Amid residency questions, Floyd Bonner buys East Memphis home
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr., (middle) is greeted by supporters after announcing his entering the Memphis Mayor’s race on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022. Bonner purchased an East Memphis home off Humphreys Boulevard on Jan. 23, 2023, according to property records. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
Floyd Bonner Jr., a Memphis mayoral candidate and Shelby County Sheriff, is a Memphis property owner once again.
Bonner, who was elected sheriff in 2018 and reelected this past fall, had lived in Bartlett for years. Until his bid for the Memphis mayor’s office, that wasn’t an issue.
However, when he declared for Memphis mayor in October, Bonner remained a Bartlett resident but told The Daily Memphian: “I have no issues with moving back into the city.”
Bonner and his wife purchased an East Memphis home off Humphreys Boulevard on Jan. 23, according to property records. He still owns his Bartlett home, which he purchased in 1994.
“My wife and I are excited about our new home and are in the process of painting and making some minor upgrades. We have already met and felt welcomed by our new neighbors and believe we have found the perfect home for two empty-nesters,” Bonner said.
The sheriff expects to move into the house later this month.
Bonner, former Shelby County Commissioner Van Turner and former Mayor Willie Herenton all face residency questions ahead of this year’s mayoral election.
The Memphis City Charter contains a 1967 provision that requires mayoral candidates to have been a resident of the city for five years ahead of Election Day. If that standard were enforced, it would be unclear if Herenton, who owned a home in Collierville until mid-2020, Bonner and Turner, who lived in unincorporated as a Shelby County commissioner, would qualify for the election.
However, Allan Wade, the Memphis City Council’s private attorney, authored an opinion last fall that cast doubt on the city’s residency requirement.
In his opinion, Wade told Shelby County Elections Administrator Linda Phillips that candidates for mayor only needed to be residents of the city at the time of their election.
Wade told Phillips in the letter that “a person’s qualifications to serve as mayor or city council member are determined at the time he or she is elected... Your office should not refuse a candidate’s petition based on questions about residency.”
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Samuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise and investigative reporter who focuses on local government and politics. He began his journalism career at the Tulsa World in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he covered business and, later, K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on Elon Musk’s xAI, regional energy needs and how Memphis and Shelby County government spend taxpayer dollars.
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