The city’s full-time employee who is tasked with running elections will be out of action for the 2025 municipal election cycle, Mayor Keith Gaskin announced at a press conference Wednesday at City Hall.
The council voted 4-2 in executive session Tuesday to bring back retired registrar Brenda Williams to oversee next year’s city elections. Councilman Rusty Greene of Ward 3 and Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco of Ward 6, voted no.
A price for Williams to step in for the election is still being negotiated, Gaskin said.
Yolanda Smith, the city’s full-time registrar, has been out on leave since October and cannot return to work until late next year, after the elections wrap up in June, Gaskin said during the press conference. Neither Gaskin nor City Attorney Jeff Turnage specified the reason for Smith’s leave, but Turnage told The Dispatch, “She’s not on vacation.”
Gaskin indicated Smith’s job will be waiting for her when she can return.
“That’s what we’re hoping for,” Gaskin said.
Smith was hired in April 2022 to serve as registrar, Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell confirmed to The Dispatch, at annual pay of $29,000 per year. She received a $900 raise for Fiscal Year 2023 and her hourly rate was raised to $15 an hour as of Oct. 1, an annual pay of $31,200. Additionally, Mitchell said, Smith received a stipend of $100 per paycheck to assist the chief operations officer. Her total compensation in FY 2024, which ended Sept. 30, was $34,000.
Mitchell said Smith does not have adequate accrued leave to cover being out so long. She is relying on donated leave from other employees. Once that runs out, Mitchell said, the remainder of Smith’s leave will be unpaid.
As registrar, Smith’s primary duty is overseeing city elections every four years, from the qualifying period in January to the June general election. If Smith returns late next year as expected, it could be 2029 before she runs her first election, unless there is a special election before then.
Gaskin said Smith also serves as backup to Executive Administrative Assistant Angela Jones dealing with the city’s Action Center, through which citizens can lodge complaints by phone or online. She also helped with Columbus Municipal School District’s bond election earlier this year but did not oversee it.
On Tuesday, Gaskin said the council discussed two other options for handling next year’s elections: outsourcing it to the Lowndes County Circuit Clerk’s Office or taking applications for a temporary position.
He preferred outsourcing to the county, similar to how the city contracts its ad valorem tax collections annually with the county tax assessor and collector.
“They have an office that does this on a regular basis that is trained in this area,” Gaskin told The Dispatch, referring to the circuit clerk’s office. “To me, it sounded like a very smooth way to move forward.”
Speaking to The Dispatch by phone Wednesday, Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens, who supported bringing back Williams for next year, said he absolutely opposed taking applications for a new temporary person.
“This is going to be one of the most watched elections in a long time,” he said. “We need somebody up there who knows what’s going on, that has been through the fire. … This is going to be a contested and heated election. Brenda is a loyal person to the city. … She’s going to do what’s right.”
As for not wanting the circuit clerk to do it, Mickens’s response was more territorial.
“Once you start going down that road (of) giving things to the county, I mean, we’re the city,” he said. “We should be able to handle our own elections. … That’s just like you don’t need nobody else coming in there running your house, telling your kids and your wife what to do.”
Williams served 24 years as city registrar, from May 1997 until her retirement in June 2021. She also coordinated the Action Center during her tenure.
When Gaskin took office in July 2021, he brought the Action Center under Jones and proposed eliminating the full-time registrar’s position and folding those responsibilities elsewhere in the administration.
The council voted in early 2022 to advertise for a registrar anyway, then overrode Gaskin’s veto to press on with the search.
In retrospect, Mickens said that might have been a mistake. At minimum, he now believes the council should have more clearly defined a more robust slate of duties for the full-time position.
“That position does not really warrant what we’re paying and only doing (elections),” Mickens said. “We’re going to have to put some more in that position. … You make decisions and once you look at them, Monday morning quarterbacking, you always can change something. I see we might have went down the wrong road here.”
Gaskin agrees, telling The Dispatch he would even support contracting out registrar duties as needed, rather than keeping a dedicated registrar on staff.
“It would probably be a better use of our tax dollars,” Gaskin said.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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