County Commission - Regular Meeting

We'll now have the invocation by Dr. Tommy Wilson, Pastor of St. John Missionary Baptist Church, Douglas.

Thank you. Please remain standing. Commissioner Richardson, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Sure. Thank you, you may be seated. Good afternoon, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

We have a quorum. Next, I'd like to ask for an approval of the... No minutes for this meeting. Those minutes will be available at our next meeting. There are two ways possible to join the meeting. via the designated email, boc.email at shelbycountytn.gov, via phone at 901-222-1234. Parliamentarian, please read the rule.

Thank you, Paul and Terry. And our first item, if you could read.

Wow, that's never happened before. So can I have, again, two people, Dale Gill to come forward and Yerby Joseph Joe Calhoun.

Yay. Okay, thank you so much. And this is from not only my colleagues, the commission, Shelby County Commission, but also DelGil. This comes with a huge heart of love for the work that you've done. This is a special resolution honoring Yerby Joseph Joe Calhoun. Whereas after relocating to Memphis in 1967, Calhoun began a lifetime dedicated to justice and equality as a student at Melrose High School. Oh my goodness. Okay. Y'all took my breath away. During the historic 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike, he stood alongside more than 1,300 African-American sanitation workers who courageously

Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Calhoun, before you, there's a few commissioners in the queue who'd like to say a few words. Commissioner Caswell?

Mr. Calhoun, thank you, sir, for your leadership. I sit here on the back of the suffering, sacrifice, and all that you've done for us and our community. And just as the man that you are, even though this is your moment, you still highlighted everything else about everything that's great about our city. And that's why you're such a great leader and man in our community. Thank you for your leadership, sir. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well-deserved, well-deserved, and well-deserved. You encompass what leadership looks like in our communities. There's never been a time when I had something going on in the community that you didn't support me, and vice versa. We're tied together in making our community better, and I'm just glad to be up under your leadership as you continue to lead and fight for the causes that impact us the most. So thank you, sir.

Okay, let's take a picture. And since this is my colleague's district, okay, Mr. Vaughn will join us as well. And can you take a picture of all of us? Okay. No? Okay, here outside? Okay, go ahead. Okay.

All right, thank you. Vice Chair Brooks. Vice Chair Brooks. At this time, we'd like to honor our Chaplain of the Day, and if Commissioner Brooks could do so. Pastor Wilson, if you'll come forward, Commissioner Brooks has an acknowledgement of you as Chaplain of the Day.

Good afternoon, everyone. Pastor Wilson, come on over here. How you doing? It is, I am honored to stand here on behalf of the Sheppard County Board of Commissioners and present to you as pastor for the day, Pastor Tori Wilson as chaplain for today, chaplain of the Board of Commissioners to serve during this 28th day September 26th at the will and pleasure of our chairperson. Before I hand this over to you, I want to say to my colleagues who do not know you that Pastor Wilson, one of those pastors in North Memphis that has his hand His head and his entire body on the knees of the community. The

We have three public comment cards. The first, David Rahim. If you could come to the front, state your name, zip code, and you'll have three minutes to speak. I apologize if I mispronounced your name. If you could state your name and zip code for the record.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ram.

Our next public speaker is Mr. Jeff Lair. And I apologize if I mispronounce your name, but if you could state your name in zip code for the record.

Our next public speaker, Vanita Doggett.

Thank you. Our next speaker, Suzanne Jackson. You can state your name and zip code for the record.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Erica Carpenter. Please state your name and zip code for the record.

Thank you. Our next speaker, Pamela Moses. You could state your name and zip code for the record.

Next speaker, Reginald Alexander. Mr. Alexander, if you could state your name and zip code for the record.

Commissioner Brooks, are you wanting to recognize?

Yes. Good afternoon, sir, and thank you for your presentation. Just a quick question regarding seniors. Do you aggregate numbers regarding seniors either by zip code, city council district, state house district, some way for us to look at the number of seniors? And then if you do or if you don't, do you partner with agencies that specifically work with seniors?

