Larry Stone — Santa Clara County’s longest serving elected official — is stepping down as county assessor next month, capping off more than three decades in the role and 47 years overall as a public servant.
Stone announced on Monday that he won’t seek re-election next year and that his last day will be July 6. Assistant Assessor Greg Monteverde will take over as acting assessor until the county holds a special election to fill the seat for the remainder of his term, which expires December 2026.
Stone, 84, was elected as assessor in 1994, beating out former Rep. Ernie Konnyu who had recently lost his seat in Congress. Stone previously served 16 years on the Sunnyvale City Council, which included two stints as mayor from 1979 to 1980 and 1987 to 1989.
“It was just time,” Stone told The Mercury News in an interview of his decision to step down.
One of the main tasks he wanted to complete before he left was replacing the office’s 40-year-old computer system. On June 17, the Board of Supervisors signed off on a new vendor, completing a lengthy search.
“I’m constitutionally required to close the assessment role by July 1 every year and have done that every year,” Stone said. “I’ve accomplished most of the things I need to accomplish.”
In his role as assessor, he oversees an $8 billion public enterprise that manages an assessment roll of more than 500,000 properties, which has seen a 500% increase in value during his tenure and now amounts to $726 billion. Stone boasts that he’s only added one person to the payroll and has returned $35 million to the county’s general fund since he took office three decades ago.
County Executive James Williams said in a statement that “our community owes a great deal of gratitude to Assessor Larry Stone, who has run an incredibly efficient and effective Assessor’s Office for many decades.”
“Larry has also been an extraordinary advocate for fair and appropriate property tax rules and legislation, playing a critical leadership role statewide. Larry’s lifetime of public service, professionalism, and excellence leaves a legacy that I’m confident will continue in our Assessor’s Office.”
David Ginsborg, the former deputy assessor who worked with Stone for nearly 25 years, called his former boss a “Renaissance man” who is a public servant “at his core.” Stone’s departure, he said, is a loss for the community as “property taxes are one of the things that touch every homeowner in the area.”
“It has an impact on schools and on cities,” Ginsborg said in an interview. “It’s a loss whenever you have someone who has managed the office the way he has, which is putting performance ahead of everything else, making sure that customer service is attended to, making sure people’s calls are being returned and at the end of the day making sure the assessments are fair.”
In Silicon Valley, Ginsborg said the assessor often must make hard decisions when it comes to valuing companies like Apple or Levi’s Stadium where the San Francisco 49ers play.
Stone, who didn’t have a serious challenger up until 2022, said he has met with several former mayors and councilmembers in recent years who are interested in his job. The one message he has for them? “This is not a political job,” he said.
While Stone has been known to get involved in local politics — most recently he’s been pushing back on a county proposal to look at implementing ranked choice voting — he said an assessor needs management experience.
So far, Saratoga Councilmember Yan Zhao is the only candidate to file paperwork for 2026.
Ginsborg, who briefly challenged Stone for his job in a past election, said the next assessor shouldn’t view it as a stepping stone.
“He went into this office and he used his rolodex to help the office move forward,” he said of Stone. “He’s larger than life. Anyone who thinks they can enter the job and be just like Larry is going to be in for a bit of a shock. It is a day job. I would just caution anyone who thinks they can just let it float along.”
