Shelby County Approved a $366,623.26 Emergency Purchase Order in August for Election Work That Was Finished in April.

SHELBY COUNTY COMMISSION

The contract covered low voltage and information technology construction at the Shelby County Election Commission operations center. Asked when the work was completed, the county's engineering representative said by April 15. The item cleared committee on a two-vote tally with no questions and passed the full commission on the consent agenda.

MEMPHIS, August 10, 2026 - The Shelby County Commission approved a contract and an emergency purchase order for $366,623.26 on August 10 covering construction work that county staff said was finished nearly four months earlier.

The resolution authorized the contract with Access DNSI, Inc. for what the agenda describes as the emergency completion of low voltage and information technology construction services required to support election readiness at the Shelby County Election Commission operations center at 980 Nixon in Memphis.

At the August 5 Facilities, Real Property and Capital Improvements Committee meeting, the committee chairman asked a single question about the item: when was this work completed.

A representative of Shelby County Engineering answered that it was completed by April 15.

What the county said happened

The engineering representative gave the committee the sequence. The election commission renovation project was designed over a long timeline built around the schedule of election operations center activities, with blackout periods and periods of accelerated work. Funds had been appropriated for low voltage and special technology. The county monitored the progress of that expenditure against the progress of the work, and out of an abundance of caution with an approaching election, requested an emergency justification to make sure the work was completed in time.

The chairman asked his question, received the April 15 answer, said "great," noted no one was in the queue, and moved to a vote.

The committee recorded two aye votes. The item moved down with a favorable recommendation.

Five days later it appeared as item 14 on the commission's consent agenda and passed with the rest of that agenda in a single vote. There was no discussion of it on the floor.

What the funding source is

The resolution draws on capital improvement program funds appropriated in a resolution the commission adopted on February 2, 2024, item 22. The agenda describes those as fiscal year 2026 capital improvement program funds.

That means the money was set aside more than two years before this approval, the work was performed by the spring of 2026, and the contract authorizing it came to the commission in August 2026.

An emergency purchase order is a mechanism for moving faster than standard procurement allows. What the record of these two meetings establishes is that the commission's approval came after the work it authorizes had already been completed.

What happens next

The resolution passed on August 10 as part of the consent agenda. The record does not show any further reporting requirement, any audit, or any commitment to bring the emergency justification before the commission. The commission's next meeting is August 24, the final meeting before eight newly elected commissioners take office.

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