City Council - Regular Meeting

The February 3rd, 2026 Executive Session of the Memphis City Council is hereby called to order. Miss Hayes, would you please call the role? Councilman Canali. Councilman Carlile present. Councilwoman Cooper Sutton present. Councilwoman Easter Thomas present. Councilman Ford.

Councilwoman Green. Councilwoman Green, Councilwoman Logan, Councilman Smiley, Councilman Spinosa, here. Councilwoman Walker, present. Councilman Warren, present. Councilwoman White and Chair Swearing Washington,

present. Thank you, Miss Hayes. We have one item on the agenda today. That item is item number one, inclement weather update regarding road conditions. All council districts requested by the Memphis City Council. Council members, if you will please enter the queue in the chat if you would like to be recognized after the update. Director Morgan, the floor is in your hands. Thank you, Chairwoman, and good morning uh all. So, Scott Morgan, public works director, 125 North Main. I'm going to share my screen real quick for a brief update and some stats. All right. Can you see my screen?

Yes.

All right. Okay. So, just a quick kind of update and recap of of this event. So, our our priority based winter operations plan, we began January 21st. Uh we pre-treated uh with our brine solution for three days. Began salt and plow operations on the third shift which is our 11 pm shift at night. Uh as accumulation started to um you know fall on the roadways or precipitation started to accumulate on the roadways. So we developed for this event a primary, secondary and tertiary routes um that I is on a map on the next page. Um this included, you know, based on emergency routes, high traffic volume, connectivity to hospitals, warming centers, and interstates that were all kind of planned out through this event. Uh we also worked with MATA on their select routes that they reestablished uh middle of next week or middle of last week. Um six fire stations and then 2011 popppler in the juvenile detention center. Uh as a reminder, you know, we talked about this before. You know, our our plan is to ensure we have at least one lane open in each direction. That way, we can deploy uh resources to other areas. Uh we had 16 salt trucks, um 15 plows, which included six contractor plows. And then as the week went on last week um and we got into those warmer temperatures, especially on January 29th, uh we worked with some additional contractors that were out throughout the city and brought those on available as they were available uh to hit hit on the on the tertiary routes, the third tier routes that we developed. So all right, so this is the map. Um the what's online is the primary and secondary. So, I know there's a lot going on here, but um you know, as a reminder, city's 320 square miles. We have 6,800 lane miles of street. Uh the

red is primary. Uh those are the initial routes that we hit, your major, uh roadways that are, you know, linked to interstates that help move the mass majority of of citizens safely. uh secondary routes are the ones in green and then the tertiary routes which is the third level are the ones in blue. So those are you know still still major thorough affairs but providing a lot more options for connectivity and some of these you know start getting towards you know and into neighborhoods now not not treating neighborhood streets but larger streets that are going into neighborhoods. Uh and then the purple is your mATA select routes that were identified that uh we connected up with our our routes to ensure they had service. And then the warming centers and hospitals are also noted on this map. Uh so all in all, you know, you almost have about 700 lane miles uh for these three routes were which were identified uh you know that we were able to treat in well about a week. So, here's the totals um for this event. About 46,000 gallons of brine, 1,800 lane miles uh treated. And uh you'll note that, you know, total lane miles for those three uh routes is about 700 miles. We treated about 1,800 because as the event, you know, started with all the accumulation and the refreeze, a lot of routes were treated multiple times. And so we count all that and 2,500 tons of salt and then the manh hours, the public works man hours, you know, and our contractors over 4,500 hours in a week's worth time. So just kind of a summary, I mean this was a historic event for Memphis up to

six inches of snow and sleet. Um we all know that the salt begins to be less effective at less than 15 and plowing ice is generally ineffective. Uh so once you know once we got all that sleet accumulation you know and it it was allowed to just kind of sit and pack packed together uh it pretty much formed a you know block of ice and unless the roadways are are treated with salt to start getting some of that melting action it makes it very difficult. Uh so currently all of the primary, secondary and tertiary routes are pretty much completely clear. Um, I mean, as y'all know, you've been, I'm sure, out in senior neighborhoods, smaller residential streets still have some accumulation, but you're, you know, a lot of, um, the ruts where people have been driving have, you know, started to see asphalt and then with the warming weather and the rain today, uh, that'll make traveling a lot easier as it, you know, kind of turns slushy. Um, I know, you know, there are some frustrations that we can't get to all the routes, but or all the streets in Memphis. Um, and I understand that, but it was a it was a challenging event. You know, a lot different event than what it was last year where we just had all snow and, you know, we were able to treat the primary and secondary and then within, you know, two days it was is pretty much gone. It's, you know, it stays kind of fluffy and you can drive on it, but the ice was definitely challenging. Uh but public works crews along with you know all the other divisions that assisted GS parks, MPD, MFD all did you know a great job you know treating all these all these treats and making sure you know community centers and warming centers and things like that were able to serve the public. Um, one uh last thing, there's a, you know, note here on from the uh weather service. You know, this is the highest ranked uh length of time where Memphis has had more than three inches

of snow on the ground, you know, in in consecutive days. So, more than six days. So, that just kind of tells you that with the extreme temperatures, uh, you know, that's the stuff that just accumulated on the roadways that we weren't able to get to just did not go away. So, and Chairwoman, that's my update. Thank you. You're welcome. Director Morgan, we have a question from Councilwoman Green. Councilwoman Green, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, director. Um I appreciate you getting this to us and I see that this presentation will be sent to all of us so that we can share it with our um constituents as it goes to the you know top three areas that you are doing. I mean obviously you're cleaning popular etc. I'm wondering is there a priority around our schools? So, for example, I live on Massie and um there's two private schools that are back up to my street. Ridgeway um is a lot more clear, but are we prioritizing the the streets that have schools on them as well?

Yes and no. Not all of them. I mean, we I think Chief Adams had discussions with the school district. Um, but they also have their own uh plowing contractor uh that, you know, was kind of I think redeployed Friday uh over the weekend to help start clearing, you know, parking lots and things like that. But from a mass getting every street cleared to schools, no. But we did hit a lot of them. So, I guess my suggestion, it sounds like their plowing is for parking lots. Um, so, you know, look, I'm a mom. I got three kids. I got two in public schools, one in private school. Um, and the private school went back today, but the roads around the school was were bad. Public schools are still closed. I'm just wondering as we move forward, this is the thing that keeps a lot of people at home. This is the thing because if the kids can't be in school, then the parents can't be at work. If we can work more closely with the schools on making sure that our routes are clear, um, you know, Ridgeway Middle's over here on Quint. I'm sure you're already hitting some of those roads, but if there are places and spaces that are not getting hit, can that be in our tertiary um, you know, priorities? So, I'm just putting that out there for you so that we can have some conversations moving forward to make this more efficient, especially for kids and parents to get back into schools because we hate this loss of learning. We hate the loss that is happening to our productivity in the city as well. Thank you, chair.

Yes, ma'am. Completely understand. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. I was just going to ask

Councilwoman, I I appreciate that and you know, we can discuss that. I just think um while we can hit a lot of the major roads around those schools, you know, and try to build build some capacity in to still, you know, the residential and the neighborhoods where your school buses are going. We just we won't be able to get back in there to, you know, to collect get the get all the kids to the school. And that's part of what we could have that conversation with the schools on. My husband is from up north and they had alternative pickup spots when there were snow days and those pickup spots were on the main roads. So again, if we can get you to Ridgeway or to Quint, um you might have to to walk there and leave early, but instead of being picked up at your residential corner, we need to be having these conversations so the schools know what streets we have cleared to see if they can get kids there. But that's what they do in other parts of the world. Um they do have more plows. I know a lot of people have been talking about that, but there are other things they've done, too, which is for example have alternative snow routes. And I think that that's something we could have a conversation about if both the city of Memphis and the Shelby County School District are having a conversation around what do we need and do during snow days. I yield chair.

Thank you. Uh Chief Adams, did you want to add something to that? I saw your hand raised.

