MEMPHIS, September 14, 2026 - The Shelby County Board of Commissioners appointed Marcy Ingram to serve as judge of the Shelby County General Sessions Civil Court, Division 6, on September 14, 2026, on the fourth ballot, by a vote of 8 to 5.

The seat opened when Judge Lonnie Thompson was elected to the Chancery Court. The appointment is effective September 14, 2026 and runs until a successor is elected and qualified at the August 2028 countywide general election.

The item had left the September 9, 2026 committee meeting without a recommendation, with the name blank unfilled.

The rules came off twice

Chairwoman Shante K. Avant asked for a motion to suspend the rules so that the candidates would not have to give speeches, on the ground that the committee had already heard from them on September 9, 2026. Commissioner Erika Sugarmon moved, Commissioner Miska Clay Bibbs seconded, and it carried without objection.

The nomination roll began with district four. Commissioner Mark Billingsley nominated Martin Zumach. Commissioner Henri E. Brooks nominated a sitting judge. Commissioner Lashanta Rudd nominated Marcy Ingram. Commissioner Amber Huett-Garcia nominated Steve Townsend and spelled the surname into the record. Commissioner Rhonda O'Dell and Commissioner Derek Mills both nominated John Cameron.

Five names went forward. The chairwoman asked the parliamentarian to read them back twice, because commissioners could not hear them the first time.

The first ballot: five for the sitting judge, four for Ingram, two for Cameron, one for Townsend, one for Zumach. Thirteen votes, no majority.

The second ballot, limited to the three candidates with two or more votes: five for Ingram, four for Cameron, four for the sitting judge.

The rule says the third ballot takes the top two numerical votes. There were not two. The tally was five, four and four, so the chairwoman put the same three names up again. On that ballot, two candidates emerged and two advanced.

Moving to a fourth ballot required a second suspension of the rules. Commissioner Sugarmon moved it, Commissioner Will Richardson seconded, and it carried without objection.

The fourth ballot: eight for Ingram, five for the sitting judge.

What she said

"The magic word is serve," Ingram told the Commission. She said one of the things she loves most about being a judge is doing mock trials with children from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and offered to come to any school in any commissioner's district on request.

The attorney the Commission lost

Nine days later, in the September 23, 2026 committee meeting, Commissioner Sugarmon described why the Commission has no independent lawyer of its own and why she had filed a resolution to hire one.

"In the past, as far as resolutions and ordinances that I wrote, it would take, for example, Marcy Ingram, within a week turnaround," she said. "I'm facing months turnaround with the way it is set up now."

On October 7, 2026, she put it directly. "Before you all came on board, we had one attorney and that was now Judge Marcy Ingram, and she took care of all of us, and she was able to come here to all the committee meetings, commission meetings."

She said the attorney was "taken away from this commission."

The resolution to hire a replacement at $250 an hour was deferred on September 23, 2026 and sent out of committee without a recommendation on October 7, 2026.

What happens next

The appointment runs until a successor is elected and qualified at the August 2028 countywide general election. The resolution to retain an independent attorney for the Commission left committee on October 7, 2026 without a recommendation and was set for the full Commission.

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