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Scott D. Furman, current Okanogan County assessor, has announced his retirement and will not seek a sixth term as Okanogan County Assessor this fall. He will officially retire December 31.

Furman oversaw the conversion from paper appraisals to computer appraisals in the year 2000. Mapsifter and Taxsifter were brought on board during that time, as well, allowing people to access assessor data from the comforts of their own home or office. An electronic digitized parcel layer map was also created during that time frame.

In 2016, after the wildfires of 2014 and 2015, Furman and his staff were awarded the Public Sector Champions Award from Thomson Reuters for their timely work related to the devastating loss of value within the fire zones. Subsequent to that, Furman wrote an article entitled “Wildfires in Okanogan County, Washington: Recovery from Disaster” for the international appraisal magazine “Fair and Equitable.” The article became the cover story and featured article for the June 2016 issue of the magazine.