The last critical votes of the year for Shelby County commissioners, as monitored by The Daily Memphian’s Commission Scorecard, are the most important yet by the group that took office Sept. 1 with six new members.

Here is how the votes went and what they mean on a long-debated shift of schools in Germantown, a long-delayed vote on funding for part of Klondike’s revitalization and the setting of a special meeting in 2023 to fill a vacancy in Shelby County’s delegation to the Tennessee Legislature.

After an emotional debate, Shelby County Commission approves Germantown schools deal

Here are bios of the 13 commissioners.

Resolution amending current county capital budget with $38.75 million in funding for a new Memphis-Shelby County Schools system high school in the Cordova area with the other half of the total $75.5 million in funding to come next fiscal year as part of the county’s five-year capital plan.

Meeting in a Dec. 14 special meeting, the resolution was approved on an 8-5 vote.

Voting yes: Shante Avant, David Bradford, Henri Brooks, Charlie Caswell, Miska Clay-Bibbs, chairman Mickell Lowery, Brandon Morrison, Michael Whaley

Voting no: Edmund Ford Jr., Amber Mills, Erika Sugarmon, Britney Thornton, Mick Wright

Basics of the Deal: This is county government’s part of the four-way settlement that moves the three Germantown namesake schools from MSCS to the Germantown Municipal School District.

The settlement was up against a New Year’s deadline imposed by a new state law — motivated by the status of these three schools — that requires school systems to consist only of buildings within their school districts’ borders.

How state law laid the groundwork for suburban school secession and 3G transfer

The county’s $75.5 million goes toward the estimated $100 million cost of building a new high school for about 1,800 students.

Other parts of the deal were approved by the City of Germantown and the school boards of MSCS and GMSD.

Observations: Of the four bodies that voted on the 3Gs deal, this was the only one that was not unanimous.

The debate took in the totality of the deal and then some.

Mills voted no after raising the issue of Lucy Elementary School in Millington, and within her district, which is also part of MSCS.

MSCS votes to transfer Lucy Elementary to Millington

A deal between the two school systems — MSCS and Millington — was approved after the Germantown deal was done and also before the New Year’s deadline.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris sees the deal as a kick-start for a new beginning of more new school construction that he advocated for in his first term. That was originally to kick off with a new high school in Frayser; Harris pointed out it was Ford who killed the funding to get started on that project.

Harris also said the new Cordova high school, to open in the next nine years, does not come in place of plans for Frayer’s new school.

Harris also mediated the dispute toward the settlement, touting the county’s fiscal capacity to take on the capital debt.

Ford wondered aloud about where the county will find the money for several new high schools and a remake of Regional One Health, which has an estimated $350 million tab for county government out of $750 million total.

3G agreement is ‘keeping the family together’

Brooks acknowledged the opposition to the deal based on the Germantown schools jumping ahead of new school needs in Memphis for years.

But her argument that the commission had to do the deal effectively ended the debate and signaled there was a majority to approve the deal.

Ordinance creating a trust fund for city and county incremental property tax revenue collected in the Klondike TIF — tax increment financing — district for public infrastructure within the North Memphis subdivision.

The commission approved the ordinance on the third and final reading with an 11-1 vote at its Dec. 19 meeting.

Voting yes: Avant, Bradford, Brooks, Caswell, Clay-Bibbs, Ford, Lowery, Mills, Morrison, Whaley, Wright

Voting no: Thornton

Recused: Sugarmon

Observations: Much of the delay since the first reading in October was at the behest of Brooks, who, in the process, was able to win a delay or two based on her status as a commissioner representing the area.

Klondike redevelopment financing vote advances despite push for delay

During the Dec. 19 debate ahead of the final vote, Lowery corrected Brooks when she again said the area is in her district — pointing out his district includes the greater portion of the Klondike TIF.

“This is our district,” he said just before appointing Brooks to chair an ad hoc committee on TIFs to explore larger issues.

The opposition was primarily a single homeowner who had been denied rehab assistance from the Klondike Partnership. She was seeking to build a new home on lots across the street from her existing home.

The rehab grants are not available to owners of multiple properties.

Cathy Gray came with a few allies to commission and Memphis City Council meetings, as well as a final public hearing the council sponsored ahead of the final vote.

