When the county’s lease originally ended in January, the clerk’s office was not ready to leave, so the lease was extended four months. When the pandemic hit, more time was given.

Plus, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris on Tuesday announced $5,000 in funding for Senior Tech Connect, a new county program that will connect long-term care facilities with technology so residents can see their families.

After weeks of planning and device distributions, Shelby County Schools rings the bell for the first day of virtual school and will stay that way until further notice.

The latest edition of our scorecard looks at several moves in the hiring freeze and what the rejection of a convenience store on East Holmes Road could mean for similar businesses in the rest of the county.

Shelby County commissioners approved a waiver to the freeze Monday for county firefighters but put off another waiver for 78 more positions in other departments. 

Milton's argument comes as the head of information services for county government says his lean budget could exacerbate problems hiring tech employees. The commission votes Monday on a set of exceptions to the county's hiring freeze totaling 104 positions and nearly $7 million.

Memphis and Shelby County will sacrifice hundreds of millions of dollars worth of support in economic development if Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division splits from TVA, chief executive Jeffrey Lyash tells the EDGE Board.

Mayors Strickland and Harris and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen were quick Monday to draw parallels to the national debate about various forms of voting and problems with the U.S. Postal Service when it comes to mailing in votes or Census forms.

Our scorecard of commission votes includes a possible swap of some CARES Act funding as well as the first rejection of a move to get past county government's hiring freeze.

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.