Tennessee’s watchdog agency is investigating whether trespassing and theft occurred in the Knox County Property Assessor’s Office during the transition to a new elected leader.
Property Assessor Phil Ballard confirmed to Knox News the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s investigation is ongoing and that he met with officials “within the past three weeks” to discuss allegations that someone ransacked the office and stole a laptop Aug. 29.
Ballard took over Sept. 3 from John Whitehead, who was term-limited and could not run again. Ballard defeated Whitehead’s deputy, Jackie Raley, in the primary by just 12 votes. He went on to easily win the general election.
“We talked about several things, (including) outstanding issues that might be noteworthy since we discovered the laptop missing,” Ballard said. “There are several potential possibilities (of who allegedly ransacked the office).”
Ballard declined to say whom he or the state suspects. In September, he suggested to Knox News the person responsible could have been an employee or former employee with access to the secure office.
Knox News reported the office was ransacked just before Ballard took office, but the investigation could have other components.
The Knox County Internal Audit office first looked into the matter before asking the state to take over. An investigation summary provided to the Knox County Audit Committee said the investigation’s goal was “to determine the outgoing property assessor’s accountability for the office’s assets at the time of office turnover to the newly elected property assessor.”
A spokesperson from the comptroller’s office declined Jan. 27 to confirm its investigation or answer questions.
“The Comptroller’s Office has broad authority to review government entities including the Knox County Property Assessor’s Office,” spokesperson John Dunn said. “It is our policy to not comment further.”
What are the allegations?
Ballard reported a trespassing that happened Aug. 29, days before he was sworn into office Sept. 3. Ballard declined to describe what item was taken, but he said it could have contained county residents’ personal information. He referenced a computer, though he never explicitly said a computer had been stolen.
Ballard told Knox News on Sept. 5 he reported the incident to the Internal Audit Office and the Public Building Authority, which manages the City-County Building.
Here’s what we know:
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Ballard heard from employees who told him their desks “had been run through and then there was an item that was noticed missing.”
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Jayne Burritt, CEO of the Public Building Authority, said her staff did not detect anything unusual about who was in and out of the building the night of Aug. 29. “Our access records only indicate that custodians were in the building after hours and nothing was noted on video that was unusual. … They (the property assessor’s office) were not sure if someone internally had done something,” Burritt told Knox News.
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Ballard suggested the person responsible could have been an employee or former employee of the office with access to the secure office.
If a laptop was taken, county IT has no record of it
In response to a Knox News public records request after the incident, Knox County technology staffers confirmed there was no report of missing property assessor computer equipment. If a laptop was missing, it wasn’t purchased or managed by county IT, which oversees network security and maintenance of county IT equipment.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee Comptroller investigating Knox County Property Assessor’s office ransacking
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