volume ii issue 9, september 2011

SHELBY COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT JOINED BELLEVUE BAPTIST CHURCH TO HONOR FALLEN HEROES

When Brent Perkins, Shelby County Fire Department Public Affairs Of�cer, pitched the idea to Dr. Steve Gaines at Bellevue Baptist Church to have a memo-rial service honoring all of the local �rst responders, he did not imagine the thousands of people as far away as Little Rock, Arkansas would attend. With a few weeks of planning, a memorial tribute was born that represented �re �ghters, law enforcements of�cers, emergency medical services personnel, and all other �rst responders of the Mid South. On September 11, 2001, within two hours, nearly 3,000 people lost their lives when three United States strategic locations were targeted for attacks—the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in NY, the Pentagon in Arlington, VA, and a �eld in Shanksville, PA (which was prevented from reaching its intended target in Washington, DC). In addition to Memphis and Shelby County �re, law enforcement, and emer-gency agencies, other regional cities participated too—Arlington, TN, Bartlett, TN, Brighton, TN, Collierville, TN, Germantown, TN, Green�eld, TN, Little Rock, AR, Munford, TN, Millington, TN, Murfreesboro, TN, Oakland, TN, Piperton, TN, Texarkana, TX, West Fayette County, and the Rural Metro Ambulance. “One of the most powerful moments for me was to see the representation of �rst responders on the platform, then to see the stage of uniforms and equip-ment that symbolized the fallen heroes of ‘9/11’”, said Mayor Luttrell in a letter to Dr. Gaines.

Story Contributors: Brent Perkins, “911” Memorial

Phyllis Fickling, Mayor’s Schedule

Gloria Morris, Adopt-A-School

Sandra Mathias, Ham Radio Training

Hilda Harper, Family Fun, Walk, Run

Day

Dawn Kinard, Community Garden

Alfunsia Warren, Coach Hollins

Brenda Green, Flex Spending

Margie Hyde and Chamayne Shaw,

Condolences, Anniversaries, & Retire-

ments

HONORING the FALLEN HEROES

of SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

ISSUE 9, September 2011 VOLUME II

“Something made

greater by ourselves

and in turn that

makes us greater.”

~ Maya Angelou

Inside this Issue: Greetings from the Mayor 2

Adopt-A-School 3

Ham Training 3

Family Fun Day 3

Community Garden 4

Head Start Reading 4

Flex Spending 5

Flex Spending, continued 6

Employee Updates - Anniversaries, Retirees & Condolences 7

2


Greetings from the Mayor

It’s been a busy month. In this edition of “County Lines,” you’ll read about several important initia-tives. You’ll see how we paused and remembered those in the “911 Trage-dy” in a community-wide ceremony at Bellevue Baptist Church. Addi-tionally, other events took place that called attention to the ways we’ve assisted crime victims, especially the relatives of those who committed suicide. In that announcement, we joined with representatives of all the area hospitals in the �rst ever joint-hospital effort to reduce the suicide rate in Shelby County. Additionally, you can view our “top performers” in Shelby County Government, and the honors they received at a recognition ceremony in the slideshow on the website. In-deed, we’re making great progress in our efforts to serve our community. It’s a pleasure to work alongside each of you. Sincerely,

Mark Luttrell, Jr.

Mayor Luttrell on the Move...

• 09/01 Infant Mortality Aware-ness Kick Off

• 09/02 Delta Fair Kick Off Re-ception

• 09/03 Frayser Community 5k Peace Walk-A-Thon

• 09/06 Delta Fair Best Cook Contest Judge

• 09/07 Employee Health & Wellness Campaign

• 09/07 Church of the Holy Spirit

• 09/08 Leadership Millington

• 09/08 “Out of the Darkness” Proclamation

• 09/09 “America Attacked, The Voices of 9/11”

• 09/09 Southern Heritage Clas-sic Coaches Luncheon-NIKE

• 09/09 Unity in the Communi-ty March

• 09/10 2011 Southern Heritage Classic Parade in Orange Mound

• 09/11 Memphis Fire Services 911 Memorial

• 09/11 Latina Day at Delta Fair

• 09/11 Fallen Heroes 911 Me-morial Service-Bellevue Bapt.

