Author: Yann Ranaivo

The Ericson Group isn’t waiting for time to run out on Bass Pro Shop’s proposal for The Pyramid.

Last week, the Memphis-based group, led by Greg Ericson, presented its plan for an indoor theme park in The Pyramid to the City Council. Ericson unveiled the plan to the Shelby County Commission last December.

Bass Pro has until January 31st to finalize a deal with the city and county for a retail location in The Pyramid. At the time of this writing, members of the City Council and County Commission were visiting Bass Pro’s headquarters in Springfield, Missouri.

Ericson’s plan would also renovate Mud Island Harbor and add more than 75 retailers and restaurants and two 350-room hotels near The Pyramid.

Orlando-based Prosperity International would provide capital for the project, which Ericson said he could start building as soon as he receives approval from the city and county. The entire project is estimated to cost Ericson $300 million with $250 million coming from private funds. The remaining $50 million would come from the federal government, which Ericson said, will also be responsible for moving the downtown I-40 ramp if the project is approved.

Ericson estimates that the ambitious project would attract more than two million visitors a year to Memphis, but City Council members were unsure that the project fits the city’s current agenda.

“I applaud your vision,” council member Reid Hedgepeth told Ericson, “but there’s been some sort of cursed land for The Pyramid. This is a move that the city has seen before.”

Hedgepeth was referring to previous Mud Island Harbor takeover proposals, where developers announced similar ambitious projects but ended up falling out.

The City Council is looking for someone to take over The Pyramid, not Mud Island.

“This is going beyond redeveloping The Pyramid,” Councilman Jim Strickland said. “I realized then all 13 council members were going to have questions.”

According to his colleague, Shea Flinn, the project’s scope, along with the two-year-long negotiation with Bass Pro, are two of the reasons that Ericson’s plan is appreciated but not fully embraced.

“The vision is a wonderful thing,” Flinn said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of blue sky that can be seen from this, but it’s always rosy when you’re painting the best-case scenario.”

Michael Hooks Jr.’s lawyers may argue that his guilty plea last week wasn’t part of Operation Tennessee Waltz, but to the average Memphian, that’s semantics. Hooks may not have profited from his position on the Memphis City School Board, but he was an elected official, just like the politicians caught in the 2005 Tennessee Waltz sting.

In this atmosphere of uncovered corruption, Christian Brothers University will host a panel discussion this week on ethics in government. In addition to U.S. attorney David Kustoff and the FBI’s My Harrison, Shelby County commissioner David Lillard will be a panelist. The Flyer recently met up with Lillard at his downtown law firm to discuss how elected officials should act. — Yann Ranaivo

Flyer: Do you think elected officials have a duty to set an example for their community?

Lillard: They have a duty to engage in honesty in their dealings with public issues regarding any special interest. In the context of ethics, you do not only have the need to set policy, you also [need to maintain your public image]. Other county employees are doing that, but we’ve seen cases in the past where county employees do unethical things. For instance, we’ve had a woman who embezzled money from the Med.

Do you think it is your job to point out wrongdoing among other elected officials?

In a situation where a commissioner becomes aware of clear wrongdoing, like the stealing of county property, then, yes, there is a duty to involve proper enforcement authorities. But there is more than one type. One is when they are clearly violating the law. Those are clear, everyday situations.

The second one includes things that are not violations to the law but are not good ethically, such as taking premier sporting-event tickets for free when someone has duties to the county.

Do you think there should be stricter conduct codes for public officials?

My personal policy is I don’t accept free lunches, dinners, or gratuities from anybody. If I do have a private meeting with someone, I pay for my lunch and they pay for theirs.

Anyone wishing to do business with county government cannot give gratuities of any type to officials or gratuities that are not allowed under the policy. If an employee takes kickbacks from someone else, I don’t know how you would detect that.

[Former county commissioner Michael] Hooks Sr. was accused of taking money. No one would have ever known about that except for the government investigators, but I’m all for the reporting. A criminal act is by its nature something that perpetrators try to conceal.

Is it more important for public officials to actively cultivate a positive image or just do the jobs they were charged with?

It’s more important to present a positive image so the public can have faith in the honesty of the government. There isn’t a government official from the president on down who does not encounter an ethical dilemma.

That’s not unlike ordinary citizens. Every ordinary citizen encounters an ethical dilemma. Do they ever miss a tax return? Do they pick up a $20 bill they find randomly? The public needs to focus on how officials handle ethical dilemmas, not just the dilemma happening.

On a recent Friday evening, ring girls lead a parade of “Tough Man” fighters around the ring at Sam’s Town Casino. Several of the fighters have beer bellies and man boobs. Some of them are covered in carpets of chest and back hair.

Whether these competitors know how to box or not is uncertain.

“If you came here thinking you’re going to see jabs and uppercuts, you know, great boxing skills, then you came to the wrong place,” Tough Man president Stephen Coppler tells a packed Sam’s Town River Entertainment Center before the quarterfinalists take the ring.

Tough Man has developed a cult following. Roughly 50 times a year, the tournament draws men and women to fight in three one-minute rounds. When the bell sounds, they rush into a frenzy of fist-pounding, pushing, punching, and, occasionally, running away.

Of the 44 heavyweight and light heavyweight competitors in the two-day event last weekend, only a small number have formal boxing training. The rest are fight hobbyists looking to knock heads and win a grand while they’re at it.

Mike Lane, a 28-year-old FedEx dock worker, becomes the weekend’s heavyweight winner. He boxed as a teenager and won his last Tough Man competition in Corinth, Mississippi, nine months ago. Following his victory Saturday night, he tells friends how he wanted to fight certain opponents because the majority of his weight class were hobbyists who thought being big and tough were enough to win.

“Knowing my skill level, not to be arrogant, I knew I could win this,” he said after defeating a 23-year-old from Huron, Tennessee. “Most of these guys walk in trying to make money.”

Guess his opponents should have stuck to the slots.