Tag: AC Wharton

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Politics Politics Feature

County Commission Power Surge

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Monday’s public meeting of the Shelby County Commission saw the commission, as a whole, still trying to forge a new, more independent role for itself but experiencing a bit of erosion in its resolve.

The meeting began with Chairman Justin Ford continuing in his new mode of permitting audience statements on the front end of proceedings rather than, as was long customary, at the conclusion of business. Commissioners got an earful of complaints about its budgetary provision of $1.3 million to be divided equally between the 13 members of the commission for purposes of making grants within their districts.

“Charity” grants, the critical audience members were calling them, in a bit of a misnomer, inasmuch as the money — amounting to $100,000 per district — had been defined during the course of several recent commission debates as applicable to a district’s infrastructure needs as well as to this or that community organization with a civic or charitable purpose.   

Indeed, Commissioner Terry Roland, of Millington, who had been among a contingent of Republican commissioners who had lobbied hard but without success for a one-cent reduction in the county’s property-tax rate, was able to use that setback to respond to one of the critics, telling her that his share of the grant money would go, at least partly, to “fix your roads.”

Since there hadn’t been enough votes during the budget process to allocate at least some of county Mayor Mark Luttrell‘s $6 million budget surplus to a property-tax cut, the commission could at least use the back-door route of district grants to take care of district needs, Roland said. It was an agile argument and one not without irony, inasmuch as part of Luttrell’s argument against the proposed one-cent tax reduction had been that funding needed to be reserved for infrastructure repairs.

Even so, the audience complaints — apparently the tip of an iceberg that had included numerous phone calls, emails, texts, and personal intercessions from citizens — induced a change of mind in two previous supporters of the grants: budget chair Heidi Shafer and David Reaves, both Republicans. They joined fellow GOP member Mark Billingsley of Germantown — formerly the lone holdout against the grants, as he reminded the audience — in casting a nay vote.

The process was too “subjective,” Billingsley argued. Reaves and Shafer acknowledged that, and while they still thought the district-grant formula was a good idea, they were bowing to the will of their constituents.

Democrat Reginald Milton, author of the grant idea, held firm, insisting that government had “a role and responsibility to serve all its citizens.” Fellow Democrat Melvin Burgess told the two defecting Republicans, “We don’t represent the same districts. I represent District 7. Mine is a poor district.”

The ultimate vote, 10-3 in favor of the grants, indicated that there was still a fair degree of solidarity among the commissioners regarding the issue of self-assertion.

There had been an expected party-line division on the issue of third and final approval of the $4.37 county tax rate, same as the current one, with five Republicans — Shafer, Roland, Billingsley, Reaves, and George Chism — voting no in an 8-5 outcome, but most other issues saw the same degree of unity as was demonstrated on committee day last Wednesday, when the commission took on the Luttrell administration on two issues — an administration switch from Nationwide Insurance to Prudential as administrator of a county deferred-compensation plan for employees and an insistence that the commission had a right to its own attorney.

On Wednesday, commissioners went back and forth with spokespersons for the administration on the attorney matter. After a prolonged executive session, closed to the media, it was agreed that, while the county charter forbade the commission’s having a full-time attorney of its own, it permitted the commission to engage separate counsel for specific ad-hoc purposes, as, for example, during the late school-merger controversy, when the commission hired an outside law firm to litigate for its position.

Otherwise, the charter empowered the county attorney’s staff, headed by Ross Dyer, to represent county government in general, the commission, as well as the administration.

As a final add-on item to Monday’s agenda, Democratic Commissioner Van Turner introduced what was, in effect, a reprise of last Wednesday’s two controversies by proposing that the commission engage an attorney to look into the Nationwide-Prudential matter. The fat was back in the fire.

“It’s hard to serve two masters. It says that in the Bible” was how Roland posed the issue.

As might have been expected, the Turner proposal generated yet another extended back-and-forth, with Dyer and assistant county attorney Kim Koratsky insisting that they needed time to research the matter, which included the side issue of who would pay for an additional attorney. On that latter point, a consensus seemed to develop that the commission’s contingency fund would be the appropriate source.

