Another Week, Another County Lawsuit
Last October, Shelby County jail chief Marron Hopkins was accused of
threatening his subordinate guards, instructing them not to
talk to court-appointed jail monitors assigned to
report on the jail’s efforts to cut down violence and
reduce overcrowding. Hopkins told jailers that the
monitors were “not their friends” at a meeting he
called just a week after federal judge Jon McCalla
had taken a surprise tour, led by the chief, of the
troubled downtown lockup.
All that would have gone unnoticed if jail commander Robert Ivory
hadn’t told jail
monitor Curtis Shumpert of Hopkins’ improprieties. As a result, inmates
attorney Robert Hutton
filed a complaint at the request of Judge Jon
McCalla, who is overseeing the implementation of
the four-year-old court order.
Ivory was terminated the same day that Shumpert told the judge about
Hopkins’
actions. Months before, Ivory had been following the court’s mandate to
cooperate with
the monitors by answering Shumpert’s questions, locating documents, and
providing
requested assistance to the monitor.
Ivory held four jobs at the jail since being
hired in 1997 to be in charge of sanitation. He
was fired despite having a clean personnel record. Though 201 Poplar is known
for its unclean
environment, Ivory’s employee evaluations state
that “he has been working very hard to meet
deadlines in improving the overall sanitation
condition of facility … follows established policy,
guidelines, and procedures … and is competent
and effective … exceeds expectation.”
This week, attorney Saul Belz filed a $2 million wrongful termination
suit
against Shelby County Sheriff A.C. Gilless and Hopkins. Belz says the
situation is
reminiscent of Sheriff’s Deputy Harold Hayes’
termination, which came after he spoke out about the
Ray Mills and Stephen Toarmina badges-for-cash scam two years ago.
Ivory has been unable to get a job since being forced from his post in
October.
“There’s no reason why this man
shouldn’t be working,” says Belz. — Ashley Fantz
Music Commission Holds First Town Hall
Roughly three years after its formation and almost two years after
hiring Jerry Schilling as its president, the
Memphis & Shelby County Music Commission will hold its first town hall
meeting this week.
The event, which will take place at
Strings & Things music store at 1555 Madison
Avenue, is scheduled to run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and be moderated by WREG-
TV’s
Alex Coleman. Schilling says that all of the commission’s 20 members who will
be
in town that day are expected to attend, but that a select few members will be
on the panel that takes audience questions.
Panelists, in addition to Schilling, will include
Pat Mitchell of the Blues Foundation, Jon Hornyak of the
Recording Academy, Kevin Kane of the Convention and Visitors Bureau,
John Frye of Ardent Studios, and Onzie Horne of the House of Blues.
Schilling anticipates that there may be some negative responses from
the
audience but says he relishes the opportunity to
bring the commission closer to the community.
“I think that people who are going to
take the time to come to something like this will either have really
legitimate criticisms or
some really great ideas that we could
incorporate,” he says.
To prepare themselves, last month the commission convened the first
meeting of
its Musician’s Advisory Council, a commission offshoot designed to give
contemporary
working musicians more voice on the commission. Members of the still-forming
council
include Jim Dickinson, Reba Russell, and the Pawtuckets’ and MADJACK Records’
Mark McKinney.
“I want to get the city behind this
event, not just the music community,” says
Schilling. “I want to get the Memphian there who
might think, ‘Why do we need a music commission?’ I know down deep that
Memphians are
proud of our heritage, but I want them to also be proud of what’s going on
today.”
But apparently not everyone is looking forward to the event.
“There are a few
commissioners that are a little afraid of this,” Schilling
admits, “but my feeling is that if there’s
something that we don’t know, then damn it, we
should know. If somebody can bring something up
and we don’t have the answer then we’ll damn well look for it. We don’t want
to be sitting
behind the desk, comfortable. We want to be on the
firing line.” — Chris Herrington
“Gibson Experience” Put On Hold
The Gibson Guitar plant located downtown is slowly getting up to
speed. According to plant manager Mickey Butler, Gibson is producing 71
guitars a day
and employing 67 people. When Butler first arrived in Memphis from the Gibson
plant
in Nashville, the Memphis site was producing only four guitars a day. Butler
says that
he has plans to increase production to 100 guitars a day and hire up to 120
people by
the summer.
However, the site is also supposed to house the “Gibson
Experience,”
which would include a factory tour, Gibson museum, theme restaurant, and a
live
music venue. This has yet to materialize and, according to Gibson chairman and
CEO Henry Juskiewicz, is going to take time.