Yeah. Yes, ma'am. So, Director Morgan is correct. Um, I did have conversations with uh the schools and their facility staff as they deploy to deploy their their staff and their team. My request to them is to extend out maybe a block or two uh around the school and we could then meet them at the main collector. Um, unfortunately they were uh constrained with u resources so they could not and we were as well. I would say this, we we understand and echo that same concern, Councilwoman Green, as many of the bus routes are the same routes that we have to traverse to pick up trash. And so that that also impacts our service and most importantly, those are the neighborhoods that people have to get out to go to work. It was important for us to open up the the roadways so that we can continue to operate around the city. And so with that from a lessons learned, we will then engage the schools more proactively so that they one can respond a lot sooner so that we can meet them at the main collector and then of course it helps to open up the entire neighborhood. So we'll work together. Also, we'll bring Shelby County to the table as well so they can help us as well.

Thank you, Chief. We have Councilwoman Cooper Sutton in the queue and then Dr. W.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Council Members. It's good to see everyone. Um, my concerns were exactly the same. I reached out to the Shelby County uh side uh a couple days ago and had a very long and um heartfelt conversation on collaborating and how we have not done that very well. This is not our first rodeo with this bad weather. This is This probably will not be our last rodeo with this weather and things that are happening across the globe and what we're seeing. However, collaboration um is very very important. when I reached out when I did contact uh the person on the county side they were very kind of shocked because in these situations and I'm just saying because I'm learning I'm learning as well but in these situations Shelby County Memphis sits in Shelby County and I'm sure that I did find out that they don't have a very large public work uh maintenance department however there should have been all type of collaboration because we all are affected I understand that Memphis is not um uh is not uh uh as far as she said as far as the individual she said to me um how it's prioritized but however the collaboration um has been very poor and let's just be honest I'm sure we have you know I I heard Chief Adams and we thank all of the hard work that has been put forth thus far but we're going to have to learn as a government body this is not uh separation this is unity and us working together you know we always hear I work on the other side and this side and you know I I'm I'm new to the game uh and

some of you all are true to the game but however it takes just a little bit more uh us getting out of ourselves and putting a lot of things aside and working together my prayer is both of our mayors come together when we are in situations like this and collaborate and talk and we all sit at the table that it can be better for each and every one of our citizens around Shelby County that we can navigate through this a little bit better with heartfelts because this is just not about us and our personal agendas. It's about this entire city. I yield. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much, Councilwoman. Dr. Warren, you're in the queue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I I just want to say that if you look at the slides that we saw, you can see this is the worst weather that we've ever recorded with the National Weather Service. And someone asked me, "How come we don't have more than 16 plows or whatever?" And I said, 'Well, you know, we could probably buy 50 plows and hire people that can use them and keep them on payroll for 10 years and use them once a week every 10 years and we could get the streets clean. So I mean some of this is just you know global climate change and you know we cannot you know meet every emergency and have everything perfect when we just don't have the resources to do that. So I I really appreciate the planning that went on how emergency people could get to where they needed to be. How we got our homeless housed. uh you know how we had few we didn't have a ton of deaths in this which could easily have happened with this horrible weather. Uh I was able to get to work every day I needed to go to work in the hospital. The hospitals function, emergency services function. The problem with schools is since we've got a Memphis Shelby County schools, they can't open the schools until every school can be open. That means all those county roads that go to Bolton have got to be available to run. Means all of our small roads that have got to be available for kids to walk on. And as a community, we are not a northern community. So we do not source that and we don't fund that. So as much as we're frustrated with it, I really think that we did a heck of a job with the

resources we have. And you know, we need to be like letting people know this is, you know, not something that we're going to see every day. And if we start having one of these twice a year or once a year, then we're going to have to gear up for it. But I don't, you know, if you look here on this map that we got out, the last thing we had like this was in 1988. Uh, so that's a long time, you know, that's 40 years, 45 years. 47 years, you know, that we've got this thing that came about. So, do we really want to spend a lot of money for something that happens every 47 years? I don't think so. And I think, you know, one of the things we have to do is when our team has done a good job with the we have, we got to say well done. And so, my comment is I think we did really well with what we had. Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield.

Thank you for that. We do have to celebrate the wins. All right, Director Davis, if you're on the line, if you will please update us, the floor is yours.

Yes, ma'am. Uh, Philip Davis, always director um 125 North Main. Uh, so yeah, we did uh suspend service and service has been suspended. I'm looking at a calendar. uh since January 24th um some Friday customers were scheduled because of the MLK holiday um were delayed uh to that Saturday and that service uh was suspended and we've been sus we've suspended services for seven business days now today's the 7th um to director uh Morgan's point I mean this is uh been an unprecedented accumulation of ice the ice uh in the in the ride ofway not just on the streets, but uh uh between the curb and curb and edge of the sidewalk where people put their carts, that's where our employees walk um uh behind the truck. I mean, we uh we have uh a manual uh collection system because of the amount of outside the cart waste that we allow. And because of that, uh we use rear loader comp rear loader compactor uh type garbage trucks and uh we collect it by hand. um uh walking those those uh routes. Those routes are about 7 to eight miles long each and uh uh putting folks out on out on the streets during this uh um would have been very hazardous to those employees. Not to mention uh starting over the weekend, I did get a lot of uh start getting phone calls from neighborhood leaders uh asking about resumption of services and their concern for their their constituents being able to put the carts out at the curb safely. So, um we uh are seeing some weather. I'm looking out the window. We're seeing some weather right now. This rain hopefully is going to knock down a lot of this ice. Um, and our plans right now are to uh report and uh and uh make a go of it

tomorrow. Uh, again, we're going to evaluate conditions and make sure that we uh we resume services when it is safe. Uh, but our our plan right now is to start Wednesday customers on Wednesday.

Thank you, Director Councilwoman Walker. You're in the queue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, Director Davis, my my question is dealing with the one-armed bandit, and can you take a brief moment to tell everybody what that is because I know you'll do a much better job than me, and then I'll move forward with my question.

Yes, ma'am. So, uh, that is a what you're describing is a a a term for a a fully automated truck. That's the truck that has the arm that comes extends out the side and grabs the cart and then flips it over the top of the truck uh into it. That is a fully automated garbage truck um uh that you're describing.

Okay. Thank you for that. So, the new trucks we have, do they have are they do they have the one-armed bandit? And as you all work to catch up, will you be using the trucks with the one-armed bandit more? So, is that an option?

No, ma'am. Right now, that is not the plan. And it's because of our service delivery model. Um, we allow too much outside the cart waste, uncontained waste. Um, and that renders a one-armed band of truck uh ineffective. Um, I'd be driving down the street, uh, emptying carts and leaving bags. Uh, and that is not, um, that's that's just not the the service delivery model that we offer currently. We'd have to go to fully containerized service and eliminate outside the cart collection in order to make an automated truck reasonable in our system.

Okay. Is that something that we should want to explore in the future? uh the industry is driving that way. Um it certainly is more efficient to have containerized collection only. Um and it also reduces on the job injuries as well. Um and a lot of the big hauling companies uh nationwide are going to fully automated containerized only collection. Um, I do think that that would uh reduce litter, reduce blight um because things would be in a card, but that is a behavior change that would be very that would it would be very a very substantial behavior change um uh for our community.

Okay. Thank you, Director Davis. Madam Chair, I yield the floor. All right. Councilman Spinosa, did you want to say anything?

Yes. Thank you, uh, Chairwoman. I thought I pushed Q and then for some reason it auto corrected the A. Thank you for recognizing the A as a Q. But, uh, great questions there, Councilwoman Walker. Yeah, to me, and I want to thank Scott. I want to thank Philip. I want to thank everybody. Look, I talked to Scott every day throughout this. I was getting calls. I was bugging them. Um, I drove downtown today. The precipitation was different. I think I think we did do a great job, but I think there's always room for improvement as well. So, yeah, I think we need to celebrate the way it was handled. Celebrate the way the citizens handled this. Um, MLGW, great job. So, I'm staying positive. But a couple things like the automated um trash pickup, right? Um, the solid waste collection with the one-armed bandit. Uh, Scott, was there anything specific in a perfect world that you, you know, you wish you would have had in the middle of all this? Um, and I'm asking myself that question, too. I'm not saying that we're going to change the world here the next two years that we're on the council working together, but I plan on running and winning again. So, that'll give me six years down here. I would love to be a part of implementing something and I I I fully expect us I'm asking um Scott and Philip and Antonio and all of us to get back together again and maybe have one, two or three things that came out of this that we could do better. um are just looking forward and seeing, you know, if it's again automated one-armed bandit uh solid waste collection, if that's a process that that we know we need to change, then we could maybe start that, right? That would have helped. So, I'll leave that there.

