2nd complaint outlines 'conflict of interest' in Rutherford Co. Property Assessor Office

Rutherford County Property Assessor Rob Mitchell faces a second employee complaint accusing him of ignoring conflict of interest issues involving real estate.

A residential appraiser for the elected property assessor, John Key submitted the second complaint about the assessor's office June 26, requesting Rutherford County Attorney Nick Christiansen investigate Mitchell and his management. Christiansen signed acknowledgement of receiving the complaint on June 27, Key said.

"The charge is that Mr. Mitchell and (the chief deputy) both knowingly and willfully allowed a subordinate employee, (residential valuation coordinator), to exploit the assessor’s office," the complaint said.

"(The residential valuation coordinator) has misappropriated county-paid working hours and government resources to engage in the buying and selling of real estate as a licensed real estate professional for the past five years."

The complaint considers the dual real estate work a conflict of interest with the assessor's office.

Christiansen confirmed July 8 to The Daily News Journal that he did receive the complaint.

"I am not able to comment further at this time," Christiansen said.

The complaint listed five witnesses, including Richard Kincade, a fellow property assessor residential appraiser who filed the first complaint against Mitchell with the Rutherford County Ethics Committee. The committee is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. July 17 to examine the first complaint at the Rutherford County Courthouse.

The Daily News Journal awaits Mitchell's response to the second complaint after leaving phone, email and text messages.

Mitchell did reply about the first complaint filed June 17 that also mentioned conflict of interest issues involving the residential valuation coordinator.

"Any and all of the recent ethics complaints filed against our office are categorically false and untrue," Mitchell said.

The Daily News Journal also awaits a response from the residential valuation coordinator after sending an email and leaving a phone message using the number he lists on Facebook to contact him about real estate.

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Complaint: Residential valuation coordinator promotes real estate on Facebook

The second complaint included images of Facebook posts of the property assessor's residential valuation coordinator promoting real estate listings and about his success as an agent.

The residential valuation coordinator's job is "to supervise and manage the residential appraiser employees," the second complaint said.

"Instead of doing what is required of the position, (the residential valuation coordinator) has blatantly used his position for the purpose of personal monetary gain with the implicit approval of Rob Mitchell and (the chief deputy)," the complaint said.

"This information is commonly known throughout the office by various staff. Furthermore, this information has been witnessed and brought to the attention of Rob Mitchell and (the chief deputy) on multiple occasions by various employees."

The complainant cites state statutes regarding "misconduct."

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Law says willful 'misconduct' means being 'ousted from such office'

The second complaint sent to the county attorney mentions Tennessee Code Annotated 8-47-101 and TCA 8-47-103 within the first sentence of the submitted document.

TCA 8-47-101 says anyone serving in a position of trust for the county who "knowingly or willfully commit misconduct in office" shall forfeit or "be ousted from such office."

TCA 8-47-103 says it is the duty for a county attorney receiving a complaint accusing a county public official of offenses "to investigate" immediately and determine if "reasonable cause" exists based on TCA 8-47-101 to file a court case "to oust such an officer from office."

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Mitchell initially plans to cut pay of 2 filing complaints

Late June emails between Mitchell and Rutherford County Finance Director Michael Smith show that the property assessor had an initial plan that would have cut the pay of both employees who made complaints by 1.28%.

The initial plan also would have given the residential valuation coordinator a 21.08% raise, according to public records obtained by The Daily News Journal.

"Just to confirm, you are reducing two individuals’ salaries," Smith said in a June 28 email to Mitchell. "We don’t get many reductions so just want to confirm."

"Oh no. no one is getting a reduction. Which two?" Mitchell asked Smith in a June 29 email reply.

"It looks like Kincade and Key are getting a slight reduction," Smith said in a June 30 email to Mitchell.

Mitchell replied back July 1 by telling the finance director that Key and Kincade should each be getting a new base annual pay of $51,101, which would be a 6% raise to match what most of the property assessor employees are getting.

The Rutherford County Commission recently approved a 6% raise for government employees.

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Mitchell also adjusted his initial plan to increase the residential valuation coordinator's salary by 21.08%, which would have provided an annual base pay of $74,916, according to the email exchanges with the finance director. Instead, the residential valuation coordinator will get $66,268, which is slightly above a 7% boost in pay from his previous annual base pay of $61,872.

"I’m not sure where the mix up with (residential valuation coordinator) was," Mitchell said in his July 1 reply to the finance director.

Mitchell previously tells employees there would be no raises

Prior to the raise plans, Mitchell in a May 16 email to his employees suggested that Mayor Joe Carr had recommended a property assessor's office budget without raises.

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The mayor, however, did recommend a property assessor budget with 5% raises to the Rutherford County Commission Budget, Finance & Investment Committee. The mayor's suggested property assessor office budget showed a $242,159 reduction from the $3.85 million requested by Mitchell to operate in this fiscal year that started July 1. Carr suggested that Mitchell absorb the total $115,000 cost of raises by using budget surpluses from the property assessor's office that annually range from $400,000 to $500,000.

The budget committee advised the full commission to approve a budget with a 6% increase for government workers, which is more than Carr's recommended 5% lift to the pay scales for employees.

Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.

Ethics Committee meeting set

The Rutherford County Ethics Committee is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. July 17 at the Rutherford County Courthouse in the center of the Public Square in downtown Murfreesboro. The committee will be examining a complaint against Rutherford County Property Assessor Rob Mitchell.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: 2nd complaint outlines 'conflict of interest' in Rutherford Co. Property Assessor Office