A seven-vote majority for leaving the Shelby County Commission at five districts collapsed dramatically Monday, Jan. 23. And at the same commission meeting a resolution to change the ground rules to permit a majority vote to remove the chairman was withdrawn. Meanwhile, a censure resolution against two commissioners also fizzled as larger differences among commissioners continued to emerge.

The five-district plan leaving the commission with a set of four districts, each represented by three commissioners, and one single-member district failed on the second of three readings as leaders of the Memphis branch NAACP weighed-in in favor of a change to 13 single-member districts.

Most of the coalition favoring just a tweaking of the district lines were out of the room when the vote was taken despite an extended debate. But with all of them in the room, they still came up short of the votes needed to reconsider the item, which failed on a 6-7 vote.

Key to the outcome were comments by commissioners Henri Brooks and James Harvey who indicated they would be willing to work on a set of new district lines for the 13 single-member districts map.

Key to the compromise is the belief that representation on the body for the suburban areas could be by four commissioners instead of the current three and the commission could have a seven-vote African-American majority.

Commission chairman Sidney Chism appointed a committee to explore and begin what will be the third time the redistricting process has started over.

With next to no debate, the commission approved a resolution that clears the way for the Shelby County Election Commission to begin issuing qualifying petitions for candidates in the Aug. 2 elections. The commission sent the existing set of district lines to the election commission with a request for an election on the Aug. 2 ballot. The commission also approved a companion resolution that states its “intent” to expand the school board to 13 members by Sept. 1, 2013 when the two school systems merge. The resolution leaves open whether the commission would do that by appointing six new members or holding a special election for the six new members.

The seven board members elected in the non-partisan races Aug. 2 will begin their staggered terms of office on Sept. 1, 2012.

Several commissioners want to approve a set of 13 single-member county commission districts and then use the same district lines for a 13-member countywide school board.

Meanwhile, commissioner Wyatt Bunker withdrew his resolution to change the ground rules to permit a majority vote of the commission to remove the chairman of the body. He said he didn’t want the resolution tied to the commission’s recent turmoil over redistricting.

The withdrawal of the resolution and Bunker as its sponsor came at the end of the long commission meeting that continued much of the drama from the previous week’s committee sessions.

In those sessions chairman Sidney Chism was targeted for removal by some members for failing to get a redistricting plan passed by the end of 2011.

But there wasn’t the political will to go forward after the same group of commissioners lost on redistricting.

A censure resolution by commissioner Brent Taylor against fellow commissioners Terry Roland and Mike Ritz fizzled with lingering ill will among the trio although Taylor and Roland and Ritz later shook hands.

At issue were comments by Ritz and Roland in which they each said in some form that Taylor’s offer of a redistricting compromise with $200,000 in economic development funds for the suburban cities and towns was a “bribe.”

Roland said he was misunderstood and Taylor took that as a settlement of the matter and withdrew the censure motion against Roland. Ritz said there was no misunderstanding and that he had equated it with a bribe.

“It looks like a bribe to me,” Ritz said as he outlined how the compromise was being packaged to include the aid as well as scheduling a press conference including remarks Roland would make at the press conference. Roland was unaware of the remarks that had been written out for him.

”It also looks like an open meetings (law) violation and it looks like a conspiracy violation,” Ritz said adding that the funding was totally unrelated to the topic of redistricting.

Ritz emphasized that was his opinion but that others may disagree.

Taylor held firm as other commissioners moved to table and defer the matter indefinitely and then voted to do just that.

Taylor withdrew his resolution as the vote totals on the commission’s electronic board showed a majority for deferral.

Commissioner James Harvey said the group should meet in private to work out the lingering differences and “remove the information from the public record.” Several other commissioners pointed out that would violate the state open meetings and open records laws.