Op-Ed from Rutherford County Property Assessor Rob Mitchell (An Op-Ed is fundamentally a writer's personal opinion or viewpoint on a current public issue, distinct from news reporting or the publication's official stance).
When a county commission in a non-charter Tennessee county decides to sidestep state law and encroach on the authority of an independently elected constitutional officer, the consequences aren't abstract. They are real, expensive, and borne by the people who can least afford the fallout: the taxpayers.
That is precisely what Rutherford County now risks by voting to move forward with an RFP targeting the operations of the Assessor of Property's Office after being expressly warned that doing so without the Assessor's consent is unlawful. Tennessee law is unambiguous: the commission sets budgets, not policy for independent constitutional offices. It does not manage their internal operations, it does not direct their personnel, and it cannot initiate procurements for them. Those powers belong to the voters' chosen officers, not to a legislative body with limited, enumerated authority.
The Property Assessor is the only official vested by statute with the authority to value property and manage the tools and processes necessary to do so. Attempting to launch an RFP to review or alter appraisal work without the Assessor's request or cooperation is not only improper. It tramples the constitutional separation of powers that protects every office from political interference.
Legal precedent in Tennessee is clear: counties are creatures of statute. They may act only where the legislature has granted them authority. There is no statute giving a county commission the power to run another official's office by proxy. In fact, the purchasing laws that govern county procurement explicitly limit the purchasing agent to executing requested purchases, not inventing them on behalf of another elected office. Without a requisition from the Assessor, an RFP in this area has no lawful foundation.
Ignoring these boundaries isn't just a breach of process. It opens the county to legal exposure: lawsuits, injunctions, and the predictable parade of taxpayer-funded legal bills that follow political stunts disguised as governance. When officials gamble with authority they don't have, the citizens always end up footing the tab.
In contrast, the Property Assessor has been consistent: transparent, cooperative, fiscally responsible, and protective of the office's constitutional duties. When an elected officer warns that an action is unlawful and will waste taxpayer dollars, that warning deserves respect, not dismissal.
The commission's rush to push an unauthorized RFP forward at the encouragement of the State Comptroller anyway signals something far more troubling than a procedural dispute. It suggests the type of political maneuvering that erodes trust, undermines professional independence, and invites exactly the kind of legal battles Tennessee courts have repeatedly cautioned against.
This isn't complicated. When government respects the law, the people win. When government ignores the law, the people pay.
Rutherford County deserves better: honest leadership, prudent stewardship of public funds, and officials who work within the authority the people have granted them. The commission's decision to bulldoze ahead despite clear legal warnings is a mistake. And unless corrected, it is one our citizens will once again be forced to bear.