And you can break it down? I can find it. All right, thank you so much.

No problem. Thank you. Commissioner Clay Bibbs. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to tell Mr. Reginald, thank you for coming today. Of course, we have a longstanding relationship because you are located in District 11. But more importantly, I want to tell my colleagues, if you've not had an opportunity to see his operation, to see the work that they're doing, we have volunteered there before as a commission, but we also, I have gone with him to actually one of the locations in my district, and saw them at work at one of the food pantries that they do. So I did encourage him to make sure that

Thank you. And I just want to say thank you for your work for Lakers Skaters as well. And so the gap is 51,000. How much has Lakers Skaters raised so far?

Okay, so I just want to say this on the record. And so, yes, we have been talking back and forth. It's not the naming of the park. It's the naming of the skateboard park. But again, as I stated two weeks ago, we're going to work it together offline and discuss the formalities, but it's only the skateboard park, not the complete park. But we have to get this clarification later on off record. And again, we have a fiscal agent that we're working through, and so we need to go through the fiscal agent. But again, we'll talk off record. Thank you. And thank you for all the work that you've done.

It's only the public comments. My recommendation is that you email commissioner Sugarman, if there are some follow up questions and or follow up questions you have for the commission, our next public speaker, Chris, I'm sorry. I can't you Lander, my apologies. If mispronounce your name, if you could state your name and zip code for the record. Hi everyone.

All right. Thank you, colleagues. If you could, at this time, take a look at the agenda. We'll put three minutes on the clock if there are any items that you would like pulled.

Commissioner Brooks. Thank you. I'd move to take items 12 and 13 from the consent agenda.

Items 12 and 13 are on the regular agenda.

Commissioner Sugarman. Numbers five and six.

Commentary and please read the consent agenda minus items five and six.

I have a motion by Commissioner Sugarman, a second by Commissioner Hewitt Garcia. Seeing no commissioners in the queue, please prepare the screen for a vote. Commissioner Clay Bibbs is an aye. Please report the tally.

That motion passes. Commentarian, please read item number five.

I get a motion. I have a motion by commissioner Richardson, a second by commissioner O'Dell. Commissioner Sugarman, can I get a committee report?

Yes, it came down with a fair recommendation.

came down with no recommendation or a favorable recommendation? Favorable, okay, thank you.

Commissioner Strickland, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam chair. And so I just, I pulled this item because it's an item out of state. And it's within the three months extension and my understanding is going to go back out for bid. And I just wanted to pull it to encourage local businesses to participate in the bidding process. So many times I receive emails, texts and messages from local businesses. you know, complaining about the processes and procedures of the person department. And so I just want to make sure that I put on record that I want all local vendors Shelby County vendors, et ce

Seeing no other commissioners in the queue, please prepare the screen for a vote. Of all commissioners had an opportunity to vote. Commissioner clay bivs is a yes and I. Please report the vote.

That motion passes. Palminterian, please read item six.

I have a motion by Commissioner Sugarman, a second by Commissioner O'Dell. Commissioner Sugarman, can I get a committee report?

Yes, Madam Chair, it came down with a favorable recommendation. Okay, thank you. You're recognized. Thank you. So once again, I just wanted to point out, again, this is a three-month extension, and this item will go out for bid again. And even though this is a company that's located in Tennessee, it's not Shelby County. And I've had a couple of vendors to reach out to me, and so please get in the pool and, you know, Hopefully, you know a local vendor when the bid again, but you can't win if you don't participate So please participate in the process and again if you have any issues concerns Ple

Thank you Seeing no other commissioners in the queue if we could prepare the screen for a vote I Please report the vote.

That motion passes. Palminterian. If you could read item 12.

I have a motion by Commissioner Sugarman, a second by Commissioner Richardson. Commissioner Clay Bibbs, could I get a committee report?

This item came down with a favorable recommendation.

Thank you. Commissioner Brooks, Vice Chair Brooks.

