Tag: Brian Kelsey

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Politics Politics Feature

The State Democrats Throw a “Hail Mary”

The Democrats’ map (Photo: Courtesy Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus)

As reported last week by Erik Schelzig of The Tennessee Journal and the On the Hill news blog, the General Assembly’s Democrats are gamely offering their version of a fair and balanced redistricting map for Tennessee’s nine congressional districts.

“This map proposal is a reflection of real people and the concerns that are shared by underserved communities across the state,” said state Rep. Karen Camper, the leader of the Democratic minority in the state House. “We look forward to presenting their ideas and policy priorities to the General Assembly.”

The map attempts to make minimal changes in the state’s current political topography. Although Middle Tennessee’s rampant population growth is accounted for by routing several of Nashville’s fastest-growing suburbs into a reconstructed 4th Congressional District, the state capital itself would remain intact and whole, as at present, within lines that would continue its status as one of the state’s two dependably Democratic districts — the other, of course, being the 9th Congressional District, which now encapsulates most of Memphis. In the Democrats’ recommended version, the 9th would include all of the city plus Bartlett.

Shelby County’s other suburban municipalities — Germantown, Collierville, Lakeland, Arlington, and Millington — would be included in an expanded 8th Congressional District that would stretch from the Tennessee River to the Mississippi River. Millington’s inclusion in this hypothetical 8th District would remove it from its current coupling with Memphis in the 9th.

Of course, it is the legislature’s Republicans, a supermajority, who will determine the final outlines of Tennessee’s congressional districts, regardless of what Democrats or the Assembly’s nominally bipartisan advisory committee should advise.

And, while the 9th District could hardly be anything but Memphis-centric and majority-Democratic, the state’s demographic contours being what they are, it is otherwise with the status of Nashville. The city is not only Democratic in its history and voting habits; it is probably the most focused Democratic area in Tennessee, an irony, given the frequent use of “Nashville” as a synecdoche denoting the ultra-right doings of the predominantly rural legislators who control the actions of the General Assembly, which meets there.

And such word, as has come from legislative Republicans, indicates that the final redistricting of Middle Tennessee will slice and dice the capital city and its environs into an assortment of gerrymandered districts that would give Republicans good chances of winning all of them.

And, the good intentions of the Democrats’ redistricting proposal notwithstanding, such an outcome would make Memphis’ 9th District a last, lone Democratic preserve in a solid red Republican state.

• Last week’s verbal mistreatment of two county government emissaries by City Councilman Edmund Ford Sr. was essentially a spin-off of the continuing feud between firebrand County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. and County Mayor Lee Harris. The feud continues despite valiant efforts by Commissioner Van Turner and others to arrange a truce.

• State Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown), fighting campaign finance charges, has engaged Jerry Martin, the attorney who previously assisted former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, dealing with misconduct allegations, in negotiating her resignation.

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At Large Opinion

Let’s Go, Brian!

Target of Operation Let’s Go, Brian

It was October 15th and President Joe Biden was pissed, fuming, from the soles of his shiny brogans to the tips of his little white mullet. He looked around the White House Situation Room at his gathered political team and growled: “We have an issue, people.”

“Yes sir, several,” said press secretary Jen Psaki, brightly, “and we’re tackling all of them today, as you’ll see. First, of course, we need to figure out what the heck to do about Joe Manchin …”

“Eff Joe Manchin,” said the president.

“Well, yes sir. Sure. We can come back to that. And we have to determine what concessions we can get on climate change from …”

“Eff climate change.”

“What? Sir, please … What about your trip to Europe in two weeks? You’re meeting the pope.”

“JEN, you’re not understanding me. There is only one issue we need to deal with right now … and that’s Brian Kelsey.”

“Who?”

“Brian Kelsey, the Tennessee state senator who lives in Nashville and represents Germantown. He’s the key to everything. If we can bring down Brian Kelsey, it all falls into place! We’ll be able to get full socialism, at last — gun bans, knife bans, in-utero vaccinations, $50-an-hour minimum wage for Black people, forced healthcare for the sick, the teaching of facts and science in public schools, required face masks for pets, all of it.”

