Santa Clara County assessor race: Four candidates look to replace Larry Stone in November

For the first time in more than three decades, Santa Clara County voters will see an open race for an assessor in November — and four candidates are in the running.

Larry Stone, the longtime assessor who was first elected in 1994, announced earlier this year that he’d be vacating his seat in July before his term is up in 2026. The county is required by its charter to hold a special election instead of appointing a permanent replacement, and Greg Monteverde, who previously was the assistant assessor, is serving in the interim.

The assessor race is one of two countywide elections on the Nov. 4 ballot. Voters will also decide whether to approve a five-eighths-of-a-cent sales tax increase to offset the impact of recent federal cuts on the county’s budget, which is known as Measure A.

Four candidates have thrown their hats in the ring to be the next assessor — 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.

Zhao, who kicked off her campaign in 2023, is leading the fundraising race, raking in $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 that includes a $97,000 personal loan. She currently has $189,625 in campaign cash.

Kumar reported raising $17,361 through Sept. 20, which included a $108 loan. He has $7,783 in cash on hand. Do’s campaign is 100% self-funded so far through a $22,989 loan. He currently has $8,820 in cash on hand.

Bryan Do

Do was elected to the East Side Union High School District’s 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’s technology upgrade.

“Even though they have a new system that they purchased, we don’t know how it’s integrated,” he said. “Frankly, I think I can do a better job.”

Do said that he wants to make sure that the office is “fair, accurate and consistent” for the public and makes improvements using data-driven tools. He’s proposing offering 24/7 customer service to residents by utilizing conversational AI.

“You can train it so that it can provide probably (a response to) 95% of the standard questions that somebody asks,” he said.

Do also wants to publish a public dashboard that shows how the assessor’s 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.

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.

Neysa Fligor

Fligor was elected to the Los Altos City Council in 2018, becoming the first Black council member in the city’s history. She currently works as the assistant assessor — a role she was promoted to following Stone’s retirement — where she oversees the day-to-day operations of the office. She previously served as the special assistant to the assessor.

“I’m in the office doing the work, I know the work,” Fligor said of her experience.

Her résumé also includes nine years at HP as a legal executive and almost a decade in the Santa Clara County Counsel’s Office, where one of her assignments was working with the assessor.

If elected, Fligor said her number one priority is ensuring that the assessor’s office closes the assessment roll by the state-mandated June 30 deadline. Her second priority is to finish the office’s modernization of its technology, which she said she is already working on.

“It ties in with the priorities of saving taxpayers money because with more efficient processes we’ll definitely be able to save money, but we’ll also be able to do more community engagement and outreach,” Fligor said.

Community engagement is another priority of hers that she started implementing last year, reaching out to residents and ensuring they’re aware of what the assessor’s role is and whether they’re eligible for various exemptions.

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.

Rishi Kumar

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.

Kumar, who has referred to himself as a “proven tax fighter,” said the next assessor should be a “property tax reformist.” A large part of his platform is supporting property tax exemptions for seniors.

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.

“Seniors have done their part,” he said. “Let’s take that one factor away from their anguish, which is the fact that they could be ejected from their homes because of rising taxes.”

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.

“These are problems we can fix with software, and I don’t know why we haven’t done it,” he said. “We should have started a while back, but we are sort of stuck in the dark ages.”

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.

Yan Zhao

Zhao was elected to the Saratoga City Council in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. She previously served on the city’s 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.

“I feel like there is more that we can do to make this office work for the people,” she said.

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’s office “into the 21st century.” Continuing the technology update and making the office more efficient is her first priority.

Zhao also wants to improve the office’s community engagement and hold workshops and seminars to ensure people understand property tax laws.

“Every few years we get a new law, and most people are not aware of it,” she said. “There 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’s important that we bring the assessor’s office to the community.”

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.