The last in a set of police reform ordinances in the wake of January’s Tyre Nichols incident along with a ballot question on residency in the mayor’s race and an attempt to redraw City Council district lines ahead of city elections in October top The Daily Memphian’s latest City Council Scorecard.

The scorecard tracks critical votes and decisions by the 13-member body.

Here are bios of the 13 council members.

City council approves ‘Driver Equality Act,’ concluding police reform votes

An ordinance asking and requesting that Memphis police ban traffic stops specifically for minor traffic offenses including: having one tail-light, headlight or running light out, improperly displaying license plates in a rear window or someplace other than the rear license plate space, having expired vehicle registration for less than two months and/or not having a bumper.

The council approved the amended ordinance on third and final reading at its April 11 meeting with an 11-0 vote.

Voting yes: Chase Carlisle, Frank Colvett, Michalyn Easter-Thomas, Edmund Ford Sr., Cheyenne Johnson, chairman Martavius Jones, Rhonda Logan, Patrice Robinson, JB Smiley, Jana Swearengen-Washington and Jeff Warren.

Absent: Ford Canale and Worth Morgan.

Note: The Scorecard defines a unanimous vote on the council and the county commission as a 13-0 vote with all members present.

Observations: The amended wording on this tells the story of the negotiations with Memphis Police that brought the MPD’s agreement with the wording via Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis.

It also eased the concerns several council members had with the original version that made this ordinance the most controversial of the six ordinances the council considered in the wake of the January death of Tyre Nichols.

Strickland says many details of juvenile curfew still uncertain

Nevertheless, Mayor Jim Strickland continues to have doubts about the validity even with the wording that makes this a request of police.

But on the WKNO-TV program “Behind The Headlines,” Strickland also expressed some hesitancy to veto it.

If that hesitancy holds along with legal concerns about the wording, the council may go back into the wording.

One of two competing redistricting plans clears first hurdle

An ordinance redrawing district lines for the Memphis City Council.

The council approved the ordinance on the first of three readings at its May 2 meeting on a 8-0-2 vote.

Voting yes: Canale, Ford, Johnson, Jones, Logan, Robinson, Swearengen-Washington, Warren

Abstaining: Carlisle, Morgan

Not Voting: Colvett, Easter-Thomas, Smiley

Observations: The redistricting plan that advanced with this vote is the one that would make significant changes to the seven single-member districts ahead of the 2022 city elections.

It would create a Cordova district in District 2 by lopping off the Cordova part that is now the eastern section of District 1. District 1 in effect would become a Raleigh-centric district.

The plan would also put all of Downtown in District 7 instead of splitting it with District 6.

The competing plan would change the existing district lines with the move of a single precinct in the northeast corner of District 5 into District 2.

That is to compensate for mistakenly including a part of Cordova that was de-annexed but still included in the redrawing of district lines in 2022 for the special election that year to fill the vacancy in District 4.

The alternative plan didn’t get on the May 2 agenda after two council members objected to it being added.

By council rules, it will be on the May 16 agenda for a first vote while the plan built around the Cordova district advances to second reading.

The council has two camps, one for each of the plans.

Memphis City Council pushes deadline with dual votes on redistricting options

One is for making significant changes now. The other is for making significant changes after this year’s city elections, which would make this a decision for the council elected in this year’s elections.

One side argues for stopping the council’s practice over several decades of making only minor changes to existing districts and taking a holistic view of the city’s communities and how they have shrunk, grown or shifted.

The other side argues to make the changes now for the election in October will “confuse” voters and contribute to an even lower voter turnout following closely a major realignment and renumbering of election precincts in the 2022 county elections.

Council sends residency question to voters next year

A referendum ordinance putting a city charter amendment to Memphis voters on the August 2024 ballot that would, if approved by voters, require those running for City Council and mayor to have lived in the city at least two years prior to the election.

The ordinance was approved on third and final reading at the April 25 meeting by an 11-0 vote.

Voting Yes: Canale, Carlisle, Colvett, Ford, Johnson, Jones, Logan, Morgan, Robinson, Smiley and Warren.

Not voting: Swearengen-Washington, Easter-Thomas

Observations: This ballot question speaks to future city elections beyond this year’s October ballot.

The question about what the residency requirement is for this year’s elections is currently pending in Chancery Court.

Smiley amended this ordinance from a one-year requirement to a two-year requirement citing court cases in other jurisdictions that have all involved multi-year requirements.

The ballot question is an acknowledgement by council members that there is an ongoing legitimate question about what the requirement is.

The court case involves the wording of another city charter amendment from 1996 that, according to one of the conflicting legal opinions, did away with the five-year requirement that has been in the city charter since 1905.

The amendment dealt primarily with the creation of council super districts and the wording of the ballot question never specifically mentioned that voters were also voting on eliminating the five-year residency requirement.

City Council chair says body did not vote to file residency lawsuit

The complex wording of such ballot questions are a perennial question and concern.

In recent years, voters have shown some limited propensity for rejecting charter amendments when they can’t make heads or tails of the wording – especially when several of these charter amendments are grouped together.

In 2018, Memphis voters rejected three proposed amendments to the city charter that the council put on the ballot.

That included a bid to extend the city’s current limit of two consecutive terms of office for the council and mayor to three consecutive terms. The referendum item never mentioned that there was already a two-term limit.

Four years later, in 2022, the same council put the same basic amendment on the ballot with different wording that included mentioning the current two-term limit. It still got crushed by voters.

Nevertheless, in the last 14 years Memphis voters and voters in Shelby County as a whole have decided 55 changes to the Memphis and Shelby County charters. Of that total, 45 have been approved and 10 have been defeated.