• 09/11 Choosing to Participate

• 09/12 Woodstock Neighbor-hood Meeting

• 09/20 Society of Human Re-source Managers

• 09/21 Transition Team of Consolidated School Board

• 09/22 Goodwill Homes Com-munity Meeting

• 09/22 Strong Cities, Strong Communities Meeting w/DOJ

• 09/22 Blues Foundation Blues Ball

• 09/23 Neighborhood Partner-ship Leaders’ Meeting

• 09/23 10th Anniversary of Ciao Bella

• 09/23 MILE Kick Off

• 09/24 2nd Annual 5k Family Fun Walk/Run

• 09/24 Greater White Stone MB Church Community Pic-nic

• 09/24 National Civil Rights Museum 20th Anniversary

09/25 Celebrate Life “Purple Sunday” 09/25 Southeastern Association of Area Agencies on

Aging 08/25 Shelby County Extension (UT) Master Gardeners 09/27 Celebrity Reading Program 09/27 Leadership Academy-”Celebrate What’s Right” 09/28 Child Advocacy Center Honor’s Day Program 09/28 Homeland Security Conference 09/28 Memphis Flyer Best of Memphis 2011 09/29 Birth Days: Uniting to Fight Infant Mortality 09/29 Unveiling of Official Portrait of Dr. W. W. Herenton 09/30 Centennial Campaign for the University of

Memphis

Above: Mayor Luttrell addressed “911” Memorial Service.

Below: Mayor Luttrell presented a proclamation for Suicide

Awareness to Tom and Pam Dickson.

Above: Mayor Luttrell with Delta Fair’s founder, Mark Lovell.

3


Sheriff’s Department Adopt-A-School—Klondike Elemen-tary School The Sheriff’s Of�ce presented a check to the faculty and staff of Klondike Ele-mentary School. The proceeds were raised from an annual Golf Tournament held in May at Edmund Orgill Golf Course in Millington. This year’s total of $8,000 brought the grand total donated through the Sheriff’s Department Adopt-A-School Program to $93,500.

Shelby County Clerk’s Of�ce 5k Family Fun, Walk, Run Day

Departmental News

County Clerk Wayne Mashburn, center, is surrounded by staff and family as they celebrate the “0nish line” of a very successful walk. Over 40 employees and family members of the County Clerk’s of�ce participated in the annual 5K Family Fun Walk Run at Audubon Park. After the walk, the staff and family came together in the park to celebrate their accomplishment. Beef and turkey hotdogs were served hot off the grill! A special thanks from the staff to County Clerk Wayne Mashburn and his wife, Sheila for providing the refresh-ments.

Shelby County Of�ce of Preparedness Ham Radio Training For the past 39 years, Alexander Hillard, from Bartlett, has offered his time, talent, and considerable expertise to his community by sharing his knowledge of radios and emergency communications. He is an active amateur "ham" radio operator with an Extra Class Li-cense, Hilliard also has a commercial license, is a radio instructor, and a volunteer test examiner. Hilliard's friends and colleagues know and re-spect him as "Ham" Hillard, call sign W4GMM. Below he conducted a Technician Radio class at the Emergency Opera-tions Center. Student, Denny Sivells assisted with the demonstration.

Future Radio “Hams” attend-ed a class at the Emergency Oper-ations Center. They learned about antenna systems from instructor, Alex-ander “Ham” Hilliard.