All right. Thank you all. Great job. Y Thank you. Councilman Chief Adams, would you like to share something with us?

Yes, ma'am. So um postevent we are we plan the administration uh members in administration plan to get together to do what what what I call is a lessons learned or actor after excuse me after event uh debrief to kind of talk about what was successful what resources we had what we could do differently and what were our blind spots. You know, one thing that I charge the team to do is not let perfection paralyze any decision or any action. Right now, we can always pivot based on circumstances. And I think the pivot the pivots that we made were good pivots. I think that we can always do better and we will strive to do better and continuously improve. Um, one of the things that we do have to consider is the nature of the weather. The nature of the weather does dictate a lot of our responses. We did run to failures in some some respects, but then in a many respects, we were prepared, ready to go. A lot of comments out there that uh were not necessarily true and we were able to dispel those rumors. But I will say this, um I appreciate all the support that you guys have given us. you as a body individually, you've called to just say, "Hey, good job. You guys are doing a good you you guys guys are doing great." When we were not doing great, you didn't yell at us. You just gave us opportunities to improve. So, I definitely appreciate all of all of the support. We will come back to you what we saw as our blind spots, but then most importantly, we will engage you as well as to some of those things that we can do better as we move forward. So, thank you.

Thank you. And I think that's a fantastic way to end our meeting this morning. Thank you all for all of your support. We appreciate you. All right, there are no more council members in the queue. So, this concludes our executive session meeting. Thank you. We will now transition to our Memphis Light Gas and Wall.

Thank you all. February 3rd, 2026, and the time is 11:06 a.m. I hereby call the Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Committee to order. Miss Smith, may we please have roll call. Yes, ma'am. Councilman Canali. Councilman Carlile, Councilwoman Cooper Sutton,

present. Councilman Ford, Senior, present. Councilwoman Green, present. Councilwoman Dr. Easter Thomas. Councilman Smiley, I'm here virtually. Councilman Spinosa, I'm here virtually just like JB. Chairwoman Swan Washington, Councilman Dr. Warren,

present. Chair Walker, did I miss anybody or present? Sounds good. I'm thank you for that. Okay, thank you for that. And we have one item on the agenda today. Item number one is a discussion of the MLGW fiscal consent agenda. All council districts requested by Memphis Light Gas and Water. President McGowan, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Doug McGallen, Memphis Lake Gas and Water, 220 South Main. Um, today we have several items on the agenda totaling $2.2 million, bringing our total amount to 17 million for this year. If we go to the next slide, the first item is consideration of $227,000. Uh, this is for our community care funds. We could slip the slide to the next one. Next one. Sorry. Go to slide four also. There we go. $227,000 for utility assistance. Uh annually TVA provides MLGW with funding to help our customers who need some assistance paying their bills. That is predicated on MLGW matching that. This year the amount is $227,000 being provided. Uh MLGW matches that and we provide that funding to Neighborhood Christian Centers who administers the same funds that the city council gives us for utility assistance. So this is a a force multiplier for us to help as many customers as we possibly can. The next slide is for a data historian replacement. This is not a person but a software system. This is a five-year agreement. This is for our system operations center. For many of you who've been out there on Cington Pike where we have our water, gas, and operations system operators. All of that data needs to be backed up and stored. And this data historian is the thing that rep that stores all of the data historic data about the performance of our electric gas and water systems so that we can go back and assess should we ever need to what occurred with any kind of an outage or any kind of anomaly. Next slide is for Quest Toad software licenses. It's a funny name in the amount of $461,000 but this is for our information service system. This uh is kind of an aggregator

of opportunity for our software engineers so that they can extract data from the many many databases that we had and we can also automate the jobs that we have to make sure that the code works together and we don't cause any unnecessary problems in all the software systems. So this is kind of an enabler for our software engineers to make sure that they can create uh the processes that we need to run the organization to pull critical data uh for our teams. Next slide is for janitorial services in the amount of $360,000. This is a renewal, the fourth renewal for one year uh for Mason's professional cleaning service. We have janitorial needs to serve many of our facilities at MLGW and Mason's does a great job for us. This just extends their current contract for one year. The next slide is for on call consulting services. This is a two-year contract with Allen and Holshaw. This is not for our utility systems, but this is for our buildings that we have in MLGW and our other facilities, the grounds and those kinds of things. So, our shared services division uses Allen and Hullshaw for engineering services for things like improvements to our buildings when we need to integrate new systems or upgrades to buildings when we need to replace things that have failed. Uh, should there be any problems with the concrete, any problems with the electrical or the HVAC systems, we use these engineers to help us design our buildings for retrofit of any upgrades that we need to make. Those are the items that we have today subject to your questions. Madam Chair,

thank you for your presentation. Do we have any questions or comments from anyone? I don't see anyone in the queue. Okay, Councilwoman Green, you have the floor. I just wanted to say thank you as we have had some struggles during this winter storm. What has not been a struggle is everybody, most everybody keeping their power. I'm really grateful. Um, I just want to say great work to the MLGW team. I know that we're having to deal with a few water break issues. Um, but I just wanted to say good job to you and to your team. And I know that you released some of them to go help Nashville and that's really great, too. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

All right, Councilman Spinosza, you're recognized. Thank you, Chairwoman. Um, I'm going to repeat what Jerry said. President McGawan, thank you. I think it's important for us to recognize the good stuff and and she really said it all, but it's just unbelievable really considering where we were a decade ago. Um, humbly when I was on the council and where we are today and thank you, sir. Thank you to everybody over there for everything you've done. Thanks to the council as well for supporting uh supporting you and everything you've done. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, sir.

You're welcome. Um, Councilwoman Cooper Sutton, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you um President McGawan for you and your team actually doing your job and doing it very well. Thank you for the communication sending it out that we were able in some capacity to share the information that you all were sharing on your communication side to share with our constituents with a lot of questions and concerns. Thank you for addressing um some simple things that I personally sent to you and you eagerly taking care of them for the constituents here. I know sometimes it doesn't look like things are moving in a trajectory where we think it should, but I want to say thank you for answering every simple question that may be simple to some people, but as a learning curve and me asking and really doing a deep dive trying to truly understand it. Um, we get enough backlash even from me sometimes. I can um admit to that and confess to that, but thank you for um being very consistent and committed to making sure that I understand and making sure that I'm able to share it with our constituents. Um this has been the most transparent um council and our dialogue has been very open and willing to share and not trying to put things on the back burner and hide if we don't know. we just don't know. So, thank you for doing your job and being committed to it and your team. as far as um constituents with highlight bills and your team um just give a shout out to them, working with them behind the scene and I wanted to openly say

thank you for your team, Tim Davis and their team really being on top of it, making sure that the constituents understand um the lingo sometimes which is kind of hard for our constituents and especially the constituents that to serve in the district that we serve. So, thank you for that. And again, just a huge shout out to Tim Davis and his team in the communication and your communication team. So, thank you again, President McGawan. Thank you, Councilwoman. Chair, do you mind if I have just a a couple of moments for a couple of comments? Would you mind? Sure. Go ahead.

