Pete Sisson
Some 12 years ago, the relations between city and county government,
and between the officials who headed them, were being strained to the
breaking point.
As we detailed in our October 16, 1997, and October 23, 1997,
issues, Memphis mayor Willie Herenton and Shelby County mayor Jim Rout
were proceeding in opposite directions regarding the then raging “Toy
Town” controversy.
That term referred to legislation which had been slipped through
that year’s session of the Tennessee General Assembly enabling quick
and easy municipal incorporation for almost any suburban community big
enough to have a convenience store. Intended by its sponsor, then
Lieutenant Governor John Wilder, as a means of protecting the Fayette
County hamlet of Hickory Wythe, it resulted in a proliferation of
would-be “cities” in Shelby County — more than a score of them,
with names like Independence, New Berryhill, Nonconnah, Fisherville,
and Neshoba.
It never came to pass. Herenton’s stout defense of Memphis’
annexation rights, assisted by a battery of lawyers, would get the “Toy
Town” bill, aka “Chapter 98,” declared unconstitutional. It was
arguably the Memphis mayor’s finest moment.
Amid this ongoing melee, a retiring county commissioner, Pete
Sisson, made a startling proposal — for full and complete
city/county consolidation, accompanied by single-source school funding,
but with city and county schools administered by separate school
districts. A city-county charter commission should forthwith be
appointed to prepare a referendum of consolidation. The proposal
gathered some steam but became moot when the state Supreme Court
declared Chapter 98 unconstitutional.
