Tag: Commissioner Tami Sawyer

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County Commission Readies Actions on Budget, COVID, Voting

In a sprawling, nearly day-long session of committee meetings, the Shelby County Commission on Wednesday decided to authorize a hiring freeze, finally designated a formula for payments to COVID relief, and began a move for state approval of expanded absentee voting and voter-marked election ballots.

The commission also continued to examine ways of dealing with an ever-growing deficit crisis, one that County Financial Officer Mathilde Crosby now reckons at $39.1 million without “a trimming out of our budget.” County Mayor Lee Harris reinforced Crosby’s forecasts with the warning that there was “a real possibility” of layoffs. “We have to assume the worst in some ways,” he said.

The problem, as Commissioner Michael Whaley noted, is complicated by the fact of pending additional expenses for the Sheriff’s Department as it gears up for enlarged responsibilities in portions of Shelby County de-annexed from the City of Memphis, or about to be.

Harris indicated he would be consulting with other county officials this week preparatory to making a major budget statement on Monday, when the commission will be holding its next regularly scheduled public meeting.

The promise of imminent focus on budget matters was uniformly welcomed by Commissioners. “The public understands the severity of the situation,” as Commissioner Brandon Morrison noted. As well, County CAO Dwan Gilliom said he supported “any action to mitigate spending and find a way out of the fiscal situation. The hiring freeze, good until at least June 20th, was proposed by Commissioner Mick Wright.

In a special ad hoc meeting that followed the committee sessions, the commission returned to the matter of appropriating $2 million to assist in responding to the COVID-19 epidemic. The appropriation was rejected in regular session last week when commissioners failed to agree on a source for the funding.

In Wednesday’s reconsideration of the matter, Commissioner Tami Sawyer proposed a direct outlay of the previously considered $2 million for PPE equipment, personnel, and overtime expenses, as well as an additional $500,000 to the Christ Community Health Service to support testing for coronavirus at its outlets. Her resolution passed unanimously.

All of the matters discussed and approved on Wednesday will be revisited for formal approval at Monday’s regular commission meeting.

That includes a resolution on voting matters, proposed by Sawyer Whaley and Van Turner that 1) seeks an executive order from Governor Bill Lee to allow expanded absentee voting in light of the ongoing pandemic; and 2) urges again, as the commission has already done once, that machines allowing voter-marked paper ballots be purchased to replace the Diebold machines currently in use.

That resolution received a favorable recommendation on a vote of 7 for, 3 opposing, and 1 abstaining.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

County Commission Backs Censure of Judge Lammey

CREDIT: JB

In a dramatic morning session, the Shelby County Commission on Wednesday voted 7-2 “in support of the public censure” of Criminal Court Judge James Lammey.

The move, a response to well-publicized Facebook posts by Lammey considered potentially anti-Semitic and racist and to courtroom actions and attitudes of his widely regarded as prejudicial to minorities, came via an add-on resolution from Democratic Commissioner Tami Sawyer.

Several representatives of established civic associations and religious and ethnic groups — Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Hispanic — spoke in support of the resolution, as did most of the Commissioners on hand for the body’s committee sessions.

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Dr. Nabil Bayakly, chairman of Muslims in Memphis, speaks for Sawyer resolution.

Speaking strongly on behalf of the resolution, Republican Commission and Commission vice chair Mark Billingsley made a point of emphasizing that the resolution should be regarded not as “political” or as either Dermocratic or Republican but as a generalized and necessary statement by the Commission as a whole.

Billingsley went on to successfully advocate for several
JB

Commissioner Sawyer

 amendments strengthening the tone of the resolution.

Two Republican Commissioners, Amber Mills and Brandon Morrison, would nevertheless end up abstaining from the vote — Mills on the ground that the Commission had not yet heard directly from Lammey, Morrison warning of entering upon a “slippery slope” and contending that the Commission as a legislative body should defer on judgmental matters to specifically judicial authorities; she recommended the state Board of Judicial Conduct.

Sawyer, who insisted on a Commission vote, would respond that the Commission could afterward ask its staff to contact the Board of Judicial Conduct for further action. She was clearly infuriated by Mills’ remarks regarding Lammey’s “side of the matter” and indicated she was put off as well by a suggestion from Billingsley that Lammey be invited to respond, either in person or in writing, at the Commission’s next regular public meeting on Monday.

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Billingsley speaking for resolution

In an extended and emotional speech, Sawyer recounted an online communication she personally had received two weeks earlier from a declared white supremacist, who vilified her, threatened her with physical harm, and announced his intention to make sure her body ended up in the Mississippi River. Comparing that communication with Lammey’s various online postings — which included links to Holocaust deniers and overt racists — and what she described as his overly punitive treatment of immigrants in court, Sawyer said if someone had dared to ask her to consider the “other side” of her would-be attacker’s point of view or had told her the Commission, similarly, would be interested in hearing out Lammey’s, “I would be offended.”

Sawyer received applause from attendees, as did Commissioner Eddie Jones subsequently as he choked up while describing being addressed by a white National Guardsman on the night of Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968. The man said “Little nigger boy, where are you going?” and said Jones, “I never forgot those words.”

Voting for the resolution were Republicans Billingsley and David Bradford, and Democrats Sawyer, Edmund Ford, Reginald Milton, Eddie Jones, and Michael Whaley.

A letter to Lammey announcing the results of Wednesdays’s action and confirming the Commission’s wish to give him opportunity to respond on Monday, when the action is scheduled to become official, was dispatched by email to the Judge. It can be seen below:

[pdf-1]

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

County Commission in Busy Reorganization Session

CREDIT: JB

JB

Announcing joint Commission-Council initiative on police shootings were, l to r: Commissioner/Councilman Edmund Ford Jr., and Commissioners Tami Sawyer, Mickell Lowery, and Van Turner (Commission chair).

