Month: May 2001

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Unblocking the Way

Careful observers of the whereabouts these days of 7th District U.S. representative Ed Bryant and Memphis lawyer David Kustoff will note that both men are hitting the after-dinner circuit with an unusual regularity — unusual, that is, for political hopefuls whose paths to political promotion are presumably blocked.

That block was supposed to have occurred a few months back when U.S. senator Fred Thompson decided to resist the pleadings of his Republican brethren in Tennessee to run for governor next year — in a race that most observers think would have been a shoo-in against whatever Democrat.

The senator’s decision, like a sudden stop in traffic, caused others to slam on their brakes: Bryant, who was looking to run in the 2002 GOP primary to fill what would have been a vacant Senate seat; Kustoff, who had been prepping hard for a run at Bryant’s seat, which in turn would have been up for grabs; and several others — Memphis city councilman Brent Taylor, former Shelby County Republican chairman Phil Langsdon, and state rep. Larry Scroggs among them — interested in the congressional seat.

So why are Bryant and Kustoff showing up, either as featured speakers or as prominent guests, at Republican dinner after Republican dinner all over Tennessee (most recently at Clarksville last weekend)?

“There’s a good chance that Thompson won’t run for the Senate even though he’s given up on the governorship,” said Kustoff matter-of-factly Friday as he stopped by the tent of Governor Don Sundquist on the riverside midway of the Memphis in May barbecue festival.

Which would mean that the Senate seat would come vacant, after all. And Kustoff, who has been raising money and making contacts relentlessly since last year’s presidential campaign, when he ran the Bush effort in Tennessee, doesn’t plan to be hanging around copping a snooze.

Neither does Councilman Taylor, who has raised a stout war-chest through innumerable fund-raisers and has made a point of cultivating Republican clubs (even to the point of making his own “grants” to them) all over West Tennessee.

Langsdon has also kept his hand in. The only casualty in the original field — if you can call him that — is Scroggs, who has not so much dropped as refocused his attention on the governor’s race, where the Germantown legislator is a long-shot alternative to 4th District congressman Van Hilleary.

“Lots of Different Things “

And what is the evidence that Thompson might exit from his Senate re-election bid as he did from the governor’s race? He was quoted last week in the authoritative national Web site The Hotline (www.nationaljournal.com/pubs/hotline) as saying, “I still haven’t decided … I’m still weighing lots of different things, lots of different things.”

His Republican sidekick from Tennessee, Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman Bill Frist, swears Thompson will run. But that could be wishful thinking. Thompson, noted The Hotline, has let his fund-raising fall off in recent months (although his last financial-disclosure report still showed more than half a million dollars on hand).

The Memphis Democrat who is as sought-after among state Democrats as Thompson is among Republicans, 9th District congressman Harold Ford Jr., has said he doesn’t expect Thompson to run again and promises to “consider” a race for an open Senate seat.

Ford’s near-neighbor, 8th District Democratic U.S. rep. John Tanner of Union City, a leader of the conservative congressional “blue dogs” who earlier this year opted out of a governor’s race, is another possibility. Either would be considered a godsend by Tennessee Democrats, winless in a statewide political race since Al Gore won a second Senate term more than a decade ago.

There is a feeling among partisans of both major parties that 2002 could be a Democratic year, although Bryant’s low-key style could serve him well against either of the two star Democrats.

· Rep. Ford continues to be regarded as a major player by the Beltway media and by other prominent national politicians. A sign of that is the planned joint town meeting of Ford and U.S. senator John McCain, set for mid-June at a Memphis venue not yet chosen at press time.

The joint appearance, which might also include U.S. rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), is designed to promote support for the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill, which has passed the Senate but is being held up on its way to House of Representatives consideration by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.).

Nothing if not a realist, Rep. Ford — who two years ago thought long and hard about a challenge to Sen. Frist in 2000 — has set aside for the moment his sometime feud with Frist over patients’ rights legislation.

The senator — whose approach to such legislation has always been viewed by the congressman as insufficiently solicitous toward patients and too protective of HMOs — is the chief sponsor of a new patients’ rights bill that has the imprimatur of President Bush.

· At least one of Ford’s kinsmen is of the opinion that the congressman might consider a change of party if he wants to move ahead in politics.

Lewie Ford, a retired Los Angeles businessman and the Memphis congressman’s uncle, was in town for last week’s barbecue festival and discoursed on Rep. Ford’s future while relaxing in the congressman’s tent down on the river.

“I’m a Republican myself, and I can tell you, there’d be nothing stopping him if he decided to change over,” said the California uncle, who went on to acknowledge that the prospect for that happening was fairly remote.

“I don’t ever talk politics with him or with any of my brothers,” shrugged Lewie Ford, who is older brother to both state senator John Ford and former congressman Harold Ford Sr. “We don’t agree, and I doubt there’d ever be any changing of minds. So why bother?”

· Gov. Sundquist indicated he may try to be a factor in next year’s politics, despite his lame-duck status (after two terms, he cannot succeed himself, and he has indicated he will retire from active politics after 2002) and his current unpopularity with some of his partymates over the issue of tax reform.

He made it clear that he was less than enthusiastic about the gubernatorial candidacy of U.S. rep. Van Hilleary (R-4th District), who has taken stands directly counter to the governor on such issues as TennCare (Hilleary would limit it) and tax reform (the Middle Tennessee congressman is energetic in his opposition to a state income tax of the sort Sundquist has twice proposed).

“I’m not really crazy about it,” Sundquist conceded on the subject of some of the rhetoric issuing from Hilleary, and he seemed eager to heal whatever rupture might have occurred between himself and state rep. Larry Scroggs (R-Germantown), a one-time protege who had distanced himself somewhat from the governor on the tax issue.

“I could support him,” said Sundquist of Scroggs, who advocates some of the same austerity measures proposed by Sundquist’s chief critics but does so in a non-abrasive, thoughtful style and keeps his lines of communication open, even to key legislative Democrats.

“There are some wild ones, some really irresponsible ones, in there,” said Sundquist of the legislature’s archconservatives, some of whom opposed his reading plan and other education initiatives in debate last week on the grounds that they represented an intrusion into family values.

The governor’s education plan passed the House, though, and will be signed into law, although, as Sundquist pointed out, “We can’t effect it until we have funding for it.”

Having seen various tax-reform proposals, his own and others’, rejected by now, Sundquist won’t hazard a guess as to whether anything substantially will get passed by the current General Assembly, but he does say, “It’s got a better chance of happening now and next year, when there’s a general election.”

· Both Memphis in May festival weekends so far have been good occasions for next year’s candidates to get in some free advertising. Sheriff’s candidate Bobby Simmons had the process down to an art for the barbecue festival, gathering a large crowd of supporters down on the riverfront each morning, all of them wearing T-shirts boosting his candidacy, and sending pairs of them around the grounds at carefully timed intervals.

Arena Developments

The “NBA Now” organization, which is trying to organize support for building a new NBA-worthy arena to house the Grizzlies, currently of Vancouver, organized a pilgrimage to Nashville last Wednesday, getting some 150 people into three buses to make the trip.

Success of a sort crowned their effort, in the sense that all members of the Shelby County legislative delegation signed on to get floor consideration for enabling legislation, including a bill allowing Shelby County to levy and collect an ad hoc rental-car tax to help defray the costs of arena construction.

