Sumner County asks IT to estimate cost and timeline to parse contractor property data

The Sumner County Commission on an agenda item about property-assessment records directed the county IT director to provide a man‑hour estimate and feasibility assessment to parse assessment data provided by an outside vendor.

Commissioners raised concerns that the contractor’s delivery might be in a format the county cannot readily use and that a vendor quote to convert the data appeared oversized. Commissioners discussed three pricing scenarios that had been circulated during the meeting, including figures described during discussion as $6,000 and a larger $37,000 option; one speaker characterized a still-larger quote as “ridiculous.” The commission did not accept outside conversion at this meeting; instead it voted to ask the IT director to determine whether county staff can perform the work and, if so, how many hours and what timeline would be required.

Commissioners and staff described the task as a data‑parsing exercise: converting whatever the contractor delivered into a structured database or export (for example, a spreadsheet or SQL table) that would allow address-level sorting, reporting and other uses. A county official said the work could likely be done in‑house but emphasized that the IT department would need a formal estimate before committing time.

The motion was made, seconded and carried to request a written estimate from the IT director; the item will remain on old business for follow-up at the next meeting. Commissioners reiterated that if the vendor did not supply “audit data in a reasonable format” as required in the contract, that contractual requirement would be part of subsequent discussions with the vendor.