Despite a request from Yazoo County Tax Assessor Denise Robertson to reinstate funds to her office that she said could be applied to her salary, county leaders did not return the money they previously removed.
The Yazoo County Board of Supervisors said the funds were taken because Robertson refused provide the county’s assessed valuation spreadsheet to them, thus prompting them to hire a contractor to perform the service. But Robertson said the arrangement was nothing new to her county office.
“Since July of last year, I think I have come full circle on all things that you needed of me” Robertson said, during a recent county board meeting. “I would like to know today if you would reinstate for me to receive my benefits for being the assessor for the municipality to receive monies that were taken from me last year.”
Previously, the county board removed funds in order to hire Bruce Templeton to complete the county’s assessed valuation spreadsheet figures. The county leaders made that decision in response to Robertson telling the board that performance was not part of her job.
“The only thing that brought you around was when we messed with the money,” said Supervisor Lee Moore.
But Robertson said Templeton had been used in the past with previous tax assessors to do the same duty.
“According to state law, my fulfillment was done when I gave you my recapitulation and turned over the rolls,” Robertson said. “I explained to you that I am not the creator of that Excel spreadsheet. That is totally the work of Mr. Templeton, and he has the right to keep how he gets that information to himself because it is his product. I can’t do what I don’t know. But I have aligned myself to have completed everything that everyone before me did.”
“The water was murky,” she continued. “Now the water has become clear because now I understand what roles people played to help Yazoo County get where it needed to be. And I never shut down any of my duties as far as the Mississippi Annotated Code was concerned.”
Robertson also said the agreement between the county board and Templeton was made several years ago.
“For me to say I could assume that role, I would have been lying because it is not my work,” Robertson said. “I did not create that thing.”
“You told us last year that somebody told you that you didn’t have to do this,” said Supervisor Cobie Collins, referring to the assessed valuation spreadsheet.
Robertson said she has “done the work on her side.”
“I am trying to be a team player, but I also want to be a responsible person who is now a widow who has to face her bills on her own,” Robertson said. “And I had gotten acclimated to the salary that I had been given from the inception of me being sworn into this office. Then in July of last year, I did not give you an assessed valuation spreadsheet. I need an answer today because my livelihood is at stake.”
Robertson also added that Templeton’s salary is being paid from her office’s budget.
“But you sat there last year and said you weren’t going to do it,” said Supervisor David Shipp. “We had to go outside last year and hire (Templeton) to give us these numbers.”
“But he’s never been on the outside,” Robertson replied. “He has always been on the inside.”
“We have tried to work with you,” added Moore.
Collins then asked for the county board to make a motion to reinstate Robertson’s requested funds.
“We just need to discuss this,” Shipp said. “You told us last year that you were not going to give us this. Now that your money has been taken away, now you want to go back to it.”
The action died for a lack of a motion from the county board.
“When there is never a motion, nothing changes for me,” Robertson said. “I think I have been given a harder row to hoe than anyone else who has ever been in the tax assessor’s office. And I have tried to meet you at every point.”
