Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris is facing a pair of lawsuits from two elected officials seeking restoration of funding for unfilled positions cut during recent budget negotiations.
Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. and Trustee Regina Newman filed “salary petitions” in Shelby County Circuit and Chancery courts in July, following the Shelby County Commission’s decision to implement salary restrictions in the $1.7 billion fiscal year 2026 budget.
Bonner’s lawsuit is seeking $67 million that was withheld from the budget at Harris’ request. The suit argues the mayor’s job is simply to pass along a budget — not make recommendations on changes.
Newman joins Bonner in a separate lawsuit that seeks $5.3 million in personnel expenses cut from the budget. The county commission made the cuts right before the final budget was passed. Both argue the shortfall could harm their departments.
According to The Daily Memphian, Harris responded to questions about the lawsuits via text, saying he has “no idea what the lawsuit is about.”
The commission is not named in either lawsuit.
Legal threats from Bonner aren’t new. In previous budget seasons, the sheriff has pushed back against the administration’s recurring move to “unfund” vacant positions — those left open for 18 months or longer — as a way to reallocate funds during negotiations. Bonner argues the accounting tactic violates the department’s state-mandated “maintenance of effort.”
That strategy worked in 2024. The commission restored funding to those vacant positions after Bonner threatened to sue.
The lawsuits filed last month are a continuation of that fight.
Bonner’s current lawsuit argues Harris directed the commission to implement the salary restrictions, and that the elected mayor’s role is limited to proposing, not altering, the consolidated budget.
Both Bonner and Newman are independently elected officials, but their departments fall under the county’s overall budget.
The Harris administration, in legal responses, said neither the Trustee’s Office nor the Sheriff’s Office is entitled to relief.
In a follow-up to The Daily Memphian, Harris denied responsibility for the cuts.
“Obviously no one in my office has withheld money from the sheriff,” Harris said in a text Thursday. “I assume he’s talking about the commission’s cuts at the end of the budget year.”
He went further, criticizing Bonner’s management.
“Given the condition of the jail, his inability to staff the youth detention facility and the rampant drug trafficking inside his facility, I do think we all want to know what in the world the sheriff has been spending on,” Harris wrote. “Until we can figure out what this sheriff does all day, the commission is right to scrutinize every dollar that goes into that operation.”
