Sometimes the surprise deviations from public speakers’ express intentions are at least as revealing — and sometimes more so — as the main purpose they are speaking to. A case in point from this week’s public meeting of the Shelby County Commission:
Mick Wright, one of four Republican members of the Commission, was addressing the matter (which took up ample time on Monday) of how and whether to pursue a proposed $350 million outlay for a new hospital facility for Regional One (formerly The Med). Wright is a serious conservative on both fiscal and social matters but one who looks for workable connections with the body’s Democratic majority.
On Monday, he put forth a series of amendments, some of them involving funding “matches” with state or federal sources, that would broaden the availability of revenue for the hospital project and would cushion the financial blow on local taxpayers. Wright ticked off various possibilities and made a tangential reference to the prospect, hitherto disfavored by the General Assembly’s GOP supermajority, of a long-tendered federal bounty, estimated in the billion-dollar range annually, linked to the state’s acceptance of Medicaid expansion.
This funding is already accounted for in the federal budget and would require no immediate fiscal reciprocity by Tennessee, though in the long run the state would have to pay for a modest percentage of the expanded coverage. Its financial responsibility would, in this as in most other aspects of the state-federal relationship, be far less than the amount of revenue received by Tennessee.
In a jargon favored by many conservatives, one positing a dichotomy of “makers and takers,” Tennessee is very much a taker.
After some initial hesitation, former Governor Bill Haslam, a Republican, launched an initiative, entitled “Insure Tennessee,” that would have accepted Medicaid expansion, but in votes that were virtually lockstep on the part of legislative Republicans, the plan was turned down. A similar fate has greeted occasional efforts to revive variants of the plan, including one from former GOP House Speaker Beth Harwell.
Meanwhile, several hospitals serving areas of Tennessee have failed and numerous others including Regional One, have been in financial jeopardy.
In his brief and fleeting mention of Medicaid expansion to his Commission colleagues on Monday, Mick Wright was by no means calling for a renewal of the idea. He was merely cataloguing out loud a number of theoretical ways in which a local $350 million effort on behalf of a new Regional One facility could be assisted.
Nevertheless, it would be interesting to know what the current thinking of the state’s governing Republican hierarchy might be on the matter. On Monday, the Commission resolved after much discussion to refer the issue of hospital financing back to committee.
Mick Wright: "I hope "God will forgive me if I vote wrong." Photo courtesy Shelby County Government
There are various ways of dividing the efforts of humankind into separate but oddly complementary spheres: sacred vs. profane is one way, ad hoc vs. eternal is another. And who is to say that one sphere exceeds the other in importance?
Maybe not the Shelby County Commission, whose current Democratic-dominated version seems bent on taking direct action wherever it can.
On Wednesday, the Commission spent roughly the same amount of time and energy on two radically differing pending matters — one being how next to try to get the office of the Shelby County Clerk up to snuff (in this case via a “special adviser”), the other being how best to remedy centuries of racial injustice through a system of reparations for the African-American component of local society. Left pending until the Commission’s next meeting were a series of proposed correctives aimed at preventing another Tyre Nichols situation.
The matter of County Clerk Wanda Halbert came first on the agenda. Various commissioners made it plain they were fed up with Halbert’s inabilities to deal expeditiously with the duties of her office, which include the processing of auto license tag applications and the distribution of them. Through much of the past year, during which Halbert twice closed her office so as to do catch-up, long lines of frustrated Shelby Countians turned up daily at the various clerk’s offices in a vain effort to get their plates.
During one of those shut-downs, Halbert conspicuously took time off in Jamaica. She periodically has described herself as a “whistle-blower” and has blamed her office imbroglios on vague insinuations of conspiratorial action on the Commission’s part or on that of County Mayor Lee Harris.
The Commission has tried numerous incentives to help the clerk out, but, as commissioners noted on Wednesday, none of these bore much fruit. Simultaneously, state Representative Mark White has introduced a bill in the General Assembly in Nashville that would facilitate local efforts to recall the clerk.
On Wednesday, Halbert, along with aides, was present in the Commission chamber, behaving more or less meekly as the Commission tossed around a proposal to appropriate $150,000 to hire a special adviser to her. The clerk welcomed the initiative, claiming she had wanted something like that all along.
