The chairwoman called it an administrative cleanup required by state law. A commissioner pulled it off the consent agenda so it could not pass silently.
The 901 Report
The committee advanced it on two votes. Five days later the sponsor moved to suspend the rules so the Commission could hear it, and the chamber went silent.
The 901 Report
A commissioner read the numbers into the record while voting against two $100,000 training contracts. She said she asked for this information at budget hearings in May and never got it.
The 901 Report
The county closed fiscal year 2026 by moving $7,185,588.36 to cover funds that ended the year short. A commissioner asked what that leaves in reserve. The answer was about $80 million, flat to last year.
The 901 Report
County planning staff recommended rejection twice. On the floor, staff produced the detail that mattered: the road-widening plans the applicant cited had expired.
The 901 Report
The resolution started as a ban on spending and ended as a reporting requirement. It passed seven to three after two hours of public comment and a fight over whether it could be heard at all.
The 901 Report
The swearing-in lands on the county's own FY2027 budget deadline day, one week after the outgoing Commission committed contingency money to a jail study and capped its takeover legal bill.
The 901 Report
The outgoing Shelby County Commission closed its four-year term on August 24 by putting a ceiling on the county's contribution to the MSCS takeover litigation, days before eight new commissioners inherit the case, the budget deadline, and everything else.
The 901 Report
The Shelby County Commission approved $500,000 from the opioid settlement special revenue fund for the county drug court on August 10, 2026. The presiding judge said the program exhausted most of its inpatient treatment funds over the past year.
The 901 Report
Shelby County releases capital funding to municipal school districts only after Memphis-Shelby County Schools spends its 85 percent share. The county finance director confirmed on August 10, 2026 that fiscal 2024 funds tied to an East Campus project remain unspent.
The 901 Report
The Shelby County Commission voted ten to one with one abstention on August 10, 2026 to allocate up to $350,000 in contingency funds for a jail study. The sponsor said the figure came from his own consulting experience rather than a formal solicitation.
The 901 Report
The Shelby County Health Department told commissioners on August 5, 2026 that Title V permit fees must fully fund the county air permitting program or the general fund covers the gap. Countywide industrial emissions have fallen from more than 25,000 tons a year in 2004 to roughly 5,800.
The 901 Report
The Shelby County Commission approved a $366,623.26 contract and emergency purchase order with Access DNSI, Inc. on August 10, 2026 for low voltage and information technology construction at the Election Commission operations center. County engineering told the committee the work was completed by April 15.
The 901 Report
A substitute resolution handed out at the August 5, 2026 committee meeting raised the Memphis-Shelby County Schools budget figure from $1,679,759,131 to $1,799,354,177. The Shelby County Commission approved it on August 10 by a vote of seven to four with two recusals.
The 901 Report
The county could not issue its payroll borrowing without an emergency waiver from the Tennessee Comptroller, because its fiscal 2026 budget was never state-approved. The fiscal 2027 budget is due August 31.
The 901 Report
Rockez McDaniel, 33, died in custody in July 2025. His family filed suit on July 28, naming Shelby County, jail officers and supervisors, nurses, and the jail's medical contractors. Every claim in the complaint is an allegation. No court has ruled.
The 901 Report
The school board passed its budget in late May. Nearly two months later the Shelby County Commission, which funds the district, has not acted on it. Four days before that, commissioners borrowed $125 million to cover the county's own payroll.
The 901 Report
"We would like to see more than four commissioners sitting in the gallery to hear it." The ordinance passed first reading 11 to 0, in a meeting where commissioners also learned they have not received the school district's budget, which state law requires 45 days before adoption.
The 901 Report
The chairwoman called for a second, waited, called again, waited longer, and then ruled the item was not properly before the body. It never got a vote. Twelve other commissioners were in the room.
The 901 Report
No commissioner asked a question at committee. No commissioner pulled it from the consent agenda five days later. The money is fiscal 2026 general funds, and fiscal 2026 ended on June 30.
The 901 Report
A commissioner did the arithmetic out loud on Monday. "It's got to be not even 1%." Commissioners approved the contract anyway, 10 to 1, along with a personnel line the city's library director told them is about $75,000 short.
The 901 Report
The vote was 9 to 3. It is the county's second borrowing to fund operations in under a year, and the first with an outside lender. Finance told commissioners cash on hand will be $50 to $60 million against $155 million in payroll over the first five months of the fiscal year.
The 901 Report
The public works director disclosed the documents Monday while laying out four scenarios ranging from $81 million to $110 million. The $92 million already in the capital plan does not begin releasing until 2028.
The 901 Report
A Shelby County committee voted 4 to 0 on Wednesday to ask Mayor Lee Harris to accelerate funding to replace the 96-year-old juvenile court campus. The vote came a day after a consultant delivered a preliminary summary, and before any commissioner had seen the full report.
The 901 Report
Two commissioners have now written the county mayor asking for a formal study of the Criminal Justice Center. The building has disrupted court operations for most of the past month, and the officials being asked to act are both leaving office within weeks.
The 901 Report
Commissioners delayed final votes on the county's operating and capital budgets to June 29, a meeting that will also decide the property tax rate. One commissioner has proposed raising the rate by 6 cents.
The 901 Report