“Not everybody said they would support the arena,” conceded NBA Now spokesperson Tim Willis, “but they all want it to come to a vote, and that’s a real plus.”

Supporters and opponents of the proposed new publicly funded arena say that the climate of opinion in Nashville is more favorable to the arena concept now that members of the proposed ownership group have publicly accepted the idea of adding private money to the kitty for arena construction.

· Meanwhile, the Shelby County Libertarian Party, in a press release stating that “this arena charade is a conduit for taking citizens’ unfair taxes and passing them to the politically connected,” will host a forum on the subject at 7 p.m. next Wednesday at Pancho’s Restaurant in the Cloverleaf Shopping Center at Summer and White Station.

The billed speakers are Duncan Ragsdale, a leader of the anti-arena movement, Heidi Shafer, who is circulating petitions to hold a referendum on the matter of arena funding, and Shelby County Commissioner Tommy Hart, who is officially undecided on the arena issue but has professed skepticism about aspects of the arena proposal.

· One member of the commission who made an unexpected endorsement of the arena project was Marilyn Loeffel, whose letter of support to the Shelby County legislative delegation was read aloud by state senator Steve Cohen on his Library Channel program, “Legislative Report,” this week.

Cohen, successful earlier in the session in getting his lottery-referendum proposal passed, is currently active on behalf of animal rights and electoral-reform bills. The senator, who turns 52 this Thursday, told his television audience, “I’m growing old with you.” ·

Bredesen, Agriculture Secretary Drop In

At press time, two mid-week visitors were slated for Memphis, each raising political consciousness but in a different direction. Ex-Nashville mayor and current gubernatorial candidate Phil Bredesen was to be a last-minute add-on at a Democratic Party fund-raiser Tuesday at the East Memphis home of John and Amy Farris, and U.S. agriculture secretary Ann M. Veneman was scheduled to hold a “town meeting” at Agricenter International at 6 p.m. Wednesday, with a free barbecue dinner to be served up to attendees. • — JB

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Short Cuts

Profane, Couch (Matador)

Rock Action, Mogwai (Matador)

Like many indie bands over the last half-decade, Germany’s Couch and the Welsh quintet Mogwai focus on soundscape over song, and both have found very different ways to get around the absence of lead singers. Where one band tightens and quickens its melodies, the other slowly and carefully sculpts emotion from sound.

By naming their second album Profane, Couch seem to promise either a thoroughly computerized sound a la Kraftwerk or a stiff, Teutonic Strum und Drang like Rammstein. In fact, they sound like a live rock band with a tight rhythm section, jangly guitars, and a little synth accompaniment blending together to imply a melody. “Plan” opens the album with Stefanie Böhm’s stark piano against Thomas Geltinger’s sharp drums, each of his percussive strikes hammering like a nail in a coffin. On “Meine Marke,” soft horns create a smoky atmosphere reminiscent of Air. The band builds tension through repetition and variation, slowly working each song to its natural climax. Ultimately, Couch reject the tuneless abstractions of labelmates Jega and Sad Rockets for a sturdier sound firmly rooted in rock-and-roll. On Profane, they suggest a postmodern surf band: upbeat and vigorous, rhythmically propulsive and kinda fun.

A study in measured crescendos and slow climaxes, Mogwai’s third full-length, Rock Action, reverberates with membranous guitars, staticky golem beats, horns, banjos, and somber synths, all adrift on an ocean of strings. There are vocals on Rock Action, and while they are not absolutely necessary to convey the songs’ meanings, they don’t feel superfluous either. After a long intro, Stuart Braithwaite sings plaintively on “Take Me Somewhere Nice,” as well as on “Secret Pint.” On “O I Sleep,” Super Furry Animal Gruff Rhys delivers a quiet vocal performance in his native Welsh. But both sets of vocals are so soft and whispery that they seem to merge with the music. Mogwai accomplish more with pure sound than with vocals. The swell of strings on the intro to “Take Me Somewhere Nice” and the intense, sustained climax of “You Don’t Know Jesus” both convey a dark duality between loss and hope. The album’s most memorable moment is the patient, unraveling coda “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong,” on which an electric banjo fades into an ethereal chorale.

Voice never enters the equation in Couch’s songs, but for Mogwai, it remains a sonic element, delivering little meaning beyond its own sound — which is what these two bands emphasize over all else and where they excel. — Stephen Deusner

Grades: Couch: B+; Mogwai: A-

Memphis In the Morning, Mem Shannon (Shanachie)

On this fourth album, New Orleans bluesman Mem Shannon ventures out of the Crescent City to record. Setting up shop locally at Ardent Studios, with the Memphis Horns in tow, the change of scenery seems to agree with him.

Memphis In the Morning opens with a strong four-song blast of soul-blues. “Drowning On My Feet” combines a funky rhythm section, jumping piano, and the Memphis Horns’ trademark punch into a version of the Memphis sound almost on a par with “Soul Man” and “Who’s Making Love.” The Horns also make their mark on Shannon’s jazzed-up take on B.B. King’s “Why I Sing the Blues,” the record’s only cover and a song of plainspoken social commentary that meshes well with Shannon’s own songwriting style. Things slow down after that with the title track, a lachrymose blues travelogue marked by Shannon’s heavy baritone vocals. This opening quartet is capped by “S.U.V.,” the first inspirational anthem of the current energy crisis, where an exasperated Shannon declares, “I’m sick of these SOBs/They driving these S.U.V.s/And trying to run over me/When I’m in my beat-up car.”

After that impressive introductory sweep, Memphis In the Morning gets a little slower and less engaging, with songs like “Invisible Man” and “Tired Arms” showcasing Shannon’s jazz sensibility. But at its best, Memphis In the Morning earns its title, conjuring nothing less than the work of Memphis’ bluesier soul men — James Carr, O.V. Wright, and Johnnie Taylor. – Chris Herrington

Grade: B+

Second Reckoning, C Average (Kill Rock Stars)

When an artist skillfully straddles the thin line between passion and parody, both can plausibly end up in bed together. The sophomore full-length from the guitar/drums duo C Average does this and renders their moniker moot with a run-of-the-classic-metal spectrum that will put a smile on your face and a needed foot in your posterior. Tongues in mouths that rarely open are planted firmly against cheeks for a 95 percent instrumental ride through a Sabbath/vintage Van Halen terrain laid waste with Society for Creative Anachronism imagery. Second Reckoning is predictably similar to the Fucking Champs in patches, but I like to think of C Average as more of a They Might Be Giants of comic irony metal.

Another winning attribute of this record is that it’s LONG — a nice feature in an era of half-hour full-lengths with more filler and the same price. Economic, powerful, and hilarious — “Starhok” will suck you in with its Halenesque beauty, “Strider ’88” will wow you by opening with one of the greatest prank phone calls ever, and fantastic Blue Cheer (“Parchmen’s Farm”) and Sonics (“The Witch”) covers make for an 80-minute listen that’s over before it feels like 10.– Andrew Earles

Grade: B+

Speed of Sound, Rosie Flores (Eminent Records)

Throughout her decades-long career, Rosie Flores has had rotten timing. Her take on country was too traditional for the ’80s California cowpunk scene or the later alt-country revival (she once aspired to be the new Kitty Wells). And she’s too much of a rocker and not blond or insipid enough to fit into the current mainstream country mode. Despite all this, she’s managed to garner acclaim from both critics and her peers and build a devoted fan base along the way. Flores is the undisputed queen of the dancehall with her always fiery live shows, and she’s one hellacious guitarist, excelling in rockabilly licks and beyond.

