Memphis City Council members put off a final vote Tuesday, Jan. 9, on a controversial legacy item from the previous council that left office last month.
The council delayed a vote until its Feb. 6 meeting on an ordinance that would extend city health insurance benefits to council members who have served two full terms on the council, or at least eight years.
The proposal by former council chairman Martavius Jones, which was approved on two of three “readings” last month, would apply to those council members elected in 2015 who served the city charter’s limit of two consecutive terms.
That would be four of the council members who left office at the end of 2023 and who voted on first and second readings of the ordinance.
At the first council meeting of the four-year term for the new body Tuesday, the council delayed it without discussion.
The new council also got an earful from several critics of the proposal at the end of Tuesday’s meeting.
Felicia Boyd, a retired city employee, called the proposal “an act of greed.” “A majority of council members have more than one source of income,” she said. “It’s inconsiderate for you to even make such a request.”
Former Council member Kemp Conrad said the proposal is worded poorly. “It could be construed that it would apply to anyone that was in office in 2015, such as myself,” he said on social media during Tuesday’s council session. “Of course, I would never partake in such a fleecing of the public.”
In other action, the council set a Feb. 6 public hearing and vote on a proposal for a planned “biomass” plant by Memphis Urban Wood LLC at 1230 N. Watkins St. in North Memphis.
