(07-26-10) Etowah County Circuit Clerk Bill Yates and county CEO Patrick Simms could soon face off in court. Yates says the county owes him more than two-thousand-dollars for work he did while serving as absentee election manager during the recent runoffs. Under state law, local election officials are to be paid 100 dollars per day from the county for election work. And a revised state law says officials who are involved in local election schools are also to be paid an extra 25 dollars per day. Yates says he has been paid the 100 dollars per day, but the county is refusing to pay the 25 dollar fee. He says he recently sought an Attorney General’s opinion about the issue.
Simms says the county has no plans to pay the fee because in the past, the state has failed to reimburse them. Simms says until the state promises full reimbursement…there’s nothing more they can do. Yates says his attorney is working on a deal to allow the county to settle this issue out of court.