Anyone who wondered if District 7 County Commissioner Tami Sawyer would maintain her social activism in office can rest assured: She’s still on the case.

The point was made over and over on Wednesday during the second committee session held so far by the group of Shelby County Commissioners elected on August 2 and installed on August 30.

The well-known all-purpose reform advocate, best known for spearheading last year’s citizen campaign to remove Confederate statuaries downtown was much in evidence on Wednesday in numerous ways. These ranged from an insistence that routine county lawn-mowing contracts up for renewal be open to racial minorities to a repudiation of the former County administration’s wish to end federal oversight of Juvenile Court to an add-on resolution that would seek the automatic involvement of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in shooting incidents involving local law enforcement.

The add-on resolution, keyed to the Monday shooting of Martavius Banks, was intended as a joint one to be coordinated with the Memphis City Council. It was co-sponsored by District 9 Commissioner Ed Ford, who for the time being continues to serve as the District 6 member on the Council and, at the behest of new Commission chair Van Turner, is serving as a kind of official liaison between the two elected local bodies.

Sawyer and Ford were joined at a mid-afternoon announcement of the joint initiative in the lobby of the Vasco Smith County Administration Building by Commissioner Mickell Lowery of District 8 and chairman Turner, who represents Commission District 12.

Ultimately, noted Turner, the involvement of the TBI in investigating shooting cases, once approved by the Council as well as the Commission, would require action by the General Assembly in Nashville to become official.

Wednesday’s committee sessions were notable also for the presence of Mayor Lee Harris and County CAO Patrice Williamson-Thomas, who announced the appointment of former Juvenile Court magistrate Marlinee Clark Iverson to be new County Attorney. Harris also made known his intention to appoint an educational liaison official to coordinate communication between the various individuals, agencies and institutions involved with public education in Shelby County.

The Mayor also formally affirmed his decision, announced earlier, to name former Memphis City Attorney Herman Morris as Settlement Coordinator for the 2012 Memorandum of Agreement between Shelby County, the U.S Department of Justice, and Juvenile Court. Morris will replace Judge Paul Summers, whose contract for that role will expire in October.

Harris’ announcement, coupled with the Commission’s vote on Wednesday to formally recall the second of two letters written by former Mayor Mark Luttrell last year seeking an end to federal oversight of Juvenile Court operations, formally denotes a renewed solidarity of Mayor and Commission in committing Shelby County government to the path of reform mandated by DOJ. The 2012 Memorandum came in the wake of an investigation by the Justice Department that found a pattern of racial inequities and administrative irregularities in need of correction.

In one of several reorganization measures approved on Wednesday, the Commision authorized Chairman Turner to select an Assistant County Attorney to serve as Legislative Services Director to the Board of Commissioners. Turner announced that his choice for that position would be current Assistant County Attorney Marcy Ingram, who, he said, had been unjustly passed over twice for the position of County Attorney.

It would appear that Ingram’s appointment to directly serve the Commission in that capacity, officially fulfilling a desire held by the former Board of Commissioners and resisted by former Mayor Luttrell, would require at least the tacit consent of Mayor Harris and County Attorney Williamson-Thomas.

Turner also announced committee assignments for the new Commission on Wednesday. These, several of which gave Sawyer ample scope, were:

Budget and Finance — Eddie Jones, chair; Edmund Ford, vice chair.
Public Works — Mickell Lowery, chair; David Bradford vice chair.
Hospitals & Health — Reginald Milton, chair.
Law Enforcement, Corrections & Courts — Tami Sawyer, chair; Mark Billingsley, vice chair.
Land Use Planning, Transportation & Codes Enforcement — Edmund Fordk chair; David Bradford vice chair.
Education — Michel Whaley, chair; Tami Sawyer, vice chair.
Economic Development and Tourism — Willie Brooks, chair; Mickell Lowery, vice chair.,
Community Services — Brandon Morrison, chair; Tami Sawyer, vice chair.
Conservation — Mick Wright, chair; Amber Mills, vice chair.
General Government — Mark Billingsley, chair; Mickell Lowery, vice chair.
Legislative Affairs — Amber Mills, chair; Mark Billingsley, vice chair.
Audit — Eddie Jones, chair; Edmund Ford, vice chair.
Delinquent Tax Property — Amber Mills, chair; Reginald Milton, vice chair.
Equal Opportunity/MWBE/LOSB — Van Turner, chair; Tami Sawyer, vice chair.
Facilities, Real Property and Capital Improvement — David Bradford, chair; Michael Whaley, vice chair.
Workforce Development and CEP Grants — Eddie Jones, chair; Brandon Morrison, vice chair.

And the chairman also made appointments to various inter-agency boards and commissions. These were:

Aging Commission of the Mid-South — Reginald Milton
Agricenter Commission — David Bradford
Chickasaw Basin Authority — Amber Mills
EDGE Board — Willie Brooks
EOC appeals board — Tami Sawyer, Eddie Jones, and Commission CAO Quran Folsom
Downtown Memphis Commission — Mickell Lowery
Juvenile Court Committee — Tami Sawyer
Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau Board — Eddie Jones
Public Records Commission — Commission CA Quaran Folsom
Shelby County Agricultural Extension Committee — Mick Wright, Amber Mills, David Bradford
Shelby County Beer Board — Brandon Morrison
Shelby County Retirement Board — Commission CAO Quran folsom, Eddie Jones
Shelby Farms Park Conservancy — Mark Billingsley, Michael Whaley
Tennessee County Commissioners Association — Amber Mills