There are 29 article(s) tagged residency referendum:
Council members also take the second of three votes Tuesday on a city referendum that would expand the Memphis Light, Gas and Water board by two seats, with the two new voting members coming from outside the City of Memphis.
The Memphis City Council filed a lawsuit against the Shelby County Election Commission and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland to stop a five-year residency requirement for elected officials from being enforced.
The City Council has two ongoing political potboilers: the residency requirement to seek a citywide office and moving City Council district lines.
Memphis City Attorney Jennifer Sink has taken the stance the City of Memphis' five-year residency requirement for mayoral candidates is in effect.
A charter amendment that would require candidates for Memphis mayor and City Council to live in the city at least a year before election day could be headed to voters in 2024.
The proposed ordinance comes up for council consideration as two contenders in the 2023 race for mayor have filed lawsuits over the current residency requirement.
As more candidates open their campaigns for next year’s ballot, they’re discussing issues such as criminal justice reform and why some areas of the city are seeing an economic boom while others are not.
A Tennessee Senate committee on Tuesday, Feb. 23, advanced a bill preventing cities and counties from requiring police officers, firefighters and emergency medical professionals to live where they work.
Meanwhile, Mayor Jim Strickland says public sentiment will probably have to resolve the differing views on what police reform in Memphis means two week after the council took a residency referendum off the November ballot. The proposed amendment was part of a push to increase the size of the police force.
Loosening the residency requirement would make it easier for Memphis to create racial diversity in the ranks of MPD with smart, targeted recruiting. But in a perplexing vote, the Memphis City Council decided to remove the residency referendum from the Nov. 3 ballot.
Some find it galling that the City Council pulled back a public referendum on the police residency question. I dunno, I’d say the point of representative democracy is to elect officials and ask them to deliberate and make informed judgments.
The scorecard highlights a pivotal vote in the police reform debate and why both sides in the discussion still have separate paths to pursue.
The data does not show that we need more police to become a safer city. Police experts will tell you: It is more about how you use police officers, rather than how many you have.
The competing items are both up for discussion at an afternoon council committee session with a final vote by the council later Tuesday on doing away with the November ballot question that would allow police officers to live outside Shelby County.
If approved, it would call on Mayor Jim Strickland to submit a plan by Oct. 6 for getting to 2,800 police officers by the end of 2023.
The two-pronged effort comes as two criminal justice consultants instrumental in the Blue Crush police strategy are again working with the city and recommending a police force larger than the goal of 2,300 officers by the end of this year.
We told anyone who would listen that to help drive down violent crime in our city, we needed to recruit 2,300 officers to the Memphis Police Department by the end of this year. A new study shows MPD needs more than 2,800 police officers to patrol the streets of Memphis.
Memphis City Council member talks on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast about her push to remove from the November ballot a residency referendum that would allow police and firefighters to live outside the county.
Memphis City Council members to discuss removing police from the city’s civil service system.
The scorecard also tracks votes on paid sick leave laws at the state level and council action on a restaurant accused of racial discrimination.
"While the MPD has some ways to go before it is fully reflective of the communities it serves, do we really believe that officers brought in from outside counties or states will improve any situation?"
A city task force on public safety started its work this week with several calls for hiring local in the police and fire ranks. Meanwhile, an effort to remove from the Nov. 3 election ballot a proposal for allowing the city to hire police and firefighters who live outside the county may be picking up momentum.
Three of the six new Memphis City Council members talked about the larger issues on "Behind The Headlines." They are the latest council members in more than a decade to take up the topic of residency.
Memphis City Council members Rhonda Logan, Chase Carlisle and JB Smiley Jr. discuss their first impressions after four city council meetings and the residency referendum with host Eric Barnes and Bill Dries of The Daily Memphian.
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