Thirty-Four Crates of Unprocessed Car Titles, and a $6,134,386.81 Appropriation That Four Commissioners Rushed to Co-Sponsor After It Was Already Passing.

MEMPHIS, September 14, 2026 - The Shelby County Board of Commissioners appropriated up to $6,134,386.81 in county clerk special revenue funds on September 14, 2026, by a vote of 13 to nothing.

The money is for what the resolution calls the stabilization, modernization and operational improvement of the Shelby County Clerk's Office. It specifically excludes the County Clerk Electronic Data Processing Fund, numbered 10010-250201 in the filed agenda.

The item had reached the September 9, 2026 committee meeting as an add-on, with no notice in the published packet. Commissioner Mark Billingsley said then that he would typically object to an add-on, particularly one of $6.1 million, but that the clerk was addressing an emergency the county has had for eight years.

What the money is for

At the committee meeting, County Clerk Dr. La Sonya Hall, one week into the job, told commissioners her team had visited every county clerk location and found aging technology, inconsistent processes, customer service problems and gaps in financial and inventory controls.

They also found 34 crates of unprocessed automobile dealer packets, containing 260 packets.

She framed what those crates are. When people think about waiting at the county clerk's office, she said, they picture the line in the lobby. The crates are a different line, one nobody can see: people who bought a new or used car through a dealership, who may never set foot in a county office, and who are waiting on a title, a registration and a tag.

Two commissioners said on the record that they were in that line. Commissioner Michele Dial said there was probably a packet with her name on it from a car she bought in June. Chairwoman Shante K. Avant said the same, and that she had recently gone to get another drive-out tag.

Four sponsors in ninety seconds

By the time the item reached the floor on September 14 it carried a favorable committee recommendation. Commissioner Charlie A. Caswell, Jr., already a co-sponsor, moved it. Commissioner Erika Sugarmon seconded.

Then the queue filled.

Commissioner Sugarmon asked to be added as a sponsor. It carried without objection. Commissioner Miska Clay Bibbs asked to be added as a sponsor. It carried without objection. Commissioner Karen Streeter asked to be added as a sponsor. It carried without objection. Commissioner Will Richardson asked to be added as well. It carried without objection.

Four additions, four motions, four seconds, no objections, no questions about the money.

The chairwoman said "going once, going twice," asked for the screen, and the item passed 13 to nothing.

What the clerk committed to

At the committee meeting Clerk Hall said the figure is a ceiling and not a spending target, and that every expenditure must address a demonstrated need, be legally permissible from the applicable source and comply with county financial and internal control requirements.

She said the source is special revenue, built from fees that state statute attaches to county clerk transactions such as titles, business licenses and marriage licenses and directs back to the clerk's office. It is not general fund money, not a tax increase and not a fee increase.

She described a 180-day timeline and said that meeting was day one of it. She committed to quarterly reports to the Commission and to publishing performance metrics on the office website and social channels, starting with where the office stood on day one.

Chairwoman Avant noted that the request represents about 25 percent of what is in the special revenue fund, and asked for a spend-down plan for the remainder.

What happens next

Clerk Hall committed to quarterly reports to the Commission. On the 180-day timeline she described, the first quarterly report would fall in December 2026. The 901 Report has asked her office for the spend-down plan the chairwoman requested and for the current count of unprocessed dealer packets.

Later reporting

Update, October 11, 2026. The paragraphs below rest on later secondary reporting, not on the meeting record. They are carried here because The 901 Report folded a separate draft on the clerk's walk-in suspension into this post rather than publishing the two side by side.

Two days after the vote, on September 16, 2026, the clerk's office suspended walk-in driver license and motor vehicle renewals to work the backlog, according to Action News 5, WREG and ABC24. Offices stayed open for marriage licenses, business licenses and other clerk transactions. No outlet reported an end date for the suspension.

Clerk Hall told reporters the money approved on September 14 would take 10 to 15 days to begin moving and 60 to 90 days before new equipment was running.

By September 22, Action News 5 and the Daily Memphian reported the backlog had been cut roughly in half. Later reporting indicates the full walk-in closure lasted one day and that the office now sets aside the third Wednesday of each month as a backlog day, rather than holding an open-ended suspension. The 901 Report has not seen a reopening notice from the clerk's office itself.

Your city. Your money. Your receipts.