8,600 license plates will be mailed out in Shelby County after standstill in Clerk's Office

About 8,600 backlogged license plates in the Shelby County Clerk’s Office started going out in the mail Monday after the United States Postal Service received payment for postage and loaded it into the clerk’s account.

The $540,000 expenditure for postage was approved by the Shelby County Commission about three weeks ago but still had to go through the county’s process of being signed by the mayor, returned to the minute’s clerk and certified before a check could be sent to USPS.

Bill Cash, chief administrative officer for the clerk’s office, said he had already taken 1,034 license plates over to the county mailroom earlier Monday. The rest, he said, would be taken over in increments until all were mailed out.

While there had been discussion about the clerk’s office taking over their own mailing of license plates and other items, which currently is handled by the county’s mailroom under the Public Works Support Services Department, Clerk Wanda Halbert said she would sign a letter to agree to continue using the county’s mailroom, rather than starting her own.

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Already, clerk’s employees stuff the envelopes for license plates, doing all the packaging. Halbert and Cash said Monday that they have been joining their employees in the task, trying to get as many license plates as possible ready for mailing.

The agreement would require Halbert’s office to move “ready-to-mail” items from her office to the county mailroom within 24 hours of final packaging, preparation and labeling. The clerk’s office would also have to allow weekly visual inspection “to ensure that no ready-to-mail items are being held back” and would have a quarterly review of its use of mail services.

The standstill began after there was an influx of Shelby County drivers seeking to receive newly designed license plates issued by the state in 2022, running through the budgeted amount for postage, officials have said.

Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County license plates to be mailed out after standstill