The city of Columbus is one of the biggest employers in the city, but that is not its primary purpose. The pay and benefits of every city employee is funded by taxpayers, a fact we sometimes wonder if the city council understands.
Jobs should not be a form of patronage bestowed at the whim of the city council. Every single city employee, whether it be a firefighter, police officer, parks employee or person in any other position, should perform an essential job. Taxpayers should expect no less.
That is why we again question the necessity of a full-time registrar to run the city’s municipal election once every four years. Soon after his election in 2021, Mayor Keith Gaskin urged the council to eliminate the full-time position and delegate election responsibilities to someone already employed by the city. When the council voted to advertise for a registrar, Gaskin vetoed the measure only to have the veto overridden by a 4-2 vote of the council.
Yolanda Smith was hired in April 2022 with a salary of $29,000. Since then, she has received various raises and stipends that bump her pay to about $34,000. Smith is currently on leave and will remain on leave through the 2025 elections. With that in mind, the city council voted Tuesday to hire the previous registrar, Brenda Williams, to run that election. Her fee has yet to be decided.
What this means is Smith will not conduct her first election until 2029. In the seven intervening years, the city will possibly have paid Smith nearly a quarter million dollars – plus benefits – before she performs the only defined job duty in the position she holds. It also means the city could be paying for the job of running the 2025 election twice.
In defending the hiring of a full-time registrar in 2021, council members said the registrar could help out with other duties, none of which were specified. In other words, the registrar performs unspecified duties for basically 3 ½ years before performing their defined role each election cycle.
We don’t point out these facts as a criticism of Smith, but rather, the city council which stubbornly insisted on pursuing the most expensive option for holding elections by hiring a registrar who is only needed for that role six months out of every four years.
There are better options, including assigning those election duties to someone already on the payroll. In Starkville, the city clerk runs the elections. It works just fine there.
Another option would be to contract out the election to the Lowndes County circuit clerk Teresa Barksdale and her staff. Barkdale has helped run county elections, state and national elections for almost 3 decades. It’s a safe bet the city would save money by contracting the election to a third party, which isn’t likely to set its fee anywhere near the $144,000-plus the city currently pays every four years for a full-time registrar.
When the 2025 election ends, the city will have a new city council. We urge that body to reconsider the way registrar duties are handled.
As 2025 campaigns begin, we also think it would be a good idea for voters to press city council candidates on this issue. Get them on the record, one way or another, and let the voting taxpayers decide which candidates are serious about managing those tax dollars wisely.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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