4


Land Bank Community Garden The Land Bank owns approximately 3,152 properties for sale. Those properties consist of 3,000 vacant lots, 112 houses, 13 condos, 13 duplexes, and 14 commercial buildings. Some of the properties have been donated to non-pro�t 501(c)3 organizations. Some of the donated properties was renovated for use, whereas others were cultivated for community gardens. Below are some photos of a Ribbon Cutting for one of the Community Gardens that was developed from a donated a lot, in conjunction with the TN Farm Bureau and Community Garden Grant Program. This is an excellent opportunity to show the Community what we can do and accomplish by working together. This lot had been in inventory since June 2007. Soil preparation and tilling was done with the help of El Shaddai Mission Outreach Center, Inc., its members and volunteers in the community. This garden, located at 984 Woodlawn will contain collard greens for the winter. If you are interested in assisting with this garden or know of a nonpro�t organization that might be interested in receiving donated property from the Land Bank, please contact Dawn Kinard at 901-545-4433 or email her at [email protected]. To �nd out more about this garden, please contact Pastor Jones at 690-4436. Below: Commissioner Henri Brooks, along with Dawn Kinard (of the Land Bank) and volunteers shared in the Ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Head Start Books From Birth On Wednesday, September 21, Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins met with classes of Shelby County Head Start children to read to them in honor of Imagination Library Week, a state-wide observance in association with Shelby County Books from Birth that encourages the act of reading aloud to children to stimulate early childhood literacy and prepare them for success in school. Coach Hollins read at the Martin Luther King Head Start center's Lewis the Duck Library to children participating in the program there and at the Delano Head Start center, most of whom are also enrolled in Books from Birth, a literacy program Hollins has partnered with for past community out-reach projects. About Shelby County Books from Birth: Shelby County Books from Birth is part of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and secures the funding to provide an age-appropriate book every month to children in Shelby County, ages 0-5, who register in the program. Planting the seeds of literacy early in life helps prepare children for success in kinder-garten and elementary school. Since its inception, more than 60,000 Shelby County children have enrolled in the local program, and more than 1,000 new registrations are added each month, fueled by grassroots outreach in neighborhoods, child care centers and literacy groups. For more infor-mation, call 901.820.4501 or visit www.booksfrombirth.org.

Departmental News

Grizzlies’ Coach Lionel Hollins read to children.

5


Department News

Human Resources Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) FAQs

WHAT IS A FSA? A FSA is an IRS tax-favored program offered by employers that allow their employees to pay for eligible out-of-pocket healthcare and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars.

Here is how a FSA works: Money is set aside from your paycheck before taxes are taken out. You can use your pre-tax FSA dollars to pay for eligible healthcare expenses throughout the plan year. You can save money on ex-penses you are already paying for like doctors’ of�ce visits, prescription drugs, etc. This plan lets you use pre-tax dollars to pay for eligible healthcare expenses for you, your spouse, and your eligible dependents.

WHAT TYPES OF FSA’S ARE BEING OFFERED BY SHELBY COUNTY? Shelby County will offer a Healthcare spending account and a Dependent care spending account. CONEXIS is the FSA administrator for the County. The Healthcare spending account can be used to pay for quali�ed medical expenses that are not covered by your County health insurance. Your entire elected annual contribution is available on the �rst day of the plan year, January 1.

The Dependent care FSA is used to pay for eligible dependent care expenses such as childcare for children under age 13 or children who are physically or mentally incapable of self-care and, in some cases, elder care so that you and your spouse can work, look for work, or attend school full-time. After you have incurred an eligible expense, you may be reimbursed up to your contribution balance at the time of the reimbursement request.

WHEN DO I ENROLL FOR FSA? You must enroll for your FSA each year during open enrollment. Changes to your FSA election amount can only be made during open enrollment or if you have a qualifying life event. Enrollment forms are available on the County’s intranet or shelbycountytn.gov web sites.

WHAT AMOUNT CAN I CONTRIBUTE TO MY HEALTH CARE FSA? The minimum amount you can contribute to your Healthcare FSA is $25.00 per pay period; the maximum contri-bution amount for the Healthcare FSA is $104.00 per pay period. The amount you contribute depends on your individual situation.