The Rock ‘N’ Soul Museum, operated as a division of the Smithsonian
Institution, opened last year on the second floor of the Gibson factory.
“It’s going slower than we’re pleased
with,” says Juskiewicz. “I hesitate to give dates.
The fact is that we’re four and a half years behind.”
Juskiewicz says the delays stem from “problems with construction.
Things
didn’t get done.” Those things include an
installed kitchen for the restaurant. According to project manager Bryan
Campbell
of MCDR Incorporated, the construction firm that built the plant, his company
was never contracted to install the kitchen. This matter is currently being
contested in court.
Despite the roadblocks, Juskiewicz is confident about the success of
the
Memphis operation.
“We’re pumped about Memphis,” he
says. “We’re not happy about [the delay], but
we’re committed to Memphis and we will fill our obligations. We’re going to
make the
community proud.” — Chris Przybyszewski
Velsicol Blast
Worries Residents
As the sky filled with thick black smoke after an explosion at
the Velsicol Chemical Corporation’s plant Thursday, the surrounding North
Memphis neighborhoods were in “sheer
panic” for about 45 minutes, says resident
Reverend Balinda Moore.
Knowing the plant stores many dangerous chemicals, several residents
fled in
their cars, while others without transportation awaited a call from the
automated
hazardous materials phone service that never came. The sirens at the adjacent
school
and community center also didn’t sound, Moore found out later from the fire
department, because the accident didn’t pose a health threat.
Moore says she tried to call Velsicol to find out what happened, but
no one
answered the phone. The community should be informed after an accident, she
says,
to calm fears or detail evacuation routes.
Though no one was injured in the blast, 75 firefighters and 22 pieces
of equipment were dispatched to the scene when the top blew off a
50,000-gallon chemical storage tank, according to a fire department press
release.
Working with the Concerned Citizens for Douglas Bungalow Crump, a
neighborhood group focusing on environmental
concerns, Moore has been fighting Velsicol to clean up
its act. Though the company is working to remove toxic waste on its site ,
Moore blames them
for causing cancer and asthma in her neighborhood.
— Andrew Wilkins
Applegate Era Ends At Channel 5
A tumultuous period for THE local TV news industry came to an end
last month with the long-anticipated promotion of WMC-TV vice president and
general
manager Bill Applegate to the same positions at two stations in Cleveland,
which were
recently purchased by Raycom Media, WMC’s parent
company.
Applegate arrived at WMC, long the market’s most powerful and
respected news
station, in April 1998, with a reputation as one
of the most controversial executives in the industry. A cover story in this
paper that ran
shortly after his arrival characterized Applegate as
a tough, abrasive administrator who would boost ratings and cut costs at the
expense of
product quality and staff morale.
It didn’t take long for those predictions to
come true. Less than a year after Applegate’s arrival,
local print media were taking note of the increasingly hysterical tone of the
station’s newscasts,
especially the station’s rather loose interpretation
of the term “breaking news.” The Commercial
Appeal reported that half of the newsroom had
left or been fired in the first year — a figure
confirmed by staffers who were there at the time.
Richard Enderwood, director of promotion and audience development at
WMC from
1993 until November 1998, and who now works in a similar capacity at stations
in Oklahoma
City, echoes many former Channel 5 staffers in decrying the stylistic shift
that Applegate
introduced.
“I believe that many of the special stories
that were written and produced for news sweeps
were frivolous and lightweight and were done in an attempt to attract viewers
without addressing
issues that actually impact the lives of
Memphians,” Enderwood says. “I’m sure there are industry
reasons for those changes too, but the kinds of
frivolous newscasts that were going on around the country were not going on at
WMC or in
Memphis really until [Applegate’s] arrival.”
“They are less traditional than they were
before he came, there’s no doubt about that,”
says Dr. James Redmond, chair of the journalism department at the University
of
Memphis. “Whether that’s good or bad is open to
interpretation — it depends on what kind of news you prefer.”
The ratings at the station under
Applegate’s tenure partially bear out his approach,
however. The first May sweeps under Applegate’s
watch, which occurred just before he brought in equally controversial news
director
Peggy Phillip, reflected trouble. The station had
been knocked out of first place at 5 p.m. for the
first time in five years, losing to WREC-TV Channel 3 by half a ratings point
and finding
themselves in a tie with Channel 3 at 6 p.m. The station held a two-point lead
at 10 p.m.
During the November 2000 sweeps, the last under Applegate’s watch, WMC
was back
on top by a full point at 5 p.m., had pulled ahead considerably at 6 p.m., and
was maintaining
a similar lead at 10 p.m.
