There are 940 article(s) tagged Memphis City Council:
But the mayor says he is willing to work with the City Council and says the conflicting wording in two resolutions the council approved last month could “work together” to get more funding to public transportation, mobility and parking projects.
Groups such as the Gangster Disciples, Crips, Bloods and Latin Kings are splintering into neighborhood cells with names like the Choppa Gang in Hickory Hill, Concrete Cartel in East Memphis, 4 Corners in Orange Mound, and Dixie Homes Murder Squad, Major Frank Winston of MPD’s Multi-Agency Gang Unit said.
The Daily Memphian’s City Council Scorecard opens the new year with two council decisions — one on a familiar issue in council discussions. The other is a close vote on a lower speed limit.
Grants for distressed businesses also got a share of the funding after a council debate. And the council mediated a call by a restaurant owner to MLGW to work out payment plans with the industry.
By a narrow 7-6 vote, the Memphis City Council has changed the default speed limit on city streets without speed limit signs from 30 miles an hour to 25 miles an hour.
In the discussion with Memphis City Council members Tuesday, Jan. 5, the police director said he can’t carry out plans of a city task force to reopen several community policing centers given the pandemic. He got immediate pushback from several council members.
The first online council meeting of the year comes with some changes in committee chairmanships and votes on down-zoning two parts of Summer Avenue as well as new penalties for illegal street racing.
The Daily Memphian City Council Scorecard tracked 48 key council decisions in the current council’s first year in office. These are five significant decisions made that promise to have an impact on what happens in 2021.
The council action wasn’t unanimous and it follows a split vote the day before by the Shelby County Commission expressing support for the countywide directive that takes effect the day after Christmas.
The Memphis In May International Festival is calling off the Beale Street Music Festival in May as the Memphis City Council considers urging a Christmas week “safer at home” order.
The council approved the financing for a $62 million set of five Downtown parking projects. But the issue was what to do with the money made from the parking garages.
The city is in a race with the calendar to spend its federal funding within the next two weeks or send it back to D.C.
The task force making the call is one of several working on police reforms and better police practices. The size of the Memphis Police force is a controversial part of the civic discussion about police reform.
Memphis City Council members heard about the difficulty of getting financing for hotel projects before approving the financing of a third hotel for One Beale. The set of parking projects nearby had a more complex path to approval.
A set of three proposed ordinances aren’t due for a vote by the full council until the new year. But several council members are concerned about how police will carry out the ordinances if they are passed.
The council also talks about limits on mufflers, a cleanup of the city’s code of ordinances and could take a final vote on a sidewalk change that would require a sidewalk inspection as part of the closing process in real estate sales.
Monday’s delay by the Shelby County Commission follows a similar delay in approval by the Memphis City Council.
Drag racing would still be a misdemeanor under the legislation proposed by two Shelby County legislators. But it would be a higher grade misdemeanor. The City Council will also see some resolutions on its agenda supporting the bill.
The next-to-last council meeting of the year saw some votes change, the simple become complex and the obvious spelled out. There was also a rare slip that saw an item that appeared to fail win approval after all.
A voting miscue Tuesday was reversed Wednesday with the passage of the resolution that directs the mayor to draw up a plan to end the use of any city money to buy bottled water.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to urge a statewide mask mandate, and several council members said their earlier vote against the city’s mask ordinance was wrong.
The measure by council member Chase Carlisle was one vote short of the seven needed. It failed after a council debate that included one council member remembering his own brush with corruption charges. Others argued the proposal was arbitrary and cumbersome.
Council Chairwoman Patrice Robinson said council members who behave badly, as council member Edmund Ford Sr. did two weeks ago, can’t be removed or suspended. And restoring order is “a question of judgment” by the chairperson.
The number is smaller than the ranks of 2,800 previously pushed by Mayor Jim Strickland and Police Director Michael Rallings. Related story: Survey seeks community input on next Memphis police director
The outburst by City Council member Edmund Ford Sr. two weeks ago still raises questions about how to apply rules of conduct to elected council members. And it’s a discussion past councils have had about Ford and others on the body.