Shelby County Is Approving a Lease Extension That Began 18 Months Ago. Nobody From the Administration Was There to Explain It the First Time.

The committee sent the item forward without a recommendation, then reopened it an hour later when staff arrived. The county cut the tenant's rent in half to keep it in the building.

MEMPHIS, August 19, 2026 - A Shelby County committee took up a pair of lease extensions for a credit union on the fourth floor of the county administration building, the first of which began on February 1, 2025 and ended on June 30, 2025, more than a year before the vote.

The item was called with nobody present to answer questions about it. Commissioner Henri E. Brooks had a question and asked twice whether anyone was there to answer. Nobody was.

"This is not good," she told the committee, and asked that a memo go out requesting a presenter for the full Commission meeting, adding that the memo should tell the administration its presenters need to be present on Wednesdays for committee.

Commissioner Mick Wright, chairing Committee 15, Facilities, Real Property and Capital Improvements, said he concurred. Vice Chairman David C. Bradford, Jr. moved to send the item down without a recommendation, Commissioner Amber Mills seconded, and it carried without objection.

The reopening

Roughly an hour later, after the budget committee had recessed to let staff catch up on add-ons, Commissioner Wright reopened Committee 15 to reconsider the item, saying staff were now present and prepared to present, and that the request was to send it forward with a favorable recommendation instead.

The parliamentarian advised that a member on the prevailing side could move to reconsider, that the item would then return as it stood for a vote. Commissioner Bradford made the motion, Commissioner Britney Thornton seconded, and it carried without objection.

The land bank administrator opened with an apology for missing the first committee and thanks for the indulgence of rehearing it.

What the lease does

As filed in the agenda packet, the resolution approves two lease extensions with SecurCommunity Federal Credit Union, formerly Shelby County Federal Credit Union, for 1,364 square feet of office space at 160 North Main Street, fourth floor. The first extension runs February 1, 2025 through June 30, 2025 for a total of $8,951.25. The second runs July 1, 2025 through January 31, 2028 for a total of $22,378.25. The packet states the total rental payments to be received in fiscal year 2027 is $10,741.56.

Why the rent went down

Commissioner Thornton asked how long the county has had the lease and whether the terms have fluctuated.

The administrator said the first lease appears to date to 2021 and is attached as an exhibit. On cost, she said that during negotiations for the second lease the credit union requested a zero lease payment, on the grounds that while the space is accessible to county employees it is not accessible to the public at large and is therefore not a good fiscal location. She said the credit union wanted to move elsewhere downtown but could not find another location, and that after talking with the administration the county offered to halve the rent so employees could keep the convenience of having the branch in the building.

Asked to show the lease amounts since 2021, the administrator said she was looking for the figure in the prior lease and did not want to hold up the meeting. Commissioner Thornton asked her to email it to the full body instead. She agreed.

The questions Commissioner Brooks came back to

Commissioner Brooks asked who SecurCommunity Federal Credit Union is. The administrator said it is the Shelby County Federal Credit Union, renamed a few months earlier.

Asked whether the credit union is governed by a board of directors and what that board's makeup is, the administrator said she was not aware of the makeup of the entity and could try to find the information.

Asked who initiated the additional space, the administrator corrected the premise: it is not additional space. The credit union is staying in its current fourth-floor space, the lease was expiring, and the county reached out roughly a year before expiration to ask whether the tenant wanted to continue.

Asked whether the administration had approved the arrangement, the administrator said yes.

The vote

On reconsideration, aye votes came from Commissioner Mills, Commissioner Wright, Commissioner Thornton and Chairwoman Shante K. Avant. Commissioner Brooks abstained. Four ayes and one abstention sent the item forward with a favorable recommendation.

What happens next

The full Commission adopted the resolution on the consent agenda on Monday, August 24, 2026, on 12 aye votes, without discussion. The lease history since 2021 that the land bank administrator agreed to email to the body was not presented at that meeting, and no commissioner asked for it before the vote.

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