A 49-page complaint was filed against Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert on Monday, demanding she be suspended then removed from office over alleged incompetence and bad management decisions that cost the county hundreds of thousands.
The complaint was filed by Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp in the Shelby County Circuit Court and makes the case that Halbert should be removed due to alleged “willful neglect to perform a duty” assigned to her office.
Wamp, in her complaint, also requested Halbert be suspended “from performing any of the duties of her office” until the legal proceedings conclude. Halbert has held her position since September 2022.
Halbert allegedly fails to provide monthly financial reports to Shelby County, offers “consistently inaccurate” reports when she does provide them, and has failed to complete a financial report that is both timely and correct during her tenure.
Wamp also cited the new “wheel tax” implemented in 2023. Proceeds were meant to be split between the Shelby County Government and the Shelby County School System, with $50 allocated to the county and $25 to the schools, but Wamp claims “Halbert failed to report the wheel tax allocations properly” and “was not aware for a period of months that the updated wheel tax resolution had passed,” and did not begin collecting the fees until September 2023.
According to the complaint, Halbert also “maintains that she does not have the appropriate funding to fully staff her office,” but investigators found her office “is consistently underbudget and has historically given a significant amount of her budgeted money back to the County general fund at the end of each fiscal year.”
While Wamp initially wrote about how Halbert’s failure to manage her office impacts Shelby County citizens, the district attorney warned her lack of professionalism is hurting local car dealerships, who must exchange paperwork with the Shelby County Clerk every time a vehicle is sold before the new vehicle owner can obtain registration tags.
Wamp wrote that wait times for dealerships to receive their paperwork prior to Halbert’s tenure ranged between hours and a few days, but under Halbert, “it can take up to 3 months for an auto buyer to receive their tags.”
The complaint also noted the findings of the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office, which in March announced it rectified a litany of issues at Halbert’s office after a three-week audit, and revealed that Halbert closed her office under the guise of clearing the backlog but instead vacationed in Jamaica.
“Ms. Halbert first received attention from the Comptroller in 2022 when her offices were suddenly and without notice closed to the public for a week” for employees “were working to ‘clear backlogs.'” Halbert, according to the complaint, “was out of the country on vacation in Jamaica.”
The complaint additionally claims Halbert owes Shelby County hundreds of thousands of dollars lost during her tenure.
Wamp started her investigation into Halbert’s office following a separate letter by Shelby County Commissioner Mick Wright, who in December 2023 wrote his complaint “reveals a clear pattern of intentional negligence. A series of issues drive and explain the Clerk’s willful neglect.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Wanda Halbert” by Shelby County Clerk’s Office and “Shelby County Court House” by Brent Moore CCNC2.0.
