Buying a home in Lake County is often the first step towards living here. Such people should be welcomed into our community. Forcing new homeowners to wait in a motel, the U Haul parked outside, over a weekend, for the title to be recorded is not welcoming new residents.

Our current assessor-recorder caused such incidents by closing the recorder's office on Fridays for “catch up,” when electronic recording is available to us, and still not operational.

Sending dramatic increases in tax bills to local property owners without advance warning or explanation is similarly thoughtless. Advancing assessments that are as much as three times above the recent purchase price, to increase income to his employer, is yet another unforced error.

But the most basic error is the failure to see Lake County residents, old or new, as those worthy to serve with due consideration and fairness.

Fortunately, there is an election. I, and many others in the real estate community, suggest eight years of this is enough, and candidate Hannah Lee is someone who can be trusted to turn things around, welcome new residents to Lake County, and treat all of us fairly.

Timothy Toye lives in Cobb, California.