Um, thank you. Thank you, council, for your support for today for the consent agenda items. I do want to mention just a few things with respect to the storm because I think it's important. Number one, uh we do feel for our uh friends in Mississippi and Nashville who were deeply impacted with ice. We were fortunate that we did not get impacted with ice. Um I think it is a testament to the improvements that we've made over the past that you've referenced. You know, uh we used to hear the wind blows and the power goes out. That's no longer the case. Um, but if we had been impacted like by the ice like Nashville was, make no mistake, we would have had some outages because that is very difficult to recover from. It's just a fact when you have inches of ice that it's just going to break things. So, um, we're fortunate. We were prepared. We had more than 50 contracted external electric crews standing by and pre-positioned on Friday before that storm hit. So, we would have been able to respond quickly. and we had our 75 tree crews on standby. So, preparation was important. We're fortunate. On the water side, I do want to call out that we had some deeply cold and persistent temperatures causing our team, we have responded to since last Saturday, more than 120 water mane breaks, 30 burst fire protection systems, and more than,00 calls for service to residents and businesses for people who had suffered broken pipes. So, our team was working 24/7 to respond out there to make sure that we took care of that. And the important thing is that while some customers may have lost water temporarily while we shut that water off to fix the break, we did not suffer any loss of pressure across the system, nor do we have any long-term outages of water. Our water quality did not suffer, and our team did a really good job. So, I want to give a shout out to the water team specifically. Now, I also appreciate and uh and we'll pass on to our team the the recognition

and applause for the work that they did. But um I do also want to say in full transparency with everybody and set the conditions here that we had historically cold temperatures that persisted for a very long time. And the good news is that we were very proud to be able to provide the utilities that our customers needed to stay warm and to be able to live throughout that very very difficult period. But with that very cold temperature for a very long time comes higher consumption. Um people needed to have their heaters on for a longer period of time to overcome that very cold temperature. And so with a higher rate of consumption, we all know that means a higher bill is coming. And so I just want to let you all know that your constituents and for all of us, we should all expect when you use more than you did compared to this point last year, your bill will be higher because we all consumed a lot more gas. For perspective, nationally, this was the third highest level of natural gas consumption on record. For us here, it was also a very historic high rate of natural gas consumption which we use to heat our homes. So, I just want to let everybody know that uh ahead of time before the February bills come, there will be a little sticker shock because we all used a heck of a lot more gas and a lot more electricity. For our customers, and thank you for saying this, Councilwoman Cooper Sutton, for our customers who think that is going to be a challenge, I recommend you do not wait. Please call our team now and say if it's going to be higher I might need a payment arrangement. I might need some other arrangements and our team would be happy to help you with that. If you think you need some assistance our team would help you with that. I also want to present the fact that during this very deeply cold

temperature we do not cut customers off because of the threat to life and limb. That does not mean that those customers are not consuming electricity or gas. And I want to remind everybody that we are now at the point where we have almost 7,000 customers who would have already received or would have been cut off but were not because we held off on those cut offs because of the deeply cold temperatures. I also want to encourage all of those customers, please do not delay and wait for the temperatures to warm up and then a cuto off notice to be issued before you contact us. Call us now. let us work with you so that you're not at risk of being cut off. Um there is a tendency when we're not cutting off due to cold temperatures to kick the can down the road. We want to help all of our customers. So all of the I'm letting all the council members know so you can tell your constituents, you should call MLGW. Uh if you think there's going to be a challenge, if you think it's going to be tough for you to make that bill, if you've already been given a cuto off notice and you know it's just waiting for the temperature warm up for us to take action on that, please call us so we can help you. Um yes, our team has done a wonderful job. Uh the downside of that very cold temperature is that we all used a heck of a lot more energy and a lot more gas and that comes with a little higher bill. So uh in full transparency, I don't want there to be any surprises out there. Just want to let everybody know that that's what we should expect. So, thank you all. That concludes my comments, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Thank you for those wonderful comments and update. Um, and that's what I was going to say. Did anyone else have anything on that? And so, I'd like to recognize our chairwoman Swan Washington. You have the floor. Thank you so much, Chair. Could you reiterate, President McGawan, that MLGW is not calling around calling to the customers?

Yes. So, um, MLGW has a notification system. You may get a text message that says your bill is coming due. You may get an email saying your bill is coming due. But what you will never get from MLGW is a customer service representative calling you saying you need to pay now or you'll be cut off. I want to be clear, those are scammers. MLGW will never call you and threaten to cutting you off. If you're if you haven't paid your bill and you've been given due notice, the utilities just get cut off. We don't call and threaten you. Unfortunately, there are people who want to take advantage of customers in situations like this. So, um the notification you'll get will be typically through your my account. You'll get a mail payment saying you're subject to cutoff. You'll get a text reminder or an email saying your bill is due, but you will not get a human being from MLGW calling to threaten you with cuto off unless you pay today. That is a scam. So, uh hopefully that's clear. Uh chairwoman.

Okay, thank you for that. Anyone else? Okay. So with that um the MLGW fiscal consent agenda will go downstairs with a positive recommendation. Is there any other business that is to come before this committee? Seeing there is none, we are adjourned. string.

Uh this is Councilwoman Jerry Green. I hereby call the Economic Development and Tourism Committee to order. We have one item today that is our quarterly presentation from Dr. Massie with Edge all council districts rep um requested by me. Miss Massie, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Um so good morning everyone. I'm Joanne Massie, president CEO of EDGE, and I want to thank the council members for the opportunity to provide EDG's quarterly update today. Um, today I'll focus on the outcomes, accountability, and what EDGE is doing right now to grow family sustainable jobs and investment in Memphis and Shelby County. Next slide. So, EDG's work is organized around three pillars and I believe the council has seen this before but I just wanted to uh share it one more time. Um, and those three pillars re are business retention, expansion and recruitment as well as uh our business climate, competitive positioning and community outreach. Um, I'll briefly walk through each pillar and connect it to our measurable results from our fiscal year 2425 annual report that was provided to council. You should have received that by email. Next slide. So, the first pillar is business retention, expansion, and recruitment. And this pillar is about keeping and growing existing employers while also recruiting new investment uh into Memphis. In fiscal year 2025, EDGE supported 752 jobs created with an a average annual rate wage, excuse me, had a little coal, of $74,984 and generated over $1.1 billion in capital investment across Shelby County. These are tangible outcomes tied directly to projects EDGE supported. Next slide. We also work to ensure Memphis remains competitive. That means identifying programs and process improvements,

aligning our partners uh like the state of Tennessee Economic and Community Development, the Greater Memphis Chamber, and supporting startups and entrepreneurship. Competitiveness comes down to whether we can respond quickly to opportunities, deliver shovel shovel ready sites, and use incentive tools responsibly to keep Memphis in the game. This is where edge helps build a stronger pipeline so we are not just reacting but positioning Memphis for the next wave of opportunity. Next slide. So economic development uh we believe has to be transparent. It has to be community connected and responsive to the needs of the community. Edge is increasing has over the years increased our community education, strengthening our partnerships through sponsorships and collaboration and creating more opportunities for staff engagement and volunteerism. As an example, each month our staff is committed as part of our professional development in um volunteering 10 hours a month to junior achievement going out to the different schools and um helping the kids understand about careers both in economic development as well just in general those careers that our staff um is famili are familiar with. And this is how we make sure economic development is not just happening to communities but with them. Next slide. Next slide, please. Okay. Thank you, Summer. EDG's overall goal is to continue serving in a prominent leadership role as the lead public economic development agency for Memphis and Shelby County. We measure performance through jobs created, capital investment, business development

activity, again our community outreach, and job availability indicators. We track those outcomes because accountability is essential when public incentives are involved. And I know you all agree. Next slide. So success means measuring measurable impact that delivers value to the community through those things that I just mentioned. And in our FY uh 2425 uh document that you should have also received, which is the performance document, EDGE generated $70 million to lo I'm sorry, $70,000 to local small businesses spending. No, I'm sorry, it's 70 million uh local small business spending and 61 million in projected tax revenue. Those numbers reflect what success looks like with private investment leverage, local business participating, and public benefit generated. Next slide. So each year, um, EDGE does what's called an annual report performance, uh, evaluation. And in that evaluation, we request, uh, information from our companies. We do over 30 site visits where we actually go out and uh meet with the companies on their site and we do uh somewhat of an audit where we'll ask them information about their receipts uh what they show they spent their uh employees and we don't capture this information and take it with us because obviously you know there's this foyer request and not really sharing the business's is operational um and and portfolio information, but we