If Dr. Randolph could come down for a minute. I just want to clarify. or make sure that the conversation we had on Monday regarding policy is something that we've started working on. Because I'm trying to justify these fees, voting in the affirmative for these fees without some policy improved, if you will, policy implications.

I guess I was more concerned with, and I'm almost out of time, these permit fees related to air pollution. My concern is that if we're going to raise these fees or we're going to tamper with them in any way, then that's a good opportunity for us to go in and try to fix the problem that we have that allow additional air pollution or pollutants to come in to saturate one community. And that would be on the health department. I think the health department has a role there that is specifically your lane. Is that correct?

Okay, I'm out of time, but I will... I'm going to have to circle back and repeat myself.

Thank you so much. First of all, thank you so much for your responses to our questions from our committee meeting. However, I did have one ask that I don't think was addressed in your written response, which was for you to look at and report fees for surrounding and competing areas such as Arkansas and Mississippi.

Thank you so much. And I believe that was your response during the committee meeting, but I think we still asked for, we were wanting to know what those numbers are. So are you able to get those numbers?

Thank you. I'm going to go back to, I understand the EPA does set those pollution limits and so forth, but I believe our conversation sort of drilled down to the local level when we were talking about policy. And we're talking about policy, creating policy that would meet the needs of our community. I don't believe that would be inconsistent It may be different, but it would not be inconsistent with federal law because all we're doing is talking about decreasing it such that because we have an issue here that you may not have in Ohio or Arizona or what have you. So a one size fit all would not

If it's not working for Shelby County, we're still getting contamination, ground and air contamination and pollution that's causing communities to have unhealthy impacts, health impacts, particularly those who are within a certain radius of places like Nucor, all of those data centers and such, then we need to adjust it to accommodate our community. That's what I'm saying.

Thank you, Dr. Randolph. Commissioner Caswell. Okay. All right. Seeing no other commissioners in queue, please prepare the screen for a vote. Commentary. I'm sorry. Madam clerk, please report the vote.

The motion passes. Parliamentarian, please read item 13.

I have a motion by commissioner Sugarman, a second by commissioner Hewitt Garcia, commissioner clay bids. Can I get a committee report?

Yes, ma'am. Madam chair. This item came down with a favorable recommendation.

Commissioner Brooks, your record vice chair. I'm sorry. Vice chair Brooks. You're recognized.

Dr. Randolph. Thank you so much. Um, Again, this comes back to our conversation around the policy issue. And I know you were requesting a position, and this position would do more on-site monitoring. Is that correct?

But with the mindset and the purpose of ensuring the health of the citizens of Shelby county okay and so again just maybe next time when you come we could see the progress we're making around the policy question because you know we talked about informing the public about the complaint process. I know there is a process and people should have more in place other than a website. So we need to try to maybe expand the public process for complaints so people will know we can help them.

Just one-on-one, how to file a complaint. So there's some people do not know that they can file a complaint if they have health issues believed to be caused by pollutants. So it's just then environmental justice would also involve maybe not just more than checking that box, but educating the community about what it means.

Right. Can we, and I don't want to be disrespectful. I'm sorry, Vice Chair Brooks, let me get back in the queue. Thank you, ma'am. You're recognized. Okay. Can we have some, at least some progress on the policy question here in terms of, you know, just have some meat on the bone, if you will, what this position and, and, and around environmental justice community outreach and the complaint process, because we need to pass some public policy that's going to deal with this.

Madam Clerk, please prepare the screen for a vote. Madam Clerk, please report the vote.

That motion passes. Parliamentarian item 14.

I have a motion by commissioner Sugarman, a second by commissioner O'Dell vice chair Brooks. Can I get a committee report?

Yes, this item will sit down with a favorable recommendation.

Okay. Colleagues, you have before you a substitute item. As we discussed in committee on Wednesday, per the permanent rules, I'm asking for you to accept a motion, making a motion to accept the substitute, which adds in the September dates. I have a motion. Is there a second?

