There are 80 article(s) tagged Mick Wright:
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris has produced six letters, going back to April 2021, in which he asked the County Commission to vote on new ethics board members.
The grant program that allots each county commissioner $200,000 is at the heart of federal bribery and tax-evasion charges against Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr.
The economic impact plans for new mixed-use projects in Arlington and Lakeland will help with infrastructure costs.
The final vote on the referendum allowing the County Commission to hire its own independent attorney failed by one vote.
Wanda Halbert says she’s working on a plan, but she said her reports may still be late or inaccurate, the software auditors recommended doesn’t work for her office and the county is not funding her enough.
Shelby County Commissioner Mick Wright criticized General Session Judge Bill Anderson’s push for more defendants to be released on their own recognizance.
The call for a corrective action plan isn’t binding on County Clerk Wanda Halbert, who is an elected official outside the county administration. The sponsor of the resolution says he doesn’t expect Halbert to submit the plan.
The day after the special prosecutor from Chattanooga came to Memphis to hear from the public, Shelby County Commissioner Mick Wright has drafted a formal complaint against Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert.
Wanda Halbert addressed the sudden closing of the County Clerk’s Poplar Plaza office at a press conference Thursday, Nov. 9. She maintains the exit was not an “eviction” but acknowledged her office missed paying two months’ rent and called it “trivial.”
The report was in response to two resolutions passed by county commissioners, both of which asked for data centered around the bail order.
Leaders discuss ongoing juvenile court problems and grand jury delays during Thursday’s County Commission public safety meeting.
Four county commissioners — two from each political party — met Sunday, June 11, with Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris for four hours. They came up with a compromise that has a wheel-tax hike back in play after it was rejected by the commission earlier this month. But property tax hikes are also in play.
The new state law requiring elected judges to make decisions about releasing defendants accused of violent felonies takes effect July 1. The County Commission is asking General Sessions judges to start doing that immediately.
During Wednesday committee sessions, Shelby County commissioners set up later votes on a property rate that would remain the same while a commissioner’s resolution to do away with the wheel tax altogether waits in the wings.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris takes a proposal to the County Commission next week to fund the county’s share of the $700-million capital project. Commissioner Mick Wright says he hopes that can be coupled with a property tax reduction.
The Bartlett Education Foundation spotlights the suburb’s high schoolers in a fundraiser focused on student achievements.
Wanda Halbert met March 29 with county commissioners who pressed for specifics on a lease at Poplar Plaza and an opening date for the Riverdale Road office. One commissioner pushed his call for her to resign.
Concerns about rental properties in the Bartlett area have drawn the attention of officials in the suburb, in the county and at the state legislature.
Lakeland and Bartlett have challenges they will encounter in 2023 and the suburbs need to address those as growth continues in Northeast Shelby County.
Officials said the grant is intended to reduce maternal and infant mortality, particularly among the county’s Black population.
The proposed “Restoring Law and Order Act” would include federal grant programs for more police and detectives focused on violent crime as well as a General Accounting Office examination of delays in processing rape kits.
The ordinance, sponsored by by Republican Commissioner Mick Wright and Democratic Commissioner Van D. Turner Jr., allows people with criminal histories to volunteer to serve.
At the noon Thursday, Feb. 17, filing deadline to get on the county primary ballot, there was only one contested Republican primary. But every incumbent Democratic official holding countywide office had challengers in the May primaries.
The County Commission Scorecard finds basic ideological differences remain on the 13-member body, as it moves into the home stretch of its four-year term.
Three county commissioners voted against the $1.44 million purchase of 180,000 tests in 90 kits with two tests a piece. One cited comments by Dr. Ben Carson on Fox News earlier this week complaining that more tests would mean a rise in COVID cases.