do look at it on site. And so this document here, and I'm going to go through real quickly, is uh the pilots's um performance for FY2425. So, next slide. So in 2425, EDGE approved six pilot projects resulting in 647 jobs with the 1.1 uh billion in capital investment and average annual wage as I mentioned of 74,000. When you look at this chart here, you can see in almost every category, the businesses have overachieved what they committed in jobs and capital investment and so forth. And so I think that's just very important for the council to see. Um, one other important factor, um, EDGE has 89 active pallet projects. the trustee and the assessor, they report the pilots by contracts. So, you'll see a number that says that EDGE has 239 pilots, but that's pilot contracts. And you can see that I also sent the link um to the council for the trustees report. So, as we're reporting these projects, we are reporting by company, but those contracts are a part of state uh legislation that requires a company who's receiving abatement to basically allow edge as the entity to take a lean on the property, both real and personal. Next slide. So this is just a visual demonstration of the companies that overperformed or what you know what achieved overperformance for their jobs. Next

slide for wages. Next slide. And so there is accountability with the with the pilots as I said and it's really critical and a priority for edge. And so here you see that seven pilots were either rescored or reduced or terminated. A lot of times when companies um are know that they're not going to be able to perform, we work with them to terminate them out of the program. So there are no companies that are just sitting on the pilot roles and not performing, not providing the jobs and capital investment they say they will. Next slide. So, small business is important to our community. Next slide. And neighborhood revitalization is a major priority for Edge. Um, what you see here is basically across Shelby County. We work within the new market tax credit areas. I've uh worked with a lot of the council to um help your constituents in your in your uh communities. And so what you see here is just a uh visual of how EDGE has helped small businesses across the county. Next slide. And then you see the zip codes here. Uh 75 businesses have been uh helped uh with this program with 16 unique zip codes. Next slide. And then you see the um types of businesses I believe. Yeah, types of businesses here as well as the zip code breakdown of that. So right now we have 48 businesses that are actively under loan uh obligations

and um they you know are open and and all we ask is that they stay open. they hire as they say they are going to hire for at least three years and then the loan is forgiven. Next slide. So as I wrap up uh we talked about community engagement. Um this this is just some visuals. Summer we can just kind of go through them. These are just some visuals of our community engagement. each and every pilot um small business, corporation, individual that we help in the community, we take great pride in knowing that their contribution is a contribution to the economic vitality of our community. Next slide. And you may even see yourself in some of these pictures. All right. Uh next slide. I think we should be to the end. And we like to take pictures as you can tell. We try to stay engaged on social media and communicating with our uh communities. Next slide. Is that it?

That was last.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you. So before I close, I just want to highlight also um along with edge, we have the port of Memphis. is one of our most important strategic assets. The port of Memphis is the second largest inland port uh on the shallow shallow draft portion of the Mississippi River and the sixth largest in the United States. During the FY2425, the port acquired uh 46 acres, which was the former Navy property, and we continue to uh recruit that out. Um, we had a $6 million roadway improvement project uh that was completed on President's Island with the city and state support. And all of this work is really done with the strong stewardship of my colleague Randy Richardson who is the executive director of the port. Uh, a lot of you have met Randy before and if we were in person, I would have taken a personal privilege to ask him to stand and give him a hand clap. But just know that Randy uh and his team do a lot of great work down there and I know they work with a lot of our city uh partners as well. So in closing um for EDG's FY2425 outcomes, they really show strong job creation, investment, and neighborhood impact while pro while maintaining performance oversight. So thank you council for your partnership and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you Dr. Massie, and I will echo what you said about Randy in the port. He gave me a really great tour not too long ago, and I highly recommend that everybody go out there and take a tour and see what all they have going on. I see Councilwoman Cooper Sutton in the queue. Before I do that, if you haven't, I kind of messed up and did not ask everybody to say their roll call. If you'll just mark present in the chat, I really appreciate it. Councilwoman Cooperetin, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair Green. Thank you, um, Joanne for your presentation. And I have just a few questions because when I look at where we are that we have employed fewer residents today than we had back in uh when you sent the presentation last night or when I got it when when I see that we've employed fewer residents today than we've had back in uh 2009 and 2010. What I'm asking is, and I and I and I don't want to be uh known as um the negative person because I'm just learning about all of this, especially EDGE and what you actually do and how committed we are to um our our constituents and our neighborhoods and the businesses here. And I did think I heard you say that you've committed almost $70,000 to the small businesses. Was that correct?

Well, actually it was u 70 million generated by the small businesses through the support. So 70 million generated. I that was my my mistake. Okay. That number sound it gave me. Yeah. When you said 70. No, me too. Me too. That's why I had to correct myself. Absolutely. Sorry, I got a little cold here.

That's okay. And we know for decades that we watched jobs decline here, you know, while and I'm just going to say it and if I stand to be corrected, I can be corrected. But I I'm doing my research and looking at my data because when we look at what we are really dealing with here, um the corporate tax breaks have expanded. Am I correct?

No, ma'am. I I can explain if you would like. Uh or if you want to finish. Okay. So I think so so the corporate tax breaks that you're talking about u there there are various ones but I'll speak to the pilots. We have uh had less pilots than we had back in 2009 and 10. That was a different era in our economy uh nationwide. And so what happens when the economy in the nation changes, Memphis, for many reasons is usually kind of on the tail end of that. So hands down, we have had less pilots than we've had in the past. So that's the first um response. The second response about the number of jobs. I know that this council knows that, you know, when you look at West Memphis, Dotto County, our suburban communities and others, we're looking at it from a regional aspect because our our neighbors work down in Minnesota County. Um, so all the jobs aren't necessarily located in Memphis, but there are an abundance of jobs that are unfilled. And one of the focuses that myself, our partners, again, I know the city uh, administration is focusing on is retraining and training up people to be able to take those jobs of the future. take those jobs that are not even really future but now. Um and so there are many many jobs available. We just need to get people trained and get them access to it. So, one of the things that EDGE has committed to do alongside of our partners, uh, like the chamber who heads

up and is the fiscal agent and administrator for the workforce, um, uh, programs, is to work with them to help get the information out to constituents to help companies identify Memphians that they can hire. So, it's very complex, but I I don't when you talk about less, if you talk about the city of Memphis proper and not the region, you're missing the opportunities that our citizens are actually available to them and they're actually taken advantage of.

So, how do we get that out there? I hear this over and over and over and over and over again. the jobs are there and our constituents are not trained. There's so many organizations that are out there that are doing there's a gap somewhere. Something is missing. And if we keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over again and I keep hearing the same thing and nothing nothing directed to you because you do an amazing job. You know that I know you. I know the work that you do and the hard work that you do. I understand that. But what I cannot do is continue to know what I know and see what I see and commend and know that I I have three to four different men and women that are looking for jobs and we have not yet their skill set. I think I just I wrote something down that you said training them and getting them prepared and preparation for what this future is going to look like or what it's looking like and we have all these people and all these companies that you just said they're needing them. So, how do we prepare? What what what do we do different? Because whatever we're doing or have been doing, we're getting the same results. And and I know that you're out there in the communities. I've been to your meetings, you know, and I see you out there. But how do we get in the trenches? How do we get with a Memphis lift that is about to do a job fair because of Amazon, because of Nike, and because of UPS? the the the biggest thing that I have and that is yearning down on the inside of me is just a thing that my my my the old people where I come from from the south would say how can I eat and knowing that my brother isn't eating how can I be successful in knowing that

I have not set up or done something where they can be successful and I get all kind of emails and I know we have a 13 body and maybe some of my council members I don't know I can't speak for them, but it has become overwhelming the people that are in desperate need here. And I hear what you're saying, but we're not reaching and your presentation, you know, and all of that. And I just cannot go into 2026 knowing what we're coming up against and what we're seeing and all these job losses. And so what's going to happen? We got people 600 people are losing their jobs and I'm praying that they can get a good compensation package before they actually reality actually sets in that this is happening and this has happened. I've been there before. I've been there where I didn't have a job. I've been, you know, if you don't know me, I've been in a very bad predicament and it doesn't feel good. But knowing to hear that you said that the jobs are out there and we can't fill them, that is disturbing to me. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Well, what I'll say, Councilwoman, um you know that I've been saying since since I did come into this role, and it's whether it's the workforce side, the economic uh development side or small businesses, we as a community must work together. You are absolutely 100% right and that there are so many agencies and organizations that are doing the work. But I think that one of the important things is to just bring everybody together on one on one accord. Uh to make sure everyone has the information to share. And I'll just, you know,

we need to be ordering. I'll just um chairman, chairwoman, your mic's on. You might want to mute.

