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Former Knox County trustee's office staffer Jason Dobbins charged with official misconduct
Jason Dobbins, the former Knox County Trustee's Office director of operations, was charged Aug. 8 with two felony counts of official misconduct in connection with a wide-ranging investigation into whether some elected officials and their employees were taking advantage of their public positions for personal gain.
The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury – the state's watchdog agency – spent months investigating the misuse of taxpayer dollars in some Knox County offices, including the Trustee's Office, that operate independently of the mayor's office.
Dobbins is the second Knox County employee charged in connection with the investigation. On Aug. 7, Property Assessor Phil Ballard was charged with a felony count of official misconduct in connection with his personal use of a county-owned SUV while also accepting reimbursement for using his personal vehicle for work travel.
Trustee Justin Biggs fired Dobbins April 14, hours after Knox News asked Biggs questions about the comptroller's investigation into trustee's office irregular spending on lavish hotel rooms and use of county-leased vehicles for personal use. The reason listed on his termination paperwork was simply 'policy violations.'
Prosecutor Ryan Desmond sought approval from a grand jury to prosecute Biggs, as well, but the grand jury declined to sign off Aug. 6 on an indictment, Desmond told Knox News on Aug. 7.
Trustee's office staffer Jason Dobbins benefited from inside knowledge
Knox News reported in April that Dobbins had access to insider information – knowledge available only by request from the public – when he and a partner paid $3,732 in July 2024 for two lots with unpaid taxes in South Knoxville. Eight months later, the pair flipped them for $67,000.
The purchases demonstrate how a lack of guardrails in the trustee's office opens the door for staffers to profit from purchases of properties with delinquent taxes.
Dobbins was told May 10, 2024, the properties were scheduled for sale by the county in a tax sale, the annual auction the county runs to recoup delinquent taxes from property owners who weren't paying.
The May 2024 email from trustee's office staffer Tanner Raley to Dobbins lists the two properties among a "prospect list" of 366 properties for the 2025 tax sale, which has not yet been scheduled. In July 2024, Dobbins and his business partner, John Lacy, bought the properties.
There are thousands of delinquent properties every year, and it's up to the trustee's office to winnow the list to a manageable 150 or so for a public auction, or what the county calls a tax sale. It's up to the trustee to decide which of the properties assessed for potential sale are included in the tax sale.
Dobbins told Knox News in April the actual price of the property, with taxes included, ended up being between $5,000 and $6,000, though the property and county and city taxes verified by Knox News totaled $3,732. Dobbins did not provide confirmation of additional costs.
He sold the property months after he learned that his plan to build duplexes on the property would require a special use approval from the planning commission, Knox News found.
Jason Dobbins drove county-leased vehicles out of state
A county-leased truck parked daily at Dobbins' home address was frequently driven on weekends, according to GPS data reviewed by Knox News, and that same truck was used to take a 290.3-mile-round trip to Bristol, Virginia, on Nov. 15.
County policy restricts county-leased vehicles from being driven outside Knox County, let alone outside the state.
About the comptroller investigation into Knox County
The comptroller investigation centered on the trustee's office using taxpayer dollars to pay for upgraded hotel rooms and club-level access at high-end hotels, as well as personal use of county-leased vehicles. Dobbins went on several of those trips and also regularly drove one of the trucks.
Biggs' office is paying the leases for six new Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup trucks equipped with four-wheel drive. In the five years of the lease agreement, the trustee's office will pay $397,968 for the trucks, $200,000 more than taxpayers would have paid for the typical vehicles used by other county offices.
Additionally, Biggs and his staff incurred $4,716.59 in costs that exceeded the county rate for hotel rooms.
Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Email: X: @tyler_whetstone.
Allie Feinberg is the politics reporter for Knox News. Email: Reddit: u/KnoxNewsAllie
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Former Knox County trustee's office staffer Jason Dobbins charged with official misconduct
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