In the midst of the valid debates over state vs local authority, which are evident in proposed laws pertaining to school vouchers and law enforcement, Wanda Halbert’s long and depressing story presents an awkward and contradictory show.
Nonetheless, it serves as a case study on the necessity of sincere collaboration between local and state governments.
This week could mark the start of a resolution to the chaotic situation surrounding the Shelby County Clerk’s office due to inevitable governmental action.
At Shelby County Trustee Regina Newman’s urgent request, lead auditor Jim Arnette of the state comptroller’s office and his chief deputy, Nathan Abbott, brought a team of six auditors to Memphis on Monday. Their job was to assist in organizing the clerk’s incredibly disorganized files so the county could balance its books and get ready to submit its yearly budget.
The issue is that Clerk Halbert has been unable to provide accurate numbers regarding her office’s wheel tax receipts over the last few months, as Newman made clear in public alarms she raised last week. Specifically, she has neglected to indicate the amount corresponding to a surcharge that was designated by the county commission last year to help pay for new schools and a multipurpose center.
After arriving in the city, Arnette, Abbott, and their auditing team of six quickly headed to the county clerk’s office and quickly began going through Halbert’s disorganized records. After the day’s work, Arnette and Abbott left, leaving the six other auditors for the remainder of the week. According to Newman, there is every reason to believe that the group will produce a precise compilation of the required wheel tax data.
If this is the case, Halbert’s shadowy corner of local government will finally receive some much-needed daylight.
This week, Halbert has also been called to a come-to-Jesus meeting with the county commission on Wednesday. This is just the most recent of numerous meetings she has had with the body throughout her tenure, which is currently in her second term. In their sincere attempts to put the clerk’s office on the correct track, the panel and the Mayor Lee Harris’s office have consistently encountered resistance.
Former municipal council member Halbert received little money for her work there. She was first elected to the far more lucrative position of clerk in 2018 and then again in 2022—a “blue wave” year—when having the letter “D” (for “Democratic”) next to her name on the ballot helped her win.
But lengthy queues of frantic people waiting at the various county clerk offices for auto-tag renewals showed she was already in trouble. Even worse, it turned out that Halbert was losing more and more of those offices because he had either neglected to renew the leases at a number of them or had fallen behind on the rent, which led to eviction.
Her careless auditing practices have drawn criticism from state comptroller Jason Mumpower, who has called Halbert’s actions “incompetent and willful neglect,” as well as from other members of the local government who expressed concerns about the county’s credit rating. Car dealers bemoaned their inability to obtain services, the difficulty in obtaining company permits, and so on.
The list of Halbert’s shortcomings is too long to mention here, but it is fully detailed in a long document that County Commissioner Mick Wright sent to Hamilton County DA Coty Wamp. Wamp is tasked with looking into Halbert’s performance in advance of potential removal procedures.
A certain level of trust between local and state governments may have been established, regardless of the final conclusion of those processes and assuming Trustee Newman’s optimism over the possible outcome of this week’s state involvement proves to be warranted.
Maybe we have a right to hope that this may lessen the existing climate of mistrust that exists between the two domains. You would refer to that as a silver lining.
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