WHAT AMOUNT CAN I CONTRIBUTE TO MY DEPENDENT CARE FSA? The minimum amount you can contribute to your Dependent Care FSA is $50.00 per pay period; the maximum contribution for Dependent care FSA is $208.00 per pay period. The amount you contribute depends on your in-dividual situation.

WHAT EXPENSES ARE COVERED UNDER A HEALTH FSA? Only eligible expenses can be reimbursed under the FSA. These are expenses that you pay for out of your pocket for medical care that is provided to you, your spouse, and eligible dependents. Here are some examples:

your health plan deductible (the amount you pay before your plan starts paying a share of your costs) your share of the cost for doctor’s of0ce visits and prescription drugs your share of the cost for eligible dental care your share of the cost for eligible vision care, including exams, eyeglasses, contact lenses, and laser eye sur-

gery EXAMPLE: Your health plan has a $200 deductible annually on January 1. You are scheduled for outpa-

tient surgery on January 5. During open enrollment, you decided to put $600 into a health FSA ($25 per pay period). Even though the full $600 is not in your FSA account, you can pay the $200 deductible from your FSA account. The $200 is your out-of-pocket cost and is there-fore, an eligible FSA expense.

Continued on page 6

6


Department News

Human Resources (Continued) Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) FAQs

ARE OVER-THE-COUNTER (OTC) MEDICINES ELIGIBLE EXPENSES? Yes, but they require a prescription from a licensed health care professional to be an eligible FSA expense. IRS rules changed on January 1, 2011 because of health care reform legislation. Some OTC medicines and drugs now requiring a prescription are allergy and sinus, antacids, aspirin and pain relievers, colds and Ru, diaper rash oint-ments, etc. OTC items that are still eligible expenses include bandages, batteries for hearing aids, diabetic sup-plies (insulin), thermometers, etc.

WHAT IS THE “USE IT OR LOSE IT” RULE? The IRS requires that any money you deposit into your FSA spending account that is not claimed by the end of the plan year is forfeited. Therefore, it is important that you estimate your expenses carefully.

IF I HAVE OUT-OF-POCKET EXPENSES REIMBURSED FROM A HEALTH CARE FSA, CAN I USE THOSE EXPENS-ES TO TAKE AN ITEMIZED DEDUCTION ON MY TAX RETURN? No. You can have a Healthcare FSA and take an itemized deduction for medical expenses, but you cannot claim an itemized deduction on your federal income tax return and receive a reimbursement from your health care FSA for the same medical expense. Please consult your tax advisor.

WOULD I SAVE MORE BY TAKING A CREDIT ON MY INCOME TAX INSTEAD OF CONTRIBUTING TO A DE-PENDENT CARE FSA? You can use both a dependent care FSA and claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit (CDCC) – you just can’t claim the same expenses for both. If you plan to use both, the IRS requires that you subtract the amount you have directed into a spending account from the expenses you use to calculate the CDCC. Please consult your tax advisor.

DOES CONEXIS OFFER A DEBIT CARD FOR FSA MEDICAL EXPENSES? CONEXIS will issue a CONEXIS Elite Bene�t Card to participants who enroll in the Medical FSA, only. You will not have to pay out of pocket and wait for reimbursement of eligible medical expenses. The debit card may be used to pay for eligible FSA medical expenses at the point of sale. The card cannot be used for Dependent FSA expenses. Visit CONEXIS or County’s website for more information. Current FSA participants should keep their debit card at year end. CONEXIS will automatically reload the card with your new annual contribution, but you must re-enroll. New FSA participants will receive a debit card through the mail.

WHAT DOCUMENTATION OF EXPENSES DO I NEED TO KEEP? The IRS requires FSA participants to maintain complete documentation, including keeping copies of statements, invoices or bills for reimbursed expenses for a minimum of one (1) year.

HOW DO I ACCESS CONEXIS’ WEBSITE? On the web, you can view your account balance and contributions. You may also view monthly statements, transaction history, claim status and download forms at www.CONEXIS.com. Once enrolled, you can contact CONEXIS by calling the customer service number located on the back of your debit card.