Much of a lengthy debate on what was clearly being put forth as a “last chance” solution concerned the issue of where the money to hire the adviser should come from. Various commissioners objected to the proposal’s original formulation that the $150,000 should come from the Commission’s own contingency fund, and it was ultimately decided that the clerk herself possessed enough uncommitted funds to foot the bill for the adviser.
In the end, that’s how things were decided. Halbert’s helper, who will be hired by the Commission, will be paid by available funds from the clerk’s office but will answer to the Commission, not to her. The vote was 12 to 1, with Republican Commissioner Brandon Morrison expressing disapproval of the need to spend more taxpayer money to accomplish duties that are part of the express charge of the elected clerk’s office.
Later in Wednesday’s public meeting, which was specially called by chairman Mickell Lowery, the Commission took up the momentous matter of a proposed $5 million outlay to fund a feasibility study on reparations for the African-American population. The “reparations” were not necessarily financial, although at least one successful amendment to the resolution proposed by Commissioner Henri Brooks seemed to call for make-up pay differentials for African-Americans.
Most of several amendments by Brooks addressed directly, as did the resolution itself, the undeniable fact of overall racial disparities in accessing of advantages of American citizenship.
Sponsoring the reparations measure were eight of the Commission’s Democrats, including all of the body’s Black members, most of whom spoke for the measure with various degrees of passionate intensity.
Reservations were heard from the body’s four Republicans, who tended to see the resolution as “divisive” or in conflict somehow with the American system of equality. Aligning with them in harboring doubts about the reparations issue was Democrat Michael Whaley, whose mother is Asian-born and who self-identified Wednesday as a “person of col0r.”
Voting for the resolution were chairman Lowery and fellow Commissioners Shante Avant, Brooks, Charlie Caswell, Miska Clay-Bibbs, Ed Ford, Erika Sugarmon, and Britney Thornton, all Democrats.
“No” votes came from Republicans Amber Mills, Brandon Morrison, and Mick Wright, and abstaining were Democrat Whaley and Republican Bradford.
In one form or another, the objecting Commissioners wondered where the $5 million to pay for the feasibility study would come from (Ford made the case that such funds were available in the county’s residual share of funds from ARPA, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021).
The objectors conceded during debate that disparities existed between the races that needed addressing but expressed disagreement with reparations as such as the remedy. Bradford had originally moved that the matter be postponed until the next public Commission meeting but ultimately withdrew his motion (that clearly would have failed) and expressed hopes that the larger effort to alter disparities succeeded.
His fellow Republican, Mick Wright, expressed similar sentiments, concluding with a blessing for his colleagues and the seemingly heartfelt statement, “I hope God will forgive me if I vote wrong.”
Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, photographed in Tennessee Senate Chambers on Feb. 13. Johnson sponsored a bill to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Despite the threat of legal action, supermajority Republicans passed legislation Monday restricting transgender therapy and surgery for anyone under 18 in Tennessee.
As amended, the bill clarifies that hormones and puberty blockers can be distributed and that the legislation won’t apply until July 1, 2023.
Brought by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson in response to allegations by a right-wing radio show host that Vanderbilt University Medical Center did gender-affirming surgery on minors, Senate Bill 1 prohibits health-care providers from performing medical procedures to enable a minor to identify or live with a “purported identity” other than the minor’s sex.
Vanderbilt has said it followed state law but that it would put its clinical procedures on hold. The hospital also was accused of pushing the procedures because they were a strong revenue producer.
On the Senate floor Monday, Johnson, R-Franklin, cited a medical expert who said gender-affirming treatment can cause permanent damage to minors. He also quoted a person who testified in committee last week about her disenchantment with going through gender-affirming surgery for breast removal and other changes at the age of 17.
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, who introduced the legislation in response to allegations by a right-wing radio show host, argued that gender-affirming science is “unsettled at best.”
“Body parts won’t regrow when they’re removed,” Johnson said.
He argued that gender-affirming science is “unsettled at best” and that treatment can have long-term negative effects. Johnson encouraged mental health treatment for minors who identify as the other sex.
The measure would impose licensing sanctions against physicians who provide gender-affirming care and enable those dissatisfied with their treatment to take legal action.
