You’ve got to give a guy credit for standing up to his boss; give him extra points if he actually tries to get his boss fired – and seeks to take his job. That’s more or less the quest of Pueblo’s David Bratina, who used to work for longtime Pueblo County Assessor Frank Beltran and now is going to challenge him for the post in next November’s election.

Reports the Pueblo Chieftain:

…Bratina, who worked as supervisor of data processing for County Assessor Frank Beltran for eight years, was nominated by fellow Republicans on the floor of their local assembly March 19.

Bratina, who also worked 12 years as a senior systems statistical analysis in the information technology department for the county, said he wants to make changes at the assessor’s office including upgrading an appraisal system there.

And Bratina’s not shy about criticizing the way his old shop is run:

“For the past 15-20 years I have been trying to get them to update their system of appraisals that is based on 35-40 year technology that was enacted back in the ’80s. It is very ineffective …”

“Every other large county in Colorado currently uses a multiple regression analysis, which is a modern method of appraisal that provides far more accurate, far more details and much more efficient evaluations.”

Bratina told the Chieftain the current system results in a lot of errors in assessing taxpayers’ property, and he called some of those errors, “simply outrageous.” That includes an incident in 2010 when 5,000 homes were significantly overvalued, handing the owners a heftier tax bill.

Bratina also came up with the quote of the week:

“I have been thinking about running for the past three years. This needs to be corrected. …

“The only way to get it done is to be the assessor. I once asked Frank Beltran when he planned on implementing regression. He said he’d leave it to the next guy. So I am willing to be the next guy.”