In a race that boils down to sheer know-how and experience, incumbent Kitsap County Assessor Jim Avery deserves another term in office.

The North Kitsap Herald Advisory Board met with him and his challenger Kris Danielson Monday night and the former’s professionalism quickly distanced him from the latter, making this paper’s endorsement of Avery an easy decision. In all honesty, it didn’t appear that Danielson took the meeting, or the Herald, too seriously — her showing up in shorts and a T-shirt didn’t exactly exude the professionalism one would expect from a county assessor.

Even so, she raised some interesting points about how the office should be more representative of Kitsap County residents and more proactive on their behalf. But her plans to assure this took place came across as a bit “pie in the sky.”

Danielson asserted that property value assessments did not have to be market based, but when asked what exactly the properties should be based on her answer wasn’t clear and was a mix of rhetoric and “the assessor should.” Whether the “assessor can” take matters into his or her hands and review homes independently of one another, the way she proposed is another thing altogether.

House values shouldn’t increase just because the property they’re on is more expensive, she said, citing instances where residents buy homes in desirable locales, raze them and build nicer houses in their place. Danielson attacked Avery for looking at the job as simply employment rather than as a representative of the people — urging a case by case review of properties, if needed. How will the county become aware of such properties?

In a nutshell, residents would need to be proactive, i.e. complain — something that, given the 112,000 properties in the county, the board felt could prove problematic for the office and the residents it serves.

“How you look at the law is arbitrary,” she said of the position.

Avery did admit that appraisal was a mix of “art and science” to a degree ­— and if so — it seemed Danielson was leaning toward the art end of things.

Science, however, is absolutely needed when dealing with numbers, statistics and trends, though — something the incumbent seemed to have a very solid grasp on. He’s also got a good grasp on management and his duties as a county department head.

“I inherited a good staff,” he remarked, noting that he has worked diligently to make the office more efficient through improved technology and training. Avery has accomplished this feat, too, reducing the number of positions in the office from 38 to 32 while tackling 112,000 properties in the process. He said in the same time, he has reduced the number of assessment appeals by almost half.

As far as increasing assessed valuations go, Avery said by and large they have followed the market here in North Kitsap — something he can hardly be blamed for.

Avery’s got the professionalism and the presence for the job of county assessor and we give him our full endorsement on his bid for reelection.

Saturday’s Herald: Who should be sheriff?