Eddie Creamer - Excellence, Process Improvement and Customer Service in Assessment

In the world of property assessment, we often hear about the tension between government efficiency and public service. But what happens when someone with 35 years of private sector experience takes the helm of a rapidly growing assessment office? Eddie Creamer's journey from community banking CEO to St. Johns County Property Appraiser offers a masterclass in bridging that divide.

The Community Banking Mindset

"Community banking is about customer service, customer relationships," Creamer explains. "You're in the community where your customers live. So you have to have good service. You have to be fair, you have to give them a good deal. If not you're going to run into them at the little league game or at the high school football game or in church."

This philosophy didn't disappear when Creamer traded his banker's desk for the property appraiser's office. Instead, it became the foundation for a transformation that would see his office assess 50% more parcels with 25% fewer staff while improving service delivery.

The parallel isn't accidental. In Florida, where property taxes fund everything from schools to fire departments, the appraiser's role is fundamentally about fairness and trust, the same principles that underpin community banking.

Building Trust Through Humility

When Creamer walked into his new role in 2017, he faced a daunting reality: St. Johns County was issuing 300 building permits per month (now approaching 1,000), and he knew virtually nothing about mass appraisal.

His approach? Radical transparency about his own limitations.

"You have to establish trust, I think, by humility," he notes. "If you do not know something and you tell people you do not know something and you're honest about that, I've found people are generally interested in helping you get to know that."

This meant spending time in the field with a clipboard and tape measure, working the exemption counter, and being first in and last out of the office. When you're willing to get "chased by dogs, stepping in things you don't want to step in," as Creamer puts it, you quickly earn credibility with field staff.

The Three Questions That Drive Efficiency

Drawing from his industrial engineering background, Creamer approached office transformation with three fundamental questions:

1. What do we do? This learning phase involved getting hands dirty in every department, from GIS mapping to exemptions processing.

2. Why do we do it? Here's where things got interesting. Creamer identified four typical answers:

• It's critical for the tax roll
• We're statutorily required
• We've always done it that way
• Nobody knows

"You kind of take those two answers and those processes and you stop doing them," he says matter-of-factly. "If they were critical to the process, they'll raise their head and you'll start doing those again."

3. How do we do it? This led to process mapping and elimination of unnecessary steps, classic lean management applied to government operations.

Technology as a Force Multiplier

Perhaps nowhere is Creamer's private-sector thinking more evident than in his embrace of technology. When he arrived, appraisers were heading into the field daily with "50 property record cards and a tape measure and an old digital camera."

Today? High-resolution aerial photography updated annually, street-level imagery every two years, and desktop review systems mean appraisers can accomplish from their desks what once required field visits.

The results speak volumes: from three offices down to one, from 15 vehicles to four, from 55 employees to 40, all while handling a 50% increase in parcels.

But technology serves another master in Creamer's philosophy: transparency. Using Microsoft Power BI, his office created dashboards not just for internal management but for taxing authorities and the public.

"Transparency is trust," he states. "Anything that this office has, the public should have, unless it's protected by statute."

The Human Element

While efficiency gains are impressive, Creamer's approach ultimately centers on people. Fewer staff doesn't mean less investment in personnel, quite the opposite.

"What that's also allowed us to do is the people we have today, we can pay them more, we can offer better benefits. And everybody's kind of on board with that."

His leadership philosophy extends to accepting accountability for failed experiments and viewing mistakes as learning opportunities. "People are generally willing. Everybody kind of wants to do better, right? Everybody wants to learn something new... Everybody wants to be more than they thought they could be."

Key Takeaways

For New Assessors: Start with humility and a learning mindset. Ask the three fundamental questions about every process. Be willing to stop doing things that can't be justified.

For Veteran Offices: Technology isn't just about new tools, it's about reimagining workflows. Desktop review capabilities and online services can dramatically reduce resource needs while improving accuracy.

For All Assessment Professionals: The private sector mindset isn't about profit, it's about customer service, efficiency, and accountability. These principles translate directly to public service when applied thoughtfully.

Eddie Creamer's transformation of the St. Johns County Property Appraiser's office proves that government can indeed operate with private-sector efficiency while maintaining, even enhancing, its public service mission. In an era of rapid growth and taxpayer scrutiny, his approach offers a roadmap for assessment offices nationwide.

The best part? Creamer is happy to share his successes and failures with any assessor willing to listen. Because in the end, whether you're in banking or government, it's all about community.