Author: Carol Chumney

Quick fixes are the order of the day at City Hall. Mayor Herenton refused to give police and other public employees any pay raises for the next two years, claiming that the first priority is to replenish the city’s nearly nonexistent reserve fund. Yet, in the same breath he proposed and got adopted a budget that fills hundreds of frozen nonessential positions and creates some new nonessential jobs to boot.

And despite telling police officers there is no money for pay raises, the city leaders managed to find another $2 million to begin the lengthy process of recruiting and training an additional 50 police officers — instead of moving trained police officers who are working desk jobs to the street and replacing them with lower-paid civilians.

Meanwhile, the crime rate rises every day, with more and more children and youth caught in the crossfire — casualties of the lack of leadership from this administration and of federal and state policies that have fractured our social-service network.

A better fix would have been to adopt a bare-bones budget this year, keeping many of the frozen positions frozen and moving police from desk jobs to the street. We should have followed through on many of the recommendations of law enforcement experts at the City Council’s March 28th public-safety hearing and allow police and public employees to come back to the table next year to negotiate if the city’s financial picture looks better. All this would have bolstered employee morale and our crime-fighting efforts.

It defies common sense to think that our law enforcement officers will get a handle on the rising crime problem in Memphis when the mayor calls their union leaders irresponsible for simply asking for a cost-of-living raise. If you’re going to ask working folks to tighten their belts, it should be done with respect, and you should be willing to do some belt tightening of your own.

A more comprehensive approach is needed, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the solutions. It was all spelled out in the four-hour public-safety hearing held by the City Council just three months ago. Most of the experts in this community — the district attorney, the crime commissioner, former police chiefs, and criminal justice professors — espoused general agreement on many of the needed strategies. Not a single one of these experts mentioned a shortage of police manpower or the need to duplicate the long-standing and effective Crime Stoppers program with a similar program run by the city.

And how can we expect additional police officers to do their job effectively when the city once again has canceled the police promotional test that would have added needed supervisors and crime investigators. You do not send your troops into the field to do battle without sufficient sergeants and majors to lead the way.

On the heels of the city’s decision not to offer a youth summer-job program and to abandon Libertyland (which was a source of summer jobs for youth), it’s no wonder children are getting into trouble on our streets. They are left to fend for themselves. With calls for curfews and military-type tactics in order to enforce law and order, the mayor doesn’t have a clue. He focuses instead on reliving his Golden Gloves glory days in a boxing match.

Incredibly, with children being killed nearly every day, the administration disregards offers of manpower from the county sheriff, apparently out of pride and a determination to go it alone after dismembering the metro gang unit. Hype, innuendo, broken promises, duplication of efforts, and excess rule the day, while the people are left defenseless.

So now the mayor proposes a crime summit this fall to figure out what to do. It is written that, where there is no vision, the people perish. Memphis is now suffering the consequences of an administration that has not exercised the vision and initiative necessary to protect the citizens. Inevitably, too many of those most vulnerable among us — the children — will also perish.

Councilwoman Carol Chumney is chair of the City Council’s public-safety committee.

While we have no choice but to move ahead and give Joseph Lee a chance, since his appointment as head of Memphis Light, Gas & Water is now irreversible, it is also important to take a look at what has happened in this process with an eye toward how our government will be run in the future.

Although a very short turnaround time was given for candidates to apply, a national search did produce candidates who had entire careers in the specialized utility industry coupled with significant management experience in the same field. Instead of selecting one of these applicants, the mayor again nominated Lee, who had received unanimous approval by City Council members earlier in the year for reappointment as city finance director.

While Lee does have management experience in supervising fewer than 100 employees in the city finance department, he oversees 2,700 employees at the largest three-service public utility in the nation. Comparing these credentials to that of Marvin Runyan, who in 1988 went from serving as the CEO of Nissan’s North American operations to the chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, is a far stretch, especially in light of the fact that the other finalists for the MLGW presidency all had greater management experience and worked in the utility field.