“I had no idea,” said Psaki.

“Oh yeah,” said the president. “Kelsey’s the head of the snake. That’s why I’m announcing today the launch of a top-secret federal plan to take him out. It’s called ‘Operation Let’s Go, Brian.’ That little rat bastard’s going down like the Titanic.”

I may have made up some of the above material. Or all of it. But after seeing Brian Kelsey’s overwrought, self-righteous reaction to the announcement that he’d been indicted on five federal felony counts of campaign fraud last week, it’s clear he’d love us to believe it.

“Look, this is nothing but a political witch hunt,” Kelsey said when the indictments were announced. “The Biden administration is trying to take me out because I’m conservative and I’m the number-one target of the Tennessee Democratic Party.”

Really? This presumes that a) Joe Biden has actually ever heard of Tennessee state senator Brian Kelsey, which is doubtful; and b) that even if he had heard of him, he would have been able to launch an investigation in 2017, when the FBI began looking into Kelsey’s case and when a certain orange-haired former president was in charge of the Justice Department. In short, Kelsey is spewing horse puckey.

His case stems from 2016, when Kelsey was making a run for Congress and attempted to switch funds he’d raised for his state races to an account for his federal race, which is a federal crime. The grand jury that indicted Kelsey alleges that he laundered the money by using state campaign funds to “buy” a membership into a Nashville supper club, which then conveniently made a like donation to Kelsey’s Congressional campaign fund. Slick, if true. And I’m guessing it is, since a number of Republicans are facing similar allegations regarding this “supper club.”

And, as is usual for Republicans these days, Kelsey immediately played the victim card, claiming persecution by the current GOP whipping boy, President Biden. Let’s go, Brandon!

It’s really bad timing for Kelsey. He’ll be distracted from the “Right to Get Sick” special session currently going on in Nashville, in which Republicans are attempting to pass every possible measure they can think of to stop local health departments, private businesses, and government officials from mandating any precautions against any pandemics, current and future.

I can’t imagine anything stupider, but then again, I could have never imagined a major U.S. political party intentionally linking itself to the Dark Ages, eschewing science and reason and spreading ignorance and divisiveness — from the top of the party to obscure state senators from Tennessee.

Brian Kelsey says he’s innocent, and that President Joe Biden is out to get him. We know the latter statement is a lie. The jury is still out on the former.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Kelsey Sheds Committee Chairmanship

Brian Kelsey

State Senator Brian Kelsey took the first practical step on Wednesday in dealing with his federal indictment on campaign finance charges, resigning — temporarily, he said — his chairmanship of the Senate Education Committee. 

The senator did so in response to the fact that Senate rules require a suspension of a committee chairmanship within 10 days of an indictment unless the indictment is lifted beforehand.

Kelsey and his fellow indictee, Nashville club owner Joshua Smith, are scheduled to appear in federal court November 5th to answer the charges. If convicted, each could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the indictment’s five counts.

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Politics Beat Blog

Brian Kelsey, Accomplice Indicted in Campaign Finance Fraud

Brian Kelsey

State Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Nashville for violating multiple campaign finance laws in his unsuccessful 2016 campaign for an open U.S. Congress seat. The five-count indictment announced Monday charges Kelsey and Nashville social club owner Joshua Smith with violating multiple campaign finance laws in a conspiracy to benefit Kelsey’s campaign.

According to the indictment, beginning in February 2016 and continuing through mid-October 2016, Kelsey and Smith conspired with others to violate federal campaign finance laws to secretly and unlawfully funnel “soft money” (funds not subject to the limitations, prohibitions, and reporting requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act [FECA]) from Kelsey’s Tennessee State Senate campaign committee to his authorized federal campaign committee. 

Kelsey and others also caused a national political organization to make illegal, excessive contributions to Kelsey’s federal campaign committee by secretly coordinating with the organization on advertisements supporting Kelsey’s federal candidacy and to cause false reports of contributions and expenditures to be filed with the Federal Election Commission. 