Klondike revitalization meets skepticism before final votes by city, county

She ultimately didn’t win the battle against a partnership that includes two of the city’s most experienced developers on the issues of Black representation in such projects.

But she did succeed in tapping the larger issues of displacement and gentrification and probably made them more of a presence for the next effort to revitalize a predominantly Black subdivision blighted by disinvestment.

Thornton, who is a former Community Redevelopment Agency board member, was the lone no vote on the TIF.

CRA controls the trust fund for the TIF revenues and is the keeper of the community plan. Thornton is a critic based on problems she has seen in Uptown’s development.

Gray and other critics made much of the Klondike Partnership’s control of 400 of the 1,300 real estate parcels within the TIF district.

Despite relocation concerns, County Commission passes Klondike redevelopment financing

Thornton, however, urged Gray and others to band together to get control of some measure of the 900 other parcels if they are serious about Klondike homeowners controlling what happens in the neighborhood’s revitalization.

The partnership has invested $13 million in the four years prior to the TIF’s approval.

What’s next: Next measures in the larger debate about revitalization and displacement include a joint city-county ad hoc committee; calls for a voice for residents of TIF districts that is stronger than the advisory panels the Community Redevelopment Agency establishes; better use of property tax freezes; and limits on out-of-town investors purchasing lots of property in blighted areas.

Amended resolution setting a special meeting Feb. 1 to make an appointment to the vacant Tennessee House District 86 seat.

The resolution was approved as amended on a 10-1 vote.

Candidates set for state House District 86 primary

Voting yes: Avant, Bradford, Clay-Bibbs, Lowery, Mills, Morrison, Sugarmon, Thornton, Whaley, Wright

Voting no: Brooks

Not voting: Caswell, Ford

Why is there a vacancy?

Democratic state Representative Barbara Cooper died this past October during the early voting period of her reelection effort.

She won reelection in November over independent challenger Michael Porter despite her death.

With the election results certified, the District 86 seat was declared vacant due to Cooper’s death.

Isn’t there already a special election for this?

Yes. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ordered a special Jan. 24 primary election in his notice, declaring the seat vacant with the winners of the primaries advancing to a March 24 special general election.

County Commission will wait until January to appoint District 86 representative

The winner of the March election, once certified by the Shelby County Election Commission, will take office immediately.

Why an appointment ahead of the special general election in March?

The Tennessee Legislature goes back in session in January.

The filing deadline for next month’s special primary elections has already passed. The Democratic primary has 10 candidates; no Republicans or independents filed to run for the seat, which is in a predominantly Democratic state House district.

So whoever wins the Democratic primary will be running unopposed in the March general election and will have effectively won the seat by winning the primary.

Lowery, who amended this, plans to move to appoint the winner of the January Democratic primary to serve until the results of the March special election are certified.

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In amending the ordinance, Lowery stripped the original resolution of the process and deadlines for taking applications and interviewing contenders for the appointment.

Observations:

Lowery’s decision is another point for the view that these kinds of appointments shouldn’t be used to give a candidate an advantage over the other contenders.

Count Brooks, a former state Representative, is the lone dissenter in a decision that amounts to an endorsement of Lowery’s verdict on how this should go.

It’s also an endorsement of Lowery’s low-key yet persistent efforts as chairman since September to rein in the commission’s dysfunction.

That dysfunction is most apparent in the long meetings — committee and full commission — that can stretch for hours even when the agenda is light.

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Lowery hasn’t yet invoked but has mentioned several times that under commission rules, comments and questions by commissioners are limited to two rounds and can be extended only by a vote.

He also plans to start limiting the number of presentations in committee sessions on items that don’t call for a vote.

Brooks, however, intends to come to the first committees of the new year with proposed amendments to those rules.

Another move she’ll likely make is to propose amendments to the commission’s set of community grants. Shelby County funds $2.6 million, allocated at $200,000 per commissioner, for nonprofits approved by commission votes.

For two consecutive meetings, Brooks has voted against or abstained on grants proposed by Bradford — saying she doesn’t consider the grants to established nonprofits like the Collierville Chamber of Commerce to be in keeping with how funds should be used.

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At the Dec. 19 meeting, Brooks moved to reconsider one of Bradford’s grants — just to record her abstention — as all other commissioners voted for the grant.