EXPERTS LANE n CELEBRATING OCPA'S WOMEN
Women in Power
By Rick Singh, CFA
Orange County Property Appraiser
A
s a nod to both Women’s History
Month in March, and to IBA
Success Magazine’s “Women in
Power” theme for this month’s
issue, I am proud to share with you a few
of the wonderful women who comprise
about half of the total staff at the Orange
County Property Appraiser’s Office (OCPA).
All of the roles within the Agency are filled
by some 146 capable men and women,
but we are fortunate to have some out-
standing women in key roles.
Still, even though it is 2019, women are
often challenged in the workplace in ways
that men are not. As a society we still ask
most working women to be primarily re-
sponsible for keeping their homes run-
ning smoothly. Make no mistake about it,
gone are the days when men didn’t partic-
ipate in homemaking and nurturing their
children. But, even though we’ve made
a lot of progress in blurring the dividing
lines of responsibilities, it still seems at
least slightly unequal. This was made evi-
dent to me when discussing the challeng-
es with a few members of the OCPA team.
4
IBA Success Magazine
n
VOL 5, Issue 2
l-r: Barbara Jubran, Grace Pope, Usha Tewari, Midge Smith, Melissa Martin, Beth Watson,
Camille Smith, Wendy Barfield, and Tatsiana Sokalava
• The Chief Operating Officer at OCPA
since 2016, Tatsiana Sokalava, is a work-
ing mother of two who was raised by a
single mother. She readily admits to
needing to wear multiple “hats” while
employing advanced organizational
skills to get it all done. In leading the
entire agency’s operation, she considers
women and men as equally important
contributors who add different kinds
of value in the workplace. When working
together, men and women can leverage
their value to form strong teams.
• Camille Smith, OCPA’s Director of
Commercial Real Estate Assessment,
has been in the industry for more than
30 years and leads a team of 28 apprais-
ers and analysts. Gender aside, one of
her biggest challenges is hiring qualified
candidates in a competitive labor mar-
ket. She also feels that she’s able to
share with candidates that OCPA is an
excellent place for women to work — and
that women often ascend to leadership
roles. She, too, values the innate multi-
tasking skills that most women readily
employ.
• Another Director, Grace Pope, has 16
team members in the Tangible Personal
Property department. She has observed
evolving work habits during her career
that has spanned almost 24 years, along
with some reluctance to change. While
Grace believes that OCPA offers the
APPRAISER’S
From the COO to front line representa-
tives, women play a critical part in ensur-
ing that the work of the agency is done
accurately, efficiently, and professionally.
Their unique gifts of multi-tasking are in-
valuable at OCPA, where we are charged
with appraising and valuing over 450,000
parcels of residential and commercial
property, and some 60,000-business prop-
erty accounts every year. In addition, we
assist almost 10,000 customers in person
and nearly 70,000 more on the phone.
Because of our excellent staff in special-
ized departments, we are able to meet our
goals and serve the taxpayers quickly and
efficiently. No doubt, the women on these
teams are essential to our success.