The indictment alleges that Kelsey, Smith, and other unindicted co-conspirators orchestrated the concealed movement of $91,000 to a national political organization for the purpose of funding advertisements that urged voters to support Kelsey in the August 2016 primary election, and that the conspirators caused the political organization to make $80,000 worth of contributions to Kelsey’s federal campaign committee in the form of coordinated expenditures.

If convicted, Kelsey and Smith face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. A summons has been issued by the Court and the duo are directed to surrender to U.S. Marshals in the Middle District of Tennessee on or before November 5, 2021, at 10 a.m. and both will make an initial appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge.

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News News Blog

Collierville Parents Protest School Mask Mandate

(Photo by Maya Smith).

Collierville residents gathered Monday morning at the Collierville School Administration Building to protest the mask mandate put in place for all Shelby County schools. 

The effort was planned by the group Faces4Freedom, which describes itself as “concerned citizens, parents, teachers, employers, health-care providers, politicians, and everyday workers” who “maintain that all Americans must be afforded choices as to their vaccination status and mask-wearing/face-covering.”

“We hold that no government and no employer has the authority to mandate vaccination and/or mask-wearing,” the group’s “About” section on Facebook reads.

The group billed the Monday event as a peaceful protest against mask mandates, enforced social distancing, and the possibility of a Covid-19 vaccine requirement for students. About 20 protesters showed up toting signs with messages such as “no mask mandate” and “let parents decide.” 

This comes after the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) announced Friday that masks will be required in all the county’s schools regardless of vaccination status. The decision came as a result of an “alarming increase” in pediatric COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, according to the SCHD’s health directive. 

Prior to the directive, Collierville school officials said masks would not be required for students. 

Faces4Freedom said the health department “illegally imposed” the mask mandate and plans to protest the measure until the mandate is reversed. 

The group calls for school leadership to “exclusively recognize and respect parental authority on the question of students wearing face coverings, COVID vaccinations, contact tracing, and social distancing on school system property, on school transportation, and during school events.” 

The group plans to protest mask mandates Tuesday, August 10th, at the Shelby County Health Department office at 2 p.m. There will be a “ceremonial trash can for a public display of disposal for those who are so inclined.”

Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), Speaker of the Tennessee House, has also spoken out against the mandate, tweeting that the issue should be addressed in a special legislative session. 

“No health board should have the authority to tell a private institution what they can and can’t do.” Sexton posted to Twitter. “It’s time to stop unelected bureaucrats from deciding what is best for our children.” 

Republican State Senator Brian Kelsey, who represents parts of the Memphis area, also expressed support for bringing forth the issue in a special session. He calls for legislators to “rein in the power of local health departments.” 

“Our Shelby County Mayor should not be able to force parents and publicly elected schools boards to require their children to wear masks — especially not in private schools either,” Kelsey tweeted. 

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Politics Politics Feature

Two Bills From Freshman Legislator Gillespie, Rally for Palestine

Photo: Abdellah Amarir

Last week’s Flyer cover story on the closing out of the 2021 legislative session in Nashville referred to several bills that were passed in the last week of the session. Two that were not included in the survey but deserve some attention, perhaps, were House Bill 22/Senate Bill 14 by state Rep. John Gillespie (R-District 97) and state Senator Brian Kelsey (R-District 31), which raised the penalty for drag racing on public thoroughfares from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor, and HB1267/SB588 by Gillespie and Sen. Ed Jackson (R-Jackson).

The latter bill was a complicated piece of legislation that established a new governing structure for both the state Lottery Board and the new Sports Wagering Advisory Board.

Gillespie is a first-termer, elected last year in a hard-fought contest with Democrat Gabby Salinas. Discussing his initial term as a legislator with a reporter in the last days of the session, Gillespie displayed genuine exuberance with the bill-making process, as well he might, given that he would become the recipient of the Tennessee Journal’s unofficial Freshman of the Year Award, announced in the periodical’s most recent issue.

