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Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for more than 40 years.
There are 3663 articles by Bill Dries :
The retreat Saturday, May 1, marks the first in-person council meeting in more than a year. It included new details of $16 million in bonuses to city employees in Mayor Jim Strickland’s $716 million budget proposal and a flap over whether team-building exercises and a tour of the Renasant Convention Center were open to reporters.
City Council budget committee Chairman Worth Morgan said that the drop of the city property tax rate below $3 as appraised values have increased could set the stage for a tax rate hike.
Memphis Police Chief nominee Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis met the public on a limited basis Friday, April 30, during a one-hour online Q&A session with screened written questions.
On “Behind The Headlines,” the incoming CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission says federal pandemic relief funding due the city will likely make up the loss. The drop in sales tax revenue for the TDZ comes as sales tax revenues across the city have exceeded bleak projections at the outset of the pandemic.
Members to meet Downtown for budget retreat.
With much of the plan already outlined well before Wednesday’s speech, reaction from the city’s two congressmen and the state’s two U.S. senators was set along partisan lines. There was a social media blitz by all during President Joe Biden’s remarks.Related story:
The offer to talk came Tuesday, April 27, at a Memphis Rotary forum at which the pipeline companies and the most visible pipeline critic each spoke. Proposals are pending before the council that would require more local approval.
The federal class action lawsuit was filed in 2016, a month after a new computer system was installed by the county to track the movement of pre-trial detainees through the criminal justice system.
The City Council Scorecard focuses on a short-lived plan to give old police motorcycles to Collierville, a first vote on a pipeline measure and qualms about setting a minority business percentage.
The proposal by Assessor Melvin Burgess would have moved the cycle of countywide property reappraisals for taxation purposes from once every four years to every other year.
The commission also approved a $161,250 contract renewal with Global Tel*Link Corp. for maintenance and licensing of the telephone and video communications system at the Shelby County Jail.
Cary Vaughn is the new chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party as Democrats outline a long-term data-driven strategy and the county’s only Republican elected official opens her re-election campaign.
The commission delayed two earlier votes on moving to an every-other-year cycle for property reappraisals from the current four-year cycle.
Memphis has an emergency contract with Team Waste in Area E, probably until the end of 2021. In the interim, officials are considering whether to keep using a private waste company to manage the area or expand city services to cover it. Related stories:
The solid waste route system covering Cordova, Hickory Hill and East Memphis began as a first step toward privatizing all city solid waste collections during the tenure of a different mayor. Related stories: City faces critical decision on one of its most basic services
Here is the history behind the city’s solid waste fee and how it compares to what the city’s new private contractor for Area E is being paid and what the previous contractor was being paid. Related stories: City faces critical decision on one of its most basic services
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, Election Commission Chairman Brent Taylor talks about new discussions with county commissioners two months after the Election Commission voted to go to court in the simmering dispute.
The Daily Memphian Scorecard on important commission votes reveals the votes are close for now when it comes to the idea of a property reappraisal for taxation purposes every other year. And it shows commissioners willing to give one more chance to resolve a long-running contract controversy.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris cited the ongoing impact of the pandemic in saying there would be no attempt to raise the tax rate after recertification. Harris also outlined a six-year, $32 million plan to beef up the county fire department.
In a recent interview, Memphis’ nominee for police chief talked about officer training, violence intervention, and why she initially pulled her application from the city’s search for a new head of police.
Meanwhile, the council delayed for two weeks a first reading vote on historic overlay district status for the Crosstown area.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is proposing a $716 million operating budget and an $89 million capital budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. It also includes 2% pay raises for firefighters and police.
The mayor has offered no clues on the specifics of the budget, but he is not expected to propose a property tax hike. However, setting the property tax rate will be more complicated this year.
Cerelyn ‘C.J.’ Davis, chief of police in Durham, North Carolina, has been named to head the Memphis Police Department, becoming the first woman to lead the agency in its 194-year history.
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, Greater Imani Pastor Rev. Bill Adkins says the case can be made for a new director from MPD ranks or for someone from the outside. Adkins also said he sees a new indifference to violent crime that calls for new solutions as well as new ways of policing the city.