A heated discussion over access to a county office emerged during the recent Board of Supervisors meeting with one county official admitting restriction for one employee because “she acts a fool.”
Lee Ethel Hogue appeared before the county board asking why she could not use a side entrance to the chancery clerk’s office. Hogue is a county employee who provides janitorial services.
“She has been asked to stay out of there because she acts a fool when she comes in there,” said Chancery Clerk Quint Carver. “She acts up.”
“I am not a fool, and I don’t act a fool,” Hogue replied.
Carver said the side entrance to his office is treated like a hallway, and he prefers to keep it locked since it houses county records. But he also said Hogue is a disruption that he can’t have within his office.
“I can’t have her coming into my office because she acts like a fool,” Carver said. “She carries on nonsense all the time. I am not locking her out. I am locking everybody out. It is a pass-through corridor, and people are using it like it’s a hallway. They are bringing the Coronavirus in there. We have vagrants hanging around the courthouse. I am trying to keep my office safe. That is a record room back there, and it is accessible for people doing business back there. I don’t go to Robert Coleman’s office and go strolling around his office. I am keeping people out of there who really don’t have any business being in there.”
Hogue said when it is cold or raining, she must walk around the property in order to enter the courthouse. She added that using the side entrance of the chancery clerk’s office would eliminate that.
“But my momma did not have a fool, and I don’t act a fool,” she continued. “I might talk or say something to the girls in there, and I can’t help it if he gets offended. I apologize for that. But saying I am acting a fool? I don’t take that very lightly. I am not a fool.”
Carver said he is not restricting anyone to his office, but he continued to say that he didn’t want Hogue in there “because she acts a fool.”
“The people who have business in there can come and go,” Carver said. “You don’t have any business in there. What do you do?”
“None of your business, my business,” Hogue replied.
Board Attorney Jay Barbour said the county annex building is considered an extension of the courthouse.
“By statute, the sheriff is in charge of securing the courthouse, so it is an issue for the sheriff,” Barbour said.
Hogue said she would approach Sheriff Jacob Sheriff about the matter but added that she wanted the county board to be aware of the issue.
Carver said he and his staff clean his office so Hogue’s services are not needed.
“She wasn’t cleaning my office anyway,” Carver said. “She wasn’t doing anything. I have said all I am going to say on the matter.”
