Today is the Day

The Seal of Shelby County TN
Today is a big day for me, and several thousand people in Shelby County.

Today is the day that I and several others go before the County Commission seeking appointment to the body through August 2012. This issue will not be settled today, but what happens today will have a pretty big impact on what happens next Monday, when the Commission takes it to a vote.

The Daily News reports that I and five others have applied for the position. Of course, the County Commission is not bound by the applications and can appoint whomever it wants. Also, there’s a good chance that there will be some additional faces before the Commission today seeking the appointment.

While this is a big deal, I don’t think its the biggest deal before the County Commission. That distinction goes to the Title X grant funds that the Health and Hospitals Committee will take up at 9:45 am.

If you haven’t already, you can read about how we got here, and the remaining questions regarding the proposal approval process in the following series of posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4).

The Commercial Appeal reports this morning that Commissioner Walter Bailey may be looking to change his vote. At the last Committee meeting Bailey was one of several Democrats that voted to defer the issue.

Today, the Commission will vote to send it to either send it to the full body or block it. An approval today isn’t the end of the world. That said, it is call for concern. Considering the makeup of the body, it will only take one more decision change from a Democratic commissioner to award the money to Christ Community Health Center. If it stays as it is through Monday, the 6-6 split will likely cause the issue to be rebid.

Of all the issues I raised in the series of posts mentioned above, the one issue that seems to have the most weight is that of staffing. The RFP mentions that staff must be in place. PPGMR, which primarily provides women’s health services, already has that staff in place. CCHC, by contrast, notes in their RFP that they will have to hire as many as 7 staffers to fulfill the contract.

This would seem to disqualify CCHC.

There are many more questions that need to be answered, and despite the political environment, and the potential vote outcome. These questions need to be answered before this issue is voted on.

You can watch the proceedings here.

Health and Hospitals starts at 9:45. General Government is scheduled to start at 11.

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