Shelby County Clerk submits revised revenue reports. Trustee says they are still incorrect

Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert has resubmitted revenue reports from July 2023 through January 2024, but they are still incorrect, according to Trustee Regena Newman.

In an email exchange obtained by The Commercial Appeal, Halbert sent Newman revenue reports late Tuesday night saying that Halbert and her team would be working to submit the reports in a "timely and far more accurate than they have historically been."

Newman responded to the email, outlining that there are still various corrections that need to be made on the reports and that they were still not accurate.

"While our staff is in the process of reviewing these reports in depth, I can tell by cursory glance that each report is still inaccurate," Newman said in the email.

The "primary focus," Neman said, is the breakout of the $25 wheel tax and that it needs to be reported in a separate line each month. In the reports Halbert sent over, none of them have the $25 wheel tax separated out.

Newman explained that Halbert would need to calculate the number of registrations where the increase was included in the transaction, multiply that number by $25 and deduct any refunds. The final number has to be placed on a second line, specified as "Wheel Tax 2023, increase for debt."

The "Wheel Tax, Schools," is the balance of the wheel tax minus the amount of refunds on the first wheel tax line. Halbert's reports still do not have the schools portion of the wheel tax revenue sectioned off.

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Another issue in the reports is where the "refunds" are placed, Newman outlined.

"'Refunds' should fall into each of the preceding categories rather than just being listed on the bottom, otherwise the amounts listed in each category are wrong, your commissions are wrong, and the amounts of wheel tax going to each purpose are wrong," Newman said in the email.

Other problems in the reports are specific to certain months. Newman said that the November and December clerk's fees do not reconcile at the bottom, and the January report has a positive number for refunds.

Outside intervention in the clerk's office

The Tennessee Comptroller's Office will be sending a team to Shelby County to "perform the necessary reconciliations and reporting the Clerk's Office has failed to accurately provide despite repeated requests," the office announced Tuesday.

The additional manpower is expected to arrive on Monday. John Dunn, director of communications for the Comptroller of the Treasury, said that the team will be between four and five auditors and the timeline for their stay is currently undetermined.

"It depends on what they find and how long it takes to straighten things out," Dunn said in an email.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said he was "grateful" that the comptroller would be sending in additional help for the clerk, and is confident that his team will be able to deliver an on-time budget.

During a Shelby County Committee Meeting, Newman said she would be un-posting July 2023 through September 2023 revenue reports from the clerk because they were inaccurate. Director of Finance Audrey Tipton said that the payments to schools are currently behind because of reports.

Halbert's office is also facing an investigation by the Hamilton County District Attorney's office.

Halbert and Hamilton County DA's office were not immediately available for comment.

Brooke Muckerman covers Shelby County Government for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at brooke.muckerman@commercialappeal.com and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter @BrookeMuckerman.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County Clerk submits additional incorrect revenue reports