Election drama surfaces in Harrison County as tax collector’s race takes negative turn
The Harrison County tax collector’s race took on a decidedly negative turn right before the election, with the two chief rivals potentially facing a runoff.
Harrison County’s interim tax collector, Sharon A. Nash Barnett, was the top vote-getter in a field of five but has not secured enough support to win outright. Absentee ballots are still being counted, so results are not official.
If there is a runoff, she will face Harrison County Supervisor Connie Rockco, currently president of the Board of Supervisors.
Two days before the election, County Administrator Pam Ulrich, whose position hinges on the supervisors’ support, sent Barnett a stern letter about her campaign.
Ulrich’s letter said that Barnett should not have filmed a commercial in the county tax collector’s office at the Gulfport courthouse.
Ulrich also wrote that Barnett chose “to violate the trust of the Board” when she told supervisors she would not run for the office but did so anyway.
Barnett told the Sun Herald on Wednesday that she filmed the commercial at 6:30 a.m., before work hours. She also said that she regrets saying she would not run for the office. She changed her mind, she said, because taxpayers kept imploring her to run.
“I apologize for saying I wasn’t going to run and changing my mind,” Barnett told the Sun Herald. “What I did was for the taxpayers of Harrison County and that’s the truth.”
Interim tax collector regrets agreement
Barnett said she was grocery shopping when she got the county’s call in April about the interim tax collector’s position. Tax Collector David LaRosa had resigned for health reasons.
Barnett went from the grocery store to an interview with the supervisors, she said. It was all rushed. She said Rockco posed the question about Barnett not running for office and Barnett agreed that she would not.
“They just kind of slipped it in there, ‘Hey, will you not run?’ ”Barnett said. “The president of the board is the one who asked me not to run and then she’s running.”
Rockco said that she absolutely did not pose the question. The county has for at least 40 years required that appointees to public offices agree in advance not to run, the letter said.
“The policy is important because the board has never wanted to favor someone in an upcoming election,” board attorney Tim Holleman said Wednesday. “Running as an incumbent is an advantage for a lot of reasons. She would not have been appointed to that position by the board, in my opinion, unless she had agreed not to run.”
Barnett had worked in the tax collector’s office for 18 years when LaRosa fired her in December.
She said she lost her job over conflicts with then-Deputy Tax Collector Denise Gill, who had a reputation in the office for being difficult. Gill was forced to resign in January after pleading guilty to fraud over falsified mileage.
Barnett stepped in as interim tax collector April 13. She qualified in August to run for the job.
She is not the first appointed official in the county to run for office after agreeing not to do so. Former Supervisor David White also ran for the office after being appointed on an interim basis in 1988 with the verbal understanding that he would not run.
Tax collector runs busy office
Ulrich also said in her letter that Barnett falsely claimed in advertising that supervisors picked her as interim tax collector because of her experience.
“Your commercial omits the board’s expressed reason for selecting you as interim tax collector was your promise and assurance you would NOT run for the office of Tax Collector,” the letter said.
Board member Marlin Ladner said he absolutely voted for Barnett because of her experience, not because she agreed to stay out of the race, a pledge included in the board’s order appointing her.
“I voted for her because I thought she would be a person knowledgeable in that office,” Ladner said. “She was a supervisor (in the office). I voted for her not because she promised not to run but because she was qualified to take care of that office.”
The office is the busiest in the county, customer-wise, because it is where people pay their property taxes on land, vehicles, houses and businesses. Because the office was closed for a month during the COVID-19 pandemic, Barnett has been managing long lines.
Ladner also said Ulrich did not send the letter to Barnett at the full board’s request. Ulrich said she composed the letter and emailed it to Barnett on Sunday after seeing Barnett’s campaign commercial on Facebook and talking to attorney Holleman.
The campaign ad ran Monday morning on TV, said Ulrich, who followed up by putting her email to Barnett on county letterhead and having it hand-delivered to her office. Ulrich said that she never discussed the letter with Rockco.
Campaign ad questioned
Ulrich also questioned Barnett’s use of county employees and property, asking Barnett to provide the times and dates of filming and identify employees included in the commercial. The letter said it is forbidden to conduct campaign activities that would interfere with county office business.
Further, because the tax collector’s office is in the same building where absentee voting takes place, rules apply against campaigning near a polling place.
While other candidates have filmed in county offices, Ulrich and Holleman said they always asked first for permission.
Barnett discussed her plans to film a commercial with longtime Chancery Clerk John McAdams. McAdams is a supporter who appears in Barnett’s commercial.
McAdams, who has filmed campaign commercials for himself in his own courthouse office, advised Barnett to shoot her commercial while the courthouse was closed. He confirmed that the commercial was videotaped at 6:30 a.m. and completed before the courthouse opened at 8 a.m.
“Commercials have been shot at the courthouse in the past on numerous occasions without any objections,” McAdams said. “Sharon’s commercial was all aboveboard and legitimate.
“It did not affect the office during office hours. I am the payroll clerk for the county and I can assure you no employees were on the time clock or getting paid.”
He also said the circuit clerk’s office was not open for voting when the commercial was shot.
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 2:58 PM.