HOW DO I FILE A CLAIM FOR REIMBURSEMENT? If you do not use the debit card, claim forms may be found online at Shelby County’s intranet or www.shelbycountytn.gov websites or www.CONEXIS.com. Claims may be mailed to: CONEXIS Flexible Bene�ts Services, P.O. Box 227197, Dallas, TX 75222 or faxed to 1-888-866-3312 (toll free). Once enrolled, you can contact CONEXIS by the calling customer service number (1-866-279-8385) located on the back of your debit card.

WHAT IS THE DEADLINE TO USE YOUR FSA FUNDS? You can spend the money until the last day of the plan year (December 31). You have until March 31 to submit

claims for eligible expenses incurred during the plan year.

7


About Shelby County Shelby County was established in 1819. It is the state’s largest county both in terms of population and geographic area. Its county seat is Memphis. It is part of the Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area, which comprises eight coun-ties in the three states of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Shelby County was named for Governor Isaac Shelby (1750-1826) of Ken-tucky. Shelby County is governed by a mayor-commissioner form of gov-ernment under a Home Rule Char-ter that went into effect on Septem-ber 1, 1986. Each serves a 4-year term. Together, the administration and the Board of County Commis-sioners are responsible for govern-ing the most populous of Tennes-see’s 95 counties. The county’s per-sonnel staff of approximately 6,270 people have the direct duty of providing services for 910,100 citi-zens according to the 2007 estimat-ed census data. Mark H. Luttrell, Jr., was elected as Shelby County Mayor on August 5, 2010.

Shelby County Government Mayor’s Of0ce

160 North Main Street Memphis, Tennessee 38103

Phone: 901-545-4500 Fax: 901-545-4759

E-mail: [email protected]

Please submit stories, comments, and questions Published by the Public Affairs Of�ce:

Steve Shular 901-545-5532 Phyllis Fickling 901-545-4587

Jennafer Stonecipher (Assoc. Editor) 901-545-2277 Pat Herndon (Graphic Design) 901-545-3897 Pete McCarty (Photography) (901) 545-3897

SEPTEMBER 2011 ANNIVERSARIES

40 Years of Service Nola Goodrich

Division of Corrections

35 Years of Service Terry L. Davenport

Fire Department Byron D. Jamison Health Department

Debbie Ruble Support Services

30 Years of Service Paula Lewis

Director of Administration and Finance Bobby J. Spence, Jr.

Sheriff’s Of�ce

25 Years of Service Tommy W. Cates Audit Department John A. Donald

General Sessions Civil Court Judge Robert L. Durham, Jr.

Sheriff’s Of�ce Earnestine Glass

Sheriff’s Of�ce Max Hayes, Jr. Register’s Of�ce Mattie James CAO’s Of�ce

Regina S. Lynch Information Technologies

Adrian L. Macklin Sheriff’s Of�ce

Virginia NorDeat-Miller Code Enforcement Leo D. Savare, Jr.

Health Department

SEPTEMBER 2011 RETIREES

Employee, (Yrs of Svc) & Department

James R. Bishof (18) Sheriff’s Of�ce

Gary Caradine (30) Fire Department

Colonious M. Davis (32) The Med

Billy Gist, Jr. (22) Correction Center

James H. King, Jr. (33) Road Department

Paul Morris (31) Of�ce of Planning & Development

John Charles Phipps (44) Health Services

Annie W. Watkins (32) The Med

Trudy Woodard (25) Juvenile Court

Barbara J. Yates (6)

Head Start

SEPTEMBER 2011 CONDOLENCES Below is a list of employees who lost a loved one this month. Please keep them and their families in your prayers. Employee Department Relative Relations

Fentress, Patricia Bene�ts Of�ce Christine William Ward Mother Underwood, Frances Retirement Of�ce Cecilia Brown Mother

volume ii issue 9, september 2011

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