Uhuh. I'll just I'll just say, you know, it's it's it's old school to the new school, whether it's passing out flyers in the churches to the grandmas and the aunties and, you know, the teachers and the schools and then also the social media and blast. All those things are really happening. I commend uh Memphis Lyft for what they're doing because they're reaching the people that they touch every day. And again, I think those are the important aspects. They're happening. Um it's just compounding them so that they can be uh visible to everyone. And then again, just really calling everyone to to to put in the work and do it.

So, thank you. And that's my answer. That's your answer. So, you know, thank you for for that. Thank you for all the the hard work um that you are are doing and you all are trying to do. But I do know this and I'm going to close with this that I know that we cannot run a 2026 budget with a 2020 size workforce and a 2020 size tax base and the math just not is not working and the public is paying the price. So, thank you so much. I yield. Thank you, Councilwoman. I have Councilwoman Pearl Walker in the queue. Floor is yours.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um Dr. Massie, um thank you for coming out today. I enjoyed your presentation and every time I hear from you, I learn something else about um what all you do. So, I do appreciate that as well. And uh most importantly, thank you so much for your community engagement. I judge that it is impactful and making a difference. And with that, I yield the floor.

All right. Um, I don't see anyone else in the queue. I'll give it a second in case anybody wants to get in. All right. Well, thank you, Dr. Massie, for that report. And seeing nobody else in the queue, we are going to close this committee. Thank you. Thank you, council. Thank you so much.

I just want y'all to know why nobody on camera but me. Somebody join me. Doc. Dr. Warren. There we go. Thank you. I appreciate you, sir. For sir. All right. This is Councilman Ford. I'm present here. Thank you, Councilman. Good afternoon. Appreciate. Okay. But I'm here. Thank you. Council here when we get to the RO.

We are live. Uh, Councilman Smile, if you want to call your meeting to order. Thank you, Chief Heyman, the best chief administrative officer. I think that's your title of the Memphis City Council has ever had. Miss Katon, you it is 100 p.m. 101. I call the public works solid waste and general service committee. Order. Miss Katon, you know what to do. Councilman Canali. Councilman Carile, Councilwoman Easter Thomas, Councilwoman Cooper Sutton.

All right. Present. Yeah. Okay, I got you. Counciloman Coop. All right. Councilwoman Green present. Councilwoman Logan. Councilman Spinosa. Councilwoman Swan Washington present. Councilwoman Walker present. Councilman Warren present. Councilwoman White. Chair Smiley.

All right. We have four items on the agenda. I will take a point of personal privacy to say I hope we never have to do virtual meetings again. Um but item number one, a resolution to transfer and appropriate additional construction funds in the amount of 2,119,55.40 from drainage ST cover line Spinosa is here. Project number ST 03205 to Morningside drain improvement. Project number ST 02032 to fund pro fund project expense increase for upgrades to the drain system in Morningside Place neighborhood district 5 super district 9 sponsored by the administration. Can I get a motion to second? So moved. Moved by Warren.

Second. Seconded by I think Spinosa and Chairwoman JSW. Uh, the administration seems to roll. Brevity will be great. But the floor is yours, Director Morgan.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, Scott Morgan, 125 North Main, public works director. So, this is a a project for additional funds for the Morning Side drainage improvements. Uh, this is along East Parkway. It ties some drainage improvements into Monroe. uh this council uh this body acted on a resolution September 9th, 2025 that passed the original amount of 3 million25,368.50. Um while after that was approved and gone through the full process, we started the contract process uh with the awarded contractor and he withdrew his bid October 31st, 2025, which is an option in the bid bond agreement. So since that contractor under uh withdrew since that contractor withdrew the bid uh we rebid the project December 12th and the new low bid is $5,144,424. So we're requesting the additional funding for this project and all the all the total amount is WIFIA loan funded which is our storm water with loan water in infrastructure finance and in innovation act. Director Morgan seems like he just significantly under bid and then he realized that he was like, "Yep, I'm out."

That is a possibility. Yes, sir. What? So, so he withdrew it. So, you know, maybe that prevented a bunch of change orders, uh, you know, to come throughout the project. Okay, cool. We need the work done. All right. Any questions from council members? Because I don't know how to check. I'm just going to assume there's none. This just need to work. Um, all those do we have? All those in favor or is a roll? I did have a question. I'm I'm Well, I see a computer of mine. I don't even know what to do. Listen, I don't know how to check it anyway. So, listen. Open up the open up the chat. Uh, Mr. Chair, open the chat.

Yeah, no one's there. All I see if you see uh Spinosis in the queue. Uh, no, he just said here. Oh, here. Okay. She didn't go. got to open the chat. Okay, chat's open, but no one's in the chat. Cooper, you want to say something? Go ahead. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Councilman Smiley. Um, once again, I've been having a problem trying to log in and off. Um, did I hear and I just want to mistake that did I did I hear or you can correct me that we had to pay for the contract being cancelled? No, ma'am.

Okay. Okay. All right. I just wanted to make sure. All right. I don't know what I'm hearing, but thank you for clarifying that. I appreciate it. Look, that's how I feel every time I got to log on to the the virtual meetings. Um, but it seems that all hearts and minds are clear. Um, let's take a vote again because I'm not sure about the last one. All All those in favor? I I I Okay. I Chairman Smiley, we hold Hold up. We all We all voted. So, um it's the opinion of the chair that the eyes have it. Councilwoman Cooper said,

"Okay, that's fine." That the eyes have it. So, when the contract cancelled, the bid went up.

Well, so here here's here's after, you know, listening to Director Morgan kind of talk through it. What happened? There was an initial bidding process. the person who had the low bid um submitted his bid was was awarded the contract and then pursuing to the contract there's a plate there was a a timeline for him to I guess withdraw his bid. He withdrew his bid and when he withdrew his bid um there's other people who um sent in new bids and the new bid that was um ultimately accepted or awarded was higher than the previous bid. So based on what I can gather, it seems like uh he significantly um low bided the project, realized he was over he or she realized they were over their head. I was like, "Yeah, we didn't we didn't appropriate bid.

They couldn't produce and then the person was awarded the bid." Okay. It's charging more. And I because it's probably seems like it's more appropriate. Uh there's one more question. Dr. Warren, talk to me.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think what this does is allows us not to have people come in and when they realize they've under bid it, you know, they maybe made a mistake, they back out of it without us having to like come in and bail them out or have them do a half halfway job and then we've got to fix it after they do it. So, I think it's a safety net both for the person who did it, but also for us so we don't end up having uh, you know, bad work done. Does that make sense? Uh, Mr. Morgan.

Yes, sir. Councilman, it does. And, you know, when we when we receive bids, uh, we always check, you know, qualifications and and go through the amounts on the bid form and, you know, check with the contractor, make sure everything's, you know, everything's good that they didn't omit anything or errors or omissions. Um, this one just got a little further along in the process and before the contract was executed, you know, he he went through that that contract and then we had to rebid it like was stated. But that's correct. Are we good, Doc? I'm good, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

All right. Well, thank you all. I'm going to try to get into this agenda. Okay, cool. Uh, that item was already approved. We're going to go on to the second item. Uh the second item is a resolution amending the FY26 CIP budget by accepting additional federal grant funding from the Tennessee Department of Transportation appropriating $390,279.33 to initiate construction on the Hanley inter school pedestrian safety enhancement project 01065 district 4. I heard they get more in district 4. Um super district 8 sponsored by the administration. There's a request for same night minutes. Um, so moved. Moved by Dr. Warren.

