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 3964 articles by Bill Dries :
A new ordinance gives the appointment of a chief ethics officer to the county mayor, to be voted on by the County Commission. The county attorney’s office will still have some input.
The funding is for a marketing firm to work with the Election Commission to not only explain the new voting system to voters, but also chart the areas of low voter turnout across the county.
County chief administrative officer Harold Collins says the office is fully equipped, but Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert says the office won’t open until early December, missing a deadline set by Shelby County commissioners.
The council also takes preliminary votes Tuesday, Nov. 1, on a plan and financing arrangements for an ambitious remake of the Klondike community in North Memphis.
The Monday, Oct. 31, commission meeting sees a final vote on a change to how a county ethics officers is chosen. So far, there has been little public discussion by the body of the measure.
At a Shelby County Young Democrats forum, Joe Brown, Van Turner and Paul Young talked about name recognition, experience, crime, Black business ownership and, in one case, how women have no place in the mayor’s race.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said the grant from the county’s reserve fund is likely the first of several for a full restoration of the 137-year old church.
After the General Assembly gave the Tennessee Titans $500 million earlier this year to build a new stadium, local lawmakers are optimistic that the state will be as generous to Memphis in the interest of fairness.
Shelby County elections administrator Linda Phillips and Ian Randolph of the Shelby County Voter Alliance talked about the low turnout on The Daily Memphian’s “On The Record” podcast.
After the Tennessee Legislature adjourned for the year, Brian Kelsey continued to tweet his views on national and state political issues with no reference to the criminal charges he faced. As of Thursday, it appears his Twitter account has been deleted.
Marvin Stockwell says the group still has a seat at the table as the city pursues a $684 million sports venue plan that would do away with the Mid-South Coliseum. His strategy is to find another site for the soccer stadium.
An MLGW board member questioned the $299 million capital spend in the utility’s budget. Utility officials say the five-year, $1 billion plan was slowed by supply chain problems and labor problems.
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. joined the early forming field for Memphis mayor Tuesday, Oct. 25, with a formal announcement from Clark Tower.
Bonner’s announcement follows several months of consideration on the heels of his easy second term win in the August county general election.
The county’s early voter total through the first four days of the period is tops in the state.
How to handle crime in Memphis will dominate Bonner’s mayoral platform. Meanwhile, another contender in the race told supporters Tuesday the next mayor shouldn’t be someone who will “keep us steady”Related story:
Four of nine school board members agreed to a national search, along with public input through public hearings.
The Shelby County Commission elected in August is taking its first swing at enduring problems in the Shelby County Clerk’s office. A discussion with three commissioners on “Behind The Headlines” shows a willingness to start anew on the controversy but some indications it might not last.
At last night’s Freedom Awards, FedEx Corp. founder Fred Smith talked about the economy and highlighted longtime staff members; two Pulitzer Prize-winning authors spoke about the time it takes to write about history.
All three recipients of the National Civil Rights Museum’s annual Freedom Awards talked at the Thursday, Oct. 20, ceremony about the present divisions in America and the way forward.
Memphis Parks director Nick Walker told a crowd at a public meeting Wednesday, “I don’t want to mislead you into thinking that it is our intention to do a wholesale change on this.”
The Wednesday, Oct. 19, opening came with some new restrictions on campaigning near several voting sites and indications that the choice to vote on new machines or vote with a hand-marked paper ballot will be watched as closely as the vote totals.
The city changed the terms of the $10 million grant/loan after running into accounting rules that would have required the city to list the amount as a long-term liability on its financial statements.
The proposal for more police enforcement backed by centers for juveniles to wait out the night drew ran into a series of questions and concerns.
With no discussion, the commission sent the ordinance back to committee for more discussion. Meanwhile, the commission set dates for appointing four more judicial commissioners.