Edmond Bell is now officially the new circuit clerk in Sumter County. Circuit Judge Eddie Hardaway appointed him to the position, to fill the remaining five years of the former clerk's 6-year term.

In December 2007, longtime circuit clerk, Odessa Mack was placed on administrative leave, at her request, due to health reasons. Prior to that she had been criticized in 2004 by state examiners who said they had not been able to conduct an audit of Mack's office for 5 years due to poor financial record keeping.

Mack was also found in contempt of court in 2007 for failure to comply with an order from the Alabama Court of Appeals. For that she was ordered to spend 5 days in jail. However, the jail time was suspended.

In the wake of the previous controversy, Bell said some changes are being made to make the office more efficient.

"We're getting some procedures in place. Getting an accounting system that will monitor our records and keep track of our records," said Bell. "So we can easily reference when people come in about different matters that we can go very quickly to that. We have some excellent people here that I inherited from the previous administration. We're going to get the necessary training to be able do as the state examiners office requires. And we don't think we are going to have any major problems."

Bell said he has asked state auditors to come in later this year just to evaluate the progress. With this and other changes, he says he's optimistic about the outcome of the office's next official audit next year.