Any possible solution to the controversy may have been sidetracked when Turner’s resolution, already a two-in-one, became a de-facto three-in-one, with his suggestion that former Commissioner Julian Bolton could serve as the ad-hoc attorney on the Nationwide-Prudential matter.

That brought on an explosion from Reaves, who pronounced himself “sick and tired” of the whole controversy. “I’ll support the school lawsuit, not this,” he said, referencing a possible action in support of Shelby County Schools’ ongoing effort to challenge alleged underfunding by the state.

And Reaves was especially scornful that Turner’s resolution included the offer of a job to Bolton.

“I can help the commission resolve this impasse. I’m not looking for a job. I just want to help,” responded Bolton.

“Will you serve for free?” shouted Reaves. “You’re asking for money.”

Eventually, that flare-up ended, with other commissioners endorsing Bolton’s ability and integrity. Bolton and Reaves shared a relatively polite tête-à-tête after the meeting.

Meanwhile, though, Turner’s resolution was sidetracked, referred back to the general government committee, which Turner chairs and which had been the starting point of last week’s twin controversy. Dyer and company had gained the leave they sought to research the relevant issues, and the whole thing had bogged down into a truce of sorts.

• Next Thursday, July 16th, is filing deadline for the 2015 Memphis city election — which means that some long-unanswered questions will finally be resolved.

How complete is the field for city mayor? That’s one general question that needs answering. And, in particular, will Kenneth Whalum Jr. run for mayor? And, if not, will he seek one of the other offices — Council District 5 and Council Super District 9, Position 2 — for which he drew petitions last April?

One question involving former school board member and New Olivet pastor Whalum was long ago resolved, with the fraying away of any semblance of an arrangement with Memphis Police Association head Mike Williams, whereby only one of them would be a mayoral candidate. Both Williams, directly, and Whalum, indirectly, have since debunked that idea.

Meanwhile, spiffy new electronic roadside signs have begun to appear advertising the candidacy for the Super District 9, Position 2, seat of Joe Cooper — remember him? — who has also said he will offer free bus transportation to the polls for anyone needing it.

Cooper’s signs pledge his vote to restore the lost benefits of police and fire employees, and he credits Williams with being his authority on the matter.

Another Cooper idea for dealing with fiscal scarcities in city government is to sell naming rights to City Hall, and he cites as precedents the corporate titles adorning football stadiums in Nashville and elsewhere. Er, any potential bidders out there?

By next week, we should also have a fairly complete reckoning of what various candidates’ financial disclosures for the second quarter were. Stay tuned.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (July 9, 2015) …

About Toby Sells’ post, “Council Could Vote on Forrest Statue’s Removal” …

It’s a sad day when you can remove the remains of a husband and wife and relocate them elsewhere over a so-called race issue. It’s also sad that history is not taught in our schools anymore.

The Confederate flag does not mean the same thing to everyone. The Confederates who fought for their flag should be honored just as anyone else who is killed in war. When will this nonsense stop? There are even those who would like to see the American flag taken down. All I can say is, if you don’t like America, go somewhere else.

Julie

Wait a second, you don’t like the fact that there is a proposal to remove a statue and the remains from a city park? That city park is located in America, and it certainly qualifies as “something happening.” Since you said if a person doesn’t like what’s happening in America, they should leave, shouldn’t you leave? You won’t be missed.

The good general was a slave dealer and slave owner, a war criminal (Fort Pillow Massacre), and a prominent member of a racist, terrorist organization, serving as the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.

Sasha

Thank the gods that all of the other issues Memphis was dealing with have been solved, and that we now have time to take care of these sidebar details.

Smitty1961

About Jen Clarke’s column, “Congrats, Bristol!” …

It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything about Sarah Palin with no mention of Tina Fey’s “I can see Russia from my porch” scripted SNL line. But one thing I’ve never read from Sarah’s critics is that she held an 85 percent approval rating with Alaskans.