Second. Second by I think JSW. If not, Blaine Meredith. Um, with that, um, the floor is yours. I don't know who speaking on this item from the administration. Yeah. Good afternoon, Manny Blaine with the Division of Engineering. Mann, I don't even see you. There you go, Manny.

Okay. Um, so the resolution is is is simply to accept additional uh grant fund from the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Uh, roughly about $390,000. Uh, the the funds are going to be used to uh improve um pedestrian safety improvements along the Hanley Elementary School. uh that includes installation of um new sidewalks, uh some high visibility crosswalks and some new signages along the elementary school. So with that, we ask for your approval. Thank you. That is extremely important information. Um other important information to Memphis, we just traded Jiren Jackson.

I'd like to vote nay on that. Listen, me too, cuz that's absolutely Why did we trade him? I'm sorry. I'm back on uh track. All those in favor of what Director Blind was talking about uh signify by saying I I I. Um all those opposed. It's the opinion of the chair that the eyes have it. And you said for four uh first round picks for for three first round picks. So we just going in re rebuild mode. So I guess John's next. Lord Jesus. Okay. I read 13 first round picks.

Yeah, I doubt anybody gets fed for 13. Of course. What' you say? I think he said he put Dr. Warren said he read 13 first round picks. Ain't no way. Okay, we'll talk about this in a minute. Jesus Christ. Why do we trade him? Well, you think we should do a resolution or something? You think that'll stop resolution opposing? might as well cuz at this point everything's out of here. All right, item number three. Well, it does make sense to have it in public works, right?

Yeah. So, we're gonna call uh President Wexler and tell him to come before come before the public works committee and talk about why he's trading Jiren Jackson. All right. Okay. I'm back. Three. A resolution amending the FY26 EIP budget by transferring appropriating funds from architecture and engineering to contract construction amount of $165,692.72 to initiate construction on the STP uh pedestrian routes project EN01036 district 1 45 and 7 super district 9 sponsored by the administration there's a request for same 9 minutes. Can I get a motion to second?

Move it by James W, seconded by Dr. Warren, and uh just a double second by Councilman Spooa. Director Bl is yours. Yes, sir.

Thank you, sir. Um, so this is an ask to uh transfer and allocate additional uh engineering and architectural dollars um move it to construction. Um and and this will support uh some public uh en enhancement of crosswalks and sidewalks along three locations. Uh one is along mimosa at Carpenter Street. Uh the other is Kimble Avenue near Sim Street and the last is Range Line Road at Borman Avenue. Again, this is intended to do some pedestrian improvements, some cross enhancement of crosswalks and sidewalks. And with that we ask for the opening.

All right. Any questions um by this body? All right. It appears that uh all hearts and minds are clear. All those in favor of Okay. Any oppose? I. That's a one pose or is that I meaning you were for it or against it? I am for it. Thank you for the Thank you.

Uh okay. Um it's a trade at the eyes have it. Item number four, we might have a special add-on item saying stop trading people. Item number four, a resolution approving the transfer of 15 city owned vacant parcels to the MO to own program district 3, 4, 6, and 7. Super District 89 sponsored by the administration. Can I get a motion to second Osborne? Moved by Dr. Warren, seconded by uh Council Minosa. Um who's speaking on this item? Mr. Osborne. Miss Willie Alexander is going to speak on this.

Miss Alexander, how are you? Mr. Osborne just putting us down, y'all. Looks like she's having some technical difficulties. Yeah, we can be patient. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't take my mic off. I'm just talking away with my mic. I'm sorry. We're ready. I'm Willie Alexander, City of Memphis Real Estate Office, 125 North Maine. Hey, Miss Alexander. Hi. How are you?

I'm doing well. Okay. Go ahead. This is a resolution requesting the transfer of 15 city-owned parcels, their vacant lots to adjacent property owners per the motor own program. All the applicants have completed theirou. They've done the application, paid their $175, and we're asking for the council to approve to move these properties to the mo to own program. All right. Any uh questions um by this body? Yeah, I think the mod program is great. It encourages people to keep up the areas around them. So, great. Um, all those in favor? I I

I Okay. Uh, any opposed? It's the opinion of the chair that the eyes have it. Um, and with that, I think this concludes um this committee. So this committee stands adjourn. Do I recess or adjurnn? I think I journ. Uh John

Tell me when we're ready to roll. It is 1:24 p.m. and I call the personnel and government governmental affairs committee to order. Miss Katon, always trust it. You know what to do. Council Canali. Councilman Carile, present. Counciloman Easter Thomas. Councilwoman Cooper Sutton, present. Councilman Ford, present.

Councilwoman Green, present. Councilman Logan, Councilman Spinosa, Counciloman Swan Washington, present. Councilwoman Walker, present. Counciloman Warren, present. Didn't have to go. Councilwoman White. Chair Smiley. Spinosa is here. Matt, you want to run this?

Oh, this is I thought you was still over personnel. Lord, help us. Um, we have three items on the agenda today. Item number one, uh, Memphis Light Gas Water, the reappointment of Cheryl, Miss Cheryl Peace. Uh, I guess we're removing all the, uh, requests for same night minutes. Can I get a motion to second? Second. Second. Moved by I have no idea. Seconded by Council Miss Bonosa. Who was who moved it? Janna Green Green and Janna moved it. Uh seconded by

All right. Yeah. Seconded by Spinosa and Walker. Cool. All right. Uh Michelle, are you here? I am. Good afternoon. uh just introduce yourself and um tell us why you want to uh be reappointed to this board.

Yes. Um Cheryl Peshi, 5460 Urban Park Cove, Memphis 38119. Um I love this work. Um we had my hand we had our hands full uh during my first um course of work, my first appointment format. And now I look at what we've done building in resiliency and reliability as we as we sit here talking. Um it's proven it's really a great day to be reappointed uh after the past week. Um hey Miss Cheryl. Yes.

I'm sorry to cut you off. One of the council members asked, could you turn your mic on? She called in via phone. Okay. She called in via phone. Well, um could you do do us a favor? I think at the next council meeting, can you come in and just introduce yourself to the council members? I'm assuming the council um uh approves you today. It's not with that minute, so I think it'll it'll probably uh serve you well to just stop by in and and greet the council members. Can you do that? Absolutely. I was ready to come in today until things were changed. So, no, we need we need you healthy uh so we can keep building resiliency. Um you I'm sorry I cut you off cuz that's all. You have anything else to offer?

Um no, just looking forward to continuing the work that we've put in place. Um it's um wonderful time to be a part of MLGW and I look forward to um to serving. Um I hope you will approve me to serve another term. Thank you.

Okay. Um, so council member, she comes to uh council quite a bit. So we I've seen her several times. Um, I believe many of you have as well. Um, but you know, and it doesn't just go for you. Any of the other appointees, if the council approves today, I think it'll behoove you to just come by in to the next council member and say something. We have a couple questions. I'm assuming this is now a couple questions from the council. Um, yes, sir. Um, first up is Councilwoman Cooper Sutton. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank Thank you, Chairman. Uh, I want to say, um, thank you um, all the hard work that you've done, Miss Cheryl. It was a pleasure meeting you over a year ago, you coming and introducing yourself and showing up uh at the council um council committee meetings and it was a pleasure just learning all about you. You feeling comfortable enough to share some things with me. Um you were new, I was new and uh and so thank you so much for all the work that you are doing and have done when I come to the MLG&W board. It's it's a pleasure to see you sitting there um as always and you always have amazing questions and concerns that is so abroad about everything. So, thank you and uh I I I support um your reappoint because I've seen you in action and you you you you're good. Good isn't the word, but it very impressive. I'm impressed by you. Very impressive. So, thank you for all the hard work you've done, Miss Shur. Thank you so much,

