MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A potential roadblock is moved for some Memphis and Shelby County Auto Dealers and customers trying to get car titles and registrations.
Last week, Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert said services for car dealers would temporarily move to the downtown office for the rest of the week because of “unforeseen facility circumstances.”
Monday, Halbert reopened the Mullins Station office for business.
Kent Ritchey, a member of the Memphis Area Auto Dealers Association and past president, says it’s about time.
“It has been an unmitigated disaster for auto dealers and customers and consumers in Shelby County,” he said. “We are in our busy selling season. So, this is the time of year we sell most cars, and this is the time most tag applications go.”
Ritchey says there are only two locations dealers can go, and parking at the downtown location is “a nightmare.”
Ritchey said the problems with the clerk’s office have continued for four or five years.
“We can’t understand it. We’ve offered to help. We’ve offered to let our expert title people help her,” he said. “I think they’re seriously understaffed and most of the institutionalized knowledge has fled the scene.”
Shelby County Commissioner Charlie Caswell, who has shown support for the clerk in the past, says the office reopening this office is a positive move.
“I don’t know if it’s a staffing issue or what have you, I haven’t had a chance to speak with the clerk about it. I just know it’s going to be good for many of the dealers in my district off Covington Pike looking for that office to be open,” he said.
Ritchey said he doesn’t expect the ongoing issues at the clerk’s office to be resolved until Halbert is out of office, which will be 2025 at the earliest.
“We got to put up with this through the rest of ’24 and all of ’25 before we can get a professional in there,” he said.
In related news on Monday, Shelby County Commissioners also debated the future of the clerk’s office in Millington and a possible lease agreement for the Navy Road location.
WREG reached out to Clerk Halbert for comment, but so far, we haven’t heard back.
