From Staff Reports 

The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Feb. 5 to hire Avril Pinder as its new county manager.

Pinder, who will be the first African-American to hold the county’s highest job, officially begins her duties on March 4. The commissioners said there were more than 50 applicants for county manager. 

“Pinder, who was deputy county manager of New Hanover County, will be the fourth person to serve in the position in less than two years,” Asheville’s WLOS-TV News 13 reported. “The county’s last two managers, Wanda Greene and Mandy Stone, pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges.”

Regarding the hiring, News 13 quoted Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara as saying, “This is a critical time in our community and we have known from the start that whoever got this position would face a very interesting set of challenges.”

Also, News 13 reported that Commissioner Al Whitesides aadded, “When I looked at the applications and looked at the qualifications, she stuck out to me from beginning to end.”

Some commissioners said Pinder’s more than 20 years in local government “make her the right person for the job, but others said they were not too happy with the way the search process ended,” News 13 noted.