Marchers participate in an Emergency Rally for Palestine in Downtown Memphis. (Photo: Abdellah Amarir)

Perhaps the key accomplishment for Gillespie, however, was not his sponsorship of the two aforementioned measures, but his insistence on not voting for another bill, HB786/SB765, pushed by no less than Governor Bill Lee and sponsored by the majority leaders of the two chambers. Perhaps the No. 1 administration bill of the session, this is the one that allows for permitless carry of firearms in the state, a dramatic change indeed and one with potentially major consequences.

Gillespie was one of only three Republican members of the legislature to reject the governor’s magnum opus, and the only freshman. Took some nerve, that did.

• Memphis is not Portland, but the city has developed its own penchant — orderly, focused, but by no means bashful or lacking in commitment — for responding to local, national, and international events of consequence. Examples in recent years have been the Women’s March of January 2017, a response to the then brand-new Trump administration; the “bridge” demonstration of the previous year to protest police violence against Black youth; and numerous manifestations of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Now add the impressive turnout on Sunday for an “Emergency Rally for Palestine,” which began with a gathering and speeches at City Hall and climaxed with a march of some 300 ethnically mixed participants to the National Civil Rights Museum. The rally was held to protest what its sponsors see as the U.S. government’s uncritical acceptance of Israel’s aggressive control measures in the ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog Politics Feature

Transfer of “Three Gs” Braked, Pending Talks

Germantown High School is one of the "Three Gs" under discussion in the General Assembly and between Shelby County Schools and Germantown.

According to state Representative Mark White (R-Memphis), Education chair in the Tennessee House, the fate of the Germantown public schools known as the “Three Gs” is still unsealed, despite a maneuver last week by his Senate counterpart, Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown).

District 83 Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis).

A bill requiring the three schools — Germantown Elementary School, Germantown Middle School, and Germantown High School — to shift from the authority of Shelby County Schools (SCS) to that of the Germantown School District, appears to be shelved for the current legislative sessions, thanks to a gentlemen’s agreement of sorts.

What Kelsey did last week was rescue a frustrated effort to require SCS to yield authority over to the Germantown district. As Senate Education chair, he was able to reattach a key amendment to that effect from SB 898, which had been defeated in his committee, and add it to SB 924, a bill of his own.

Newly attached to the Kelsey bill, the legislation was forwarded to the Senate calendar committee, one step away from a vote on the floor.

But meanwhile, White withdrew his House bill containing the same enabling amendment, on the theory, he says, that the SCS board has agreed to discussions with Germantown authorities over the ultimate fate of the three schools. The “Three Gs” are long-time Germantown legacy institutions that in 2013 devolved into the orbit of SCS at the conclusion of the city/county merger/demerger period.

At the time, the newly created Germantown School District could not guarantee to accommodate the schools’ large student population living outside of Germantown. The City of Germantown built a new elementary school and proclaimed Houston High School, on the elite suburb’s eastern perimeter, as the city’s official high school.

But there never ceased to be sentiment in Germantown to reclaim the buildings, all of which are within the city’s core and governmental center. There is still, however, no certainty that, if reincorporated into Germantown,  the schools would be open to current student populations comprised of an overwhelming majority of non-Germantown residents, nor will there even be a guarantee, Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo acknowledges, that the buildings would be used as public-school structures.

White said on Thursday, however, that the real point of his House bill HB 917, was to encourage conversations between SCS and Germantown on the matter, not to force a solution, and that he and Kelsey — who, according to White, has agreed to pull his enabling amendment from SB 924 — had concurred on withholding any legislative action unless there is no progress by the end of this year in talks between the disputing parties.

This arrangement is, of course, dependent on Kelsey’s following through with his pledge to withdraw his enabling amendment from SB 924 when that bill comes before the full Senate. Should he not do so, a House-Senate conference committee would be appointed to resolve differences between 924 and a companion House measure by state Rep. Scott Cepicki (R-Culleoka) to which it is now technically coupled.

State Rep. Dwayne Thompson (D-Memphis) is guardedly optimistic that the gentlemen’s agreement will go through, but he remains dubious about the prospect, soon or late, of the Three Gs passing from SCS to Germantown. “If you ask me,” he said, “that’s holding hostage some 4,000 students now enrolled in the schools for whom there is no conveniently located school that isn’t already overcrowded.”

