State to partially take over Shelby County Clerk’s duties

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The State Comptroller’s Office will assist the Shelby County Clerk’s Office due to its inability to “accurately manage finances,” the office announced Tuesday.

Jason Mumpower, the Comptroller of the Treasury, announced his lack of confidence in the financial and operational management of the Clerk’s Office. He said he’s never seen anything like it in any Tennessee clerk’s office.

“The evidence of incompetence and willful neglect by management in the Shelby County Clerk’s Office is overwhelming,” said Mumpower. “I have no confidence in the Clerk’s Office to manage its affairs without outside intervention.”

The official has asked members of the Local Government Audit to give “boots-on-the-ground” support to Shelby County. They will help with necessary tasks that the office has failed to meet.

Mumpower said the group of four or five auditors and CPAs will arrive in Shelby County no later than Monday. They will try to figure out where mistakes have been made by auditing and reviewing financials to reconcile collections of the wheel tax, so the county can craft its budget.

County budget in jeopardy due to inaccurate revenue reports, officials say

Last week, it was reported that Clerk Wanda Halbert submitted inaccurate revenue reports for several months. Reports do not break out the wheel tax revenue.

“We have no accurate accurate reports from the county clerk for fiscal year ’24,” County Trustee Regina Newman told County Commissioners on Monday. “I consider us to be past the point of no return. We’re seven months into the fiscal year and we don’t know what the clerk is bringing in, and that is the second-highest revenue-producing office in the county.”

County officials said this could impact the county’s plans to renovate Regional One Hospital and build two new schools for MSCS.

Newman said she contacted the comptroller’s office for help.

Investigation into Wanda Halbert ouster moving ahead after slow start

County leaders have asked Halbert to step down. Meanwhile, prosecutors from East Tennessee are investigating Halbert for a possible ouster from office.

County Commissioner Mick Wright flatly asked the county attorney’s office during a meeting Monday whether there was anything that he could do to evict Halbert from office. “No” was the response from counsel.

Halbert released a statement by email Monday that listed several grievances her office had with record keeping.

“Our team has been denied a finance system to ensure proper accounting,” and is forced to use Excel spreadsheets, she complained. She also said her office had requested a forensic audit but did not receive it.

Mumpower said his office has investigated some of the claims Halbert has previously made about missing funds, or not having enough funding and found them to be “baseless and incorrect.”

“She has demonstrated she is not capable of doing the job she was elected to do, so, looks like we’re going to have to do it for her,” he said.

WREG has reached out to Clerk Halbert’s office, so far we have not heard back.

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