Councilor: Shelby Co. refused $8.7M for contact tracing
A Memphis City councilman, who is also a member of Memphis and Shelby County COVID-19 task-force, described Shelby County government’s decision to not accept $8.7 million in coronavirus aid from the city of Memphis as a ‘political’ one.
Jeff Warren, the councilman, said Shelby County refused $8.7 million that would’ve expanded contact-tracing efforts because the county government did not want Memphis to have any oversight of the county’s contact-tracing efforts.
Warren said the decision was a “political thing” and “divided government kicking us in the butt.”
However, the task force member said the health department’s contact-tracing program had been among the best in the state throughout the pandemic, though it took some time to build.
“Could we have done it better had it been combined? Probably,” Warren said during a presentation on leftover federal coronavirus aid.
The comments from the task-force member aired frustration in public, revealing a sentiment that has long simmered beneath the surface in relations between the city of Memphis and Shelby County government during the pandemic.
Repurposed city of Memphis employees were loaned to the health department at the start of the pandemic for contact tracing. As the health department hired more on its own, those employees were returned.
During the summer, when cases spiked the first time, Memphis members of the task force expressed frustration about the level of contact tracing data being shared by Shelby County.
In July, that frustration led to the council forming a task-force for oversight of Shelby County’s contact-tracing efforts.
But, at the same time, the county never accepted $2.7 million for contacttracing — the first portion of what was supposed to be $8.7 million. The health department did not report detailed con
tact tracing data to the public until this fall.
Shelby County worked throughout the summer to scale its contact-tracing efforts and other parts of a public health apparatus that didn’t exist nine months ago. The use of new questions and new software has helped the health department learn about where the virus is spreading. That data has been presented to the task force and has informed some of the department’s recent directives.
Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel.hardiman@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter at @samhardiman.