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Politics Politics Feature

On the Docket: Bills Before the General Assembly Could Alter the Local Status Quo

CREDIT: TN State Senator Brian Kelsey

A persistent issue in Tennessee government is that of whether state law should trump the preferences of local jurisdictions. Two tests of the proposition are now before the General Assembly. One concerns Senate Bill 29 by state Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown). Passed last week by the Senate and pending in House committee, the bill would strike down local residence requirements for first responders.

Another measure, House Bill 1280, by state Representative Tom Leatherwood (R-Arlington), would outlaw partisan primaries for judicial or local political offices in counties containing populations greater than 500,000 (Shelby County and Davidson County). This bill is now before the Senate State Local Government Committee and the House Elections and Campaign Finance Committee. In a preliminary committee vote, the Shelby County Commission voted 7-2 last week on a resolution to oppose the Leatherwood bill.

Joining other bar associations statewide, the Memphis Bar Association issued a statement on Friday “strongly condemning” a Republican-backed Tennessee House resolution that would initiate a process to remove Nashville Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle from office. House Resolution 23 (HR 23), said the MBA, “is as undemocratic as it is dangerous and flatly forbidden by the separation of powers principles enshrined in the Tennessee Constitution.”

The resolution, sponsored by state Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro), has numerous GOP signers in the state House, and at least one Republican state Senator, Frank Nicely of Strawberry Plains, has indicated he will sponsor an equivalent resolution in his chamber.

TN State Senator Brian Kelsey

Ruling on a suit last year by Up the Vote 901, a Memphis group, and the state ACLU, Lyle ordered state absentee voting restrictions relaxed to allow universal mail-in voting in view of the ongoing pandemic. The state appealed, and her order was later modified somewhat by the state Supreme Court, but it resulted in the acknowledgment of COVID-19 as a factor weighing in favor of an absentee-voting application.

• It is hard to believe that I won’t get to see Drew Daniel again. Although he had become 40-something and thereby ineligible to be a member of the Young Republicans, he was given permanent status as “honorary elder” by that local group even as he rose in estimation among his party’s seniors, winning their Statesman Award in 2019 for the 9th Congressional District.

Though he was a legacy Republican from an established GOP family, he was an almost archetypal version of the youthful political activist — the eternal volunteer and doorbell-ringer — idealistic, dedicated, in for the outreach as well as the fellowship. He was somehow untarnished by the seamier, cynical side of politics and utterly uninvolved with anything slashing or over-ideological.

Drew died over the weekend, and this came as a total surprise to many who knew him. He apparently suffered from diabetes, a disease that, it would seem, figured in his demise. Granted, he was physically frail in appearance, though appearances could be deceiving. He was a runner and was used to running 10 miles a day. As recently as the big snow, he kept to that pace while the rest of us were shivering in our blankets. I always enjoyed seeing Drew on my political rounds. He was the sincerest and best kind of citizen, and as likable as anybody I’ve ever known. I don’t know how many friendships he had across party lines, but he deserved to have many.

• Former Memphian Hendrell Remus, who was recently elected chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, will have a homecoming of sorts on Wednesday, March 24th, when he becomes the guest speaker, via Zoom, for the Germantown Democratic Club, an unusually active group that is resuming its pattern of regular meetings, suspended during the pandemic, and hopes to be resuming in-person meetings in short order.

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Politics Politics Feature

Wish Lists

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

As expected, the Biden-Harris ticket was an easy winner in Democratic-dominated Shelby County last week; also unsurprising was the overwhelming support enjoyed by the Trump-Pence Republican ticket in Tennessee at large.

To the extent that there was any kind of suspense factor, it was in a pair of local races. Even as Democrats nationally made serious inroads on previously Republican suburban areas, the contests for House District 83 and House District 96, both on the suburban fringe, were unusually tight. Republican state Representative Mark White was able to hold off a stout challenge by Democrat Jerri Green, by a margin of 17,682 to 15,063, and the GOP’s John Gillespie had an even closer margin over Democratic candidate Gabby Salinas, 14,697 to 14,212.

