All three open positions on the Memphis City Council are in play starting Thursday at noon, the deadline for those interested in the District 6 seat and the Super District 8 Position 2 seat to file their applications with the council office.

Through Wednesday, 21 citizens had picked up the paperwork for the District 6 seat and 22 for the Super District 8 seat – some for both positions.

The council had intended to have someone appointed to the open District 1 seat by now. That was before 100 separate roll call votes failed to yield an appointment, a walkout that left the council without a quorum, a legal opinion that changed the rules on how many council members constitute a quorum and the four council members who walked out hiring an attorney.

When the council meets next Tuesday, it will still be trying to fill the District 1 seat and taking up the two other council seats for the first time.

The appointments mark the first time in the 50-year history of the mayor-council form of government that three appointed members will serve on the body at the same time.

The contenders must present proof and an affidavit that they live in the council district for which they are applying. They also must submit a petition signed by at least 25 voters who live in the district. The Shelby County Election Commission will verify those signatures, and it will take some time between Thursday’s deadline and when the election commission releases the list of those who have qualified for consideration.

Here are the contenders who pulled the paperwork to be considered for each of the positions. No information was available on some of the contenders.

Council District 1

Paul Boyd, former Shelby County Probate Court clerk, lost his re-election bid for clerk when he was upset in the Republican primary in May. Boyd considered going for the Super District 8 vacancy earlier in the year when Philip Spinosa resigned but ultimately never pulled the trigger in favor of the District 1 seat.

Mauricio Calvo, executive director of Latino Memphis, has said he would serve only to the end of 2019 if he gets the appointment and would not seek the District 1 seat in the October 2019 Memphis elections. Calvo is considering running for one of the Super District 9 positions in the 2019 elections.

Tierra Holloway, the choice of council chairman Berlin Boyd, touted a lot of experience with internships in her remarks to council members last month.

Rhonda Logan, the executive director of the Raleigh Community Development Corp., was one vote shy of the seven needed to claim the appointment at the Nov. 20 council session. Now she’s down three votes because the resignations of council members Edmund Ford Jr. and Janis Fullilove, who were supporters, took effect after the Nov. 20 meeting. Logan came to the council chambers with a group of vocal backers that included state Rep. Antonio Parkinson and former council member Rickey Peete. The backing of Peete, who has served two federal prison terms for selling his vote on the council, cost Logan support among some council members.

Faye Morrison, director of the Raleigh Community Council and the mother of former Councilman Bill Morrison, qualified as an applicant but withdrew just before the council began voting on the vacancy.

Danielle Schonbaum was the Democratic nominee for state Rep. District 83 in the November state and federal general elections, unsuccessfully challenging Republican incumbent Mark White as local Democrats made a point of fielding contenders in the races for all 14 state House seats covering Shelby County. Schonbaum is a financial analyst and public accountant with the Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce.

Lonnie Treadaway, the national sales manager for Flinn Broadcasting, who ran for an alderman’s position in Senatobia, Mississippi, in 2017 and moved to Memphis this past July, was Logan’s closest rival in the more than 100 roll call votes taken by the council Nov. 20. He withdrew as an applicant after council member Reid Hedgepeth withdrew his support earlier this month.

Council District 6

Perry Bond, a retired FedEx employee, has challenged the Ford family’s claim on the District 6 seat over numerous elections as the district’s borders have changed. Outgoing incumbent Edmund Ford Jr. ridiculed Bond earlier this year as he challenged critics of the current council.

Theryn Bond, daughter of Perry Bond and the critic whom Ford’s comments were directed at for the most part. Bond has been a part of the city’s new generation of activists and protesters over the last three years. She’s also become involved, like many of those activists and protesters, in some political campaigns, most recently campaigning in Democratic nominee Karl Dean’s bid to become Tennessee Governor as well as other campaigns.

Davin D. Clemons, Memphis police officer and LGBTQ liaison for the department.

Edmund Ford Sr., former council member who would be returning to the body, if he claims the appointment, eight years after his exit to make way for his son Edmund Ford Jr. The elder Ford chose not to seek re-election in 2007. He exited the council facing two sets of federal corruption charges. He went to trial and was acquitted on the first set of charges in a corruption sting that ended former Peete’s second era on the council. Following the acquittal, federal prosecutors dropped the second set of charges against Ford. Ford was one in a long line of Ford family members who have held the District 6 seat since his brother John Ford was elected to the council in a 1971 upset of incumbent Rev. James Netters. Edmund Ford Sr. followed his brothers James and then Joe on the council after each of them went on to serve on the Shelby County Commission. 

Justin Ford, nephew of Edmund Ford Sr. and cousin of Edmund Ford Jr., as well as a former Shelby County commissioner who left that office this past September because of term limits. Justin Ford ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for a state House seat in the August state primary election. This is not the first Ford on Ford election matchup. In the 1990s, Joe Ford and Ophelia Ford – brother and sister – ran for the same county commission seat, with Joe Ford winning. Going even further back, John Ford ran for Shelby County mayor in 1994 while his brother, U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Sr., backed Jack Sammons in the same race.

Andre Gibson, former Memphis Area Transit Authority board member and formerly with the Greater Memphis Chamber, where he served in new member services and economic development.