I have a second by Commissioner Richardson. I've already stated the first. This is a motion to accept the substitute. I've already stated the others. Can we do that without objection? Seeing none, so moved. Commissioner, just for your edification, if you see there's a calendar attached which is in Exhibit A. In Exhibit A, it gives you an outline of the dates and deadlines that any information needs to be added onto the ombase. Our new commissioner has got a lot of information about this, which is exhibit a. This is draft exhibit a. It was attached with the substitute. It says substitute. Subst

Commissioner Sugarman, you're recognized. Thank you. And so madam chair, I need some clarification or understanding because I passed around exhibit a, which was the original schedule that was put in on base. And then exhibit B, which was a substitute of Wednesday. And so I'm just trying to get understanding because the dates in red, for example, as you mentioned, October... June and August were additional dates. But if you look on the original, those dates were already there. So I'm trying to understand what's the difference between the original and the substitute. They were both on base.

So the original did not have those dates. The substitute that we did, we provided in committee, did have those dates added. Except they were not redlined so we made a motion to suspend the rules to accept the substitute It did not have the red line dates, but those were the dates that were actually added.

Well, that's incorrect and on base because on, on the base exhibit a already had those dates. Then also my concern is you look at exhibit C and that was the calendar from last year. During January, February, March, April, May, and June, there are two meetings and those are necessary and essential because those are the times that we have budgetary meetings. And so if you look at the one you just submitted, it does not rectify the situation. And I just want to put on notice to the public and to my colleagues that typically we have two meetings in January, two meetings in February, two meetings i

Colleagues, I do just want to make a point of order and clarification. Last year, there were 19 meetings based on how the calendar was outlined. this year there are eighteen meetings these meetings do not include budget hearings for the new commissioners... just as a point of clarification usually we also add to the calendar based on the preference and at the recommendation of the budget chair budget hearing meetings those budget hearing meetings which usually have a kick off that starts in december We outline a calendar and schedule of how we would like to and cadence of when you would like t

Thank you for the clarification. We've tried to make sure there were two meetings in every month. The only months that don't have two meetings are November and December, which have always been the practice. Thank you, commissioner doc, commissioner Caswell. You recognize?

Thank you, madam chair. And I just want to say to the list in public, I hope they hear clearly what the chairwoman stated about the budget meetings and how they are laid out. So it's no drastic change, but thank you for clarifying that very clearly.

Thank you I would say for new commissioners in our handbook on Saturday we did have an example of the budget commissioner clay Bibbs your prior leadership in that outline so if you haven't seen an example of a budget calendar most of us here are new that is on my that I am aware of that vice chair Caswell and I will get that together we have a lot a lot of work to do and so we will have that dedicated time thank you

Commissioner Sugarman? Thank you. And so I'm very aware of the budget hearings, which are separate. I'm talking about commission meetings. And in January, there's, according to this just passed out, there's one in February, one in January. And so, again, there is a difference. Having said that, I'm done. I just want to make sure I said this on public record, that in January through June, If you look at Exhibit C that I passed out, there were two from January to June. Thank you.

Does everyone have a copy of the exhibit that shows all the meeting dates? Is everyone clear about meeting dates? I appreciate your time and attention to this matter. Commissioner Hewitt-Garcia, we look forward to your leadership and support. And I think you'll have the... support of all of this body in order for us to be able to adequately maintain what we know is a very difficult year ahead of us. However, I have every confidence in the people who sit on this day is to be able to carry out the work of this county. Please prepare the screen for a vote. I just want to make sure that for the re

No, that motion passes. Colleagues. We are now to the section of our meeting at 4 33 PM. I will note for announcements and statements. Well, and I, and I do, and I re I appreciate all of the new commissioners, all eight commissioners were able to attend the orientation that we had on Saturday, which was really a lot of good information. Thanks again to the staff for all of their time and preparation and putting those materials together. At this time we'll have any announcements. And or statements from commissioners, commissioner Hewitt Garcia, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair. For the public, the voter registration deadline is less than a week away. One week away, October 5th. You have time to register. Regardless of party, you need to come up and vote. Make your voice heard in November. You have one more week to get registered. So go to ShelbyVote. Check your status. If not, get registered.

