The Commercial Appeal reports that the bond for Tamara Mitchell-Ford was increased to $50,000 from $100 this morning by a judge citing her local criminal record, which includes a drunken driving conviction and two pending DUIs.
General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Louis Montesi said he may review the bond further if prosecutors present documentation of DUI convictions in three other states, including Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina.
Halbert confirmed Tuesday that she has been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury investigating business practices at Memphis City Schools.
Halbert, a school board member who was elected to the council in the Oct. 4 city elections, said she is not a target of the probe yet knows of dubious dealings in the school district.
“There’s just been a lot of questionable practices at the school system,” said Halbert, a school board member since 2000 who takes office as a councilwoman Jan. 1. She declined to discuss details, saying only, “I have been called to testify as a witness as to how Memphis City Schools conducts business.”
Read the Commercial Appeal’s story.
The vote cleared the way for redeveloping the city’s central business district with an urban flair — buildings up to six stories high, pedestrian-friendly streets and a mix of uses that allows residents to live above offices and stores.
The urban heart cultivated by the Smart Growth plan will encompass about 380 acres, but a standing-room-only crowd of about 200 at the board meeting was largely concerned with only 14 of those acres.
Known as the Owen Tract, Smart Growth rezoning of the triangular slice of undeveloped woods and residential properties formed by Cordova, Neshoba and Germantown roads drew a last-minute thunderstorm of opposition from neighborhoods.
They are concerned that concentrating townhomes, retail space, offices, and a residential health care facility would overburden the neighborhood.
The board, however, didn’t let the critics or their signs rain on the third and final vote for Smart Growth rezoning.
Mayor Sharon Goldsworthy, backed up by silent aldermen given two opportunities to say otherwise, told the audience that the rules allowed citizens to speak only on items not on the agenda.
The Commercial Appeal reports the entire story.