Jackson Baker

House Speaker Cameron Sexton

Gillespie, who won the open seat vacated by former Representative Jim Coley, was one of two new members of the Shelby County delegation. The other was Democrat Torrey Harris, who easily won over longtime incumbent John DeBerry, forced to run this year as an independent, in House District 90.

Both Gillespie and Harris were on hand on Monday and Tuesday for the Shelby County legislative delegation’s annual legislative retreat, this year conducted virtually as a Zoom meeting.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a first-day speaker, said he wants CLERB, the city’s independent civilian review board, to have subpoena powers of its own so that it need not go through the city council in probing accusations of police misconduct. The mayor also wants Memphis to have equity with Nashville in state funding received for mental health services. “We have many more mental health patients than Nashville, but Nashville gets more,” he said Monday.

The annual retreat, at which spokespersons for major local interests state their wish lists for the coming legislative session in Nashville, is normally held in January, just before the session begins, but got a bit of a jump-start this year.

Among the other desiderata on Monday, the first day of the two-day virtual session:

Patrice J. Robinson, chair of the Memphis City Council, asked the legislators to pass a bill banning payday lenders. She also wanted to see the decriminalization of medical marijuana and a continuation of the COVID-era expedient of allowing sales-to-go of alcoholic beverages from storefronts.

Robinson endorsed as well a bill that state Senator Brian Kelsey (R-District 31) said he would introduce increasing the local portion of the state sales tax — this as a means of recouping some of the financial loss to cities from the pending elimination of the state Hall income tax on dividends and investments.

Memphis Police Department director Michael Rallings focused on the gun problem, maintaining that increased prevalence of firearms was the main reason for a rise in certain categories of crime. “Thank goodness permitless carry was not passed,” Rallings said, musing on the last legislative session. Rallings also noted for the lawmakers that he considers Memphis to be “490 to 700 officers down” from an optimum roster number.

The headliner on day two, Tuesday, was state Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton, Republican of Crossville, who promised the legislators that the General Assembly’s calendar would be flexed with the uncertainties of COVID-19 in mind so that, as one example, they would have a little “extra time for filing their bills.”

Asked about his attitude toward marijuana legislation, Sexton said he would feel more comfortable with efforts to legalize medical marijuana if the federal government removed its status as a Schedule 1 drug. Sexton said he was in favor of local jurisdictions making decisions about such issues as school openings and guns on school property. He also said, apropos the dormant Memphis megasite, “We’ve gone too far to pull back.”

During his appearance before the legislators, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris noted his concern about skeptical statements made by Governor Bill Lee and state Attorney General Herbert Slatery regarding the results of the presidential election won by President-elect Joe Biden. That was one of the few times during the two-day session that partisanship as such became a subject of discussion.

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Politics Politics Feature

Shelby County Commission Tackles Issues With State Legislature

The March 3rd Super Tuesday vote, with presidential preference primaries favoring Democrat Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, and nominating Joe Brown and Paul Boyd, respectively, as the Democratic and Republican candidates for General Sessions Court clerk, has come and gone.

But there was still politics to be found locally. In a lengthy, oddly contentious meeting of the Shelby County Commission on Monday, political factors weighed heavily on several controversial issues, most of which were resolved either unanimously or via one-sided votes. A pair of hot-button issues were addressed in the form of late add-on resolutions at the close of Monday’s meeting, which had already generated significant steam via the regular agenda.

One of the add-on resolutions opposed Republican Governor Bill Lee‘s proposal for open-carry legislation, at least for Shelby County, and passed the Commission by a bipartisan 10-1 vote, the lone vote in opposition coming from GOP Commissioner Mick Wright, who chose to let his dissent speak for itself.

The resolution was co-sponsored by Republican David Bradford and Democrat Tami Sawyer. The minimal discussion of the measure was itself bipartisan, with, for example, Democrat Reginald Milton and Republican Amber Mills making similar declarations of being pro-Second Amendment but citing opposition to the open-carry measure from law enforcement officials.

