As Buncombe County continues to grow and experience a popular housing market, the Property Assessment team is looking for ways to increase its work with the community while bolstering transparency and equity in their role assessing property. To that end, Eric Cregger started his role as Assistant Director of Property Assessment on Sept. 18. Already an employee, Eric brings institutional knowledge and a passion for assessment to this newly created role. “Our goal is to continue making our process and the assessments as fair and equitable as possible for everyone, and it’s exciting to play a major part in solving that puzzle,” exclaims Eric.
Current Director Keith Miller says the new position will help his department better serve the community and give more support to the assessment staff. “With this new position we have the opportunity to improve the quality of assessments and assure the community our customer service will be no less than excellent,” explains Keith. “The assessment office manages land records, individual personal property, business personal property, residential and commercial real estate, data analysis, and special programs. The department has seven divisions and approximately 35 employees.”
Eric is already working on implementing some of his ideas. “In the short-term, I think continuing to improve access to resources and data transparency to our residents is a top priority. I am looking forward to implementing more information online regarding listing, appeals, analytics, and more,” he says. In regard to long-term goals, Eric wants a larger emphasis on education opportunities and upgrading technology. “For example, I’ve already seen major improvements in our processes over the last four years due to our transition to advanced coding and analytics, I’ve witnessed several team members push themselves via all the educational resources that we have available to improve their skills. We’re also witnessing advancements in auditing tools with machine-learning and GIS-based solutions through various industry vendors,” explains Eric.
Those ideas and passion for property assessment are why Keith says Eric is the perfect fit for this new position. “Not everyone can understand the uniqueness of this profession. I have seen many come and go because of the complexity and difficulty balancing customer service for our community and the North Carolina property tax law. Eric is an excellent fit for this position and will serve our community very well in this position,” says Keith.
Eric says serving the community is a top priority, in the end, our department’s goals are equity, fairness, and accuracy in the assessments of real estate, business, and personal property. This position plays a major role in helping our team produce the best data that we can in order to provide this to our residents and businesses.” Congratulations to Eric on this promotion. Buncombe County is excited about the work the entire Property Assessment team is doing.