The attempt to reactivate the Shelby County Ethics Commission died a quick and quiet death Wednesday, May 14.

Shelby County Board of Commissioners Chairman Michael Whaley withdrew his ethics ordinance that would have put more specific definitions of conflicts of interest into the county ethics policy and downsized the Ethics Commission to get the group to meet — something it hasn’t done in years.

Whaley didn’t give a reason for withdrawing the item. But the withdrawal followed a spirited discussion of the ordinance at the May 5 commission meeting where Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. wielded a can of Raid bug spray and a thick binder of papers he said were secrets he would reveal about others in county government.

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Ford is under indictment on federal charges of bribery and tax evasion for a series of grants he proposed while he’s been a commissioner and previously when he was on the Memphis City Council. The grants allegedly included kickbacks to him from the nonprofits that received the money.

Ford has denied wrongdoing, and earlier this week U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker said at a status conference he intends to set a trial date when all sides return to court in July.

Ford was present in Wednesday afternoon committee sessions as Whaley announced he was withdrawing the ethics ordinance. The item was withdrawn without objection or discussion.

Then Ford announced he would pursue a complaint with the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility, the regulatory body that hears complaints and allegations of attorneys acting in violation of legal ethics.

“Because of what has transpired, there will be some documentation that will be given to the Board of Professional Responsibility regarding the ethics officer and the one unnamed attorney regarding this item,” he said. “And I have a lot of documentation to prove my claims.”

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Ford named Felisa Cox as the ethics officer. Cox has been the lawyer with the Shelby County attorney’s office advising and answering questions from commissioners as they have discussed and debated changing the way the Ethics Commission operates.

The federal investigation of Ford began after an ethics counsel that the county attorney’s office appointed looked into a 2019 county grant, which came from a different source of money for Junior Achievement that Ford proposed but did not vote on.

The ethics counsel concluded some of the grant money was used to buy computer equipment from a company formed by Ford and his brother.

The counsel, Brian Faughnan, concluded Ford had violated the county’s ethics policy and recommended referring it to Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich, who then referred it to a special prosecutor from another part of the state.

Nothing came of the state investigation. But federal prosecutors began looking at other grants Ford proposed. The federal probe surfaced in May 2023 with federal agents seizing documents in a search at the home of Ford’s father, Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford Sr., an address the younger Ford lists as his home address.

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Ford’s federal indictment was unsealed this past February.

Ethics Commission hasn’t met since at least 2021

The county Ethics Commission has been inactive for years. The most recent posting on its county government web page is from a 2021 attempt to call a meeting to consider the complaint against Ford.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris says all the members of the body are holdovers whose terms ran out years ago but who continue to serve until the mayor appoints, and the County Commission confirms, someone new.

Harris says he can’t get the commission to add his appointments to its agenda for a vote up or down.

Whaley’s proposal would have changed the Ethics Commission from a 13-member body to a seven-member body to get a quorum of the holdover members.

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Commissioner Amber Mills has said the commission shouldn’t do anything on ethics, at least during the current four-year terms, because of personal differences between Ford and Harris that go back at least to their time together on the Memphis City Council.

Ford and Harris are each serving their second consecutive four-year term and cannot seek reelection in the 2026 elections.

The commission did approve in April a countywide referendum for the 2026 ballot proposed by Whaley that would add more specific language to the county charter about conflicts of interest, aligning with state law.

Whaley also proposed a 30-day moratorium on awarding any money from the commission’s $2.6 million pool of community grant funds, which are central to the federal case against Ford. Those grants are allocated at $200,000 for each commissioner to direct, with the full commission voting on all of the proposals.

The commission voted down the proposed moratorium.