There are 464 article(s) tagged Memphis City Council:
It could have taken years for city crews to adequately manage garbage pick up in Area E, city council members were told Tuesday. Meanwhile, some council members appear likely to move for more funding of the Memphis Area Transit Authority and the parks division has a plan to add park rangers.
The City Council Scorecard looks at the almost unanimous vote making Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis the new head of MPD. The dissenting votes indicate Davis has cleared one hurdle but faces more to make the words that impressed most of the council match what she does as police chief.
An agreement between the Memphis City Council and the companies behind the Byhalia Connection delays all major decisions on the pipeline until July 1.
The temporary fix of cart paths on the golf course could wait to get a feel for what a larger makeover similar to that underway on the Overton Park golf course might involve.
The council also approved a new seven-year lease between the city and the Withers Collection Inc., which has been behind on its rent.
The council approved the larger Crosstown overlay district without the 9-acre mound Tuesday, May 4, in the first of several votes on the blueprint for control of design standards by the Memphis Landmarks Commission.
Council unanimously approves a resolution opposing the proposed configuration that would eliminate Scott Street’s southern connection to Poplar Avenue.
On Tuesday, both sides in the pipeline dispute agreed to put their actions on hold until July.
What began as a more general ban of underground pipelines in the city is now a specific ordinance that allows existing underground infrastructure to be grandfathered in. It also allows companies to seek exceptions from the council to the ban.
The Tuesday, May 4, council day includes a possible vote on the nomination of C.J. Davis to be the new police chief. And the council has a proposal to change eviction set-outs 16 years after its last attempt to bring some order to the process.
A budget committee meeting Monday, May 3, drew 12 of the 13 council members together at City Hall for the first time since mid-March of 2020. The in-person meetings continue Tuesday with a full slate of committee meetings before the 3:30 p.m. session of the council.
Many of the speakers reiterated concerns about the pipeline’s potential impact on the city’s aquifer and questioned why the Byhalia Connection had to run through predominantly lower-income Black neighborhoods in Memphis.
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.
Plains All American Pipeline is launching a full-on offensive against the proposed legislation with the help of organizations that support the oil and gas industry. Existing pipeline makes Byhalia Connection unneeded, environmental groups sayRelated story:
Members to meet Downtown for budget retreat.
Some business leaders are expressing concern that an ordinance intended to block the controversial Byhalia Connection oil pipeline could hinder their businesses and hurt economic recruitment efforts in the city.Related story:
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.
Plans to build a 49-mile pipeline to transport crude oil from southwest Memphis to another pipeline at a connecting point near Byhalia, Mississippi, have run into delays on a couple of different fronts.
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 City Council is delaying final consideration of an ordinance that would restrict oil pipeline development within the city limits, but apparently not in response to a peace offering from a company that wants to build such a pipeline.
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.
‘Not here, not now, not ever on our watch,' said Rev. Dr. William Barber II during a rally Sunday protesting the Byhalia Connection Pipeline that would go through majority Black, poor neighborhoods in southwest Memphis.
Proposals by Memphis City Council members and Shelby County commissioners emerged during a second joint meeting Thursday of the two bodies. But other elected officials expressed concern that just talking about changes in economic development incentives could put the city and county at a disadvantage.