The Memphis City Council has begun accepting applications for the council seats left vacant with the departure of District 6 Councilman Edmund Ford, Jr. and Super District 8 Position 2 Councilman Janice Fullilove.
Prospective candidates can come to the Council office located at 125 N Main, Ste. 514, to pick up an application. Completed forms, including a petition with signatures of 25 registered voters in the district, must be returned by noon December 13.
The Council is slated to make a selection for each position at its Dec. 18 meeting.
Ford won a seat on the Shelby County Commission and Fullilove is the new Juvenile Court Clerk for Shelby County.
And there also remains the issue of who will fill the District 1 post left empty with the departure of Bill Morrison.
The council took more than 100 votes in an attempt to seat an interim council member for District 1 in a Nov. 20 council meeting that lasted past midnight before it was recessed by chairman Berlin Boyd.
The matter will be taken up again at a council meeting on Dec. 4.
The meeting ended with harsh words and the council deadlocked on whether to choose Rhonda Logan, executive director of the Raleigh Community Development Corp., or Lonnie Treadaway, national sales manager for Flinn Broadcasting Corp.
Logan was one vote short of the seven votes necessary to win.
Ford and Fullilove, who both voted consistently for Logan, will not be at the Dec. 4 meeting and some council members argued that a delay to Dec. 4 with a 10-member council will make it even more difficult for anyone to get the seven votes required to win the seat.
The delay on the appointment also delayed the election of a city council chairman and vice chairman for 2019.
District 1 covers Raleigh and parts of Cordova.
Treadaway on Wednesday told The New Tri-State Defender he was a little surprised that last week’s meeting turned out the way it did. But he said the council had a tough decision to make between two qualified candidates.
Treadaway said he has only lived in District 1 since earlier this year but has spent over 30 years working and doing business in Memphis, adding that he loves the city.
Treadaway lived in Senatobia, Miss. for 14 years and lost a race for alderman there last year. He now lives in Stage Park Meadows in Memphis.
“My only agenda in this whole thing is to give back to the community, to serve,” Treadaway said. “I feel no matter what community you live in you should give back to those communities.”
As for the Dec. 4 meeting, he said, “All I can do is try to reach out to the city council and ask them to consider me.”
Logan hopes council members have time to reflect and give the vote for the District 1 seat careful consideration and, “make the best decision for the city as a whole.”
By her self-assessment, Logan is the best candidate.
“I’m already entrenched, doing the work. I am a consensus builder and I have a lot of experience.”
Logan said she moved to the district earlier this year and has been involved in the community for over 35 years, worshiping at the church of her father, founder and senior pastor Dr. Sammie Holloway of Breath of Life Christian Center.
“We love Raleigh and I grew up in Bartlett,” said Logan, who has also worked at Raleigh Egypt.
“I want to serve in a greater capacity.”
