Mayor Lee Harris’ Update on July 14 Southern Justice Summit

On Tuesday, July 14, Shelby County will partner with the Memphis Urban League on the first #SouthernJustice Summit. This all-virtual conference will bring together activists and thinkers around issues of arrest and detention, bail reform, alternatives to ...

Mayor Harris’ Update on Effort to “Ban the Box” of Criminal Inquiry from Shelby County Applications

This Monday, the County Commission will consider the third and final reading of the “Ban the Box” ordinance. “Ban the Box” is an effort by our administration and Commissioner Sawyer, with support from several other ...

Mayor Lee Harris’ Update on Extensive List of Reforms to Protect Shelby County Inmates

Today, I signed an Executive Order to expand the protections for prisoners housed with the Shelby County Division of Corrections. This Order will build on our previous efforts to be extremely aggressive in working to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our pri...

Mayor Lee Harris’ Update on Implementation of County Government’s First Paid Parental Leave Policy

I am pleased to report that Shelby County Government has just put the finishing touches on the first paid parental leave policy for county employees. That means, starting next week on July 1, county employees will have access to six weeks of paid parental...

Mayor Lee Harris’ Update Regarding the Need to Expand Medicaid in Tennessee in Light of COVID-19

Shelby County and the state of Tennessee were facing a public health emergency long before COVID-19 hit our communities. The Tennessee General Assembly has let seven years pass by without expanding Medicaid, and that single decision has left hundreds of t...

Mayor Lee Harris’ Update on the Impact of Commission’s Proposed Budget Cuts

Over the last few weeks, we have received increasingly urgent reports from various County operations, worried about the Commission’s action on this year’s budget. They have been trying to make sense of the massive cuts the Commission h...

Mayor Lee Harris’ Statement on Commission Approval of Job Cuts

Right now, we are in the middle of the Shelby County budget process. The County Commission is considering a budget during one of the worst economic contractions in US history. About 40 million Americans have filed unemployment claims, nearly one in four w...

Mayor Lee Harris' Statement on Protecting Inmates and Detainees Amid Public Health Emergency

The protection of prisoners and other vulnerable populations is one of our top priorities and we have to be aggressive. A verse from Matthew reads: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and...

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris' Statement on County Commission Vote to Cut Budget

COVID-19 has cut lives short and put livelihoods in jeopardy. To confront this public health emergency, we have expanded testing capacity, worked with the state to expand local hospital capacity, and expanded public health capacity. However, we have to al...

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris' Statement on the Move into Phase 2 of Back-to-Business Framework

We have recently announced the move into Phase 2 of our Back-to-Business framework. This is a sign of solid progress. In fact, take a moment to think about just two of our indicators of progress in light of what’s happening right now.

First, reca...

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris Statement on Proposal for Massive Expansion of Health Department

Right now, we are positioned to make a significant investment in protecting our public health. Today we will be asking the Shelby County Commission to approve 141 new positions in the Shelby County Health Department, new positions that will be singularly ...

Mayor Lee Harris REMARKS: Health Directive #3

County Mayor Lee Harris Remarks Regarding COVID-19 Shelby County Health Directive #3 Delivered on May 4, 2020

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