For 10 years Jason Stephens was one of the men who got his name out in the public arena on a weekly basis. That’s what it meant to be a Lawrence County Commissioner.

But since March, Stephens has taken a backseat in the limelight as he settled into the office of county auditor, the job he was elected to in November 2010.

Now with one year under his belt, Stephens says the drive and enthusiasm for the job that propelled him to run in the first place is as fresh as when he was out on the campaign trail.

“I’m enjoying the challenge,” he said. “You are still able to impact positively Lawrence County, be it from something like the website enhancements.

I ran on being efficient and accurate and using my experience to give value to the taxpayers.”

Taking advantage of technology to meet his goals for the auditor’s office has given Stephens some of the greatest job satisfaction, he said.

“For years we have always heard in ads from people running for county auditor that ‘I will put the budget in the paper,’” he said. “Now we put out the monthly financial reports of the county on the Internet. It gives people access to government information and financials. I think it is something that has been talked about for years. We can afford to do it and have the technology to make that information available to the public online.”

Over the past year Stephens has tweaked that website where users can find out how much proposed levies will take out of a paycheck to buying annual dog tags from the convenience of their living room.

“We have added several links to other websites that people would use,” he said. “Simple things like links to the recorder’s office, the county engineer, school districts. We have gotten a lot of good feedback. Banks, attorney’s offices and insurance offices will utilized that website on a daily basis. You go in and they have your website pulled up.”

The office has also invested in GIS computer technology to come up with more appropriate evaluations of the value of property in the county by factoring in not only the features of the house, but also where it is located.

“Take a house with four bedrooms and two and a half baths on a lot on the Ohio that didn’t flood and then take that same house at Waterloo in the flood plain where it floods every time the creek gets up. They have the same square footage, but (neighborhood) will have a huge difference as to the market value of the house,” Stephens said. “We can utilize this technology to more accurately reflect the true value of the homes in the county.”

The recent discovery of mold in the 100-year-old courthouse sent those in Stephens’ office scurrying as they got displaced to other offices in the building while the renovations are ongoing. However, Stephens sees a rainbow at the end of the current storm of upheaval.

“We want to finish up our office to improve the efficiency and flow of traffic,” he said. “We do so many things here being the financial hub of the county. … We will have a conference/meeting room for the board of revision and we can have our budget commission meetings in a public forum more suitable for the public,” he said.

With a background in financial planning Stephens looks at the auditor’s job as a good match with his qualifications.

“I am really pleased with the accomplishments which we have done and I am looking forward and getting excited about crunching the numbers in the long run to help make government run more smoothly.”