Thanks. I appreciate that, Commissioner Hewitt-Garcia. In church yesterday, I had an aunt who's moved here from Chicago, and I needed to tell her that deadline, so now I get to go back and reiterate that, so I appreciate your statement. Commissioner Caswell, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and I just want to thank our trustee and State Representative Parkinson, Council Commissioner Stephanie Love, Councilwoman Logan, and State Rep-elect Talisa Franklin for our town hall meeting that we held last weekend, and Riley, over 200 constituents came out, and it was a very well-attended, very well put together town hall meetings. So I want to thank them for supporting us and the trustee for sharing some valuable information with our community. And also our next District 6 stakeholder meeting is coming up on the 13th, I'm sorry, yeah, 13th of October, and we're goi

Thank you, Commissioner Caswell. Commissioner Clay Bibbs. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to say please be on the lookout because Mr. Alexander, who was here earlier, we have talked a lot about getting the commission out to the food bank. For those of you who are not familiar with operations, so look out for that email so that we can get that scheduled. And I also wanted to extend a thank you to the staff because they have been stepping in and supporting me as well as others while Maria has been out and they really stepped up to do a lot of things over these past two weeks. So I just wanted t

Thank you, madam chair. Just wanted to say thank you again for your leadership and hosting the. orientation over the weekend. It was very informative for me and I'm sure other commissioners will agree that, you know, it's much needed to have that training and that information readily available for us. So it was a great job, not only for it from yourself, but the staff, of course, who do a lot of things behind the scenes that a lot of the public does not see that makes us look the way that we do. And so just kudos to everybody in that capacity. Also on October 12th We are having a community con

Thank you. Commissioner Richardson, commissioner vice chair Brooks.

Thank you. I see my colleague over here has picked up some of the patterns. My colleague across the way. I'm fine with you being in my district. I'll be there. I just wanted to announce, Madam Chair, if any of the new commissioners are interested in learning more about payment in lieu of taxes or pilots, there will be a meeting. We're planning a meeting for October here, 1-30, October 15th in the chambers. So we'll have the We're planning for the ad hoc committee as well as subject matter experts.

Just for clarification, ad hocs have not been, we have not, Had any ad hocs yet for this term so I'll get with Commissioner Brooks Because we want to make sure that we do this these things in order ad hocs are at the Well of the chair and so we will make sure that if there are any ad hocs that need to be done We do get those in writing and then they'll be properly noticed Commissioner Rudd Thank You madam chair just a quick reminder that I

Be on the lookout for District 10 first 30 days in office newsletter, October the 1st. Thank you.

You're welcome. Congratulations, Commissioner Caswell.

I apologize, Madam Chair, but I appreciate getting back in here and to my great colleague, Commissioner Brooks. Since we share Fraysia, and Fraysia will be celebrating a 200-year bicentennial, November the 10th, at North Fraysia Community Seminole. And that's from noon to 5 p.m. So it's right on the borderline of District 6 and District 7. So we invite everybody to be there with us October the 10th at the North Frasier Community Center, 2555 St. Elmo. I'm already a sponsor. All right.

Y'all make this the last comment about Frasier that is so beloved by many of us at this table. And it's just good that Frasier has great representation from Charlie Caswell, Commissioner Brooks, and myself. And so together we can make Frasier even better. So thank you.

Thank you. I'd also like to just announce on Tuesday, October 6, is National Night Out. I encourage you, if you have not partnered with your local law enforcement agencies, if you could reach out, because National Night Out is a great opportunity for you to get out into your communities and meet some of your constituents as well as your HOAs. It is an opportunity for folks to really see and you can hear some of those concerns, so I encourage you to do so. This meeting is adjourned until our next meeting, which is October 7th. What date am I looking at? October 7th. October 12th. Monday, Octobe