I’ve always admired Sarah Palin. She was the only governor that I can think of that had the gall and determination to kick the blue-blood corrupt Republicans in the teeth and ride roughshod over ’em in her state; and her constituents apparently admired her actions, too.

Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler doesn’t point out why Palin had those high approval numbers in her very short time as Alaska’s governor. One reason was that before being pushed into the national spotlight by John McCain, Palin wasn’t the partisan hack she is today. She actually worked with the Democrats in Alaska.

She raised taxes on oil companies. She created a climate-change team, writing: “The sub-cabinet will also be making recommendations to me on how Alaskans can save energy and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.” She also vetoed a bill that would have barred same-sex couples from state employee benefits, saying that it would have been (shock!) unconstitutional. As governor, Palin governed from the middle, explaining her high approval ratings among the residents of Alaska.

Charley Eppes

About Jackson Baker’s Politics column, “A Two-Man Mayor’s Race?” …

Would somebody please tell me what the difference is between a vote for Wharton or a vote for Strickland? They’re both backed by the same power players, and Strickland used to be Wharton’s campaign adviser. They hold hands on almost every issue. If Memphis thinks that these are the only two candidates, then we will just get more of the same come October 8th.

There are other qualified candidates in this race who deserve an equal platform. I am voting for Mike Williams, and I am not alone. I’m a 31-year-old white, single male who works in the film industry. This is not about black or white, rich or poor, or any other divisive contrast someone wants to come up with. We have had enough of this incestuous political wheel here in Memphis. Fresh faces, fresh voices, new ideas, new citizens being elected into office — this is what we want. This lethargic Southern political machine is coming to an end.

Jordan Danelz

Categories
Cover Feature News

We Can’t Drive … I-55!

Pretty soon, Memphis and the Mid-South will be down to one bridge over the Mississippi. At least it will if the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) gets to implement its current plan.

TDOT wants to close the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (what most Mid-Southerners call the “Old Bridge”) for nine months in 2017. Officials say the closure is necessary to expedite work on a new interchange at E.H. Crump Boulevard and Interstate 55. That new interchange is needed because the current one is unsafe and ineffective.

TDOT Commissioner John Schroer

TDOT Commissioner John Schroer calls it “the worst interchange we have in the state of Tennessee.”

But opposition to the TDOT plan is building. TDOT has fielded calls from politicians and many in the business community who are concerned that the closure would cause traffic gridlock and negatively impact the regional economy.

So far, the most visible opposition to the plan is a change.org petition from Arkansas state Senator Keith Ingram that says the closure “will devastate local economies throughout Eastern Arkansas and will cripple emergency services in the event of an accident or natural disaster.” Sources on both sides of the bridge say behind-the-scenes organizing is underway for more formal opposition to TDOT’s plan.

Senator Keith Ingram

Schroer says he considered another plan for the project that had a five-year construction timeline and no bridge closure, but maintains the current plan is the best, safest, and most cost-effective. Schroer says the Hernando de Soto “M bridge” can handle the traffic.

Many think Schroer couldn’t be more wrong, and the idea of limiting the Mid-South to one bridge over the Mississippi pushes their thoughts to worst-case-scenario territory.

The Plan

When asked what he thinks of closing the Old Bridge, Schroer says, “I hate it.”

“It certainly isn’t an option we wanted to pursue, but sometimes you have to look at all your options and pick what is the least evil of them all, the least disruptive for a duration of time, and what is the safest as well,” Schroer says.

Schroer says TDOT picked through a lot of plans, pointing to the fact that all considered plans were listed alphabetically and the plan on the table now is labeled Z-1.

Schroer says he made the final choice on the design and the closure, and they were “probably the toughest decisions I’ll have to make in eight years in office here.”

Courtesy TDOT

This map shows the roundabout (in yellow) and the sweeping curve (in orange) of TDOT’s proposed interchange at E.H. Crump Boulevard and I-55

Z-1 will replace the current cloverleaf design at Crump and I-55 with a roundabout for local traffic and a long, elevated, sweeping curve to keep I-55 traffic flowing without slowing to (or below) the posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour.

