The first Shelby County Commission meeting in five weeks featured a voting history that shows the 13-member body remains surprising as it nears the last year of its four-year term of office.

Party lines rise and fall on the body depending on the issue. But in many cases, there is a bit of tunneling under the party lines and crossing over.

The Commission Scorecard tracks the votes on a two-part decision on a new voting system for the county and an annual decision that often challenges the concept of party lines. We begin with another issue that was settled without a vote.

Here are bios of the 13 county commissioners.

County Commission keeps tax rate at $3.45, Brooks is new chairman

The Shelby County property tax rate of $3.45.

The commission let stand the tax rate it approved at its June 21 meeting.

Observations: This is the rare scorecard item without a vote. In this case, the commission could have gone back into setting the tax rate before approving the minutes of the June meeting, taking out the item that was the final tax rate vote and moving to reconsider that action.

That was the plan among Democratic commissioners who had enough votes at the June 7 meeting to raise the tax rate by a penny.

The $3.45 rate generates the same amount of revenue for county government as the old rate of $4.05 did, once the increase in property values countywide in this year’s property reappraisal are considered.

County Commission drops one-cent hike in property tax rate

When property values go up, the basic property tax rate certified by the state to produce the same amount of revenue goes down. Any tax rate higher than that amount must be approved separately by the commission or any local legislative body, including the Memphis City Council.

At the June 21 meeting, four commissioners were absent including three who were among the earlier majority for the one-cent tax hike.

But whatever the plans were once all 13 commissioners were present five weeks after the last commission meeting, it didn’t materialize. The minutes of the June 21 meeting were approved without objection.

County Commission approves 1-cent property tax hike to rate of $3.46

It’s proof that time is always a factor in political decisions and five weeks is a very long time to expect the votes to remain in place.

It’s also another example of the problems the commission’s eight-vote Democratic majority continues to have in pursuing a sustained agenda.

Even discounting Edmund Ford Jr.’s vote, the Democratic majority still has the seven votes necessary to do whatever it wants.

Ford-Harris bad blood renewed over county pay bonuses

Annual election of a commission chairman

The commission chose Willie Brooks as the new chairman for the next year, effective Sept. 1, on the third round of balloting. Brooks won over current Chairman Eddie Jones.

Voting for Brooks: Willie Brooks, Mickell Lowery, Reginald Milton, Brandon Morrison, Tami Sawyer, Van Turner, Michael Whaley

Voting for Jones: Mark Billingsley, David Bradford, Edmund Ford Jr., Eddie Jones, Amber Mills, Mick Wright

Observations: The outcome was Democrats trying to distance themselves from the past two chaotic budget seasons.

The last one was overseen by Jones and the one before that was the one where Jones led the budget committee that rebuilt Mayor Lee Harris’s budget request. They did so by spending money that wasn’t there without counting the county’s “fund balance” or reserve.

Commissioners approve Taylor as health director, Mitchell-Sims for judicial vacancy

The first two ballots also saw the other four Republican commissioners reject the bid by the fifth Republican, Brandon Morrison, for the chairmanship.

The exception was Mick Wright’s vote for Morrison on the first ballot. Aside from that, the four other Republicans went with Jones, a Democrat.

Morrison was nominated by Turner, a Democrat, who voted for her on the first two ballots before she was eliminated for a Jones-Brooks runoff.

Commissioner warns ethics advisory group might clash with Ford probe

Morrison drew the attention of Democrats in one way and Republicans in another way with her recent budget amendment finding funding for the Memphis Area Transit Authority.

‘And she also pushed for an expansion of Medicaid in Tennessee by calling on new health department director Dr. Michelle Taylor to push state officials to expand Medicaid.

Ford was the only Democrat to go with Jones, other than Jones himself, because it was his best shot at remaining budget committee chairman for another year.

New voting machines rejected as County Commission moves to rebid

Resolution on a $3.9 million contract with ES&S for a new voting system with the vendor selected and approved by the Shelby County Election Commission.

The County Commission rejected the contract on a 2-8 vote.

Voting yes: Ford, Morrison

Voting no: Bradford, Brooks, Jones, Lowery, Milton, Sawyer, Turner, Whaley

Not voting: Billingsley, Mills, Wright

Observations: This marks the second time the County Commission has rejected a new voting system that uses updated touch screen machines with a paper readout of a voter’s choices then fed through a digital scanner and into a locked ballot box.

A majority of the commission is on record as supporting a system of hand-marked paper ballots with no voting machines used to mark a voter’s selection.

The first contract was for about $5 million and would have included an option for voters to request and get paper ballots if they wanted them.

This system was less money with no such option.

But election law in Tennessee requires polling places must have paper ballots available for voters who are disabled in ways that do not allow them to use the machines.

If Shelby County went to paper ballots predominantly, polling places would have to have some voting machines on hand for those who are disabled.

That distinction might be a possible compromise to this stand-off.

Election commission chief says Democrats want ‘cloudy elections’

The absence of most of the Republican commissioners on this was telling as the push for paper ballots has grown to include a very vocal Republican women’s group in Collierville.

The Republican majority on the Election Commission couldn’t be more entrenched in their opposition to paper ballots.

A resolution directing the county purchasing department to take bids on a new voting system based on hand-marked paper ballots.

The commission approved the resolution on an 8-2-1 vote.

Voting yes: Brooks, Jones, Lowery, Milton, Sawyer, Turner, Whaley, Wright

Voting no: Billingsley, Ford

Abstaining: Morrison

Not voting: Bradford, Mills

Observations: This was a resolution added by Jones with no advance notice, at least to the public, just before the selection of a chairman at the end of the meeting.

The resolution effectively cuts the Election Commission out of the process of writing up the specifications for bids, receiving the bids and then awarding a contract.

Election Commission Chairman Brent Taylor wanted an up or down vote on the $3.9 million contract in order to either go to court or start working on a compromise. Either way, he vowed that he would not take the contract back to his body if the County Commission rejected it.

The commission’s move to take over the complete selection process for a new voting system makes it much more likely this issue is on its way to Chancery Court if it gets past the county administration and the county attorney’s office.

County Commission returns from five-week break

There are specific rules and legal decisions over how contracts are awarded by government entities and who does what at each part of the process. They are far from perfect even without this resolution.

The Election Commission’s part in the process so far has not been free of problems.

Those problems include the body effectively making its decision on who gets the bid without doing so in a public meeting and not disclosing specific bid information to the public until the decision was made.

It was all on the premise that the county mayor has to sign off on the decision before it can be made public.

The County Commission’s option may be a better method by that standard.

But the trade-off may be in its lack of expertise in what it takes to run an election in the age of “Stop The Steal” and other rampant conspiracy theories.