Shelby County Commissioners want to try a swap out of federal CARES Act funding similar to one city council members did a week ago. But tensions left over from a rough county budget season that ended in June are hanging around.

County commissioners vote Monday on a waiver of the county's hiring and pay freeze, and nearly 100 more waivers requested by officials are waiting in the wings. Commissioners say they need a budget book with specific line items and dollar figures to know whether the waivers would put the county in the red.

The health department reported 235 new coronavirus cases Thursday. That’s the fifth consecutive day with fewer than 300 new cases, and the third consecutive day testing results were below 2,000.

Weekly averages tone down bumps that show up when tests come from a high-impact area or are delayed in being processed and are reported all at once.

First-term Republican Commissioner Brandon Morrison became chairman pro tempore of the commission with the votes of six of the eight Democratic commissioners and none of the votes of her four Republican colleagues on the body. While it's controversial, the political move is also a common feature of commission politics.

It's been a month since a county government budget was approved for the fiscal year that began July 1. But until that detailed budget is printed in black and white, there is still some wrangling underway, some distrust and the hiring freeze the county imposed may be melting.

Taking a question about past criminal convictions off the county's job application involves a set of complex rules for hiring those with a criminal past. The new ordinance pushes the consideration to later in the hiring process.

Also on the agenda for Monday, July 27, is a vote on creating a county health board that commission Chairman Mark Billingsley is seeking to delay. And the commission elects a new chair for the next year as it nears the two-year mark of its current four-year term.

Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter's county health board proposal is drawing some resistance from suburban leaders who want to know more about its powers. The last county health board was abolished in 1909 and was no stranger to controversy.

On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, the County Commission chairman says the differences between the two don't appear to extend to the rest of the commission. Mark Billingsley also said he hopes to move to lift the county hiring budget freeze once there is a reconciliation of the budget approved by the commission last month after rejecting Mayor Lee Harris's original proposal.

Shelby County, from July 8-22, averaged 342 new cases a day, 2,350 test results and a 14.6% positivity rate, according to Shelby County Health Department data.

In recent weeks, local testing capacity went from being underutilized to the new stance issued by the joint Memphis and Shelby County COVID-19 task force Tuesday.

Our scorecard tracks what could a close final vote to come on the ban the box ordinance after it was amended. We also detail the three budget amendments that got through before the commission approved a hiring freeze.

The proposal comes as County Mayor Lee Harris has 46 requests from other countywide elected officials to add positions two weeks into the new fiscal year. Harris also served notice Monday that next budget season he will be back with some kind of proposal to raise revenues to avoid layoffs and cuts in services that are a real possibility this fiscal year.

Some significant amendments to apply the program to private contractors pushed a final vote to July 21.

The proposal would remove from county government employment applications the check box or question that asks whether the applicant has been convicted of a criminal offense. 

The Shelby County Commission will reconsider a proposal they initially voted down: John Porter's Quinn Ridge Development in Collierville. Some commissioners believe the project would yield significant financial gain for the county, but others believe it would be more of a financial burden.

The Wednesday committee sessions drew most of the 13 commissioners, with the remainder attending online. Also debuting was a partitioned commission chambers with glass barriers between the elected officials and masks worn in the booths created for them.

During that span, Shelby County recorded its four highest single-day increases in new cases and exceeded a 10% daily positivity rate in 10 of the past 14 days. 

The commission scorecard includes votes on a property tax hike, a Juneteenth holiday and a resolution recognizing racism as a pandemic.

The measures, effective immediately, include no out-of-county prisoners into the four facilities and more access to visitation and prison programs by video livestream. They follow a testing surge for prisoners and staff earlier in June.

Clerk Wanda Halbert says the seven locations will operate differently. They'll have appointments, and people will wait in their cars before being called into the office. Halbert warns there could be long lines and few employees at the counter until social distancing partitions are installed. The one-week shutdown was the second for the office since the global pandemic was declared in mid-March.

The county mayor also said in a "Behind The Headlines" interview that he has no regrets about his budget proposal that the commission rejected, which included a wheel tax hike with some budget cuts and an ambitious five-year plan to fund new school construction.

This week on WKNO’s Behind the Headlines, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris joins host Eric Barnes and Bill Dries.   

The new gallery opens in a community rich with history and with plans for exhibits and programs.