The cloverleaf design was built in the mid-1960s. It was meant to handle 28,500 vehicles daily, with 8 percent truck traffic, according to the Federal Highway Adminstration [FHWA]. Today, traffic averages 60,330 vehicles daily with 26 percent trucks. By 2035, the interchange will see 84,500 vehicles per day, according to FHWA projections.

Brandon Dill

Trucks enter the current cloverleaf ramp to I-55, where interstate traffic must slow to 25 miles per hour

Local streets also directly intersect with I-55 at that interchange. “The project needs are to improve interstate safety and traffic operations by improving interstate speeds, managing heavy truck crashes and large traffic volumes, and reducing overall crashes,” an FHWA statement says.

Crash data specific to the Crump/I-55 interchange were not available. But data for the Tennessee stretch of I-55 show 851 total crashes between 2009-2011. Of those, there were five fatalities, 196 injuries, and 650 wrecks that yielded only property damage.

The price tag for the new interchange project has grown from $35 million when it was announced in 2010 to about $60 million now. TDOT officials say the cost rose as the project was reviewed by government and construction officials. Those conversations changed construction methods, materials, and the overall design.

If the plan moves ahead on schedule, the contract for it will be opened for bid this winter.

Phase 1 construction will begin March 2016 and last through February 2017. During that time, TDOT will close the ramp for southbound Riverside traffic, which will be routed from Riverside to Carolina Street to Florida Street to Crump. Crews will build a temporary ramp for I-55 southbound and build noise walls for the French Fort neighborhood.

The ramp for southbound Riverside traffic to the I-55 bridge will also be removed, as well as the ramp for westbound Crump traffic to the ramp for I-55 South. That traffic will also be detoured to Florida Street.

Phase 2 construction will shut down the Old Bridge from March 2017 to the end of November. TDOT will keep one lane across the bridge open for emergency vehicles only during the closure.

The timing was selected to expedite the project, TDOT officials say. “We did that so we can keep this project going during the nine-month construction season of 2017,” says Nichole Lawrence, TDOT’s community relations officer for West Tennessee. “If we start in the summer, then construction will go into the winter, and there will be some dead time.”

The decision to close the bridge was made March 13th, according to the FHWA, after the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD), the Arkansas and Tennessee Divisions of the Federal Highway Administration, and construction industry representatives met to discuss the project — with and without an interstate closure.

“Based on the review, the group determined that the project could not be built safely without the closure of I-55 for approximately nine months during the projected three-year construction project,” a statement from FHWA says. “The basis for closure is the limited space available to safely construct the interchange while keeping the road open.”

Paul Degges, TDOT’s deputy commissioner and chief engineer, says those construction issues relate mainly to building the sweeping, elevated curve of the new I-55 ramp. Degges says the new ramp will have to be built farther from the bridge than the current ramp, and that the large construction machinery is not safe to operate around traffic.

I-55 will be closed for an 11.5-mile stretch from the I-55/I-40 split in West Memphis to the McLemore Avenue exit in South Memphis. Southbound I-55 traffic will be detoured across the Hernando de Soto Bridge and then to I-240 Midtown, then to I-55 South near the interchange at Elvis Presley Boulevard. Northbound I-55 traffic will be detoured at that same interchange to I-240, then to I-40 West across the Hernando de Soto Bridge.

The cloverleaf will be demolished. Riverside Drive will be closed from Crump to Carolina. Southbound Riverside traffic will be detoured to Carolina, to Florida, to Crump. Crump will be closed to westbound traffic at Third Street and be detoured north or south on Third.

Phase 3 construction will last from December 2017 to November 2018. Riverside will remain closed from Carolina to Crump. I-55 will be reopened and will be running on new southbound lanes.

Phase 4 construction will last for about three months in the spring of 2019, slated to be completed by May. The project will be “open,” according to TDOT, as crews complete final paving operations.

The total construction project is projected to last three years and two months.

The Opposition 

West Memphian Jim Russell is retired and spends a lot of time tending the irises at the Memphis Botanic Garden. But that may end soon.