Councilwoman Cooper Sutton. I really appreciate that. I really do. And it's good to see you come to our board meetings. It's always good to see you. Thank you for finding the time. Thank you. All right. Um, Councilman Spinosa,

thank you, Chairman Smiley. Um, just wanted to say hello to uh, Miss Peshi and let the body know I fully support her reappoint as well. I'm not going to go into the make it a super long love story, but the facts are that I was able to work with her the past two years and um, it's been a pleasure to work with her and see her in action and um, I fully support her reappointment. She's been a part of all the great things happening over there. We've all seen a lot of boards do a lot of different things and the MLGW board's just been fantastic and I'm grateful for that and I know everybody else is too. So, thank you Cheryl. I've always support you and hopefully the body will fully support you today as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Council. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Counc. Yes, ma'am. I was just saying it's always good to see Councilman Spinosa. I make everybody recognize him when he walks in the room. Yes. All right. Councilwoman Pearl Walker. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hello, um, Commissioner Peshy. I'm glad that you could join us today

and you said that you love the work and you really and truly love the work and I appreciate that about you. I'm just looking forward to this next chapter for you. I know you going to continue to bring the love, the interest, the expertise and and now this experience from having serving a term already and I'm just looking forward to your continued contribution and your presence makes sure that we have a female on the board and that's important as well. Um, thank you again and best best wishes to you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

You're welcome. Thank always good to see you as well. I just saw your our last meeting. You're you're always there. We try and blend in, but we we do see you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um any other questions? Doesn't appear to be any. Um all those in favor signify by saying I I I. Any oppose? It's the opinion of the chair that the eyes have it. Congratulations, Miss Pesy. Uh, see you whenever the next meeting is. I'll put it on my calendar to come in and make sure I I reintroduce myself to anyone uh and everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Cheryl. All right. Item number two, uh, the appointment of Brian Waldron, uh, Storm Water Board. Can I get a motion to second? Move it. Move. Moved by Spinosa. Second by Washington. Um, Mr. Brian, are you here? Yes. Brian, go ahead. You know, introduce yourself and tell us why you want to be a part of this board. Sure. Carol Peshi

is now exiting. Uh Brian Waldron, 9063 South Walderwood Lane, Memphis, Tennessee 38016. Uh I have been working with the city of Memphis uh through the University of Memphis for years since about 2007 on a variety of work uh topics mainly mapping. uh part of that was storm water and I think a lot of the work that we do at the university for the city is applied so it has direct impact to the citizens and we like that and the students like that a lot uh it's not normal normally we're hypothesis and theory but we actually apply uh things to people's lives and I think that's a great service and I am just very happy to you know serve Memphis in this capacity All right. Thank you um for your service. Any uh questions by the council members going once. All right. So gone. Any uh all those in favor?

I I I. Any opposed? I it's opinion of the chair that the eyes have it. Um congratulations. hopefully see you at the next council meeting if you can make it. And uh thank you. Item number three, it's two appointments. Uh well, three appointments. Appointment uh to the uh Memphis Board of Ethics. Uh appointment of Nicholas Thompson. There's the reappointment of Scott McCormick. And there's the appointment of James Cone. First up,

Nicholas Thompson. I think we know this guy. Good afternoon. Nicholas Thompson, 90 Harbortown Square 38103. As Councilman Valley have stated, uh I must admit that it feels a bit different being before you today rather than sitting. Hold on, Nicholas. Hold on one second. Sorry. Sorry, Mr. Thompson. Am I supposed to move this? I don't think I moved it. I moved it. Okay. Need a second. Did I get a second? Did I get one? Second. Second. Easter Thomas. Got it. All right. Go ahead, Mr. Thompson. I'm trying to make sure it's is uh is recorded appropriately.

Absolutely. Again, good afternoon, Nicholas Thompson, 90 Harvardtown Square, 38103. As I shared before, it uh feels a bit funny being in front of you today uh instead of being behind you supporting you as one of your legislative analysts. Uh today I'm asking for your vote because I understand both the responsibility of serving on the board of ethics and how to carry it out with integrity and respect. I am grateful for the opportunity and I appreciate your consideration.

Any um question from uh Mr. Thompson? I think we know him well and his work ethic. Any questions? Going once. All right. Gone. All those in favor? I I I That was a very enthusiastic I I of course from Cooper Sutton.

Any oppose. All right. It's the opinion of the chair that the eyes have it. Mr. Thompson, it'll be great to see you in person again. So hopefully you can um show up to the next council meeting. Uh the next appointment is I think I read it already. Click back into it. It's going to be just one reappoint. Mr. Cone is unable to attend today. So it'll only be the appointment of he uh Yes. Mr. McCormack, are you online?

Are you here? Mr. McCormick, are you with us? All right, we're going to hold those last two um since we haven't heard from either um until the next uh council meeting. And with that, we stand adjourned.

The February 3rd, 2026 executive session of the Memphis City Council is hereby called to order. Miss Hayes, will you please call the role? Councilman Canali, Councilman Carile, Councilwoman Cooper Sudden, present. Councilwoman Dr. Easter Thomas, present. Councilman Ford, present. Councilwoman Green, present. Councilman Smiley, you know I'm here. Councilman Spinosa

here. Councilwoman Walker present. Councilman Dr. Warren present. Councilwoman White and Chair Swain Washington

present. Thank you, Miss Hayes. We have two items on the agenda today. Item number one is a resolution to approve and ratify the chairperson's decision to conduct the February 3rd, 2026 council meeting remotely. All council districts sponsored by vice chairman Carile with same night minutes. Council members, if you will please enter the queue in the chat if you would like to be recognized after the update. Can I get a motion and a second? So move. Second,

it's been been moved by Dr. Warren, seconded by Councilman Spinosa. Um, Briana, if you will please give us an update. The floor is yours. Attorney Owens, I'm sorry. That's okay. Thank you, Chairwoman. So, similar to last meeting, um, since we're still under the executive order, due to the conditions of the weather, um, the chairperson in her discretion can elect to have the meeting remotely. And this is just a resolution of the body to approve and ratify her decision decision to do so. Do any members have any questions? All right. All those in favor say I. I. I.

I. Any All those opposed say nay. It is the opinion of the chair that the eyes have it. Thank you. That motion passes. Item number two is a resolution to allocate $8,000 in FY26 council community grant program funds all council districts. This is sponsored by Councilman Smiley. Can I get a motion and a second? Second.

It's been moved by Councilman Dr. Warren. It has been seconded by Councilman Spinosa. Councilman Smiley, the floor is yours. Is he here? Councilman Smiley, he's on mute. If he is here, I'm here. I was grabbing something to drink. Okay. The floor is yours regarding resolution. Yes, sir.

All right. So this is a resolution to um allocate I think almost all of the remaining funds for grant funds. There's uh three three organizations the V organization. So I just ask for your support. Okay. Do any members have any questions regarding this item? All those in favor say I. I. I. I. I. All those opposed say. Say nay. Those opposed. It is the opinion of the chair that the eyes have it. Thank you so much.

All right. That brings us to our add-on items, which are items number 16, number 17, and 18. Item number 16 is a resolution amending the FY26 CIP budget by accepting additional federal grant funding from the Tennessee Department of Transportation T DOT and appropriating $390,279.33 to initiate construction on the Hanley Elementary School Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Project EN01 065. 5 district 4 super district 8 sponsored by the administration and there is a request for same night minutes. Item number 17 is a resolution amending the FY26 CIP budget by transferring appropriated funds from architecture and engineering to contract construction in the amount of $165,692.72 to initiate construction on the STP pedestrian routes project EN036. Six districts 1, four, five, and seven, super district 9. This is sponsored by the administration and there is a request for s night minutes. Item number 18 is a resolution to approve and ratify the chairperson's decision to conduct the February 3rd, 2026 council meeting remotely all council districts. And this is sponsored by Vice Chairman Carlile for same night minutes. So the same night minute items are items number 16,

17, and 18. Item one will be held until March 3rd, 2026. Items 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 will be held until February 24th, 2026. Does any member of the committee have anything else that needs to be addressed? If not, we will stand adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jonathan. You can end the streaming.