Speed of Sound, her seventh solo album, is her most eclectic work to date and stronger for it, serving up a little torch, a bit more twang, and some tasty stronger stuff. She switches gender on Buck Owens’ rockabilly tune “Hot Dog,” transforming it into a teaser dripping with sexual innuendo. Flores plays the chanteuse on “Devil Love” then turns around and rips and shreds a Bo Diddley backbeat on the primal “Don’t Take It Away.” Speed of Sound should firmly secure Flores’ place in the Texas pantheon of great guitar-slinging, roots-music players. — Lisa Lumb

Grade: B+

You can e-mail Chris Herrington at herrington@memphisflyer.com.

Categories
Music Music Features

local beat

Of the overwhelming number of events this week tangentially connected to the Handy Awards, a few demand extra attention: The official closing ceremony of Handy weekend will be an all-star benefit concert for BluesAid on Saturday night at the New Daisy Theatre. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m., and scheduled performers at press time include Sam Carr, Levon Helm, Steve Cropper, John Kay (of Steppenwolf, natch), The Kentucky Headhunters, Bobby Rush, and Buddy Miles. BluesAid is a decade-old benefit concert organized by the Helena, Arkansas, Sonny Boy Blues Society to provide health care and financial assistance to blues musicians. Moving the concert to Memphis this year, Sonny Boy Blues Society will share proceeds from the concert with the Make a Wish Foundation and the Smithsonian Rock ‘N’ Soul Museum. The Sonny Boy Blues Society also recently reclaimed control of Helena’s annual King Biscuit Blues Festival, which has been managed by a Memphis-based company for the last few years.

On Friday afternoon, from 4 to 6 at B.B. King’s Blues Club, the Blues Music Association (BMA) will host a town hall meeting on the “State of the Blues.” The BMA is a blues trade association formed in 1998. The forum will be an open discussion on the state of the industry and will be audience-driven but facilitated by several industry professionals.

Also on Friday, the New Daisy will host a free festival of blues-related documentaries by director Robert Mugge. Running from 3 to 8 p.m., Mugge will be screening his films Hellhound On My Trail and Deep Blues and will be debuting his latest work, Rhythm and Bayous, a look at music in Louisiana. There will also be a question-and-answer session with the filmmaker.

Other odds and ends: The Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission is launching a lecture series — “The Experts: A Series of Lectures, Seminars, and Symposiums.” This series is an offshoot of the commission’s Musicians’ Advisory Council. The first lecture in the series will take place on Saturday, May 26th, at the Center for Southern Folklore and will feature prominent music agent John Branca in a roundtable discussion with commission president Jerry Schilling and other industry representatives. Recently, Branca has worked with artists such as Matchbox Twenty, Blink-182, and the Backstreet Boys The music commission has also partnered with the Memphis and Shelby County Film and Television Commission and Select-O-Hits to produce a promotional CD of local music for distribution within the film industry Local musician Brad Pounders has formed a new record label, Serious Therapy. The label, which Pounders envisions as an avenue for individual musicians in bands to put out solo records, has issued its first release with a four-song, joint single that features Pounders and Vending Machine (aka Big Ass Truck’s Robby Grant). Pounders’ side contains a cover of Vending Machine’s “Huge Window Display” and his own unreleased “Surprise.” Vending Machine’s side contains a cover of Pounders’ “Circulation” and Grant’s own unreleased “I’m Just Blushing” Power-poppers Crash Into June are set to go into Easley-McCain Recording to start work on their next album, which will be produced by Neilson Hubbard For those who missed it in the paper last week, downtown rock club Last Place on Earth will close, at least temporarily, at the end of May. June’s highly anticipated Bad Brains reunion show has been canceled.

You can e-mail Chris Herrington at herrington@memphisflyer.com.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Drunken Horses

The Iranian film A Time For Drunken Horses follows the plight of a group of Kurdish children, siblings living in settlement camps along the Iran-Iraq border. We meet three of these children through some opening-credit dialogue a girl, Ameneh (Ameneh Ekhtiar-Dini), who seems to be about 10; her brother Ayoub (Ayoub Ahmadi), who seems to be about 12; and brother Madi (Mehdi Ekhtiar-Dini), a severely deformed dwarf with fiercely observant eyes. Madi later tries to tell someone that he s three years old (he holds up fingers; Madi doesn t speak in the film), but his siblings reveal that he is really 15.

The children are in a town near their home village where they are taken to work in a marketplace, wrapping glasses in paper for export. The children attempt to smuggle school textbooks back to camp, but the books are seized by the Iranian border patrol. Smuggling, it turns out, is part of the daily existence for this family. Their mother died giving birth to their youngest sibling and now their father supports them by smuggling goods via donkey across the Iraqi border, where things fetch a better price.

The film s title comes from the smugglers practice of feeding the donkeys alcohol so they ll work in the severe cold.

At the beginning of the film, as the children arrive back at the village from the marketplace, the protagonists father has just been killed by one of the many land mines that cover the Iran-Iraq border, throwing the young Ayoub into the role of family leader and provider. Ayoub is faced with the task of providing for his four siblings and trying to raise money for an operation for Madi. More than that, I will not reveal.

Iran has developed a reputation over the last decade for having one of the most fertile of all national cinemas, so much so that a few films have even filtered down to secondary U.S. markets such as Memphis, though we re still waiting for a big-screen glimpse of the acknowledged Iranian master, Abbas Kiarostami. Directed by first-time filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi (who served as an assistant on Kiarostami s The Wind Belongs To Us), A Time For Drunken Horses is brief (80 minutes), documentary spare, and utterly heartbreaking in part because the film is populated with non-professional actors, Kurds who, reportedly, are essentially playing themselves.

The film was made in the Kurdish village where Ghobadi, Iran s first Kurdish director, was born. Ameneh and Madi are played by real-life siblings, which gives their scenes together Ameneh blowing on Madi s face to keep him warn and constantly kissing his cheeks added poignancy. Viewers may have read about the plight of the Kurdish people in news reports, but this film will bring the story home with the kind of immediacy the printed word can t provide.

Compared to the only other modern Iranian films to have played Memphis Children of Heaven and The Color of Paradise A Time For Drunken Horses is less cloying and sentimental and consequently even more powerful. The matter-of-fact documentary power of the film, if not necessarily its artistry, is much more shattering than the Italian Neorealist films (such as Vittorio De Sica s The Bicycle Thief) it has understandably been compared with. Rather, A Time For Drunken Horses evokes the likes of Luis Bunuel s Land Without Bread, the satirical social critic s straightforward travelogue of poverty in Northern Spain.

Moving without being manipulative, A Time For Drunken Horses may not be a great work of cinema, but it confirms the simple, communicative power of the medium itself like few other recent films. And it makes pretty much everything else adorning the multiplexes right now seem profanely irrelevant by comparison.

