City council runoff vote certified, changes ahead in 2024
With the last election of an unusually busy election year in the books, there may be some changes in 2024 to where you vote and what you encounter when you get there.
Reporter
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
There are 3806 articles by Bill Dries :
With the last election of an unusually busy election year in the books, there may be some changes in 2024 to where you vote and what you encounter when you get there.
What was once Melrose High School will reopen in the fall as both a public library and senior housing. On Monday, Orange Mound community leaders got a sneak peek.
In the second part of his end-of-term interview on “Behind The Headlines,” Mayor Jim Strickland also talked about the upcoming transition to Mayor-elect Paul Young and why he is fond of asphalt.
The producers planning a May music festival in Tom Lee Park announced they are planning a barbecue contest there the same month — and at the same time as Memphis in May’s barbecue contest at Liberty Park.
A delayed grant for Tom Lee Park’s redesign, the Beale Street Landing dock expansion and a pool of money cobbled together years ago to jumpstart a renovation of Mud Island led to a City Council showdown.
Some City Council members say crime data spotlighting those arrested several times could help Memphians better assess their risks. Others say the lack of data isn’t what’s driving fear of crime in the city.
JB Smiley is the new council chairman for 2024. And the council approved a $20 million loan to MATA as its federal funding is delaying by short-term funding resolutions in Washington, D.C.
The newest ballot questions would allow the City Council to set its own pay, allow partisan primary city elections and bringing back a runoff requirement. There are already three other charter change referendums on the 2024 ballot.
The council also takes a final vote Tuesday, Nov. 21, on a fiber broadband initiative and sets a December vote on a proposed MLGW rate hike.
Here’s a look at all 13 members of the Memphis City Council that takes office in January.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland talks about coming to the end of his 8-year tenure as mayor in the first part of a two-part interview on “Behind The Headlines.”
Memphis City Council Chairman Martavius Jones is proposing a pay raise from the current $170,817 Mayor Jim Strickland makes to $210,000 a year starting Jan. 1 when Mayor-elect Paul Young takes office.
The winners of the three races make a majority of seven women on the city council that takes office in January — the first majority of women on the 13-member body in the 55-year history of the mayor-council form of government.
Here is everything you need to know about voting in Thursday’s Memphis City Council runoff races.
The last local elections of 2023 will determine who the Memphis City Council representatives from Districts 2, 3 and 7 will be. The runoffs will complete the new council that takes office Jan. 1 with Mayor-elect Paul Young.Related story:
The clerk’s office is the only countwide office on the March 5 primary ballot and with Sawyer’s entry the Democratic primary has three candidates. The filing deadline for the Democratic and Republican primaries is Dec. 14.
Follow the story of the Memphis mayor campaign: the moves and issues that found their way into the political arena in this timeline of a campaign that began more than a year before ballots were cast.
New documents show Halbert’s office owes more than $9,800 in rent on the Poplar Plaza location she vacated last week. She hasn’t turned in a monthly report on time for revenues collected by her office since July 2021, and the commission is asking questions.
The commission delayed a decision on $2.5 million to begin planning for a countywide mental health treatment facility until after Thanksgiving.
The County Commission weighs a $2.5 million start on a mental health treatment center for jail prisoners awaiting trial at its Monday meeting and is making a wish list for the Tennessee General Assembly.
The leaders of Memphis Parks, Shelby Farms Park Conservancy and Memphis River Parks Partnership talk on “Behind The Headlines” about the combination of public spaces and parks in the city.
Early voting in the three runoffs for Memphis City Council Districts 2, 3 and 7 is open through 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11. Election day is Nov. 16.
Wanda Halbert addressed the sudden closing of the County Clerk’s Poplar Plaza office at a press conference Thursday, Nov. 9. She maintains the exit was not an “eviction” but acknowledged her office missed paying two months’ rent and called it “trivial.”
The County Commission Scorecard catches up to a trio of police-reform ordinances — two approved and a third falling one vote short. Also, the 10 rounds of balloting to elect a new leader demonstrated ongoing divisions on the commission.
Wanda Halbert’s office has been under investigation since June. The Chattanooga prosecutor leading the probe tells The Daily Memphian the closing of the Poplar Plaza clerk’s office has his attention.