SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — The Shelby County Clerk’s new office on Riverdale Road was supposed to open on Monday.
County Mayor Lee Harris’s office says it’s ready to go, but county clerk Wanda Halbert says it won’t open until December.
“Since we have been retro-fitted into a bank, we do not have bulletproof glass and based on the millions of dollars that are collected, that will be collected in that location, that’s going to be extra sensitive along with the fact that we do not have a safe,” Halbert told the Shelby County Board of Commissioners on Monday.
Halbert declined ABC24’s request for an immediate tour of the building. But the county mayor’s office said yes.
“This has been an area that has been underserved by the clerk's office, by the services that are provided by the clerk's office," county spokesperson Kelly Roberts said. “That's why I think it's so important to get this facility up and running as soon as possible.”
Roberts and Dr. Nycole Alston, Administrator for the Shelby County Office of Support Services, allowed ABC24 to see what the building looks like after renovation began in August.
Halbert told ABC24 the station’s cameras should not have been let inside.
“No one should be going in there and seeing the layout of the facility due to the amount of money that we will be collecting in that office,” she said. “We don't want people seeing where the safe is. They should not be seeing how an employee is sitting.”
The office space appeared fully-furnished, with terminals set up with desk chairs, computers and other office equipment. Halbert said that not all of the furniture is 100% refurnished, but the county says the building has plenty of temporary options until then.
There was also a large safe behind the desks.
“You saw it,” Roberts said. “There is a safe in there.”
But Halbert said it’s the wrong kind of safe.
“Because of the (high) volume of money and how it has to be collected and segregated, different pots of money for different reasons, that safe is not going to be sufficient for our needs,” she said.
As for the bulletproof glass Halbert said is necessary, the county said that’s never been a standard for any of the other clerk’s offices currently open.
Halbert maintains the Halloween deadline given by the mayor’s office and County Commission was never realistic.
“Somebody else came in and took over the project and did whatever they wanted to do with it and set a date to open,” she said. “It doesn't work like that. You didn't talk to (the clerk’s office). So you jumped the gun and you went and you told the public what was going to happen.”
But the mayor’s office counters that date was part of the resolution Halbert agreed to.
“There was a plan that was agreed upon by both parties, including clerk Halbert,” Roberts said. “We have had Shelby County government employees working overtime, all hands on deck to get this facility outfitted in accordance with that plan.”
Halbert said another factor in the delay is that it takes time to move computers and make sure they’re linked with the Departments of Revenue and Homeland Security.
“All of our transactions are local, state and federal transactions. We have a sole source state contract team that everything goes through. It goes through their system,” she said. “They haven't even been notified.”
Until then, the wait continues.