As Mitch Clark showed NTV around his office this summer, he touted his cost cutting prowess.
"We have absolutely the smallest budget as far as elected officials," he said.
He claims to have saved the county nearly a half-million dollars by scanning documents in house.
But the county board that sets the budget says that Clark, the Register of Deeds asked for more money and more people, flying in the face of economic reality. In fact, they want to merge Clark's office with another.
"I think it'll streamline county government," said Steve Schuppan of the County Board of Supervisors.
The merger issue on the ballot may be about saving money, but it also appears to be a referendum on Mitch Clark.
Schuppan said, "That's not the reason we started this project, but it's turning into a fighting match."
Clark says Schuppan "unleashed" on him this week. But Schuppan says it's Clark who called, "ranting and raving."
Schuppan said he's had enough. "There's just some people you can't work with. I've tried but it just didn't work," he said.
Clark acknowledges he may have gotten off to a bad start when he was new on the job and asked for a budget increase. He says no one's taken the time to see how much work his office does and said county board members don't understand the amount of money his office brings in.
This summer Clark told the board, "I truly think there's some misconception in the minds of board members you think there isn't a whole lot of work that gets done."
Clark said Tuesday that supervisors have ridiculed him, and cursed him in angry phone calls.
Steve Schuppan said he wasn't going to repeat the conversation, except to say it was "interesting."
"There's been a lot of craziness going on," Schuppan said.
Voters will make the next move.
Schuppan said, "This is something people of Hall County are going to have to decide."
It's a lot of drama for an office people don't think about much.
Clark argues merging offices won't save money, but cost more.
We haven't heard the last of this and will be sharing more from both sides before November 6.
