MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Ousted Shelby County Commissioner Henri Brooks still attended meetings Wednesday despite her removal from the commission.
She walked into county commission and voted like nothing ever happened.
“I do not feel that my seat has been vacated,” she said.
Brooks is in the cross-hairs for making racially questionable statements and allegedly assaulting a woman by pouring water on her head.
Brooks said she lived at a home in her district when she didn’t, and after an investigation, the County Commission’s lawyer ordered her out.
Wednesday, the commission backed the recommendation.
Some felt the vote was just as racially questionable as Brooks’ comments.
All the white members voted she should go, while the black members disagreed.
“There are people in this community trying to get past race, see things in a cooperative light and we get dragged back to the past by our elected officials,” said Commentator Otis Sanford.
Sanford says the vote along racial lines shows politics is still pretty divided, but Commissioner Sidney Chism, who voted to keep Brooks, said that’s not it at all.
Chism says the county attorney isn’t an investigator and shouldn’t have the power to kick off a commissioner.
You’ll remember an attorney investigation found Chism to have broken laws and be removed from his seat.
He won in court, and says Brooks should have the same right, “If she don’t live in the district she oughta go, but she gets due process to get there,” said Chism.
