Shelby County Pays Its Firefighter Paramedics $76,000. Bartlett Pays $82,800, Germantown $82,700, Memphis $84,700.

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.

MEMPHIS, August 24, 2026 - Commissioner Erika Sugarmon voted against two Shelby County contracts and used the votes to put a set of salary comparisons on the record: Shelby County pays its firefighter paramedics $76,000, while four surrounding departments pay between $82,200 and $84,700.

The two items she opposed were routine. Each approves an expenditure of up to $100,000 from fiscal year 2027 Fire Services Enterprise Funds for emergency medical services education and training for the Shelby County Fire Department, one to Dyersburg State Community College and one to Southwest Tennessee Community College. Both had come out of the Public Works Committee with a favorable recommendation. Both passed.

She said she agreed with the expenditure but not with the funding source.

The numbers she read

Speaking to the second of the two items, and rounding, Commissioner Sugarmon listed firefighter paramedic pay at four departments and then at the county:

The Bartlett Fire Department pays $82,800. The Collierville Fire Department pays $82,200. The Germantown Fire Department pays $82,700. The Memphis Fire Department pays $84,700. Shelby County pays its firefighter paramedics $76,000.

The widest gap, against Memphis, is $8,700. The narrowest, against Collierville, is $6,200.

She said residents in unincorporated Shelby County pay an additional $35 on their Memphis Light, Gas and Water bill toward the fire fund, that the Shelby County Fire Department serves those unincorporated areas, and that her constituents and the firefighters have asked to see a return on that money.

She said the fire fund could be used to raise salaries, and asked whether people trained through these contracts will stay and work in Shelby County for less money. She said she would vote against these items and anything else drawing on the fire fund unless it includes constituents in all unincorporated areas.

The request that went unanswered

Commissioner Sugarmon said she asked for specific information during the budget hearings in May 2026 and never received it. She said the unincorporated areas include not only her constituents but those of the Chairwoman and Commissioner Charlie A. Caswell, Jr.

Later in the same discussion she returned to it, saying she wanted it in the record that she asked for the information months ago and still has not received it.

Nothing in the record establishes what the request was for or why it was not filled. Nobody from the administration responded to it at the meeting.

Why the money cannot come from the general fund

Chairwoman Shante K. Avant asked the county attorney's office to explain the funding constraint for the listening public.

An attorney from that office said the funding source in both resolutions is an enterprise fund, meaning the revenue comes from the population using the service, and that the general fund is not allowed for fire service in Shelby County because the Shelby County Fire Department does not serve the entire county, only the unincorporated areas.

That answer explains why the contracts draw on the fire fund. It does not address the pay comparison, and no one asked it to.

The one point of agreement

Vice Chair David C. Bradford, Jr. said he agreed with Commissioner Sugarmon that the county needs to figure out a better way to fund the fire department and that it is not headed down the right track. He said it is not something the body would complete that night, but suggested that one of the incoming Commission's first items should be putting together an ad hoc committee or something similar to study it.

He offered a second data point. When the county tried to build a fire station in Cordova, he said, it turned out there was not enough money in the fire fund to do that either.

The votes

On the Dyersburg State contract, 10 members voted aye and Commissioner Sugarmon voted no.

On the Southwest Tennessee contract, nine members voted aye, Commissioner Sugarmon voted no, and Commissioner Henri E. Brooks abstained.

What happens next

The record shows both contracts were adopted and that the funds are fiscal year 2027 Fire Services Enterprise Funds. No study committee was created. The suggestion that the incoming Commission take up fire department funding was made from the floor and was not put in the form of a motion, so nothing obligates anyone to act on it.

That incoming Commission has since been sworn in. The Vice Chair who made the suggestion did not return. The commissioner who raised the pay comparison, Erika Sugarmon, did, now representing District 12.

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