“The reality is these kids are victims,” Johnson said.
The House version of the bill sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, is set to be considered Wednesday in the Civil Justice Committee.
Senate Democrats voted against the measure Monday, with Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville contending that the measure wouldn’t stop medical procedures dealing with hormones.
“This isn’t regulating people’s conduct. It’s regulating what they believe,” Yarbro said.
State Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Nashville Democrat, argued that the legislation will take away freedoms. She also pointed out that the people who testified in committees weren’t Tennessee constituents and that the same language is surfacing in legislation across the country.
“This isn’t regulating people’s conduct. It’s regulating what they believe,” said Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville during Senate debate. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Likewise, Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari said such medical decisions should be made by parents, psychiatrists and medical doctors.
“We’re legislating our personal beliefs in a blanket ban,” Akbari said.
The American Civil Liberties Union, its Tennessee arm and Lambda legal said Monday they will file a lawsuit immediately against new state restrictions, contending the bill infringes on the rights of transgender youth and their families.
Current state law allows post-pubescent teens to have gender-affirming care. The ACLU points out similar restrictions in Alabama and Arkansas have been enjoined by federal courts.
“Trans youth in Tennessee deserve the support and care necessary to give them the same chance to thrive as their peers. Gender-affirming care is a critical part of helping transgender adolescents succeed in school, establish healthy relationships with their friends and family, live authentically as themselves and dream about their futures,” said ACLU attorney Lucas Cameron-Vaughn in a statement. “Politicians are risking the lives of young people by forcing their way into family decision-making, a fundamental right which has traditionally been protected against government intrusion.”
The ACLU contends the legislation is filled with misinformation and that committee testimony supporting it was full of “falsehoods.”
The legislation says the medical procedures that change a minor’s hormonal balance, remove sex organs or change the person’s physical appearance are harmful, can lead to sterility, increased risk of disease and illness and sometimes fatal psychological consequences. The legislature further claims that such procedures are “experimental in nature and not supported by high-quality, long-term medical studies.”
Politicians are risking the lives of young people by forcing their way into family decision-making, a fundamental right which has traditionally been protected against government intrusion.
– Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, ACLU
The legislation points out that Dr. John Money, founder of the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic, abused minors in his care, which led to the suicides of two people — claims that are at least partially false. It also claims the medical procedures are being performed with “rapidly increasing frequency” and that guidelines have changed in recent years.
Furthermore, the bill claims pharmaceutical companies that contributed to the nation’s opioid epidemic have tried to profit from the use of drugs and devices for transgender therapies and surgeries.
The legislation also goes as far as to say health-care providers in Tennessee have posted pictures of naked minors online to advertise these types of surgeries and that Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, “an organization responsible for killing tens of thousands of unborn children, has become one of the largest administrators in this state of such medical procedures.”
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Former longtime Mayor Willie Herenton, who had sent recent online smoke signals regarding a seventh race for Mayor, made it official on Monday with a post on his Facebook page and with the following message:
TO THE CITIZENS OF MEMPHIS:
My public service career in Memphis spans over three
decades. It was a privilege to serve as superintendent of
the Memphis City Schools for twelve years. And later,
elected five consecutive times as mayor of Memphis.
Today, it saddens me to see my hometown in a deep
and embarrassing crisis. Our city is in need of proven
leadership. This is not the time for on-the-job training.
In my opinion, and in all respect to the announced
candidates for the Mayor of Memphis – 2023, not a single
candidate has proven to be prepared for the challenges
facing my hometown.
I care about Memphis deeply.
For these reasons and more, I have decided to once
again, offer my services as a candidate for Mayor – 2023.
If I am your choice once again, I will faithfully serve all the
The ever-increaing ranks of candidates for Memphis Mayor continue to grow. The latest addition to the list of declared hopefuls is City Councilman Frank Colvett, who made his intentions known through a Thursday morning press release.
In the announcement, the Republican said, “Memphis faces serious challenges, and we need a Mayor who is ready to face those challenges. I was born in Memphis, ran a small business in Memphis and have served on the Memphis City Council. I will use my experience in both government service and the real world to confront the challenges that face us.
