RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. — The Rutherford County Purchasing Committee met on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at 4:30 p.m., just 3.5 hours after the County Ethics Committee convened to discuss two requests for ethics reviews involving Rutherford County Mayor Joe Carr. One of the requests was filed by Rutherford County Assessor of Property Rob Mitchell.

Coincidentally, property assessments conducted by Mitchell’s office became one of the central topics of discussion during the purchasing committee meeting, despite not being listed on the official agenda… Discussion surrounding property assessments and Requests for Proposals (RFPs) from a third-party firm to further assess property began less than one minute into the meeting.

Mayor Carr initiated the discussion surrounding potential RFPs and the goals he and committee members hoped to accomplish… The mayor told purchasing committee members he invited County Attorney Nick Christiansen to the meeting to address RFPs aimed at contracting a third party to re-evaluate properties throughout the county.

Just hours earlier, the Ethics Committee had met to examine a complaint filed by Assessor Mitchell alleging that Mayor Carr allowed outside personnel access to the Assessor’s Office without the assessor’s knowledge or approval.

WGNS spoke with Assessor Mitchell on Wednesday, and he said he was not informed that the Purchasing Committee was meeting just hours after the Ethics Committee met to discuss the mayor. Despite the fact that the responsibilities of property evaluations fall under his elected office, Mitchell said, “They didn’t invite me to the meeting.”

On Tuesday, the purchasing committee discussed moving forward with constructing an RFP to potentially hire a third party to evaluate properties throughout the county—without the assessor present. This left Mitchell, the elected Assessor of Property, unaware of decisions impacting the office he was elected to oversee.

Mayor Carr, who serves as chairman of the Purchasing Committee, reiterated that he invited County Attorney Nick Christiansen to address the possibility of issuing an RFP to hire an outside firm. Christiansen opened his remarks by referencing Comptroller Jason Mumpower’s “…presentation a couple months ago,” which included a recommendation “…for the county to issue an RFP to get a third party vendor to do independent appraisals of the parcels in Rutherford County.” The county attorney confirmed that Mitchell had satisfied the comptroller’s data requests, stating, “Mr. Mitchell completed keying in all of the data and entries that the comptroller requested.” He explained… He added that Mitchell completed the work one day before Thanksgiving.

During the meeting, Christiansen told the committee there were several options regarding the proposed RFPs… He also noted the committee could wait until next year to issue any RFPs since the comptroller’s review of the Assessor’s Office is still active and has no firm completion date. He also said…

Area residents may recall that the county has already spent thousands of dollars on reviewing property assessments. Last month, the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office issued a $234,000 bill to Rutherford County to recoup costs associated with reviewing property assessments. That review was conducted following a report outlining possible errors in the recording of property assessments throughout the county. The percentage of alleged irregularities was reported to be approximately 25 percent.

After a vote in favor of requesting RFPs, Mayor Carr thanked the committee for the discussion, even though the item was not listed on the agenda. Carr stated the RFP discussion would be entered into the meeting minutes under “Other Business.”

Following extensive debate, the committee voted to proceed with drafting an RFP to seek a third-party firm capable of reviewing property assessments, classifications, or appraisals within Rutherford County. Committee members also voted to request proposals outlining pricing by phases, as described under Mayor Carr’s stated worst-case scenario…

The proposed RFP will require organizations to submit phased proposals beginning with valuations of up to 10 percent of county parcels, followed by phases at 25 percent, 50 percent, and up to 100 percent of all parcels…The measure will now move to the Rutherford County Commission for final consideration.

The full county commission will meet Thursday, December 11, 2025, at the Rutherford County Courthouse. If approved, the cost of the re-assessments would ultimately be paid for using taxpayer dollars.