Categories
Hot Properties Real Estate

New Belle On the Boulevard

Belvedere means “beautiful view” in Italian. With its gentle S-curve and wide, landscaped median, Belvedere Boulevard is most appropriately named. The Belvedere subdivision, one of several comprising present-day Central Gardens, was approved for development in 1906. The land was part of an 800-acre farm established by Solomon Rozelle in 1830. When the subdivision was platted, the area had a few houses dating from the mid- to late 1800s. Most of the houses in the new development were built between 1900 and 1940; a few townhouses were built in the 1960s and ’70s.

This is the first new house in the neighborhood in several decades and is now under construction on Belvedere between Harbert and Glenwood, on property that was for many years the garden of the circa-1912 house next door. The deep, narrow lot has been developed with a small lawn and guest parking in the front, a driveway down the house’s south side, and parking for the owners at the rear, behind the garage.

The brick-clad house has a symmetrical facade with a two-story pedimented portico which provides a gracious porch at street level and a balcony for two bedrooms upstairs. The front entrance is a double-leaf door with a transom. The front windows also have transoms.

The central front hall has a view straight through the house to the rear terrace and courtyard. The living and dining rooms, each with a fireplace, flank the front hall. The den, behind the living room, has its own fireplace and a trio of French doors to the terrace. A wide archway joins the den to the breakfast room, which is almost as large as the dining room. A butler’s pantry with capacious cabinets connects breakfast and dining rooms.

The kitchen and its adjunct spaces and the downstairs master suite are in a long, one-story rear ell. The kitchen, with major work areas at the sink and stove and broad expanses of countertop, would easily accommodate the needs of either an amateur cook or a professional chef. A counter with columns at its corners is both a convenient work or serving space as well as an elegant device to separate the kitchen and breakfast room. A four-foot-wide refrigerator and walk-in pantry provide plenty of food and equipment storage; and there’s more storage, as well as a place for a freezer, in the laundry room. A porte cochère on the south side of the house provides a convenient, sheltered, family entrance and loading zone off the back hall.

A gallery stretches down one side of the ell, forming the long side of the courtyard. The master bedroom with a bay window and expansive bath and dressing areas is situated at the end of the gallery. A three-car garage with a bedroom/playroom and full bath upstairs forms the end wall of the courtyard, an area that could be developed as a garden or an outdoor room that is a visual and functional extension of the interior spaces.

The upstairs has four bedrooms, all with nine-foot ceilings. Each bedroom has a large walk-in closet. The two front bedrooms have access to the balcony, and the two back bedrooms open into a sitting room. One front bedroom and one back bedroom have full baths; each of the other bedrooms has a private vanity but share a tub and water closet.

The design of this house incorporates modern “bells and whistles” conveniences with many desirable amenities, such as large rooms and high ceilings, found in older houses in Central Gardens. It won’t be long before this elegant Colonial Revival blends seamlessly with the other distinctive houses along one of Memphis’ most notable streetscapes.

656 Belvedere Boulevard, 5,500 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths; $1,200,000

Realtor: Sowell and Company, Agent: Corinne Adrian, 278-4380, 278-8840

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Rating the Judges

A survey can be a dangerous thing. But in the case of the Memphis Bar Association survey on local judges, it is a good thing and a useful piece of information for citizens to have about a class of public officials who deserve more scrutiny than they usually get.

At a time when anything from public schools and private colleges to hamburgers and television shows to political candidates and tax programs can be boosted or broken by a survey, the measuring tool itself needs to be looked at carefully. A few basic questions: Who is doing the survey, is it reasonably objective, and does it add useful information to public discussion?

The Memphis Bar Association includes some 2,900 members, one-fourth of whom took part in the survey. Political polls and “scientific” surveys are often done with smaller samples. Yes, there was the possibility of ballot-stuffing in the bar association poll, but we think lawyers are at least as conscientious in their remarks about judges as, say, people who agree to take part in a telephone poll of political opinions or television viewing habits while they’re trying to fix dinner.

The survey itself is a pretty painstaking thing. Each judge is rated on 10 specific criteria and an overall assessment. The questions are about things that should concern the average person as well as the average lawyer — punctuality, temperament, impartiality, efficiency, and open-mindedness.

The charge that this is no more than a popularity contest doesn’t stick. For example, one of the least popular judges in recent local history was U.S. District Judge Robert McRae, who authored the school busing decisions. An opinion poll taken in 1973 might well have found 80 percent or more of Memphians opposed to him or in favor of removing him.

But there is no place for that sort of political opinion to easily find its way into the bar association survey. The questions have nothing to do with the substance of particular cases.

In the news business we’re almost always going to be on the side of more disclosure, and this is no exception. Federal judges are appointed for life by politicians. If a judge has failings of temperament, intellect, or bad habits — or develops them after serving for several years — the public needs to know it. Only a tiny percentage of the electorate has first-hand experience with the federal courts.

Internally generated reports by the courts are too often overloaded with statistics and wind up on the filing shelf. The ratings of more than 300 lawyers gives both the public and the judges themselves useful feedback, even if some lawyers do use the opportunity to vent their spleen.

When it comes to elected judges, the survey is long overdue. As with most surveys, the extremes are the most telling. The judges with “unsatisfactory” ratings, like the 26 Memphis public schools with “failing” ratings, can gripe all they want, but there are, for the most part, solid reasons for those ratings. If the declining percentage of voters who take part in judicial elections takes note, so much the better.

If a judge is lazy, chronically absent, a tyrant, or an idiot, the public needs to know it. No system is perfect, but the Memphis Bar Association survey is a big improvement on the scanty information about judges that we currently have.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Good News, Bad News

They are anonymous. They are chosen at random. They are each responsible for roughly $8.8 million of someone else’s money. They are the 5,000 Nielsen households whose television viewing habits determine which television shows flop or fly and which broadcasting companies will get the biggest slices of a $44 billion pie. As Nielsen puts it, their media research information is “the currency in all the transactions between [television] buyers and sellers.” Though larger media markets, Memphis included, receive ratings information daily, the majority of Nielsen’s research information is gathered during four one-month periods known as “sweeps”: November, February, May, and July. During these periods viewers can expect to witness splashy premieres, take in an overhyped miniseries or two, thrill to dozens of cliff-hanging season finales, and experience countless pumped-up, often bizarre regional newscasts chock full of late-breaking weather updates. Take a drink every time you hear the word Doppler used during sweeps and you’ll never play “Hi, Bob” again.

If Nielsen information is currency, viewers are the standard. Advertising rates for television newscasts are determined by cost per thousand viewers and naturally, the larger the viewing audience, the higher the rates. But competition is stiff and getting stiffer by the hour. With the continued growth of cable and the convenience of the Internet, not to mention the glut of radio stations, newspapers, and magazines, television news programs have to fight harder than ever to attract and maintain people’s attention. They have to entertain and stimulate as well as inform. In recent years sweeps periods have seen some news programs turned into garish, fear-mongering game shows offering sensationalized crime stories, wads of cash, and oodles of other fabulous prizes in lieu of solid reporting. Items teased as serious news turn out to be little more than promotions for network programming. And while the trend toward tabloid television continues to hang on in certain corners, it appears that, in Memphis at any rate, a backlash is underway.

