Richard has been a resident of Orange County for over 20 years and has been serving the County of Orange as a faithful public servant for the Orange County Assessor's Office for the past 21 years. During this time, Richard has held various leadership positions in the Real Property Valuation Section and the Assessment Appeals Section where he has managed teams of the most complex properties in Orange County.

Throughout his experience as a commercial appraiser and manager, Richard has developed extensive knowledge of property tax law, assessment techniques and taxpayer relation strategies that achieve the highest standards of accurancy, effectiveness and efficiency. During his leadership as the Assessment Appeals Manager, he has helped taxpayers achieve fair and equitable assessments without costly litigation by virture of refined dispute resolution skills and utilization of up-to-date property value knowledge.

Richard is the President of the Orange County Appraisal Society and is a member of the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO). Richard is married and resides in the City of Orange.  

Since my first day in office I have strived to: help taxpayers, as well as creating a business friendly climate in our county.   I've changed the minimum tax bill here in Orange County from $20.00  ($2,000.00 taxable value) to $30.00, (which had not been updated since 1984), thus eliminating any tax due for amounts under $30.00, which saves the county slightly over $175,000 per year, as the cost to produce a tax bill is $36.67.  This Eliminated over 13,443 small tax bills in 2016 alone.   

As Orange County Assessor, my main goal is protecting taxpayer rights such as Propositions 13, 8, 60, 90 and all of the other Howard Jarvis protections, as well as the legitimate exemptions of property owners.  As promised during my campaign,  I have extended the appeal period from September 15th  to  November 30th.  In consideration for what most people expect,  the public counter doors are now open until 5 pm every business day. On August 11th 2015, my office also established the  "Orange County Office of Taxpayer Advocate."  

I also passed Senate Bill 624, signed by the Governor Jerry Brown on July 31, 2017. I was the sole sponsor, and Senator Galgiani was the sole author.  The result is, no liens issued by the Treasurer-Tax Collector under $200.  The money is not forgiven, but the damage caused by the lien is. In 2015 there were 45,331 liens filed in Orange County alone, of which over 29,000 were under $200. In the future this will aide individuals in their ability to obtain financing on the purchase or refinancing of their home. 

My concern was protecting taxpayers confidential information from identity thieves, stalkers and others.  Our website and system does not allow for you to search for personal information.  Our system is server-based, not cloud-based for enhanced security.  If you need tax bill information, the Treasurer-Tax Collector makes tax bills available online.

My promise was to be mindful about any possible waste, and every year the Assessor's Office has returned unused funds.  This year alone,  $1.9 million was returned once again. 

My name is Nathaniel Fernandez Epstein and I am running for Orange County Assessor. I was born and raised in Los Angeles with Filipino and Jewish heritage. I attended college at UCLA where I earned my bachelor’s degree. After college, I worked for a few years before moving to Orange County to pursue a Juris Doctorate degree from Whittier Law School. I am currently a member of the State Bar of California.

I am an estate planning, probate administration, and trust litigation attorney. For nearly the past seven years, almost every document I worked on was impacted in some way or another by the Assessor’s office. The role of the Assessor is to determine the value of all taxable property in the county for tax purposes. I feel that such an important position within our county government should be fair, transparent, and easily accessible to the citizens it serves. As such, I will bring a new generation of leadership and vision to the office.

My goal as your assessor is to ensure the hard-working residents of Orange County are not being taken advantage of by the current system. It is for this reason, I have decided to run to bring a fresh perspective to the office that our residents so desperately need. By making the office more efficient, I will be a fierce voice for the taxpayers of Orange County and work vigorously towards saving tax payers’ money and will refund overassessments.

Currently, I serve on the Board of Directors for the Youth Center of Los Alamitos, the Filipino Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, and a founding member of Buena Park United. In my free time, I enjoy photography, playing with my dogs, and watching UCLA football.

Please support my campaign as we work together to build a better Orange County.