five-eighths-of-a-cent sales tax increase to offset the impact of recent federal cuts on the county\u2019s budget<\/a>, which is known as Measure A.<\/p>\nFour candidates have thrown their hats in the ring to be the next assessor \u2014 a role that oversees an $8 billion public enterprise that assesses the value of more than 500,000 properties in the county. The candidates are East Side Union High School District Trustee Bryan Do, Los Altos Vice Mayor Neysa Fligor, former Saratoga Councilmember Rishi Kumar and Saratoga Councilmember Yan Zhao.<\/p>\n
Zhao, who kicked off her campaign in 2023, is leading the fundraising race, raking\u00a0in $607,310 as of Sept. 20. She has $572,220 cash on hand. Fligor is the second-biggest fundraiser, with a haul of $259,286\u00a0that includes a $97,000 personal loan. She currently has $189,625 in campaign cash.<\/p>\n
Kumar reported raising $17,361 through Sept. 20, which included a $108 loan. He has $7,783 in cash on hand. Do\u2019s campaign is 100% self-funded so far through a $22,989 loan. He currently has $8,820 in cash on hand.<\/p>\n
Bryan Do<\/p>\n
Do was elected to the East Side Union High School District\u2019s Board of Trustees in 2020 and re-elected in 2024. As a former project manager who deployed management information systems across the globe, he said he is uniquely positioned to aid in the office\u2019s technology upgrade.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though they have a new system that they purchased, we don\u2019t know how it\u2019s integrated,\u201d he said. \u201cFrankly, I think I can do a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do said that he wants to make sure that the office is \u201cfair, accurate and consistent\u201d for the public and makes improvements using data-driven tools. He\u2019s proposing offering 24\/7 customer service to residents by utilizing conversational AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can train it so that it can provide probably (a response to) 95% of the standard questions that somebody asks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Do also wants to publish a public dashboard that shows how the assessor\u2019s office is performing by tracking the completion of the assessment roll, the time it takes for appeals and other customer service ratings. He also plans on providing nonconfidential data to residents so that they can see how property valuations are determined.<\/p>\n
Do is endorsed by San Jose Councilmember Bien Doan, former San Jose Councilmembers Tam Nguyen and Mahn Nguyen and Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho.<\/p>\n
Neysa Fligor<\/p>\n
Fligor was elected to the Los Altos City Council in 2018, becoming the first Black council member in the city\u2019s history. She currently works as the assistant assessor \u2014 a role she was promoted to following Stone\u2019s retirement \u2014 where she oversees the day-to-day operations of the office. She previously served as the special assistant to the assessor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in the office doing the work, I know the work,\u201d Fligor said of her experience.<\/p>\n
Her r\u00e9sum\u00e9 also includes nine years at HP as a legal executive and almost a decade in the Santa Clara County Counsel\u2019s Office, where one of her assignments was working with the assessor.<\/p>\n
If elected, Fligor said her number one priority is ensuring that the assessor\u2019s office closes the assessment roll by the state-mandated June 30 deadline.\u00a0Her second priority is to finish the office\u2019s modernization of its technology, which she said she is already working on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt ties in with the priorities of saving taxpayers money because with more efficient processes we\u2019ll definitely be able to save money, but we\u2019ll also be able to do more community engagement and outreach,\u201d Fligor said.<\/p>\n
Community engagement is another priority of hers that she started implementing last year, reaching out to residents and ensuring they\u2019re aware of what the assessor\u2019s role is and whether they\u2019re eligible for various exemptions.<\/p>\n
Fligor is endorsed by dozens of current and former elected officials, including Stone, Reps. Sam Liccardo and Zoe Lofgren, Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg and State Controller Malia Cohen.<\/p>\n
Rishi Kumar<\/p>\n
Kumar was elected to the Saratoga City Council in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. He served as a California delegate for President Joe Biden in 2020 and is currently the chair of the No on Measure A campaign.<\/p>\n
Kumar, who has referred to himself as a \u201cproven tax fighter,\u201d said the next assessor should be a \u201cproperty tax reformist.\u201d A large part of his platform is supporting property tax exemptions for seniors.<\/p>\n
While the county assessor does not have the power to exempt anyone from property taxes, Kumar said he plans to advocate for legislation to do so at the state level. He has also considered a statewide ballot measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeniors have done their part,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s take that one factor away from their anguish, which is the fact that they could be ejected from their homes because of rising taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kumar, whose background is in software, also wants to harness AI to help improve the office. Using the tool for property appraisals and automating the appeals process, he said, will save time and money.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are problems we can fix with software, and I don\u2019t know why we haven\u2019t done it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should have started a while back, but we are sort of stuck in the dark ages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kumar has been endorsed by a coalition of local elected officials, including Cupertino Mayor Liang Chao, Milpitas Mayor Carmen Montano, former state Assemblymember Kansen Chu and Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan.<\/p>\n
Yan Zhao<\/p>\n
Zhao was elected to the Saratoga City Council in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. She previously served on the city\u2019s planning commission for eight years and the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women for nine years. Since she terms out next year, Zhao said she wanted to find a way she could continue making a difference in her community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like there is more that we can do to make this office work for the people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Zhao, who has a background in electrical engineering and has worked for more than three decades in the semiconductor industry, said she wants to help bring the assessor\u2019s office \u201cinto the 21st century.\u201d Continuing the technology update and making the office more efficient is her first priority.<\/p>\n
Zhao also wants to improve the office\u2019s community engagement and hold workshops and seminars to ensure people understand property tax laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery few years we get a new law, and most people are not aware of it,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are many programs that people are not aware of, either for seniors, disabled and veterans, you can apply for exemptions. Many people are not aware of it, so I feel like it\u2019s important that we bring the assessor\u2019s office to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zhao also has a long list of endorsements from local elected officials, including Rep. Ro Khanna, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Otto Lee, state Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens and state Sen. Dave Cortese.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in more than three decades, Santa Clara County voters will see an open race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,185,186,204,187,181,205,188,189,190,191,192,193,194,100,195,182,13,88,90,89,196,197,198,183,199,200,201,202,203],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-campbell","tag-cupertino","tag-election","tag-gilroy","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-politics","tag-los-altos","tag-los-altos-hills","tag-los-gatos","tag-milpitas","tag-monte-sereno","tag-morgan-hill","tag-mountain-view","tag-news","tag-palo-alto","tag-pm-report","tag-politics","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-martin","tag-santa-clara","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-santa-clara-county-elections","tag-saratoga","tag-south-bay","tag-south-san-jose","tag-stanford","tag-sunnyvale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}