There are 95 article(s) tagged Worth Morgan:
Passing the $707.8 million city budget saw $1.8 million from a dozen line items moved around to items council members wanted and the use of city reserves that leaves the rainy day fund at a low level of 7% of the budget that starts July 1.
The review by the council budget committee continued Wednesday with no major changes to the $708.8 million operating budget proposed by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. The full council is scheduled to take final votes on the budget and a stable city property tax rate next week.
But the council vote on one of the two commissioners was less than unanimous. Council member Worth Morgan questioned whether appeals to the commission of firings and disciplinary actions are creating a culture City Hall should be avoiding.
The ballot question on broader residency for Memphis fire and police officers was approved by the council that left office at the end of December. During council committee discussions Tuesday, some of the six new members who joined the council this month had a chance to weigh in on the matter.
The original electric rate hike proposal voted down by the City Council last month was replaced Jan. 8 with a Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division proposal that is two cents lower on the average monthly residential bill.
The council approved a November 2020 referendum on a residency requirement for police and fire fighters Tuesday on the first of three votes.
With three meetings left in the four-year term of office of city council members, and at least four new council members coming January, the council is lining up several items for action by the end of 2019.
In the last week of September, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland spent $156,770 in his re-election campaign account, bringing his end-of-September balance to $175,722. That’s according to new campaign finance reports candidates are filing that cover the last full week of the race to the Oct. 3 ballot.
Before rejecting plans this week to reconfigure the Waste Connections facility in Whitehaven, several Memphis City Council members said the decision is probably not the best outcome for area homeowners.
The process for getting neighborhood speed humps and their distribution, and the cost of a modernized traffic intersection were among detailed line items City Council members reviewed on the first day of budget hearings Tuesday.
The Memphis City Council also delayed votes once again Tuesday on the first reading of the Memphis 3.0 plan and an agreement between the city and Graceland on Graceland expansion plans.
Council member Berlin Boyd has worked for FedEx Logistics for seven months, taking in the time the FedEx division decided to relocate Downtown at Boyd's urging.
With just enough votes, the Memphis City Council approved a resolution that will post the financial disclosure reports of each council member next to his or her bio on the city's website.
After a break for the holidays, Memphis City Council members try again Tuesday to fill three vacancies. If the council is still gridlocked, the next move could be to put the three council seats to voters in a special election.
Memphis City Council members say there were some indications of discord before the rift over filling three vacant council seats. But when the rift settled in for the rest of the year it was a surprising turn.