Memphis Mayor Paul Young has three confirmed directors for his administration and three interim leaders.

The Memphis City Council confirmed the three city directors Tuesday, Jan. 9, at its first meeting of 2024.

City Attorney Tannera Gibson, Information Services Director Eric Keane and Memphis Fire Department Chief Gina Sweat were approved by the council with “same-night minutes” – a parliamentary maneuver that allows them to begin their duties immediately.

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All three votes were unanimous.

The council also heard from three interim members of the administration: COO Antonio Adams, CFO Walter Person and General Services Director Melvin Jamerson.

All three come to the interim posts from other positions in the administration of former Mayor Jim Strickland.

Because they are serving on an interim basis, confirmation by the council is not necessary.

Confirmation votes on 11 other appointees, including Memphis Police Department Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis, were scheduled for the Jan. 23 council session.

The council spent most of its committee sessions earlier Tuesday individually interviewing and questioning Young’s slate of nominees.

Young asked the council for the votes on Gibson, Keane and Sweat with same-night minutes, saying it was essential that they get started as soon as possible.

The council offered no objections.

Gibson is a partner at the Burch, Porter & Johnson PLLC. She will remain at the law firm but is “de-equitizing” her position there.

It’s an agreement the city has had with some past city attorneys dating back to the Herenton administration, including with Robert Spence and Bruce McMullen.

Keane recently left FedEx Corp., where he was a vice president and chief information officer of FedEx Logistics and FedEx Express. He is on the board of advisers for the United Nations World Food Programme.

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As director of the city information system, this marks Keane’s first government job.

Sweat is a veteran Memphis firefighter and the first woman to lead the Memphis Fire Department. She is reappointed after reaching the top of MFD’s ranks at the start of Strickland’s two terms as mayor.

Young began the committee sessions earlier in the day by telling the council he would replace those confirmed if they weren’t getting the job done in an administration he said would be “moving at a rapid pace.”

“This is not the only bite at the apple,” he said. “I would presume a lot of you feel like this is the only opportunity. … If we are not getting the results we need, we will make the change.”

Young also talked specifically about the large number of holdovers from the Strickland administration: nine of the 17 appointees.

“We have to move quickly on all of the issues I just talked about,” he told the council. “We have people working in these roles who know how to move the system. While you have worked with them in the past in the prior administration, the charge I have given each of them is , ‘You now have a new job. You’ve never worked for me before.’”

Council chairman JB Smiley Jr. had a similar message for the appointees on their relationship with the council.

“When council members would reach out, a lot of times directors would find ways to go all the way around the circle and tell us why we can’t do something,” he said of his experience with the Strickland administration in his first term.

“We are going to hold you to a different level,” he said. “We are expecting more and better. Across the board, we have underperformed. ... We have to do better.”

Council members encouraged the appointees ahead of time to talk about goals for their divisions and develop plans, leaving the fiscal considerations and costs for the council to decide.

The council put off discussions with solid waste director Philip Davis, parks director Nick Walker and public works director Robert Knecht — all up for reappointment — to Jan. 23 committee sessions after Tuesday’s morning session ran long.

While those three nominations could join those voted on by the council in two weeks, committee chairwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas said there would be no “same-night minutes” at the Jan. 23 meeting, thus none of those appointments would be immediate.

Those approved by the council in two weeks would officially take office with the approval of the Jan. 23 meeting minutes at the start of the Feb. 6 council meeting.

Smiley said ahead of the first council meeting of the year that as chairman of the body, he would not entertain same-night minutes to speed approval of any of the appointees.