MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Shelby County Commission has questions about spending in the District Attorney’s office.
This time last year, the office received $2 million to help fix pay disparities. Now, one commissioner is joining Senator Brent Taylor in questioning how the money was spent.
As we know Sen. Brent Taylor has been consistent in trying to get rid of Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy. These claims are adding fuel to the fire as his request to oust Mulroy now progresses in the Senate.
“There are some things in the DA office that I am questioning,” said Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr., raising concerns at Wednesday’s county commission meeting. “We need to get to the bottom of any mismanagement or abuse of financial resources that this body passed so we can take care of that in-house.”
Since receiving millions in tax dollars to help fix the pay disparity in the district’s attorney’s office, Ford claims that one employee received an 80% raise, a former employee was paid as an assistant DA without having a law license and a current employee lives hours away from Shelby County.
“I didn’t know you could live in Hot Springs, Arkansas or Alabama, and I got a few challenges with that,” Ford said.
Sen. Taylor, who has been adamant about removing DA Steve Mulroy, shared on X, “It’s nice to have help from Commissioner Ford to investigate these problems.”
The county’s Director of Finance and Administration says they will investigate further.
But Mulroy’s office says Ford and Taylor have got it wrong — the county commission approved correcting a pay disparity in the DA’s office, and the employee without a law license didn’t work as a prosecutor.
“The criticism is misleading and dismissive of prosecutors who, for years, earned less than their state counterparts due to disparity in state and county employee salaries. The DA advocated to correct this pay gap, and the commission county overwhelmingly voted to approve this request,” Mulroy’s office said in a statement to WREG.
“Additionally, the allegations regarding a former employee who did not hold a law license are baseless, as they involve a former finance employee, not a prosecutor, which explains the lack of a law license.”