Lowndes County supervisors are requesting a special election to fill the county prosecutor’s position and hope to have an interim prosecutor in place by June 14.
“We voted today to call for the (county) election commission to set a special election for November 2,” Board President Trip Hairston said after a short special-call meeting Wednesday.
The vacancy occurred when Steve Wallace died of cancer May 27 at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle at age 70. Wallace was elected in November 2019 with the term running through the end of 2023.
In addition to calling for a special election, the board also discussed hiring an interim prosecutor to perform the duties until the new prosecutor is sworn into office.
It marks the second time since 2018 that the county has hired an interim prosecutor. In 2018, Hal McClanahan was hired to fill the unexpired term of Allison Kizer, who left the office upon being elected county judge in November 2018.
The county prosecutor represents the county in the Justice and Youth courts.
Tim Hudson, the board of supervisors’ attorney, will handle prosecutor duties until an interim prosecutor is named, which could be as early as Monday.
“(County Administrator) Jay Fisher will be handling applications for interim prosecutor,” Hairston said. “What we decided is that if there is only one applicant, we’ll make the appointment on Monday at our regular board meeting. If there is more than one, we’ll discuss all the applicants Monday and then make the appointment at the June 14 meeting. I think we’ll probably have several people apply, so I expect we’ll make the appointment on June 14.”
The interim prosecutor will be paid at the regular rate, which is $47,000 annually.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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