“A few years ago we gave away new Toyotas [during sweeps],” says Bob Eoff, general manager for WREG Channel 3. “We received a million postcards from viewers and we saw a definite spike in the [ratings] meter. It scared us. We said, ‘It’s time to get back to business.'” WPTY Channel 24 director of operations Marshall Hart notes that you see a number of things in broadcast journalism today that would have been frowned upon in previous decades, and he likewise denounces big sweeps period giveaways.

“So you are giving away new cars,” Hart says with vague disdain. “You see the [ratings] meters go up. Then [sweeps] are over, the car giveaways stop, and things go back to normal. But because of this stunt advertisers have to pay a premium, and they aren’t getting their money’s worth.” While WPTY doesn’t do big giveaways during sweeps periods, Hart is not entirely opposed to dispensing occasional freebies. “Everyone does it,” he says. “We do it to attract attention and create sampling. It’s like if the Flyer went and dropped a copy of the paper into everybody’s mailbox. Some people who have never seen the Flyer before might say, ‘Hey this is great’ and start picking it up. For people who don’t like the Flyer already, it would confirm why they don’t like it.”

There was a time, not so long ago, when stations might hold big stories and special investigative reports for sweeps periods, but everyone seems to be in agreement that that time has long gone. “Between the newspapers and the other stations the market is so competitive now,” Eoff says, “we can’t hold stories for sweeps.” What stations can do, however, is tailor their sweeps stories to appeal to the broadest audience base possible. Stephanie Croswait, news director for WPTY, explains the conundrum, saying, “You want to break the important stories, but you also want to run stories that people are interested in. And what people are interested in aren’t always the big stories. Sometimes you have to run the more interesting stories first to bring [viewers] into the tent for the important stories.”

In a perfectly spun statement, WMC Channel 5’s general manager, Howard Meagle, says, “Here at WMC-TV we work hard to deliver high performance standards every day whether we are in sweeps or not. We think ratings confirm that fact.” After all, the top-rated news program is the best news program, no? Well, not necessarily. Though you’ll never hear it from news stations touting their performance rating, Nielsen makes it perfectly clear in its literature that its ratings system in no way reflects the quality or standards of a given program. When considering issues of popularity versus merit it’s hard to ignore the words of William Shakespeare who, in a deft and still-accurate description of mass consumption, wrote, “[People who] won’t give a doit to relieve a lame beggar will lazy out ten to see a dead Indian.”

In an attempt to help viewers determine who is dispensing quality programming and who is putting on a three-ring circus, Flyer staffers (editor Bruce VanWyngarden and staff writers Chris Herrington, Mary Cashiola, and Rebekah Gleaves) got together to provide “team coverage” of four local television news outlets’ performances last week. Their reports follow. — Chris Davis

WMC Channel 5 (NBC)

Joe Birch and Donna Davis, anchors; Dave Brown, weather; Jarvis Greer, sports.

Joe Birch

Whew! How about that crime spree last week? Scary, huh? You missed it? You must not have been watching Channel 5. WMC’s 10 o’clock newscasts last week exemplified “crime-time” television. In fact, if you watched WMC all week you might still be locked in your house quivering with fear. On Monday night the lead story was about “bold and brazen criminals on the loose in the Mid-South.” The “crime spree” story loosely connected a series of house break-ins and a man who was picking up people at bus-stops and robbing them. The reporter summarized thusly: “The situation is leading police to say, ‘Criminals are just plain crazy!” Which police officer, if any, actually uttered these immortal words we never learned.

One officer was quoted as saying: “These days when you get kidnapped you don’t come back.” Never mind that the bus-stop robber released all five of his victims. Reporter Joyce Peterson capped the two-minute segment on the “mean, mean season” by adding helpfully, “Crooks, thieves, and killers are doing the crime but not doing the time.” The basis for this statement? Who knows? Channel 5’s reporting was long on histrionics and fear-mongering and woefully short on content.

The other “Top Story” of the week was continuing “coverage” of actor Robert Blake and his murdered wife. The Blake story was heavily promoted at the top of all five newscasts but at no time during the week was much fresh news on the story presented. On Monday, however, after a one-minute rehash of various rumors and speculations about the case, there was a delicious moment of unconscious irony as we were taken “live” to Channel 5’s “Satellite Center” to hear reporter Keith Daniels tell us that police had asked the media to “stop circulating rumors and speculation.” Other highlights of the week’s coverage included a videoclip of O.J. Simpson offering advice to Blake: “Robert, man, this kind of situation can make you so frustrated that you want to go out and hit somebody.” So can this kind of news.

Another crime story was “Protecting Your Privacy,” in which we were breathlessly informed that “anyone can now link your phone number to your address. Stalkers and child molesters can use the Internet to find where you are! Parents are worried!” The story detailed how so-called reverse directories could be used to get an address by cross-referencing it with a phone number. Of course, if they have your name, stalkers and child molesters could also use the phonebook! But that’s another story.

Other stories covered during the week were updates on “Hoop Dreams,” WMC’s handle for all stories about the NBA and Memphis. There was good footage of Mayor Jim Rout at the County Commission meeting one night; also interviews with the Grizzlies’ coach and general manager while they were in town. Sending a reporter down to the barbecue fest to interview employees of FedEx was an interesting idea but not particularly informative.

There was a moving three-minute feature on Thursday night about the recovery of a man who had been hideously deformed in a plant explosion. Part of a series called “Miracles at the Med,” the story was effectively told without over-the-top dramatics.

Channel 5’s weatherman, Dave Brown, did his usual yeoman work explaining the various radar maps and presenting the five-day forecast in “Pinpoint Weather.” He also promoted the “Birthday Bash” segment, WMC’s most overt bow to sweeps month. (If your birthday is read on the air, you can call in and win $1,000 or more.)

Another curious part of Channel 5’s newscast is the “Family Healthcast,” a one-minute segment which seems to exist mainly to separate two long commercial breaks. Family Healthcast stories last week included such oddities as the news that you and your family could take advantage of reduced first-class fares on Northwest Airlines and a plug for NBC’s The West Wing under the guise of Martin Sheen’s character’s admission that he had multiple sclerosis.

It was a fairly slow week for sports, with Jarvis Greer doing a competent, low-key job covering high school and college baseball tournaments, the Grizzlies, and the Redbirds.

But when it comes to the news, it seems that the legacy of departed station manager Bill Applegate — the man who juiced up WMC’s news coverage to its current hyperbolic level — lives on. It’s a shame, because anchors Birch and Davis are a good team, as professional in appearance and delivery as their peers in any major market station. They deserve better. — Bruce VanWyngarden

WREG Channel 3 (CBS)

Pam McKelvy and Jerry Tate anchors; Tim Simpson, weather; Glenn Carver, sports.

Pam McKelvy

Watching WREG you hardly would have known last week was sweeps week. But listening to the reporters and anchors read the news, you might have had some idea that everyone there was working overtime to make the normal news a little more interesting. Though the new stories on WREG were business as usual, they tended to be peppered with amusing delivery styles.

Channel 3’s mix of general news, human-interest stories, weather (and weather, and weather), sports, and the occasional obscure investigative series was impressive and impressively not sensationalized. In fact, not only did the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts avoid the attention-grabbing news stories typical of sweeps months, WREG rarely deviated from the exact same stories — told over and over again.

