Circuit Clerk Asks for Pay Increases...Our Response

Following is a report from the Transparency Committee:

30 Apr 2013: Board of Supervisors’ Meeting @ 5p

At the last Board of Supervisor’s meeting, the Tunica County Circuit Clerk appeared before you to request an increase in salaries for her employees. Our Committee has asked for an appointment with you this evening to present documents and information to consider before you grant this request.

At the forefront of our thinking is that Tunica County needs to move toward a merit based raise system rather then the “across the board” system of the past.

Whether Tunica County is holding a Primary Election where the Democratic Committee is in charge or a General Election where the Election Commission is in charge, the Circuit Clerk’s office is always involved. Tunica County residents depend on the Circuit Clerk for accuracy and efficiency.

The first documents we are presenting are from the Primary Election of 2007. These documents are copies of pages 39 through 41 of the Record of Absentee Voters. You will notice on these copies that 20 Absentee Ballots were sent to P. O. Box 772. (Note that none of these ballots are marked with a received date by the Circuit Clerk’s Office.) At what point does an employee stop to think this might be wrong? We all need to be reminded that someone went to prison based in part by this record.

The second insert into this report comes from our report at the Public Hearing on Redistricting that was held by the Board of Supervisors on 6 Jan 2011.

1. As of 31 Mar 2011, Tunica County had 6255 registered voters.

2. By our hand count, we discovered there are 399 people who remain on the active voter rolls even though they registered prior to 31 Dec 1999 and these same people have never voted in Tunica County.
3. By our hand count about 80 people are using a P. O. Box as their official address for voter registration purposes. This address has to be the physical address (of the registrant.)

4. We’ve found instances of married couples being registered for different precincts and at least 2 of these mistakes have these couples voting in different Beats. Example: Marilyn Young #1 and Melvin Young #6.

Our third area of concern is the $56K refund to the Circuit Clerk in 2012. Truly, I can’t begin to talk about this because I still don’t understand what happened. What I do understand is that some action in the Circuit Clerk’s Office caused this expenditure from the General Fund of this County.

Our fourth concern is around the slowness with which ballots are counted in this County. Again, whether it is the Primary or the General election the Circuit Clerk’s Office is involved. What is etched in my memory is the last General Election when the whole United States of America had been called for President Barack Obama and Tunica County was still tallying our 12 little Precincts.

In conclusion, the Transparency Committee is asking the Board of Supervisors to do a little more investigation of your own before granting this request by the Circuit Clerk. It is important for our County and for the County’s employees that we begin to transition to a merit based raise system. Just because the employees across the lobby from the Circuit Clerk’s Office earned and were granted raises does not necessarily mean raises need to be granted in the Circuit Clerk’s Office.