By Steven T. Jones
After almost 20 years working for newspapers in California, I’ve taken hundreds of calls from public relations people seeking to have us write about their corporate clients. I usually ignore them, but sometimes I warn them to be careful what they’re asking for because they just might get it.
So when Amy Wallace from Echo Media Public Relations called me this week, seeking to get me to write a laudatory piece about California Property Tax Savers – which helps clients lower their property tax payments, something she said was important during these hard times – I remembered that local officials had just last month cautioned against using such companies.
Assessor Phil Ting and Treasurer Jose Cisneros sent out a statement that “denounced unscrupulous property tax reassessment services” that charge fees for a service that the city offers for free. I had the company send me a response to the city’s warning, and I called Ting to get a response to their response (which follows).
“Anybody can come into our office and make this request for free. It’s a process that’s created so people don’t have to pay these fees,” said Ting, who said he doesn’t believe this company can get clients more of a reduction than they’d otherwise get, and he said it certainly wouldn’t be enough to offset fees of up to 40 percent.