Wanda Halbert, the embattled Shelby County Clerk currently facing a legal petition for her removal from office, confirmed in Tuesday remarks to a Memphis media personality that she will not resign amid court proceedings.
Halbert currently awaits a court date following a 49-page petition submitted by Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp which alleged the clerk demonstrated “willful neglect to perform” duties associated with her office.
According to Wamp, the failure by Halbert (pictured above) to perform her job duties resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars missing, delayed license plate renewals and frustrating slowdowns for car dealerships that were forced to wait weeks for the clerk’s office to finish paperwork that previously took hours.
The complaint also alleges that Halbert was actually vacationing in Jamaica when she closed her offices for a week in 2022, despite claiming the office closure was to address its backlog.
On Tuesday, Halbert told Memphis “Cussing Pastor” Thaddeus Augustus Matthews that she was unable to provide a full statement because she had yet to retain an attorney.
When Matthews asked Halbert if she planned to resign, she replied, “Absolutely not.”
I am limited because they have taken it way further than it should have gone. But when we asked, when we notified the proper officials that we had some concerns, and we requested from both the county and the state a forensic audit… That’s what sounded an even louder alarm”
“I have never in all my years that I’ve been elected experienced what I’ve endured, and one of the things I am deeply, deeply disappointed in, is the way some of the male, black officials … are behaving. It’s extremely disrespectful and it could have gotten someone in a lot of trouble.”
She declined to confirm she was referencing Memphis Mayor Paul Young or name any politicians, but referenced a recent post to her social media.
A post to the “Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert” Facebook page claims the office “has repeatedly ‘sounded the alarm’ regarding a host of findings” and the legal petition requesting Halbert be removed from office represents “direct attention to the matters we have raised.”
It declared, “When given authority, we commit to being transparent and will report accordingly.”
Halbert separately posted to her personal Facebook page, “We may not always get it right but our team works very hard and over more than 20 years with very little to no resources,” then pledged to do the right thing.
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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 Wanda Halbert.