On WREG this past week, viewers got double and triple doses of weather (sometimes six minutes during a single newscast) and lots and lots of sports, particularly anything related to the Vancouver Grizzlies or Memphis Redbirds.

One of last week’s oft-repeated stories was about the arsons at Goodlett Elementary School, with each airing showing the same maudlin footage of charred playground equipment and upset parents. At one point reporter Stephanie Scurlock even employed Dr. Evil-esque dramatic delivery, saying, “Playground equipment doesn’t come cheap. It costs … [suspense] 10 … thousand … dollars.” Unfortunately, the station did not show Scurlock on screen, so we’ll never know if she held her pinkie finger to the corner of her mouth while saying that.

Other segments, again if not overly sensational, were equally amusing. During coverage of the murder of Codes Inspector Mickey Wright, WREG repeatedly aired a lengthy interview with the suspect’s young male roommate. Filmed at home and sans shirt, during one laugh-out-loud moment, the camera even zoomed in on the man’s presumably homemade tattoo of a bucking horse with the caption “The Legend” emblazoned across his arm. Had it not been network news, it could have passed for a segment on The Daily Show.

Meanwhile, in his report on shigellosis, a bacterial disease affecting Forrest City, Arkansas, reporter Omari Fleming kept things interesting by slipping in phrasing that would have left Johnnie Cochran green with envy.

“Washing your hands is all you need to do — to keep shigella from infecting you”

was how Fleming opted to end his not-so-hard-hitting news segment. Moreover, the same story featured a “man on the street” interview with an Arkansas woman who thought her daughter might have had shigellosis but later learned that her daughter was healthy.

Like the shigellosis piece, many of the other WREG news packages that ran last week had “man on the street” interviews showing citizens saying things like “I want my NBA Now” while waving to the camera. Likewise, several days last week WREG aired an interview with a mustachioed and shower-capped female in a story about a good Samaritan who was shot while trying to help a fleeing victim escape a downtown neighborhood.

But the most amusing moment seemed to be unintentional. During a story about the NBA pursuit team’s efforts, anchor McKelvy punted to “Elliot Cohen, standing outside the NBA offices.” However, the next image showed Cohen standing in the WREG newsroom. For his part, Cohen recovered well, ending his segment with “Elliot Cohen, reporting live from the newsroom.” At least he was alive.

This being the week of Memphis in May’s barbecue cooking contest at Tom Lee Park, Channel 3 began its barbecue fest coverage on Monday, a full two days before the event started. The barbecue fixation continued throughout the week, peaking with reporter Mike Matthews’ (arguably the hardest working man in Memphis television news) vexing report on Friday night. Matthews, in between visually interesting images of pig decorations and searing meat, would say things like “Viva Pork Vegas” and “I’m getting out of here before someone tries to baste me.”

While the station did not employ sensational techniques, WREG did use lots of computer graphics. A full-screen “BIG STORY” banner graphic appeared before each evening’s top news story, and a segment titled “You Choose the News” allowed viewers to vote on the station’s Web site for the story they most wanted to see.

WREG did grant itself a few guilty sweeps pleasures, namely a segment where anchor Jerry Tate teased repeatedly with the question, “Which costs more: sending your kids to school — or to prison?”

Likewise, a story on Invisalign, a company that manufactures clear dental braces, aired incessantly at the end of the week, each time with slightly different footage. On Friday night this story was advertised during the 6 o’clock newscast to be on “right after Batman and Robin airs on CBS tonight.” Similarly, consumer reporter Andy Wise’s popular Thursday night “Does It Work?” series featured an interesting, if outright advertorial, piece on flame-retardant paint. During the almost five-minute segment, Wise even told viewers about a link to the manufacturer’s Web site on WREG’s own Web site.

Certain gaffes and dramatic excesses aside, last week WREG presented mostly responsible newscasts, with mostly informative and responsible stories, the only drawback being that they presented them over and over again. — Rebekah Gleaves

WPTY Channel 24 (ABC)

Renee Malone and Bill Lunn, anchors; Brian Teigland, weather; Greg Gaston, sports.

Renee Malone and Bill Lunn

In an age when the absolute worst is expected of local news coverage, particularly during a sweeps period, WPTY delivered a relatively honorable newscast last week. During the 10 p.m. nightly newscast on Channel 24, some of the undesirable elements that have become ubiquitous features of the local television news industry were noticeably absent. There were no cash giveaways. There were no promotional pieces for network programming masquerading as “news.” There were no false “breaking news” stories and very little in the way of flashy video of no local news value (footage on Tuesday night’s newscast of an unoccupied runaway train in Ohio was, admittedly, pretty spectacular).

But does the Memphis that WPTY’s newscast presented actually jibe with reality? Channel 24 may well be less rabid in this regard than their competitors, but at a time when violent-crime rates are falling, WPTY still presents a Memphis overrun with young black and Hispanic men committing mayhem and spends a disproportionate amount of news time following the exploits of what one piece labeled “Mid-South predator[s].”

In the Memphis presented on WPTY’s newscast, the state budget crisis and subsequent tax battle and the debate over public funding for an NBA arena are on equal footing with a teenager accused of robbery being freed by a possibly faulty East High School security video (described as “an accused robber’s best friend”) and the arrest of a criminal captured on an ATM surveillance video as stories that demand nightly updates.

Local violent crime accounted for roughly 40 percent of WPTY’s lead segments last week, but the reliance on the police blotter for news coverage was rather inconsistent. Tuesday night’s news actually led with the state’s tax debate and federal interest-rate cuts before moving on to the ATM surveillance footage of the captured criminal. On Wednesday night, the station led with five straight local violent-crime stories, with story number six about the conviction of the Florida teenager charged with murdering his teacher.

The station’s most sensationalistic reporting occurred on Friday night’s newscast when the lead story about break-ins in a Hickory Hill neighborhood was introduced with the following voice-over: “For days families across the Mid-South have been taking extra care to lock their doors and look over their shoulders.” Anchor Bill Lunn then moved into the report with this: “Dangerous robbers have been forcing their way into Hickory Hill homes threatening to kill residents right in their own houses .”

But that kind of hyped crime reporting was balanced by a responsibly reported week-long “24 Investigates” series on problems with the Tennessee Department of Human Services. In terms of screen time, this series was given more space than all of the violent-crime coverage combined.

As far as fluff/human-interest coverage, Channel 24 mostly ignored the kind of national celebrity tidbits that local news typically indulges in, though on Thursday night the station did spend more time teasing the audience with footage of formerPresident Clinton getting egged than it did on the story itself. Instead, Channel 24 stuck to local human-interest features — on Thursday night a local man who calls himself “Captain Fireball” befriended by a South Memphis fire station and a goose with a fish hook stuck in its leg on Friday night.

Truthfully, with over-the-top crime reporting de rigueur on local television news, the most offensive thing on Channel 24’s newscasts last week was probably the incredibly treacly theme music for Wednesday night’s “A Waiting Child” feature. — Chris Herrington

WHBQ Channel 13 (Fox)

Claudia Barr and Steve Dawson, anchors; Jim Jaggers, weather; David Lee, sports.

Claudia Barr

Miss a juicy story? Don’t worry, Fox 13 might run it twice.

