Fill out this form to email this article to a friend

Your name		Your email
Recipient email	You may enter up to 20 multiple email addresses, separated by commas.
Your message
Validation Code	Hear validation code
	Enter validation code

We were unable to send your email.

Click here to try again.

Pam Dubov for Republicans, Pinellas property appraiser

In print: Sunday, August 3, 2008

Story Tools E-mail this story Contact the editor Print this story Comment on this story Social Bookmarking Digg Facebook Stumbleupon Reddit Del.icio.us Newsvine

ADVERTISEMENT

During the years that Jim Smith — a politician, not a professional appraiser — was being elected and re-elected Pinellas County property appraiser, Pam Dubov was running the office as the chief deputy and ensuring that the Pinellas property value roll was properly maintained. It is that professionalism and dogged determination to do her job that voters should remember in the wake of a scandal that ended Smith's 20-year hold on the office and brought down other county officials as well.

Dubov, 52, is campaigning to replace Smith so she finally can bring reform to a constitutional office that has lacked a professional in the top post for too long. She is opposed in the Aug. 26 Republican primary by Frank Gregoire, 55, an appraiser and former real estate agent. The winner will face Democrat Ben Friedlander in the Nov. 4 general election.

Both Dubov and Gregoire know a lot about the complex field of property appraising. However, in a comparison of their education and personal achievements, Dubov beats Gregoire hands down.

Gregoire has an associate's degree from a junior college. Dubov has a bachelor's degree, a master's of business administration and a law degree. Dubov was an officer in the U.S. Army and worked for the Hillsborough County property appraiser before being hired in Pinellas 19 years ago. She has led a staff of more than 250, overseen appraisals of hundreds of thousands of properties and managed an annual budget of more than $10-million. Gregoire worked in his father's real estate and appraisal firm (eventually a one-man shop), taught real estate courses, and more recently picked up appraisal jobs while serving as an unpaid appointee to the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board.

Dubov said she would modernize technology and procedures in the property appraiser's office and determine the values of properties more quickly. She wants to lobby in Tallahassee for changes that would provide tax relief to owners of non-homesteaded property. She supports legislation to eliminate the presumption of correctness given to property appraisers in disputes over appraisals.

Dubov knows she must restore public trust in the property appraiser's office. She was not a party to Smith's private deal to sell his flood-prone lot to the county government for almost four times the appraised value his own staff gave it. When Dubov learned by chance of his plan, she tried unsuccessfully to talk him out of it. She could have resigned in protest, but that would have left the department rudderless. If elected, she said she will convene a committee of property owners, real estate professionals, private appraisers and critics to examine the office's policies and procedures and suggest improvements.

In the Republican primary for Pinellas property appraiser, the Times recommends Pam Dubov.