Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris urged to be 'bold' on healthcare, education, housing

Residents of Shelby County from numerous walks of life asked County Mayor Lee Harris to be “bold” in his final four years in the role, presenting a series of recommendations Thursday.

The recommendations, developed over the past three months, call for a “Next Era” in which Harris pushes the minimum wage discussion throughout the county, expands education opportunities, establishes a $2 million fund for affordable housing needs, expands healthcare access, and seeks conversation and feedback from the area community.

Many of the recommendations mirrored and expanded upon initiatives that Harris led during his first four years as mayor.

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“It’s obvious that you have poured your time and talent and expertise in this set of recommendations and given it life,” Harris told the group assembled at the Central Station Hotel. “Now it’s the job of all of us in Shelby County Government to keep it alive, to take it seriously, and to get to work.”

The “Our Next Era” transition team — made up of nonprofit and business leaders, high school students, government employees, and more — echoed one created by Harris in 2018 when he was first elected.

Harris said Thursday that he spent a great deal of time on the 2018 team’s recommendations.

“We tried to make it happen with respect to each of the items in the report,” he said. “We took it very seriously and we’re going to take this very seriously.”

The committee was divided into five teams: student achievement, inclusive economic development, neighborhood development, community empowerment, and healthcare access.

Recommendations from the education team ranged from connecting high schoolers to more opportunities such as internships to distributing an age-appropriate book developed by Shelby County to help improve early literacy rates.

The economic development team focused on “support(ing) economic and social mobility for all Shelby County residents, more specifically our Black residents,” said Natalie McKinney, chair of that subcommittee. “Our recommendations are bold, unique, and continue to challenge his administration to urge others to be transformational.”

While Shelby County Government has already expanded the minimum wage for its employees to $16, the team recommended incorporating the MIT’s Living Wage Calculator into ordinance, ensuring that the minimum wage for county employees adapts to the changing economy. And, the team recommended that the county advocate for large employers to adopt a similar wage-setting standard.

On neighborhood development, the team urged the county to establish an affordable housing trust fund with $2 million and to also embed “community connectors” around the county, “bridging the gap between residents, government and private sectors,” said Kalimah Azeez, a member of the committee.

The community empowerment subcommittee asked the county to educate citizens through a website, videos about complex issues, and focused discussions, helping make clear how decisions are made as well as distinctions between Shelby County Government and the Memphis City Government. That, in turn, would empower residents to give feedback to the county.

On healthcare, the “bold vision is a Shelby County where every resident, regardless of socioeconomic status, gender identity, race, income, has access to the healthcare they need,” said Lena Chipman, a member of that team.

Priorities include advancing language access and culturally tailored health services along with working to increase the number of insured residents.

“Money, power, and proximity should not determine who lives and who dies,” Chipman said. “Through thoughtful policy decisions we believe the Mayor Lee Harris administration can actually save lives.”

Each of the committee co-chairs was invited to champion a specific issue. Raushanah Morgan, a neighborhood development leader, advocated for community benefit agreements, which are between private developers and corporations and the government when the developer expects to benefit from public subsidies.

School board member Kevin Woods, also a developer, advocated for “The 1-Mile Initiative,” which would focus on the creation of green spaces, affordable housing, grocers, and other businesses surrounding public schools, “the nucleus of our neighborhoods.”

And Former County Commissioner Reginald Milton, who now works on education for Harris, challenged the mayor’s administration to engage neighborhood associations, the faith-based community, and labor unions, hearing their advocacy.

“I believe the mayor, his administration, and his wonderful committee members know that Shelby County will not truly get on the path to equitable prosperity until all of the citizens are asked what they need to prosper and each citizen is actually afforded the opportunity to do so,” Morgan said.

The report will be available to view in full at https://ournextera.com/report/.

Here are some of the recommendations from each subcommittee:

Inclusive Economic Development:

• Push a living wage through a local ordinance and “bold advocacy.” While the county’s minimum wage ($16) for employees is already above the MIT’s Living Wage calculator, the recommendation is that language about the calculator be incorporated into ordinance to ensure that the living wage for the county workforce continues to be adapted in line with the changing economy.

• Advocate for large employers to adopt a similar wage-setting standard.

• That the mayor sign an executive order requiring county agencies to remove questions about criminal history on job applications and initial interviews. The policy would be extended to contractors doing business with Shelby County Government.

Student Achievement:

• Expand access to education opportunities for infants to children age 3 (with a goal of 4,000-8,000 seats for infants to children age 3) and enabling 3-year-olds to participate in existing pre-kindergarten programs.

• Connect high school students to more opportunities, including technical courses and dual enrollment, internship opportunities and high-quality Career Training Education (CTE). The county would work with the school system on one-time CTE funding as part of the new state funding formula in fiscal year 2024.

• Eliminate disruptions to learning, including by working through the Youth and Family Resource Center and partnering with Memphis-Shelby County Schools to identify five schools with high rates of chronic absenteeism, reducing that absenteeism by at least 10% within the next three years.

Neighborhood Development:

• Establish an affordable housing trust fund, providing financial support for new construction projects and rehabilitation of existing homes. The fund would address blight, identify and meet the needs of special populations and use common-use facilities to revitalize neighborhoods. The suggested approach includes earmarking $2 million to fund affordable housing needs.

Community Empowerment:

• Help residents understand government by creating a “government simplified” webpage, including a summary of resources, FAQs that address misconceptions such as responsibilities of the City of Memphis versus Shelby County Government and a way for residents to submit questions to elected officials.

• Build a database of community ambassadors who can help connect residents to resources and to help push resident feedback to county officials.

Expansion of Healthcare Access:

• Advance language access, health literacy and culturally congruent healthcare services, including by developing and disseminating resources for health care providers on topics such as harm reduction, LGBTQIA+ sensitivity training and implicit bias training. The recommendations also include addressing stigma regarding addiction treatment, sexually transmitted infection testing and suicide and self-harm prevention.

• Enhance the capacity of health care organizations to reduce disparities, including by developing a process to connect and direct residents to appropriate primary care providers.

• Increase the collection and use of data to improve resources and health outcomes through a county-wide needs assessment.

Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby Mayor Lee Harris urged to be 'bold' in final four years