The station ran a story about the effectiveness of new diet drug Body Solutions titled “Fact or Fat?” during the Monday night broadcast. The story, which included interviews with a radio disc jockey paid to take the drug, someone who used it for a month, and a doctor, ran again the following Sunday.

Both times “Fact or Fat?” ran it was followed by another segment on physical appearance: Monday it was cheap makeup tips; on Sunday, the station explored the growing popularity of teeth-whitening.

Then, during 13’s Thursday night broadcast live from the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest at Tom Lee Park, the exact same story about the Miss Piggy Contest ran near the beginning and at the end of the broadcast. Same video footage, same voice-over. Just in case you missed it the first time.

As the official station of the barbecue contest, Fox 13 broadcast live from the park for much of the week, covering everything from all-female barbecue teams to barbecue ice cream, barbecue-sauce wrestling, and the world’s only barbecue magazine.

During the rest of the week, though, it was business as usual for Fox 13. The station stayed away from large-scale sensationalism while playing up big stories and big names, as well as running its own news segments alongside network television shows.

The nightly broadcasts started with 10 minutes of top stories before cutting to the first commercial; even live from barbecue fest, those stories stuck to the theme of crime and punishment. Stories of Memphis shoot-outs, kidnappings, arson, and home invasions topped the news, as well as arrests of wanted criminals, and trials for crimes already committed.

The May 6th kidnapping of a woman who was stuffed in the trunk of her car and then pushed into a lake was a top story for several days, first as news, then with tips from the victim on how viewers could protect themselves from being kidnapped, and then when police had a suspect.

Another segment told viewers that car break-ins were on the rise downtown — although no study or numbers were cited — and, after giving a list of tips on protecting your property, members of the news team took to the streets to see if they could find any cars with valuables in plain sight. They triumphantly reported they found a lady’s purse in an SUV in just 30 seconds.

The station routinely teased items from its “World Minute,” including Clinton’s egging, President Bush’s daughter’s arrest, and a woman who kidnapped her cats after her divorce. Because “World Minute” is a 60-second news broadcast covering several stories, each teaser was only seconds shorter than the full story.

On Wednesday, the station ran “The [Real] Boot Camp,” its weekly tie-in with the network’s reality show Boot Camp, and “Mid-South’s Most Wanted,” a smaller, newsified version of America’s Most Wanted.

Perhaps the most telling of all Fox 13 coverage was a segment on Robert Blake’s wife. The story focused on a statement from the Los Angeles police department asking the media to stop disseminating rumors and misinformation about the case. The station then ran footage of one of Blake’s friends talking about Blake having a bullet with Bakely’s name on it. The segment ended by saying the man’s statements were “just the comments the LAPD wants to keep out of the limelight.” — Mary Cashiola

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wednesday, may 23rd

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News The Fly-By

PASTRY POLITICS

A recently published story by AP writer Karin Miller states, All regions except doughnut around Nashville support income tax proposal. Miller s story failed to note that while the bear claw around Memphis and the cream horn between Knoxville and Chattanooga seem to be in favor of a state income tax at the moment, there is always a chance they might waffle.

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City Reporter

Well-known Judges Score Low On Bar Survey

McCalla — Temperament questioned.

Judge not lest ye be judged. The Memphis Bar Association has turned that biblical admonition on local judges, and the results are harsh.

Some of the best-known judges in Memphis are also some of the worst, according to a bar association survey released Friday.

U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla, in the news this month for a simmering feud with the Burch Porter & Johnson law firm, scored by far the lowest of any federal judge and lowest overall of any judge in any court in Shelby County. On a 1 to 5 scale, McCalla scored an overall rating of 2.27. His lowest ratings were in the categories of proper judicial demeanor (1.83) and open-mindedness (2.03).

“As federal judges, our obligation is to the law and the Constitution, not to please or displease any particular group,” McCalla told the Flyer. “Beyond that I can’t comment.”

Like other judges, McCalla is hamstrung by judicial canons in responding to the survey.

Attorneys rated judges on a scoring scale of 5 for excellent, 3 for satisfactory, and 1 for unsatisfactory. Judges were rated in 10 categories plus “overall performance.” The overall performance rating was a separate question, not a composite score of the other 10 categories. Of the 2,907 lawyers who received the survey, 695 responded.

Bailey — Worst on punctuality.

Attorneys were asked to rate only judges before whom they have practiced, but they were on the honor system so there is a possibility of ballot-stuffing. More than 400 lawyers rated the state court judges; more than 300 rated the federal judges; fewer than 100 rated some of the municipal judges. Responses were anonymous.

The full survey findings can be viewed at www.memphisbar.org.

McCalla has been criticized for his temperament and for berating lawyers. He is currently presiding over the Shelby County jail lawsuit. The two other federal judges, Julia Gibbons and Bernice Donald, had overall performance scores of 4.45 and 4.13, respectively. The federal magistrates and bankruptcy judges all scored 3.78 or higher, with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David S. Kennedy the highest at 4.79.

Former state lawmaker Karen Williams (3.13 overall), Kay Robilio (2.57), and D’Army Bailey (2.52) fared worst among the Circuit and Chancery Court judges. Williams was rapped for being slow on rulings (1.98), Robilio for shaky knowledge of the law (1.92), and Bailey — a part-time actor and former mayoral candidate — for not convening court punctually (1.60).

The Circuit and Chancery Court judges with the highest overall ratings were John McCarroll Jr. (4.56) and Robert Lanier (4.51).

The lowest rating among the Memphis Municipal Court judges went to Earnestine Hunt-Dorse (2.80). In Criminal Court, W. Fred Axley brought up the rear (2.70). Their peers with the highest ratings were Donn Southern (4.61) and W. Otis Higgs Jr. (4.34).

Hunt-Dorse — Lowest score for a Memphis city court judge.

“One of the obligations of the bar is to educate the public about the judicial system,” said Linda Holmes, chairman of the Judicial Evaluation Committee. “This judicial evaluation is one way the bar association can give information to the public.”

The Memphis Bar Association has historically been wary of rating judges and backed away from a similar survey two years ago. The canons of the ethics prohibit lawyers from making false statements about a judge or adjudicatory officer, and common sense usually dictates that they keep their mouths shut for the sake of their clients if not themselves.

The flip side of that argument is that lawyers know better than the general electorate who is qualified and unqualified. All judges are elected except for the federal judges and magistrates, who are appointed. Voter turnout in judicial elections is usually the lowest of any elected officials due to apathy and lack of name recognition.

A few judges, such as former Criminal Court judge turned television star Joe Brown, have taken matters into their own hands and molded high-profile public images. But more often than not, if a judge is in the news it is for doing something (or allegedly doing something) bad, not something good.

McCalla, appointed to the federal bench in 1992, is being investigated by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals for criticism of his behavior, while Axley, a judge since 1982, has been sued twice for alleged sexual harassment by clerks in his courtroom.

Robilio — Knowledge of law questioned.

At the Flyer’s request, McCalla’s office provided a thick folder of internal reports showing that he has consistently had fewer cases pending than his colleagues over the past eight years. He also gets consistently high marks from jurors.

Axley wrote a brief note to the bar association while the survey was in the works, saying “the questions are appropriate” and he looked forward to the results.

A longer response to the survey came from Bailey, who wrote: “I think that to have a meaningful evaluation it should be broader based than simply a survey of attorneys. Others affected by a judge’s performance such as jurors, litigants, and court personnel should also have some input … .”

