Rutherford County Property Assessor Office Works to Further Increase Ethical Standards

Aug 09, 2018 at 11:03 am by bryan


Everyone wants their tax dollars spent wisely. We want government waste to be minimized or eliminated entirely. But does anyone ever do it? YES! The Rutherford County Property Assessor's Office is frugal with your money and has returned over 2 million dollars to the general fund since Rob Mitchell took office. These are impressive results considering this is nearly a 17% annual reduction in expenses. Due to his demonstrated ability at efficient and professional office administration; Rutherford County Property Assessor Rob Mitchell has been appointed, along with four other Tennessee Property Assessors, to design an administrative "best practices" program for potential implementation across the state of Tennessee.

The "3 Star" program will emphasize employee development and training, internal systems controls, development of ethical standards, transparency and establishment of clearly defined organizational structures. The Property Assessor's Offices in Tennessee are among the most technical and complex offices in all of county government. Accuracy and proficiency is extremely important to the citizens as this office's efforts have a direct impact upon the property values and the equity of the tax distribution amongst property owners and citizens of Rutherford County.

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Developing best practices standards is vital to insure your tax dollars are being used wisely. Innovations already implemented in Rutherford County by Mitchell are: high resolution aerial imagery for reviewing of property to save vehicle expense and field time, grant funded hybrid vehicles to save on fuel expense, online public budget transparency, online filing of tangible personal business property, stringent ethics policy, employee department personnel policy and public direct messaging system just to name a few.

The Tennessee Association of Assessing Officers will review the work of the 3 Star Committee in December. Members of the committee are: Montgomery County Property Assessor Erinne Hester; Davidson County Property Assessor Vivian Wilhoite; Bedford County Property Assessor Ronda Clanton; Greene County Property Assessor Chuck Jeffers and Rutherford County Property Assessor Rob Mitchell.

Mitchell received the 2017 John C Donehoo Award his work developing a program to insure adequate funding levels for Property Assessor's offices in Tennessee and is the President of the Middle Tennessee Association of Assessing Officers.

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