“If TDOT’s going create all sorts of traffic problems, I’m not going to do that anymore,” Russell says. “I’m not going to get into that mess every day just to get to where I want to go.”

But Russell has bigger issues with the bridge closure. He has Parkinson’s disease and often has to get across one of the bridges for medical appointments. Last winter, he was stuck on the Hernando de Soto Bridge for hours after accidents stopped traffic on both bridges. Russell worries that if he needs immediate medical help he wouldn’t be able to get it, even with the promise of the emergency lane on I-55.

Concerns like Russell’s have been echoed by many on both sides of the Mississippi River since TDOT announced its plan. Those concerns are gaining momentum, as leaders consider the effects of the closure on individuals, businesses, and neighborhoods around the interchange and the potential broad economic impact on the Mid-South region — and the country.

TDOT is now working on an economic impact study of the bridge closure. But Phil Trenary, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, can already put that figure in the ballpark. A post-9/11 study showed that closing all of the city’s bridges would have a negative economic impact of about $11 billion to $15 billion per year, Trenary says. The impact on business would be “significant to not only the local economy but to the national economy.”

Trenary says that closing the bridge is a recent idea, and the chamber is forming a coalition to start a formal discussion with TDOT. “We want to understand what the options are,” Trenary says. “What options can we put on the table that can achieve most of our objectives, like improving the traffic flow without closing the bridge.”

Troy Keeping, president and general manager of Southland Park Gaming and Racing, says the closure’s impact on his company could have a tax impact for Arkansas in the neighborhood of $7 million to $10.5 million. Keeping says the impact is far beyond that number, though, as he sees many Memphians shopping at the West Memphis Walmart and many from both sides of the river crossing the bridges to work and play.

TDOT’s plan is “very shortsighted,” Keeping says, and can likely be done without a closure, much like the current road project underway at the I-40/I-240 juncture.

“[TDOT has] kept that [section] open during the entire construction period, and there are large amounts of traffic through there,” he says. “[TDOT has] been able to reroute the traffic, and they should do the same thing on [the I-55 interchange project].”

“It’s going to cause great inconvenience to a lot of people,” says 9th District Representative Steve Cohen. “It will create traffic problems for Memphians who use the expressway either in Midtown or going downtown. It’s going to really clog it up and make traffic difficult — unbearable — for a long time.”

Schroer told Cohen that closing the bridge was the only way forward on the project. Cohen says he asked Schroer to at least expedite the work.

Jim Strickland

Jim Strickland, Memphis City Council member and a candidate for Memphis mayor, said he had not yet talked with TDOT as of last week but was skeptical that the bridge has to be closed. Other interstates aren’t shut down for months at a time for repairs, he says.

“At a minimum, TDOT needs to fully explain their current position,” Strickland says. “Why do we need to shut the bridge down? Is there no other way to design the interchanges? I have not heard these answers.”

The Wait-and-See Crowd

FedEx Corp. spokesman Jim McCluskey says his company is keeping an eye on the project.

“We are working with local and state officials to assess the effect of the bridge closure and evaluate alternate routing options that will lessen the impact for transportation carriers,” he said in a statement. “FedEx is focusing on and committed to providing the best level of service possible to our customers during this major infrastructure project.”

Lauren T. Crews, managing partner of City South Ventures, has been working for years to transform the abandoned U.S. Marine Hospital in the French Fort neighborhood into a multi-use residential and retail campus. He says he likes the interchange’s current design, but he wishes that TDOT had not announced changes to it years ago.

“When some entity comes along and announces that they’re going to do something but they don’t do anything, it just sort of shuts you down; there’s no progress that can be made,” Crews says. “It shuts the entire community down, as far as any improvements to be made. You can’t borrow money. You’re not going to find investors who are interested if they don’t know where the road systems are going to be.”

Brandon Dill

French Fort neighborhood

Crews say the situation has led to a decay in the French Fort neighborhood. Blight has claimed many buildings, and property values have declined. He sees brighter days ahead for the neighborhood with the coming of the roundabout, which would connect French Fort to downtown. “When you come into this community — if you can get the roundabout done — it may not look like Beirut over here,” Crews says.

