Furch fails to pay property tax bill

Rue Furch, the Sonoma County planning commissioner whose candidacy for supervisor last year may have been derailed by controversy over her $70,000 delinquent property tax bill, has failed to pay her latest tax bill.

Rod Dole, county auditor and tax collector, confirmed Wednesday that a payment of $4,799.25 due Dec. 10 is delinquent on her home on High School Road in Sebastopol.

"She has the right to pay them late, but at this point, they are late," Dole said.

County officials also said they had no record of a request by Furch or her partner and house co-owner Scot Stegeman for a property reassessment, an act that can sometimes cause homeowners to make delayed payments.

Furch could not be reached by telephone or e-mail for comment Wednesday.

Furch, a planning commissioner for 19 years, spent much of last year campaigning for 5th District supervisor under a cloud of controversy surrounding delays in paying property taxes in five of seven years from 2000 to 2007. As a result, $71,000 worth of taxes and penalties piled up.

Although she paid her bill in December 2007, six months after she filed for the west county seat being vacated by Supervisor Mike Reilly, the issue arose at several candidate debates and in mailers sent by independent expenditure groups just before the Nov. 4 election.

Furch lost the election to Efren Carrillo, a credit union counselor, by 605 votes in November.

During the campaign, Furch said that poor business decisions and inadequate financial planning had caused her and Stegeman to miss making some tax payments and to erroneously conclude that others had been made.

Critics, however, said that delinquent tax payments over so long a period had raised questions about Furch's judgment and her ability to serve on a board that supervises funding of public services. She will continue to serve as county planning commissioner unless Carrillo decides to replace her.

Furch and Stegeman, an environmental consultant, have owned the home since 1999. She has cited "a cash flow crisis" in both of their consultant businesses as the reason why the couple fell behind in making tax payments.

She and Stegeman obtained a loan for $120,000 from a broker to pay the overdue tax bills. However, that loan became controversial because the lender was developer Dennis Hunter. They replaced it with a $131,500 loan from another brokerage, Sequoia Pacific Mortgage, with the money being loaned by the company's profit-sharing plan.

You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.