“Crime is too high, and we need leaders with actual solutions. We need more good cops on the street, but also we need to work with groups like the Boys and Girls Club to intervene with our at-risk kids before they turn to crime.”
The announcement notes that Colvett was elected to the City Council in November, 2015, and was re-elected in 2019. He was the 2021 Chairman of the Memphis City Council after serving as Vice-Chair in 2020. Colvett is a 1988 graduate of Memphis University School and earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and minor in history in 1992 from Millsaps College where he graduated with honors distinction. He has served on local development boards for several years and is an affiliate agent with Remax Experts.
He and his wife, Lesley Harris, have a son, Frank III, and a daughter, Ella Louise.
Though there was previous speculation about a possible race by lawyer and former Councilman John Bobango, Colvett’s entry makes him the first white Republican to join a lengthy list of Black Democrats in the mayoral race.
The Memphis Mayor’s race already has a fair number of announced candidates, some well known, some not. But it may be about to attract a candidate who is renowned to many Memphians and deeply controversial to others.
This would be none other than Willie Herenton, who has run for Mayor six times, winning five of those contests in the period 1991 to 2007 and losing one in 2019. Herenton’s first victory, in 1991, made him the first elected Black chief executive in the city’s history.
On Tuesday of this week the former Mayor dropped a video post on his Facebook page that pretty directly suggests he intends one more run for the mayoralty, this year
The post — a heavily stylized mix of sound and images — begins with an announcer’s voice saying, “This is the one you’ve been waiting for,” and continues with repeated reminders of a time, during Herenton’s mayoral tenure, when he ordered an impetuous reporter out of his work space, saying, in a refrain that is visually noted several times and recapitulated directly once from an old audio, “Get the hell out of my office!”
The video ends with panels (here combined) that say, in succession, “Campaign Coming Soon, and “2023.”
Recently we noted in this space that Herenton has imminent plans to publish a political and personal memoir entitled From the Bottom. Asked this week, in an exchange of texts, about the book and about his possible campaign plans, he responded, “Working hard to meet some deadlines for the book,” and he promised to reach out soon so “we can talk politics.”
The first financial disclosures from the 2023 candidates for Memphis Mayor are now available.
As of January 15, the two leaders in the vital “Cash on Hand” category are Downtown Memphis president/CEO Paul Young, with a reported $312,699.12, followed closely by Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner, with $310,482.88:
Businessman J.W. Gibson reports the $300,000 he has loaned to himself as a campaign starter. NAACP president and former County Commissioner Van Turner reports cash on hand in the amount of $121,747.29.
State House Democratic Leader Karen Camper reports $33,862. (She has the disadvantage of not being able to raise money during the ongoing legislative session).
School Board chair Michelle McKissick has so far not filed a disclosure statement.
Justin Pearson and County Commission Chair Mickell Lowery. Photo by Jackson Baker.
Justin J. Pearson, the youthful activist who easily won a special election on Tuesday to become the state representative from House District 86, was formally appointed to that office on Wednesday by vote of the Shelby County Commission.
At a brief but spirited ceremony Wednesday afternoon in the Vasco Smith county building’s auditorium, Democrat Pearson, who succeeds the late Barbara Cooper, received the Commission’s unanimous vote and generous plaudits from its members, both Democratic and Republican.
And Commissioner Erika Sugarmon indicated she would put his newly won status to immediate test. “I have some legislation for you,” she said. The premise of Pearson’s getting the Commission’s appointment before his formal certification was to give him the opportunity to meet the General Assembly’s January 31 deadline for the introduction of bills.
In a brief but emotionally resonant response, Pearson, who got almost four times the number of votes as did runner-up Julian Bolton in the 10-person field, indicated he was ready for the challenges ahead.
Characterizing the outcome of the election as a “victory of the people,” Pearson said it was “going to turn into the transformative change that we so desperately need in Memphis and Shelby County and across the state of Tennessee and I’m just happy to be a vessel.”
He moved quickly into an anecdote about a Black trans woman who, he said, had been shadowed and spied on by a Shelby County deputy during her use of the lavatory facilities on a recent visit to the county building.
