Pepper, 080400 MSAGO, AGO 2000-417

• Case Date: August 04, 2000
• Court: Mississippi

L. Glynn Pepper AGO 2000-417 No. 2000-0417 Mississippi Attorney General Opinions August 4, 2000          L. Glynn Pepper          Chancery Clerk          Hinds County, Mississippi          Post Office Box 686          Jackson, Mississippi 39205-0686          Re: Chancery Clerk's scope of statutory duties and authority of County to contract for fiscal administration of federal Workforce Investment Area           Dear Mr. Pepper:          Attorney General Mike Moore has received your request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. The body of your letter reads as follows:

Hinds County, Mississippi has been designated a local Workforce Investment Area based upon criteria established in U.S. Public Law 105-220, Section 116(a)(3) of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. The Board of Supervisors contracted with the Hinds County Chancery Clerk to perform certain Fiscal responsibilities in administering the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. Is this considered a statutory function of the office of the Chancery Clerk or a service that the Board could have contracted with any qualified agency or person?

         Also, by telephone, you expounded on the tasks involved in the management of this Workforce program. You stated that your understanding is that your tasks would be primarily fiscal, and that another individual or entity would carry out the actual programs and community manifestations of the grant.          The Chancery Clerk is the clerk of the Board of Supervisors. Miss. Const. 1890 Art. 6 Section 170 . There are numerous other statutory duties relating to serving as clerk of the Chancery Court, which need not be specified here. Further, the Chancery Clerk serves as county auditor (Miss. Code Ann. Section 19-17-1) and bookkeeper (Miss. Code Ann. Section 19-11-13) . The Chancery Clerk, by statutory requirement, is the keeper of the account books of the county. Miss. Code Ann. Section 19-11-13 (Chancery Clerk must keep “uniform system of accounts for the counties” prescribed by the state auditor).          This office opined in 1987 that Holmes County had authority to contract with its Chancery Clerk to provide administrative and fiscal services necessary for receipt and use of Community Development Block Grants. MS AG Op., Moore (October 12, 1987). That opinion stated that the board of supervisors of a county had authority to contract with the chancery clerk to perform services outside the scope of normal duties as clerk of the board and...