Month: March 2015

Wharton

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton gave no comment Tuesday on Monday’s revelation that he offered the city’s chief administrative officer position to local businessman Jack Sammons.

“I am not going to be offering any additional comment on that,” Wharton said. “We’re still talking and hopefully later in the week…there are still a number of things that need to be ironed out to mutual satisfaction, both sides.”

Wharton did say that more information around the decision could surface later this week. But, he said, Sammons has been traveling as they haven’t had a face to face meeting in some time.

Decisions lay before him and his team, Wharton said, as to Sammons’ role in the administration.

Wharton was asked if the shake-up was part of a larger reorganization in his administration.

“It’s possible,” Wharton said.

Sammons would step into the CAO position, which is currently filled by George Little. If Sammons was hired, Little would likely step into the role of the city’s chief operating officer and would focus on several special projects for the city.    

Neighborhood redevelopment projects are planned to bring town centers (like the one in Soulsville) all over Memphis.

Robert Lipscomb, the city’s director of Housing and Community Development, and his team brought those plans (some of which have been in the works for years) to the Memphis City Council for review Tuesday.

Lipscomb made the presentation to let council members know that progress is being made on some of the projects but also that his office doesn’t just work on big projects like Bass Pro at the Pyramid, and the Fairgrounds redevelopment plan.

The council saw the plan for Foote Homes and the surrounding communities. Lipscomb said his team is readying to apply for a nearly $30 million federal grant for the redevelopment, which would completely demolish and replace the city’s final public housing project.

The Foote Homes plan would be similar to the Cleaborne Pointe project that replaced the housing project there and could include about 714 housing units.

Noting that he didn’t want to “leave any neighborhood behind when it comes to the Fairground project,” Lipscomb showed council members a town center project for the Beltline neighborhood, which sits adjacent to the Fairgrounds’ eastern border.

The plan showed improvements to streetscapes, building facades, and green space. It also included a garden space for residents to use, a park, and lighting for railroad underpasses there that would give better access to the Orange Mound neighborhood.

Lipscomb showed similar plans for the Klondike/Smokey City neighborhood, and for New Chicago, where wrk has already begun.

Council member Wanda Halbert applauded the plans, noting (as she has many times before) that so many development dollars go to Downtown and Midtown while other parts of Memphis are neglected.

Council member Janice Fullilove asked Lipscomb what would happen to the plans would a new mayor be elected in October. Lipscomb said he doesn’t get into politics and the expected the plans to move forward.

The plans have been in the development phase for years. When asked when the projects may come to fruition, Lipscomb said they would get started as soon as funding was identified.

Memphis City Council members hope to replace the months-long moratorium on enforcing sidewalk repair laws with a program to help low-income households fix their sidewalks.

Sidewalk repair is the responsibility of Memphis property owners. That fact is thanks to a city law passed in 1967 that says owners of property abutting any public street are “required to provide and maintain adjacent to his or her property a sidewalk.”

City officials began to aggressively enforce this law last year, telling homeowners to fix their sidewalks or be ordered to court. But council members instituted a moratorium on the enforcement, and has extended the moratorium to the present.

But city engineer John Cameron brought council a proposal Tuesday to help some Memphis families to pay for the costs of fixing their sidewalks.

That plan would offer financial assistance for sidewalk repair to homeowners (not renters, or owners of multiple properties) who make less than $25,000 per year, are 65 or older, or are 100 percent disabled. It would also be offered to households that fall below the federal poverty line.

Cameron said the program would cost $200,000 this fiscal year to help address the sidewalks of the 400 properties that now have outstanding notifications. Next year, he projected the program would cost between $200,000 and $500,000. The total project could cost between $6 million and $9 million, Cameron said.

The assistance plan was the first of two parts of Cameron’s strategic program to fix Memphis sidewalks.

He also wants to start proactively fixing sidewalks around Memphis in what could be a $200 million project. The plan would done in 10 waves, each costing about $20 million, he said.

“It’s a significant amount of money,” Cameron said. “But it gives us a context on how to address our priorities for sidewalks.”

He’d start on sidewalks around schools and hospitals, constitute about 18 percent of the city’s total sidewalk stock.

The moratorium was proposed last year by council member Harold Collins, who didn’t like that low-income or fixed-income residents were being ordered to court. He said Tuesday that he didn’t want to lift the moratorium until the assistance program is in place.

A drawing of the proposed Perkins Project connector to the Shelby Farms Greenline.

A fundraising effort has begun online for a project to provide more access to the Shelby Farms Greenline.

A Facebook page for the Perkins Project has been established and shows plans for a connector to the Greenline close to corner of Perkins and Princeton.

“This access point to the Greenline will connect 1,000 households to (Shelby Farms Park),” the page reads. “There is a 2.5 mile stretch along the Greenline that lacks an official access point to the trail.”

The Perkins Project is one of the first proposals out of the gate from the recently completed Mid-South Regional Greenprint Plan.

The connector project is one of three projects from a plan called Greenline A.C.C.E.S.S. (Adjacent Community Connections to Enhance Shelby Farms Greenlines and Shelby Farms Park).

[pdf-1]
The two other project would make connections to the Greenline at the corner of Appling and Mullins Station and on Fischer Steel Road close to the GameDay Baseball complex.  

Sammons (left), Little (right)

The earliest Jack Sammons could be confirmed as Memphis chief administrative officer (CAO) is during the Memphis City Council’s meeting on Tuesday, March 17.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton recently asked Sammons to be his second in command, according to the city’s current CAO, George Little. The move is an unexpected shakeup at Memphis City Hall that comes just eight months before the city’s mayoral election.

Sammons is the president of Ampro Industries, a Memphis-based beauty products company. He’s also the current chairman of the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority. Sammons is also a past member of the Memphis City Council.

State law currently prohibits Sammons from simultaneously working for both the mayor and the airport. But new regulations are headed to the state legislature to resolve the issue, Little said.

If the law is changed in Nashville, Sammons will face a council confirmation vote in Memphis.  

Little said he expects Sammons will accept the position and the two will work well together.

“I think between what Jack brings to the table from a political sensibility standpoint and what I bring from an operational and just kind of a common sense standpoint, that (Wharton will) have some more resources at his disposal,” Little said.

Neither Wharton nor Sammons could be reached for comment on this story.

Following a positive vote from council members, Little said he and Sammons will parse out a division of labor.

Little will shift his attention to some special projects around city hall, he said, like re-aligning the Memphis Police Department, cutting costs in the city’s solid waste division, bringing efficiencies to the Memphis Fire Services Division, and spearheading the city’s new Division of Minority Business Services, which Wharton introduced in his State of the City address in January.

It’s not known yet exactly what roles Sammons will fill at city hall. It is expected he will focus on shaping a strategy for the Wharton administration.

However, many have wondered how he will continue to run his private company, help re-build the Memphis airport, and serve in such a pivotal role for the mayor.

Little said he could not speak to that question but said it was important that Sammons remain in leadership at the airport.

“(The airport) is, frankly, one of the areas of frustration for a lot of folks around here and I count myself among them,” Little said. “So, we have to continue to focus on making the airport better.”

Announcements like these usually come from the mayor standing behind a podium somewhere. But Little said word got out prematurely probably because it was linked to the legislation.

“You can’t keep secrets around here too terribly long,” Little said.

Photographer Frank Chin found his way over to Playhouse on the Square for Saturday night’s Condomonium fashion show and fund-raiser.