Specifically, the resolution’s enacting clause asks that any open-carry measure exclude Shelby County: “Now, therefore, be it resolved the Board of County Commissioners of Shelby County Tennessee be carved out of any and all permitless gun carry legislation.”

It should be noted that in a separate action over the weekend, the Shelby County Democratic Executive Committee unanimously passed its own resolution condemning Senate Bill 2671/House Bill 2817, the permitless-carry legislation, citing similar objections — noting that, for example, “the Memphis Mayor, Memphis Police Director, and the Shelby County Sheriff have already spoken out against the bill.”

Another late add-on resolution at Monday’s commission meeting was introduced by Sawyer. It would have repeated the commission’s previous stand in favor of voter-marked paper ballot machines in Shelby County and included an exhortation to the General Assembly to “support legislation for paper ballot on-demand options,” thereby tying into specific ongoing legislation to that end.

Further, and importantly, the resolution provides an alternative to holding a public referendum authorizing new voting machines, as apparently required under a newly unearthed provision of state law. It underscores the authority of the county commission itself, “as the governing body of Shelby County” to purchase new voting machines, and notes the subsequent reallocation last month by the commission of capital improvement funds as a means of doing so. The resolution would not be acted on directly but was by unanimous consent referred to the next meeting of the commission’s general government committee.

Commissioner Sawyer appended to the resolution a copy of a letter signed by five Republican legislators representing Shelby County and addressed to the three Republican members of the Shelby County Election Commission.

The letter, on the official letterhead of state Senator Brian Kelsey, carried two specific “recommendations” to the GOP SCEC members. One directly opposes voter-marked ballots, stating that “[a]llowing voters to handle and mark paper inevitably opens the election process to numerous unnecessary human errors” and that “reverting back to technology from the 1990s would be a huge mistake.”

A second “recommendation” needs  to be quoted in its entirely: “Second, in order to ensure that everyone has the same opportunity to vote and to limit the financial strains on the taxpayers, we recommend seven days of early voting be conducted at all satellite voting locations in Shelby County, preceded by eight days of early voting at the Shelby County Election Commission office. Opening only one early voting location in the Agricenter, as was done in 2018, was wrong and in violation of state law. The solution we propose will fix this problem.”

Buried in this somewhat disingenuous language is the idea of cutting back the amount of time devoted to satellite early voting from two weeks to a single week.

Sawyer was pointed and defiant in the citation of the Kelsey letter, saying that its recommendations and circumlocutions alike, as well as the confinement of the communication to Republican members of the SCEC, constituted an affront to the commission and to the process of resolving the voting-machine issue in an orderly, conscientious manner.

“The letter undermines this board,” she declared, insisting that her condemnation of the letter be given maximum public exposure.

The voting-machine issue was not the only matter to invoke the possibility of cross-purposes between county and state authorities. An unexpected controversy arose over a proposal, advanced by Commissioners Milton and Van Turner at the behest of County Mayor Lee Harris, to allocate $33,799 for a Veterans Service Officer in Shelby County. Commissioner Mills, who with colleague Edmund Ford, had been to Nashville last week to discuss county-government needs with state officials, asked for a postponement of the action, insisting that she had been promised the prospect of not one, but five such officers for Shelby County via state action, and that county action on the matter could scuttle the state effort.

An argument ensued between Mills and Harris, with the mayor, backed by several members of the commission, expressing disbelief that county action on the matter would provoke a punitive reaction in Nashville. But in the end a narrow vote approved a deferral of the issue to the commission meeting of April 20th.

Modest controversy arose, too, over the commission’s action in approving  a paid parental leave policy for county employees. The annual price tag of the proposal, $830,000, to be paid for by internet sales tax revenues, was objected to by Republican Commissioners Mills and Brandon Morrison, who cited a looming $85 million county deficit, and abstained from an otherwise unanimous vote of approval.

Democrats at the Ready

Jackson Baker

Among those gathered Saturday morning at Kirby High School for preliminary party caucuses before this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee were (l to r) Rick Maynard, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, and David Upton.