Referring to the incident as having been “very scary and frightening,” Pearson said, “We need to make sure that this space is safe for everybody,” not just for members of the “dominant culture.” Alluding to Martin Luther King’s dictum that justice denied for a few is justice denied for everyone, Pearson vowed to represent “the people who are so oppressed and marginalized” and called for a “united response” to that purpose.
He said he was pleased for the opportunity to go to Nashville, “but our work is here, right? There’s a lot of people here. And so I’m not going away, [nor} are thousands of supporters, they’re not going away. I’m going to stay engaged and active locally.
“… If we do not deal with what’s happening here, and in systemic and systematic fashion, these things are going to repeat themselves. This is not about Democrats or Republicans or conservatives or liberals. It’s about the question of justice.”
Pearson told the Commissioners, “I thank you for your graciousness, your very kind comments and the work that you do.”
Referring to support received from the Commission in his successful 2021 campaign against the construction of an oil pipeline in South Memphis, he said, “You have proven that people power works and that you are true representatives of the people.
“And for us to continue to do that work fairly and to do it in the right fashion … we have to lift up the folks most marginalized in this community and in the state of Tennessee.”
Justin Pearson (Photo: Justin J. Pearson | Facebook)
Justin J. Pearson, the young activist who was essentially unknown until his major involvement in the successful 2021 effort to prevent an oil pipeline in South Memphis, is now a factor in local and state government, having won the special election in state House District 86 with relative ease.
With 716 votes in the District’s 19 precincts, Pearson came relatively close to winning an absolute majority in the 10-candidate field of the Democratic primary.. His closest opponent was the veteran political figure Julian Bolton, with 192 votes. At the age of 27, Pearson succeeds the much-loved longtime incumbent of the seat, Barbara Cooper, whose death last year at the age of 93 created the vacancy in District 86.
The size of Pearson’s plurality means, among other things, that plans by the Shelby County Commission to formally appoint the top vote-getter in a special called meeting on Wednesday can go forward with no doubts as to the validity of its action, there having been no entrant in the Republican primary, a fact making a scheduled special general election unnecessary.
If you happen to have seen a blurred image of 8th District U.S. Representative David Kustoff in the background of a picture frequently featured in the coverage of the GOP’s mystery Long Island Congressman-elect George Santos, so has Kustoff, who notes that his first sight of the picture was via an issue of TheNew York Times.
Reached over the holidays, Kustoff identified the picture as one taken at a post-election event held in Las Vegas last month by the Republican Jewish Coalition. At the meeting, which was attended by presumed Speaker-to-be Kevin McCarthy, Kustoff and Santos, along with Rep.-elect Max Miller of Ohio, were extolled by McCarthy and others as a corps of Jewish members-to-be in the coming Congress.
That trio may turn out to be a duo, of course, as Santos’ Jewishness, as well as virtually every other fact of his public identification, has been since revealed to have been a fabrication on the Republican’s part.
Santos’ purported religion, as well as his claimed employment in the financial industry, his education, and his family background, along with much else, have been exposed as spurious in voluminous news coverage, and the lingering question has been what will become of Santos’ hopes of serving in Congress: Will he be seated, will he be expelled, or just what?
Conspicuously silent on the issue has been the aforementioned McCarthy, who is still trying to arrange for a guaranteed vote of 218 Representatives for himself as Speaker of the House on January 3rd, when Congress reconvenes.
Kustoff was clearly hesitant to comment on the disposition of Santos’ case, venturing only, “Nothing will happen until after the Speakership vote.”
That presupposes, of course, that the New Yorker will be seated. Kustoff declined to say anything else about the case and about Santos’ chance of continuing in Congress, though he indicated he might comment further later on.
The Memphis area’s other Jewish congressman, Democrat Steve Cohen of the 9th District, has been less restrained. He authored a well-noticed tweet on the subject: “This guy makes Herschel Walker look like George (I can’t tell a lie) Washington./ Jew-ish? That’s some chutzpah!”” Cohen suggested in another tweet that the $700,000 that Santos claimed to have lent his recent campaign was unlikely to have been his own money and could lead to serious legal trouble for the would-be legislator.
Elaborating further this week, Cohen suggested Santos was obviously “mentally ill,” and foresaw his likely indictment in fairly short order.
