The commission also used some of its opioid settlement money to develop a plan for dealing with the effect of opioid addiction. 

The set of three ordinances were delayed on first reading votes two weeks ago. Meanwhile, Monday’s meeting is the last for Mickell Lowery as chairman of a body that is still working its way through a rift among the nine Democratic members.

The board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides MLGW with electricity, approved a 4.5% rate hike Thursday. The increase will equal about $3.50 more each month for TVA’s 10 million customers across seven states.

Some MLGW customers will get multiple bills in a short period of time.

The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said it will start releasing “key portions” of video footage from fatal officer-involved shootings before the investigation and review is complete.

Though the numbers are going up, the amount of cases is lower than at previous times during the pandemic, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine said.

Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner, 44, has had a 22-year career with SCSO, including time as a school resource officer, gang unit detective and assistant chief deputy. 

Commissioners broke their stalemate Monday, Aug. 14, in the selection of a new chair. 

Shelby County Commissioners also try Monday, Aug. 14, to break the deadlock over the selection of a new chair after two unsuccessful tries since in July.

Even after the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said Germantown’s water was safe to drink, Protect Our Aquifer’s science director Scott Schoefernacker and his family have opted not to.

Severe weather started Wednesday and continued into Thursday morning with heavy rainfall, gusts of wind up to 55 miles per hour and a brief tornado watch. 

Jones, elected last August, has been disciplined for writing character letters for defendants in a Florida wire fraud case.

The move to primaries in what are now nonpartisan races began in response to book and curriculum topic bannings in Florida. 

The special Monday, Aug. 7, meeting was short of a quorum that’s needed to take any action. 

Democratic commissioner Miska Clay Bibbs was one vote short of the seven votes needed to become the new chairwoman during nine rounds of voting at the July 17 commission meeting. Three of the 9 Democrats abstained in a rift that goes back to a June vote to raise the county wheel tax by $25.

“I think the three sleeping rooms is ridiculous,” said Morgan Pettigrew, owner of Pettigrew Adventures. “The county thinks putting a three-sleeping room limit on the house is going to somehow stop the party.”

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The nine Democratic commissioners voted for a resolution for “extreme-risk protection order” measures. Of the two Republican commissioners present for the vote, one recused himself and the other was not in the room for the vote.

“Chief Deputy Buckner is an exemplary law enforcement professional with a proven track record of excellence,” Sheriff Floyd Bonner said in the release.

The commission votes Monday, July 31 on a solid waste fee hike for Northaven, a move to a two-year property tax reappraisal cycle for taxation purposes and equipment to convert microfilm and microfiche archives to digital files. 

Mayor Lee Harris declared a State of Emergency in Shelby County on Monday, July 24, following thunderstorms last week that resulted in loss of power and water to thousands.

“In some cases, we’re seven, eight, nine years behind. We have got to get back on schedule, and we will. The City Council has already approved this. My board has already approved this,” MLGW’s CEO said.

Results of the water sample testing were initially expected Saturday, but that was before an overnight power outage at the Memphis Light, Gas and Water testing lab.

Formerly incarcerated people can learn job skills while earning money through a Shelby County Office of Re-Entry program called Focused.

The wheel tax hike approved last month is a done deal. But the commission’s Democratic majority is still fractured over the decision. 

Commissioners also elect leaders for the second year of their four-year term of office Monday. And the election of a chair and chair pro tempore could indicate what divisions remain among the commission’s Democratic majority after last month’s tumultuous wheel tax debate and vote.