Vera Holmes: Holmes also pulled the paperwork for the Super District 8 appointment.

Yvonne Nelson, an adjunct professor at LeMoyne-Owen College and president of DI MANS Inc., a youth intervention organization.

Randy Readus works at GNC Live Well and manages a men’s basketball league that is part of HOPE – Helping Out People Everywhere – Outreach. HOPE is a local nonprofit.

Haley A. Simmons pulled the paperwork but told The Daily Memphian Wednesday he has decided not to file. He is policy director for Seeding Success, the local nonprofit involved in the move to universal pre-kindergarten locally. He has served as public policy director for the Greater Memphis Chamber and worked as a special assistant to Memphis Mayors A C Wharton and Jim Strickland. Simmons was also on the Washington staff of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and is a Peace Corps volunteer.

Sharon Webb, a former Memphis City Schools board member who parlayed her upset of long-serving school board incumbent Carl Johnson into election to the Memphis Charter Commission. The charter commission was the group that put a set of charter amendments on the 2008 ballot, including instant-runoff voting; voters ultimately approved those amendments. Webb had less luck when she extended the streak into running for Memphis mayor.

There was no information available on the following prospective contenders: James Boyd, Paul S. Brown, Anita Drake, Kenneth Lee, Jonathan Leinzai, Joyce Londer, Arveal Turner Jr., Kamilah Turner, Marvin White and Lynette Williams.

Council Super District 8, Position 2

Paul S. Brown, also pulled paperwork for District 6

Austin Crowder, government and economics teacher at Soulsville Charter School and freelance writer with his work showing up on the I Love Memphis blog and The Commercial Appeal. Crowder said he decided to apply for the super district appointment after being “deeply discouraged” by the council’s consideration of Treadaway for the District 1 appointment.

Mary Donald, a neighborhood watch leader active in the Greater Whitehaven Economic Redevelopment Corp.

Anita Drake, also pulled paperwork for District 6

Cortez Fifer, also pulled paperwork for District 6

Andre Gibson, also pulled paperwork for District 6

Vera Holmes, also pulled papework for District 6

Cheyenne Johnson, former Shelby County Property Assessor, who chose not to seek re-election this year although she could have. Johnson was the office’s top administrator under former assessor Rita Clark before winning the office in the 2008 elections. She was also one of only two Democrats holding countywide office to survive the Republican wave in the 2014 county elections. Johnson’s campaign experience includes running for re-election twice in two years – 2012 and 2014 – when the assessor's race moved to a different election cycle.

Mark Jones, independent filmmaker and activist who has been most visible in recent years as part of the Coliseum Coalition seeking to restore and reopen the Mid-South Coliseum. As such, he’s been a vocal critic of the city’s plan to keep the Coliseum mothballed, at least for now. “Finally, as you may also know, I’m gay as the day is long,” Jones wrote in an email announcing his bid for the council seat. “I’ve jokingly told friends that if I can organize gay men, which is like herding kittens, to march in the Memphis gay pride parade; then I can pretty much do anything in City Hall.”

Steve Lockwood, executive director of the Frayser Community Development Corp., has been eyeing a council bid for some time now and his bid for the appointment is one of several recent challenges of the racial definition of its districts. Lockwood is a veteran CDC leader whose work has been instrumental in improving the Frayser housing market, an area whose housing stock was ravaged by foreclosures in the Great Recession.

Towanna Murphy, a radio and television personality.

Yvonne Nelson, also pulled paperwork for District 6

Jeffrey Sundling, an administrative assistant at a pain clinic, whose ideas for the council to consider include allowing dashboard camera video from civilians to be used to report reckless driving and issue “dashboard camera tickets.”

Pearl E. Walker, owner of Legacy Locks and Natural Styles and organizer of Facebook public group “Memphis Raise Your Expectations.”

Isaac Wright, ran for the super district seat in the 2015 city elections.

There was no information available on the following prospective contenders: Toni Cole, Tonya Cooper, Geraldine Currie, Deloris Davis, Edward Douglas, Roosevelt Jamison, Janice Mondie.

How did these vacancies come about?

District 1 Councilman Bill Morrison, District 6 Councilman Edmund Ford Jr. and Super District 8 Position 2 Councilwoman Janis Fullilove won county offices in the August county general elections and took those offices Sept. 1.

Morrison is Shelby County Probate Court clerk, Ford is a Shelby County commissioner and Fullilove is Shelby County Juvenile Court clerk.

If they had resigned their council seats by Aug. 22, the council seats would have gone to voters on the Nov. 6 ballot.

And there is precedent for that. Three City Council members were elected to the County Commission in 1994 and all three of those council seats made the November ballot 24 years ago.

Since Morrison, Ford and Fullilove didn’t resign in time for that and no one filed a lawsuit to force the issue, the county charter gave them 90 days to give up the council seats. Morrison was the first to resign effective Nov. 1 followed by Fullilove on Nov. 23 and Ford on Nov. 25.

A primer on City Council districts

The Memphis City Council has 13 positions. Of those 13 seats, seven are single-member districts that together cover the entire city of Memphis. Another six seats also cover the entire city and are evenly divided between two super districts. Each super district takes in roughly half of the city.