Chancery Clerk Dot McGee will not seek a fourth term in next year’s county and state election cycle, she said this week.

“It’s been 12 years,” said the 73-year-old McGee, who was first elected to the multifaceted county government office in 1999 and who has been a fixture around county government for more than 20 years. “It’s just time,” she said.

McGee plans to serve the rest of the current term, which ends in January 2012.

Though qualifying for a multitude of offices is more than a month away, District 1 Supervisor David McDonald said he is mulling a run for the position.

“I’m considering it, but I haven’t made my mind up at all,” McDonald said, adding he’s fielded more than one offer to run but declined to say who’s recruiting.

McDonald, 61, also entered public office in 1999, representing northeast Warren County. He said moving from supervisor to the courthouse is a tough call because he “doesn’t want to abandon the guys.”

Salaries for the position vary in the state, as it is based on fees paid to the office for services provided to people, courts and county governments. The net income for Warren County was $118,245 in 2008, according to the most recent annual audit of the state’s chancery clerks by the State Auditor’s Office. Supervisors, like most other county offices, are paid based on population and tax bases. In Warren County, the base salary is $44,812.

Qualifying for county and statewide officials begins Jan. 1 and ends March 1, according to the Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s Office. However, a second set of elections in 2012 could occur because district lines must be redrawn according to the 2010 Census. District lines in Warren County were redrawn following the 2000 Census and a pair of local elections were necessary due to redistricting after the 1990 Census.

Redistricting data begins flowing from the Census Bureau to states in December, with complete delivery due to states in March. The deadline for legislative offices will be moved to June 1 if Gov. Haley Barbour doesn’t receive the census by Jan. 1.

In short, chancery clerks maintain all records for boards of supervisors and chancery court. Within that, statutory duties include recording board minutes, preparing the claims docket and county payroll, recording and storing deeds, land records and documents received from chancery court.

Another function is to handle collection of property taxes after the tax collector sells property at tax sale.

Following years of legal work for attorneys, McGee went to work part time for the chancery clerk’s office in 1988.

For four years leading up to her election, she performed clerical work for the Board of Supervisors. During McGee’s term, records kept by her staff of seven and the circuit clerk’s office have been scanned into a computer database. Several of the old, heavy land record books were also refurbished, at McGee’s urging.

“My ladies have been great — I couldn’t have done it without them,” McGee said.