees, and work with them to discover win-win solutions is what I promise to deliver on as Assessor. Building a community in service to the residents of this County. I believe my long record of membership with SEIU 521 and CEMA and volunteerism in civic and political organizations has honed these skills that I now wish to put into service for your benefit.
I am a CPA, data analyst, and appraiser - which gives me keen financial insight. My analytics background grounds me in Silicon Valley’s data-driven management paradigm. Above all, I see this office as a way to bring public service to the people of Santa Clara County through progress and innovation. Policy making should always be driven by data, and I see the data collected by the Assessor’s Office as a way to ground our discussions of the housing crisis with facts. Indeed, making this data readily available could yield more than just statistical insights, but could prove valuable in ways we have yet to determine.
It really is an excellent song in its own right, and you can listen to it here <https://youtu.be/QjyYrDrNhVc> on the official campaign YouTube page <https://www.youtube.com/electcrockett>.
Once the public understands the Assessor’s back-end role in government finance, we can begin to discuss its even less known responsibilities, such as managing assessment appeals and the administration of assessment reduction programs. Most of these lesser-known administrative tasks are designed to save taxpayers money. These include programs that provide assessment reductions due to a residence being homeowner-occupied, having suffered a natural disaster, having qualified for historical preservation (under the Mills Act), or for being a contracted agricultural or open space property (under the Williamson Act). Additionally, one of the most important services the office provides is a simple assessment consultation service, where a property owner or potential buyer can meet with a certified appraiser to review the relevant assessment laws pertaining to their property so the resident can make an informed decision.
I have honed these leadership and outreach skills through serving as Treasurer for several volunteer organizations paired with more than a decade of experience with educational outreach programs. Furthermore, my technical credentials as a Certified Public Accountant, data analyst, and certified Appraiser are a perfect match for the challenges of this position.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 13, 2022
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