MEMPHIS, September 14, 2026 - Commissioner Henri E. Brooks was elected chair pro tempore of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners on September 14, 2026, by a vote of 9 to 4, on the first ballot, less than an hour after losing the chairmanship by the identical margin.
Item 4 on the agenda was the resolution electing a commissioner to serve as chair pro tempore until August 31, 2027. Like the chair resolution before it, it had left the September 9, 2026 committee meeting without a recommendation and with the name blank unfilled. Commissioner Erika Sugarmon moved it and Commissioner Miska Clay Bibbs seconded.
Two names went into nomination, Commissioner Mark Billingsley and Commissioner Brooks, the same two who had been on the third and final chair ballot.
What each said
Commissioner Billingsley spoke first. He congratulated Chairwoman Shante K. Avant on her election, said he had served nine years as a county commissioner, described himself as "known to be incredibly fair" and "fairly nonpartisan, even though I'm a Republican," and said he would support the chairwoman to the best of his ability. He said there are serious issues in Nashville and locally and that he and Commissioner Avant would do an incredible job bringing the team together.
Commissioner Brooks congratulated Commissioner Avant as well, then set out what she wanted to carry into the office. She named the rebuild of Regional One, the reform of payment in lieu of taxes, and increasing community engagement on development investments and projects in neighborhoods. She said she looked forward to being able to start taxing assessment districts "so that communities who have been historically left behind, ignored, and neglected will be able to have funding for the infrastructure needs that they deem important in their communities."
The vote
The ballot was called starting with district three. Nine commissioners voted for Commissioner Brooks. Four voted for Commissioner Billingsley.
The chair and vice chair ballots produced the same two finalists and the same 9 to 4 split, in opposite directions, inside the same meeting.
What the office carries
Under the committee assignments the Commission adopted on September 28, 2026, Commissioner Brooks chairs the core city, neighborhoods and housing committee and serves as vice chairman of the land use, planning, transportation and codes committee. The September 28 agenda lists her as Chair Pro-Tempore.
In the three committee meetings that followed, she used both posts heavily. She sponsored the data center permit moratorium, the 180-day moratorium on delinquent tax property sales in District 7, and the corrective resolution on a 2025 parcel sale. She also chaired the committee that heard the first two.
What happens next
The chair pro tempore serves until August 31, 2027. Commissioner Brooks presided over portions of the September 23 and October 7, 2026 committee meetings as acting chairman of general government and of core city, neighborhoods and housing.
Your city. Your money. Your receipts.
