After serving nearly six terms as Carroll County’s Chancery Clerk, Stanley “Sugar” Mullins announced that he will retire at the end of 2019 and not seek a seventh term.
“I feel like I’ve reached a time in my life where I want to spend more time with my family,” Mullins, 60, said.
Mullins, who took the office in 1996 at the age of 37 with young children at home, said now that his two grandchildren, Andi Jane, 3, and Hunt, 2, are getting older, he is looking forward to future adventures with the two, as well as some time working on his farm and enjoying the great outdoors.
During his 23 years in office, Mullins said he is proud of the improvements that were made in his tenure as clerk and the office’s good stewardship of taxpayer’s dollars throughout the years.
“I’m proud of the audits through the years,” Mullins said. “There have never been any major problems.”
He said he is proud to have been part of developing the Carroll Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility in Vaiden in his first term.
“It provides jobs, and now it is paid for – paid for by housing state inmates,” Mullins said.
He also takes pride in the renovations made at the Carrollton Courthouse. Mullins said thanks to the county’s leadership, the Carrollton Courthouse received much-needed renovations to become handicapped accessible and more user-friendly to the staff and citizens.
“We didn’t have a vault,” Mullins said. “We renovated the majority of the courthouse, and [the Chancery Clerk’s Office and other courthouse staff] did all of this and never moved out.”
What’s more, Mullins said around 90 percent of the costs of renovations were funded through grants.
Like the courthouse, Mullins said he is proud to have been a part of the Carrollton Community House renovations in the early 2000s. The Carrollton Community House is jointly owned by the Town of Carrollton and Carroll County.
“It was practically falling in,” Mullins said. “Look at it now.”
Also, the addition of the Carroll County Recreational Park in North Carrollton is something he is proud to have been involved in because of its draw to the community.
“People enjoy coming to North Carrollton and Carroll County and playing ball,” Mullins said.
In looking back at his “23 short years” as clerk, Mullins said, “I bought the first fax machine for that office, and now, the fax machine has come and gone, and we are all about email.”
Mullins said he would not have made it so many years without the support of a capable and friendly staff.
“I have had a very good staff through all of my time, from Debbie McClain to Miss Bessie [Pearce], Anita Williams, Shonna McGehee, Patricia Noah, Bobbie Baker,” Mullins said. “I just couldn’t have done it without them.”
Mullins said his current office staff – Marlee Golden, Rogan Jackson, Monica Jones, Michelle Heath, and Fran Andrews -- do a wonderful job.
“I can’t thank them enough,” Mullins said.
Mullins said he especially wants to thank his family, “especially my wife, Tracey, because when you are in [office] they are in it.”
He also humbly thanked his many friends and supporters for their longtime support through “all these elections.”
“When I became a member of the Mississippi Chancery Clerk’s Association, it allowed me to become friends with people all over this state – in all 81 other counties -- and I am so appreciative of that,” Mullins said.
Mullins said he knows the chancery clerk is a very important position in Carroll County.
“I hope and pray some good Christian people will be interested in running for chancery clerk,” Mullins said. “Carroll County deserves an honest, stable, and dependable person who will help people from all walks of life. They need to be committed in serving the citizens in the most respectfu