But many lament what has been lost in the ratings wars.
“To look at the organization as a whole
in the community, I don’t think they’re as
involved as they used to be. I think they pick
their spots,” says Harold Graeter, associate
executive director of the AXA Liberty Bowl, whose position of sports director
was eliminated
by WMC in the fall of 1998.
Some former staffers and media watchers have expressed hope that
Applegate’s
successor, Howard Meagle, who served for several years at a Raycom station in
Cape
Girardeau, Missouri, will return some of the
station’s community service focus.
But many question whether Applegate’s approach has even been a success
at
WMC. Media watchers point out that his record has largely been one of
improving ratings in
the short term but leaving stations worse off than when he arrived. His real
impact at
WMC may be more accurately reflected in the
next few sweeps periods.
“Sometimes you trip over dollars to
pick up nickels, and sometimes you make changes that’ll make the ratings spike
a
little bit but in the long term will actually contribute to a further
decline,” says
Redmond. “How that all shakes out [at Channel
5] remains to be seen.”
“I don’t think he had a dramatic
impact on the ratings, and I certainly think he affected morale in a negative
way,” says
Graeter, in an opinion echoed by many other former WMC staffers. “But as
long as you have
that core group of Joe [Birch], Dave [Brown], and Jarvis [Greer], that station
will maintain
its position in the market, because it’s about personalities.”
— Chris Herrington
More Dirt On Downtown School Construction Costs
Shortly after approving a plan to borrow $50 million through the city
government, the Memphis City Schools board voted to
allocate $2 million in additional funding for the
new downtown elementary school.
The money — more than 20 percent of the
school’s accepted bid price of $9.4 million from
Jameson-Gibson Construction — was requested to replace
a four-foot layer of unsuitable soil.
“An engineer determines what needs to
be done to support the building,” says Melva
Williams-Argaw, coordinator of Memphis City Schools Office of Facility
Planning. “You
have to take out the rubble, old concrete
foundations, and soil that does not have characteristics
conducive to supporting a building.” According
to Williams-Argaw, both soil and rocks will be brought in to fill the hole and
carry the
weight of the 85,000-square-foot school building.
Williams-Argaw could not say how much of the money was for excavation,
how much
for stone and soil, and how much for transportation of the material to the
site because the
official change order for the project has not yet
been issued. The $2 million is essentially an
estimate by the staff based upon recommendations
from the project’s architects and engineers.
According to several local grading companies, however, removing a
cubic yard of bad
soil generally costs $5 to $10. Replacing it costs about the same amount,
depending on
what type of fill you’re using, how far you have
to move it, what type of area you’re working in, and whether or not the site
retains water.
But even if the entire seven-acre site
needed an extra four feet of excavation, at $10 a
cubic yard for removal and $10 for fill, the
construction should cost about $900,000 — about
half the amount approved by the board.
According to Williams-Argaw, the staff
took the estimated $2 million to the board in
order to keep the project moving.
“We had to make sure we had the
money,” she says. “If we slowed down the process,
by the time the construction company is ready to do the work, then we’d have
to wait on
the board to approve the funds. Because of the
time factor, we’re asking to proceed with the work while we work out the
price.”
Each school has an amount for construction contingency — money to be
used for
additional, unexpected costs. But in this case,
the project’s size dictated the staff go to the
board with a funding request.
“This change order would wipe out the
contingency,” says Williams-Argaw. “We’re at the
very beginning of this project. We’re just coming
out of the ground, so we’re bypassing that pot.”
The original specifications for the
school, scheduled to open in August 2002, included
excavating and replacing eight feet. Although standard testing was done to
determine how
much soil needed to be replaced, it was recently
determined that a total of 12 feet needed to replaced.
“We have a differential of four feet. It’s
based on a test, but we’re still dealing with a
margin of error,” says Williams-Argaw.
If the soil replacement does not cost all
of the $2 million, the money will go back to
the capital improvement fund. If it goes over, the staff will have to use the
contingency
money or go back to the board.
Originally part of a 15-school package proposed by Inman-Beers
Construction,
the downtown school was slated to cost$12.4 million. After school officials
announced
last year that there wasn’t enough money to build all the schools, the board
decided
to award a smaller nine-school package bid. The downtown school and
five others were re-bid individually. Jameson-Gibson Construction
eventually won the contract with a bid of $9.4 million.
Managers at Jameson-Gibson declined to be interviewed.
— Mary Cashiola