The survey was the product of several months of research, including input from judges on the questions. It could become the judicial benchmark, so to speak, by default because other measurements of judicial performance are either nonexistent or not widely disseminated. Jurors, for example, fill out questionnaires at the conclusion of trials but the results are rarely seen by anyone other than the judges themselves.

The survey will be repeated every two years. Holmes said she has had only a handful of reactions so far. Three judges commended her for the survey and another asked a technical question.– John Branston

MLGW: Pay For NBA Arena Or Lower Utility Rates?

Memphians need look no further than a “No Taxes NBA” yard sign to see that the debate on getting an NBA team here is centered on who will pay for the arena.

To aid in the financing of the proposed arena, Memphis Light, Gas and Water has pledged to contribute approximately $50 million to the arena from its Water Division. However, some Memphis business owners and residents have speculated that if MLGW has the money to contribute to the arena financing plan, then that money should instead be applied to a rate decrease.

MLGW president Herman Morris, when he was head of the utility’s legal department, had a similarly conservative view on what money belonged to the utility and what belonged to its customers. The Flyer recently obtained a legal memorandum written by Morris on March 30, 1995, and addressed to MLGW’s then-president Bill Crawford, detailing the utility’s obligations to its rate-payers.

Though the document Morris prepared for Crawford was written to address the legality of the commingling of funds within the utility, Morris also discusses the utility’s responsibility to rate-payers with regard to any surplus funds. In the nine-page memorandum, Morris states that, under the utility’s charter, surplus funds in any MLGW division are the property of rate-payers and must be applied to a rate decrease.

“It is my opinion that … a Tennessee court could find that the customers of MLGW who are entitled to have the surplus funds used to reduce their rates have a property interest in such funds, and further, that MLGW holds those funds in trust for those customers,” Morris’ memo reads.

Under the proposed financing plan, MLGW has pledged to contribute approximately $2.5 million a year in “payment in lieu of taxes” (PILOT) money, for a total of about $50 million over a 23-year period.

Morris’ 1995 legal interpretation may give opponents of the NBA financial plan added ammunition in their battle to keep tax-paid dollars out of the deal. Whether or not MLGW can contribute to the financing of the arena seems to hinge on the definition of “surplus.” And while some rate-payers think MLGW should apply surplus money to a rate decrease, the city of Memphis and MLGW don’t see the money as surplus.

Tom Jones, senior advisor to Shelby County mayor Jim Rout, offers this explanation of MLGW’s PILOT funds:

“MLGW, as a public utility, does not pay property taxes. It pays payment in lieu of taxes [PILOT], rather than taxes, of an amount determined by the city and county government. MLGW has never paid a PILOT for the water department because there was a 30-year-old bond issued, and before now they have been paying off that bond. Those bonds are about to be paid off and for the first time the city has the opportunity to collect PILOT money from the water department and has chosen to earmark that money for the arena,” says Jones.

According to Marlin Mosby, bond consultant for the city of Memphis, without the proposed arena financing plan, MLGW would not have begun paying PILOT money to the city until 2012. Mosby says that under the current arena proposal, the city would “defease” the debt owed by the water department in order to free up money in the utility so that it can begin paying the city PILOT funds in July of this year. This PILOT money would go directly to the city, which has allocated it for the NBA arena.

Nashville attorney Patrick Flynn believes that such a plan would be contrary to the City of Memphis’ charter. “By definition, surplus funds are funds that are not needed at the present time,” says Flynn. “If the PILOT payments were not scheduled to be paid until 2012, then the money for those payments is not due at this time and is therefore surplus. As I understand the Memphis charter, surplus funds must go into a rate decrease for the MLGW rate-payers.”

Under the MLGW charter (which is included as an amendment to the charter of the city of Memphis), “Any surplus thereafter remaining over and above safe operating margins, shall be devoted solely to rate reduction.”

The charter says that all revenues the utility collects for the Water Division must be applied, in order, to six categories of expenditures. The charter also says that any “surplus” funds after the six categories have been satisfied must go to a rate decrease for MLGW customers.

Moreover, under the trustee relationship that Morris’ memo says is created between the utility and rate-payers, the utility is bound by law to act to the greatest benefit of the rate-payers.

“Obligations imposed by the MLGW charter … can be interpreted to impose a trustee relationship on MLGW as it relates to those rate-payers. If so, those rate-payers would have a property interest in the surplus funds and could bring suit to enjoin MLGW from transferring funds to other divisions … ,” the memo reads. He adds in the memo that depriving rate-payers of this property interest without “due process of law” would open the city up to lawsuits as rate-payers could seek to enjoin the city from transferring the money.

“Under the Tennessee Constitution, property interests are secured by the Constitution and cannot be taken away except by ‘due process of law’ or ‘the law of the land.’ If … the MLGW charter, by its terms, creates a legitimate property interest in its customers’ entitlement to a specific use of the surplus funds, procedural due process requires notice and an opportunity to be heard by a fair and impartial tribunal before the property right is taken away. A referendum on the Charter Amendment should satisfy this requirement,” reads Morris’ memo.

Morris also states that for the utility to legally act contrary to its charter, the charter must first be amended. However, his memorandum states that attempting to procure such an amendment “might also threaten the financial rating [AA] of MLGW, to the extent that it created a perception of confusion, instability, or financial problems.”

According to the memo, the liability is not limited to the city of Memphis and MLGW. He notes that not only could the city be held liable for depriving rate-payers of property rights, but that the “municipal officers” could be held personally liable as well. In this case, this personal liability would extend to Mayor Herenton, all members of the Memphis City Council, and to Morris himself.– Rebekah Gleaves

The full text of Herman Morris’ 1995 memorandum to Bill Crawford is available on the Flyer‘s Web site: www.memphisflyer.com

Behind the Numbers

What the Arena Financing Plan Says

“State law permits the City, by resolution of the City Council, to receive from the City water system operated by MLGW an annual payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) on all water system properties in an amount not to exceed the taxes that would be payable if the water system were privately owned.”

(Editor’s note: The financing plan proposes to use the PILOT payments to finance some of the arena debt, starting in 2003. The annual payment would start at $2.1 million in 2003 and increase to over $3 million in the final year, 2025.)

What the MLGW Annual Report Says

“Operating revenues in the Water Division amounted to $60 million in 1999, an increase of 4.1 percent over 1998, and operating expenses for 1999 totaled $36.1 million, down 1.3 percent from 1998. After providing for operating expenses, debt service, bond reserves, renewals and replacements, and other expenses, the balance of net revenues amounted to $11.7 million.”

What the City Charter Says

“The revenue received each year from the operation of the water division, before being used for any other purpose, shall be used for the following purposes.” (Editor’s note: The purposes listed are operating expenses, bond interest, capital reserves, dividends to the city of Memphis, and expansion of the Water Division.)

“Any surplus thereafter remaining over and above safe operating margins shall be devoted solely to rate reduction.”

What Herman Morris Jr. Said In 1995 As counsel For MLGW

“It is my opinion that, under the facts presented in the instant matter, a Tennessee court could find that the customers of MLGW who are entitled to have the surplus funds used to reduce their rates have a property interest in such funds, and further, that MLGW holds those funds in trust for those customers.”