There are 169 article(s) tagged Edmund Ford Jr.:
The 21% raises garnered only two yes votes and two no votes in the first of three readings with seven county commissioners abstaining. The final vote is set for Dec. 20 and will take nine votes to be approved.
The commissioner’s attempt to reopen the county’s ARPA budget ran aground when Chairman Willie Brooks and others said he is abusing the process.
The ad hoc group, made up mostly of county commissioners, included in its top 3 a map that drew the ire of commissioner Brandon Morrison last week for endangering her re-election prospects last year.
Commissioners approved the plans for using $58 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding, but several challenged Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris’ plans for the remaining $10 million.
Mathilde Crosby is leaving county government to return to the private financial sector.
When chairman Willie Brooks created a study group Monday on possible local government changes without a vote, some commissioners call it a consolidation committee in all but name, causing chairman Reginald Milton to quit.
After two contentious budget seasons, commission chairman Willie Brooks has changed up what is the most critical committee assignment in county government.
The Shelby County Commission’s ad hoc group on the new district lines got its first look at some proposed maps for the redistricting plan this week. The group makes recommendations to the full commission, which decides on how to deal with shifts in population within its 13 districts.
The Commission Scorecard recaps critical votes at the Aug. 23 meeting and an overtime vote at a special Aug. 30 session. The special meeting may have been the last word on bonuses for county employees. But it is far from the last word on the underlying issue that drew out the final vote across two meetings in one week.
Shelby County commissioners gave final approval Monday, Aug. 30, to $26 million worth of bonuses to full- and part-time county employees.
The two complaints were over a 2020 contract for a $1 million marketing campaign to urge Shelby Countians to wear masks.
Commissioners made changes Monday to the blue ribbon ethics panel it created despite a veto by county Mayor Lee Harris. The changes didn’t go down well with those who wanted the group to report directly to the commission and not the county Ethics Commission.
During the spring budget season, the commission opted for the one-time bonuses over a pay raise proposed by County Mayor Lee Harris. But after the fiscal year started, the move began to grant the pay raises as well as bonuses.
The commission scorecard focuses on a rare veto by the county mayor and the County Commission’s vote earlier this month to override that veto. It’s another chapter in a contentious political saga as the commission enters the last year of its current four-year term of office.
The Shelby County Commission voted Monday, Aug. 9, to override the veto of a new ethics advisory panel the commission would appoint.
The veto override by the commission is the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute between County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris.
The attorney advising the Shelby County Commission would be separate from the county attorney’s office under a proposal on which the commission is expected to take its first vote Monday.
The County Commission will soon have a panel of five to advise on ethics. One commissioner warns it could be seen as conflicting with the ongoing special prosecutor’s investigation into a 2019 grant proposed by Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr.
Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. wants the county to get the bonuses to county workers in the next pay period. County Mayor Lee Harris says the county needs to be sure the use of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds is allowed before it cuts checks.
The proposed review of appointees to the ethics body comes as County Mayor Lee Harris is about to propose new ethics regulations.
The absence of four county commissioners, including three of the “yes” votes for the $3.45 property tax rate set two weeks ago, was crucial to undoing the tax hike. However, the issue is likely not over.
Some of the changes proposed and outlined on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast address issues that came up in the allegations made against county commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. in an independent investigation made public last month in The Daily Memphian.
The legal opinion will be about the chain of events at the June 7 session that led to the first approval of the $3.46 county tax rate.
The commission approved Monday a basic property tax rate of $3.45 that generates the same amount of revenue as the current tax rate, taking into account increases in property values. But the rate must be rounded down by 0.001 cent, which comes to almost a quarter of a million dollars in revenue left on the table.
Monday’s commission agenda includes prep for the budget season that begins later this month in county government.