A City County Building veteran is running for Trustee against a political newcomer in this year’s general election. Republican Register of Deeds Nick McBride faces Democrat Stephen Hood, an IT supervisor at the University of Tennessee.

The Trustee collects and manages more than $1 billion each year in state, federal and local funds used for Knox County government operations.

The Trustee’s Office is often called the county’s banker, and for good reason. The Trustee collects and manages more than $1 billion each year in state, federal and local funds used for Knox County government operations. The office also manages the county’s long-term and short-term investments, as well as the county’s cash flow.

And the office has been a magnet for corruption for much of this century.

Former Trustee Mike Lowe, who served in the office for 13 years before county term limits took effect, pleaded guilty to paying “ghost employees” and personally collecting a share of their salaries, defrauding the county of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Lowe’s successor, John Duncan III — the son of former Congressman John J. “Jimmy” Duncan Jr. — served less than three years before pleading guilty to a felony charge of official misconduct over the payment of unearned bonuses to office employees.

Ed Shouse returned stability and fiscal responsibility to the office during his two terms, leaving office in 2022 without accusations of misconduct.

Current Trustee Justin Biggs was investigated for official misconduct because of his misuse of a county vehicle (a widespread practice in the office) and extravagant travel expenses, but a grand jury declined to indict him.

Biggs ran for reelection this year, but McBride, running on a platform of restoring integrity to the office, won the three-way May 5 Republican primary with 48.18 percent of the vote. Hood, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, is also emphasizing the need for ethical leadership.

While campaign finance reports aren’t due until Friday, McBride entered the general-election season with $6,813 on hand after spending more than $36,000 in the last month before the primary. Hood had $4,397 in his account at the end of April.

Here’s a look at the two contenders. (The profile of McBride has been updated from our primary coverage.)

Stephen Hood

The District 4 co-chair for the Knox County Democratic Party, Hood was vetting potential candidates last year when he decided that he would run for office himself. 

“The more I read into what the trustee did, the more I felt my background … all of my skills would work well to be the trustee for Knox County and try to restore its reputation and make sure that everyone’s tax dollars are handled properly,” Hood said in a recent interview.

Hood has experience in handling contracts for the Department of Defense and the University of Tennessee, assessing vendor performance and overseeing contractors. At UT, where he is IT director in the Audiology and Speech Pathology Department, he’s responsible for budgeting — “making sure we don’t waste money on frivolous things,” he said.

To rebuild trust in the Trustee’s Office, Hood said, he would eliminate wasteful spending on extravagant items and would insist on “two-person integrity” for all financial decisions.

“One thing I’d like to do is evaluate all our processes in the office, making sure for critical processes that involve the transfer of money that one single person isn’t the sole decider,” he said.

Transparency is important, he said, so he would put as much information as possible on the office’s website, send out newsletters and do anything else that it takes to keep taxpayers informed about the county’s money.

Hood also said he would like to leverage existing programs and develop new methods to help people who are struggling with their tax bills.

“I want to make sure that we’re collecting as much money as we can without creating hardships for people,” he said.

Hood, 49, was born in Middlesboro, Ky., but often visited Knoxville, the closest large city, with his family during his childhood. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Kentucky.

Hood worked for the Department of Defense for 20 years — including the time when he was working on his master’s degree. He moved to Knoxville in 2007 and left his DOD job in 2017 to work at Knox County Public Library before taking his position at UT. He’s single and lives just west of Rocky Hill in West Knox County.

As a first-time candidate, Hood has thrown himself into campaigning, knocking on doors, making appearances with other Democratic candidates and attending events across the county. Everywhere he goes, he said, he urges people to go to the polls.

“It’s been amazing so far,” he said. “I’ve met some amazing people. I’ve been involved in things I never imagined, like getting to meet the mayor and getting to know the people who are running our local government.”

Hood said many people he has encountered while campaigning don’t know what the trustee does, so he often has to educate voters before asking them for their support.

“Even though (the trustee) doesn’t set policy for the county, it’s a very important position,” he said. “People definitely want their taxpayer dollars handled properly, and they don’t like what they’ve seen out of some of the past trustees.”

Nick McBride

McBride couldn’t run for reelection as the register of deeds because of term limits, so when he learned of the investigation into the Trustee’s Office, he said, he thought he could make a difference there. He also had just graduated from a certified financial officers program.

“I thought, well, I think that’s something I’m qualified for,” McBride said. 

He said his knowledge of how the offices of trustee, register of deeds and property assessor work together has prepared him for the job. He also said that the relationships he’s developed in the courts and with city officials would pay dividends.

“I think it’s important to have relationships and be able to get along with other elected officials in the City County Building to make sure that the tax sale is done properly and accurately, and that we can move forward once that sale is approved by the court,” he said.

McBride said he would look at installing kiosks where people can pay their tax bills, using QR codes and emailing tax bills to property owners. “With postage going up as much as it is, we have to look for other ways to communicate with the taxpayer,” he said.

He also said he would emphasize efficiency, starting with eliminating the employees’ use of county-owned vehicles. 

McBride called the investigation into the Trustee’s Office an “unfortunate situation” that can be remedied by making sure employees know the rules.  “You’ve got to train those people. You’ve got to work with them. You can’t just say, ‘Here’s the keys to the pickup truck; go have at it.’ You’ve got to sit down and make sure they understand that when you’re going from the City County Building out to Farragut Town Hall, you can’t stop at the dry cleaners. You can’t stop at Weigel’s to get a Coca-Cola. You’re not supposed to do that.”

McBride, 56, is a Knox County native who grew up in the Cedar Bluff area and graduated from Farragut High School. An initial foray into higher education at Middle Tennessee State University didn’t take, though he later earned a bachelor’s degree from Tusculum University. He initially went into real estate but jumped at the chance to work for then-Register of Deeds Steve Hall. He worked in the office for 28 years until winning election in 2018.

McBride pointed to the digitization of the Register of Deeds Office records as an accomplishment that could shrink the office’s footprint in the City County Building. “All of our records back into the 1700s are now digitized,” he said.

He’s also instituted a free property-fraud alert system, which enables the Register of Deeds Office to alert participating property owners if a deed or other instrument has been filed so that potential fraud can be stopped.

McBride said he feels good about the campaign and is pleased with the support he’s received from donors. He said people should vote for him because he will run an efficient and transparent office.

“I have a servant’s heart, you know? I love what I do. I love serving the public.”