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Assessor's complaint prompts DA referral over premature release of applicant records; badge-access allegation not pursued
Summary
Assessor Rob Mitchell told the ethics committee that external audit access badges were issued to assessor office space without his authorization and that confidential applicant information was shared prematurely. The committee voted to forward the hiring-disclosure allegation to the District Attorney; it took no action on the badge-access claim.
Rob Mitchell, Rutherford County property assessor, told the Ethics Committee he was seeking a formal review after external parties were given access to assessor office space without his consent and after a reporter received applicant-related information before an applicant's official hire date. "Without my knowledge or consent, the county mayor authorized access to my office," Mitchell said as part of his complaint, citing email exchanges he submitted as evidence.
Mitchell described the badge/access issue as a breach of his office's control of its premises and said he had received written messages from County IT and from the Division of Property Assessment indicating an external request for access. He also said a January open-records request produced hiring-related material before the applicant, Michael Maxwell, was officially eligible for hire, raising concerns about premature disclosure of applicant information.
Mayor Carr told the committee he authorized access after consulting HR and county counsel, and said the request was made to facilitate a state controller audit so auditors could take breaks and re-enter the office during the audit. "All they needed to do was go to the bathroom," the mayor said, adding he consulted legal counsel and county staff before approving access.
County CIO Cody York confirmed HR routed the access request to IT and said the mayor's instruction to "cooperate with the controller" guided the response. York said HR follows a standard process for badges and that the involvement was prompted by an ongoing controller audit.
Human Resources Director and open-records coordinator Sonia Stevenson told the committee that the documents provided in response to the open-records requests were redacted where required and that applications prior to hire are public records under Tennessee law. Stevenson said social security numbers and other clearly confidential fields were withheld before records were released.
Committee members debated whether issuance of badges breached the assessor's control of office space and whether the open-records release constituted a premature disclosure of confidential applicant information. After discussion, the committee voted to take no action on the badge/access claim (roll-call result recorded as four yes, one no) but voted unanimously (five to zero) to forward the allegation regarding premature release of applicant hiring information to the District Attorney for investigation.
The committee asked county staff to forward the full complaint packet and associated email chains to the DA's office. Members said statutory ambiguities and overlapping authorities (access for controller audits vs. assessor control of premises) made referral to prosecutors the appropriate next step.
The Ethics Committee adjourned after the Mitchell hearing and the Bennett matter had been resolved to the committee's satisfaction pending outside review.
