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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.
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The April 6, council session includes a vote on $75 million in revenue bonds for the Fairgrounds renovation as well as a vote on the $520,000 contract to explore alternatives to TVA as MLGW’s electric power supplier. And council members review a month of vocal complaints about trash pickup.
Memphis River Parks Partnership has city administration approval for a plan to slow traffic on Riverside Drive while keeping it open to auto traffic.
The river park’s closing last year due to the pandemic allowed Memphis Parks Partnership to save some money that is going into improvements, such as repairing the Riverwalk and resodding the south lawn.
Rev. Keith Norman of Baptist Memorial Health Care and Meritan CEO Melanie Keller talked about the vaccine outreach to the homebound and homeless on “Behind The Headlines.”
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, state Rep. Mark White acknowledges the bill doesn’t address many of the complexities of the local schools merger and demerger that kept the three namesake Germantown schools in the Shelby County Schools system.
Social justice group seeks to be part of the discussion and decisions about police reforms and the selection of the next Memphis Police director.
The Thursday, April 1, press release from the company is the latest salvo in an exchange between the city and the company that went public last week.
Tutor says the next local party chairman has a chance to win back countywide offices in 2022 that Republicans lost due to what Tutor says was the result of anti-Trump sentiment.
Six Cordova homeowners have filed a civil lawsuit against the city and MLGW seeking $38.8 million in damages for a group of 35,000 households.
The $520,000 consulting contract is a close but not exact match of the one the City Council rejected last October. The rejection stalled the process of considering an exit from TVA by six months. The new contract goes to the council for approval next week with price estimates due by the end of this year.
A February exchange of letters between County Mayor Lee Harris and County Commission Chairman Eddie Jones shows there are difficult questions about whether the legislative duties of Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. should be limited when he hasn’t been charged with a crime.
If approved by the Memphis City Council, Carolyn Watkins would fill the vacancy created by the January death of City Court Judge Teresa Jones.
Better weather and a relentless barrage of complaints about garbage piling up seem to have been the breaking point in the city’s relationship with Waste Pro USA. The chairman of the City Council said it felt like the private waste company was “stringing us along.”
Property appraisal expert discusses how the proposal to move to reappraisals every two years instead of every four years would set a precedent for other major cities.
The County Commission Scorecard looks at two pipeline-related resolutions voted down by the commission. One could return for reconsideration. The other could change the specific route of the pipeline through southwest Memphis.
The bill in the Tennessee General Assembly seeks to allow the open carrying of handguns in the state.
Here are the key figures and organizations involved in the Byhalia Connection Pipeline project and its opposition. Related story: Rocky legal terrain lies between Byhalia pipeline positions and reality
MLGW President and CEO J.T. Young on “Behind The Headlines” says the new contract with a consultant involves Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland as a mediator between the utility board and the council.
The four-hour online joint meeting of the two legislative bodies Thursday, March 25, was mostly questions and answers. The group agreed to start talking about proposals to change incentives at the second April 15 session with plans for a third joint meeting.
The Council Scorecard looks at the surprise that led to the defeat of an ordinance banning retail dog and cat sales in the city and the parliamentary maneuver that means there won’t be any move to reconsider the vote.
Waste Pro, the company at the center of sanitation complaints in Cordova, is looking to end its contract with the City of Memphis. Meanwhile, Mayor Jim Strickland said there’s been no formal notice to the city and the city moved to end the contract with a 20-day notice last week to either fix the problems or consider the contract ended.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and a representative of County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. sparred Wednesday, March 24, over accusations that Ford violated the county charter with a 2019 grant and Harris’ involvement in the allegation.
Terminating the city’s contract with Waste Pro USA to pick up garbage in Cordova, Hickory Hill and parts of East Memphis would be a pretty straightforward process based on the last trash contract the city terminated.
Waste Pro is the second private contractor in three years to have the solid waste contract for parts of Cordova, Hickory and East Memphis, known on solid waste routes as Area E.
The Monday, March 22, meeting also featured the defeat of a resolution calling for federal officials to reconsider a nationwide permit for the pipeline project granted in February by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.