“I saw lines that I’ve never seen in the 7 years that I’ve been here,” the Shelby County clerk said. 

Mayor Lee Harris vetoed the commission’s September vote that would move all nine Memphis-Shelby County Schools board seats to the 2026 ballot, shortening the four-year terms of office of five of the school board members elected last year.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and leaders of other groups seeking to stop the National Guard deployment in Memphis say the city was never offered an option to join their lawsuit.

Also in the political roundup, Harris endorses Green in the race for Governor as Blackburn calls out Green by name. And a close encounter at “No Kings” between Cohen and Pearson.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has been asked to review an Oct. 7 dispute between the general sessions clerk and Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies outside the county courthouse.

With Clerk Wanda Halbert still declining to pay Millington for use of a city building in the North Shelby County suburb, Commissioner Mick Wright is drafting legislation where the county could cover the back rent.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and Commissioners Erika Sugarmon and Henri Brooks are among those seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the guard’s deployment.

“Everything is on the table,” Millington’s city manager said.

“We are weighing some sort of legal action in order to put a stop to some of the unconstitutional actions that we’ve seen and heard about,” Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said. 

Also in the political roundup: Congressional contender Justin J. Pearson campaigns. And General Sessions Court Clerk Tami Sawyer is asked to resign over a recorded courthouse confrontation.

The investigation into the operation is ongoing, and more charges could come.

“Absent an emergency or in the case of criminal misconduct, I do not believe the terms of elected officials should be shortened. As such, I hereby veto,” Harris wrote.

Commissioners also began to talk Monday, Oct. 6, about the county’s other financial problem that prompted the Tennessee comptroller to bar approval of any new bonds for the next year.

Mayor Paul Young made comments after a week that saw aggressive rhetoric about “unleashed” law enforcement. The same surge of state and federal law enforcement agencies is an issue in the race for Shelby County mayor.

When Regional One Health leaders and county elected officials marked the naming of the teams that will start design work on the new county-owned hospital this past week, some of the dollar figures had changed.

A $271 million bond issuance from May helps cover funds needed for schools and hospital projects in Shelby County’s budget for the current fiscal year, Shelby County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Shante Avant said.

The stark partisan lens that many Republicans have brought to President Trump’s crime-fighting efforts was on display during the Tuesday Senate hearing where state Sen. Brent Taylor spoke.

Wanda Halbert and Millington officials are in disagreement over whether the County Clerk’s office owes the suburb any money for using space.

Here’s a look at the still-moving political developments in the federal intervention into Memphis’ crime problem.

Lowery was elected to the Memphis City Council in 1991 and was elected City Court Clerk in 2020. 

The Millington city manager says Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert hasn’t paid rent since 2023 for an office at City Hall. But Halbert says the lease must have been signed by a different county government team.

Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr.’s trial on bribery and tax evasion charges has been moved back two months.

“I’m absolutely befuddled why the city government, why the county government and why the state of Tennessee would give money to a person to run a nonprofit organization when they had been convicted of stealing money from a nonprofit organization in the past,” said Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee.

After much debate, the commission failed to pass any resolution on the National Guard. Discussion moved on to a new jail, grants and the county reserves.

The vote effectively shortens the four-year terms of office that five school board members were elected to in 2024.