However, the real issue is not even Lee, who now finds himself in the difficult position of managing people with years of experience in a specialized field where he has none. The mayor’s convenient playing of the race card in his remarks to the City Council in an effort to justify his choice of Lee was itself disingenuous. All key government positions in Memphis and Shelby County are now held by African Americans. Both our county and city mayors, U.S. congressman, superintendent of city schools, and police director are African-American. The pool of applicants for the MLGW presidency included an African American in management at MLGW.

The former MLGW president, Herman Morris, who did have utility experience, was also African-American. We all know that Mayor Herenton did not reappoint Morris, who has stated that he questioned the mayor’s request to use certain law firms as bond counsel on the TVA/MLGW bond deal. (One of these was an Arkansas law firm that gave a fund-raiser for the mayor during the power outage last summer.)

The real issue is a matter of principled leadership and equal justice. There has been a long history in Memphis of the abuse of power by those in control, dating back to the days of Boss Crump. At 4:30 a.m., after the council vote on Lee, I received an anonymous threatening voicemail that used a racial slur. And it made me wonder whether the old system is still alive today, with only the faces changed.

Will politicians continue to use divisive tactics to manipulate the public and justify their actions, actions which do not otherwise hold up under legitimate scrutiny? Or will we all evolve to the point where race and gender cease to be an issue and instead focus on what’s best for Memphis?

To me, the only future worth fighting for is one where the principles of truth and equal justice apply. To reach this truth, our politicians, community leaders, and the media must all look beyond personal agendas and work together for what’s best for Memphis.

I wish Joseph Lee the best and hope he will do a good job under these difficult circumstances. More importantly, let’s hope that in the future divisive tactics which only harm our community will be avoided.

Carol Chumney is a City Council member representing District 5.

After 13 years of service as a state legislator, on New Year’s Day I was sworn in as a new member of the Memphis City Council from District 5. Many tell me that in moving from the state legislature to the City Council, I have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. I am starting to believe them.

During the past two months, I have tried to conduct council business in a professional manner while sparks have been flying between the mayor and certain members of the council. We all know that politics can get hot, and the saying goes if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. However, the tone and name-calling by more than one elected official in this city have been divisive and unproductive. (Remember the saying: It takes two to tango.)

I was the only council member who didn’t vote to override the mayor’s veto of the ordinance to limit the funding of interim appointments. I did so for several reasons: One, because this issue of interpretation of the city charter is best put to the people for a vote, not a judge. Two, because a court battle would have cost tax-payer money and proven even more divisive and distracting. Three, and most importantly, because the national search for the new president of our billion-dollar MLGW utility was put on hold by the mayor while the dispute was pending. And four, because this feud is beginning to harm our city’s image across the state and nationally, which can have long-range adverse implications for business development.

Apparently, the mayor has also decided that a court battle (and the feud) is not in the best interest of the citizens of Memphis. That doesn’t mean there isn’t still room for honest disagreement on important policy issues and continued debate and discussion. What it should mean is that the petty infighting stops and the real policy discussions begin.

Improving our schools, reducing crime, revitalizing neighborhoods, developing economically, and consolidating the city and county are hard issues that take thoughtful work and consideration.

Now, while the dust is clearing, it’s time to take up these important issues and move ahead. Leaderless, MLGW is a time bomb ticking, waiting to erupt into a major problem — with investor concerns over the bond issue, with no one in charge to handle another power outage, and without solid leadership to make important customer service improvements. My investigation has found that, almost without exception, every other utility in the nation has a leader with extensive utility industry experience. A search process needs to be commenced to find a new MLGW president who has solid and substantial utility and management experience.

As a new council member, I respectfully believe that, for the good of Memphis, the mayor and the council both need to stop the power struggle and focus on the real issues that will make a difference for the citizens of Memphis. The mayor’s done his mea culpa. Only a few council members have followed suit. And if council members want to exercise greater powers under the charter, then the public should expect them to dedicate more time to the job with greater scrutiny of issues in committee hearings prior to any vote at a full council meeting.

Let’s move ahead and make Memphis a better place to live!

Carol Chumney, who formerly was District 89 representative in the state legislature, now represents District 5 for the city.