The Supporters

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton says he is satisfied TDOT has done due diligence on the project and that they’ll do everything possible to minimize the impacts of the closure.

“I am looking forward to the completion of this project, because it eliminates one of the city’s last ‘malfunction junctions’ on our interstate highways,” Wharton said in a statement. “While the closure will be inconvenient, it’s only temporary, and the benefits of this project are far-reaching and long-term.”

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell says the closure will be inconvenient but that the project’s time has come. “It’s something that has to be done, and this is the best option we have,” Luttrell says. “To extend it over a multi-year period would be a mistake. We just need to move on with it and close it down.”

U.S. Rep. Stephen Fincher says infrastructure projects have allowed Memphis to become a leader in transportation and that he commends Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam for making the investment in Memphis.

“I am confident that TDOT will do everything in its power to ensure this project is carried out as smoothly and as safely as possible,” Fincher said in a statement.

Traffic City

Tony Bologna, a Memphis architect and developer, said he dreads those nine months when the bridge is closed in 2017.

“It’s going to cause a big overload on the M Bridge if you divert everything that way,” Bologna says. “If there’s a minor accident on that bridge now, traffic is already backed up for miles.”

Transportation consultants CDM Smith studied the new interchange project and said closing the bridge will add 46,850 new vehicles daily to the Hernando de Soto Bridge, for a total of 81,220 vehicles. Along Midtown I-240, the group said the I-55 bridge closure will add around 40,000 new vehicles, increasing daily totals to around 132,000 vehicles.

But TDOT officials say I-40 and I-55 will look much different (and traffic there will run much more smoothly) on the Arkansas side by the time the Old Bridge is closed. Traffic capacity there has been reduced for years by a seismic retrofit project by the FHWA, and by I-40 improvements that led the Arkansas Times to wonder, “Will Interstate 40, between North Little Rock and West Memphis, be under construction forever?”

TDOT’s Jane Jones, director of project development, says, “We’ve been working with the ASHTD, and we’ve had assurances that their work will be completed [before the bridge is closed] and the seismic retrofit project will be completed. And we’ll have system improvements along the detour route before all that takes place.”

Where It Stands

TDOT Commissioner Schroer says the five-year plan with no closure was not as safe, not as efficient, and “financially a horrible option.” In that scenario, the bridge would be open with one-lane traffic headed in both directions. Roadblocks and temporary closures would be the norm, Schroer says, as equipment and construction materials are moved in and out of what would be an open construction site.

Schroer points to the project’s road-user cost number, a standard measurement in the road-building industry to define the cost of projects for drivers based on gasoline costs, loss of productivity, lost wages, and more.

The five-year, non-closure plan has a user-cost of $871 million, Schroer says. He says the three-year project with bridge closure will have a user-cost of $350 million.

Asked if there was anything anyone could do to change his mind on closing the bridge, Schroer says, “It’s not a case of changing my mind. It’s about making the right decisions, and, in this case, we made the right decisions.”

Schroer says he knows Memphis motorists will probably curse his name when they’re stuck in traffic but that they’ll forget all about it when the new interchange opens up.

While the decision may be a done deal for Schroer, for many others on both sides of the river the decision process is just getting started. Some are awaiting TDOT’s economic impact study for the project and will likely use it as a springboard to begin a formal opposition process.

When told that TDOT’s decision on the closure was “final,” at least in their minds, Senator Ingram remembers another Memphis road project from decades ago.

“TDOT probably didn’t think the Overton Park expressway was going to be stopped, either,” he says.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Happy Ending for the Fairgrounds?

It is no secret that adherents of preserving the Mid-South Coliseum nursed grave doubts about the integrity of the process, when the city engaged with a team of consultants to conduct public hearings on the future of the

Fairgrounds, after which the independent Urban Land Institute would pass on its recommendations. The administration of Mayor A C Wharton, and specifically Robert Lipscomb, the city’s director of housing and community development and its de facto planning czar, had seemed fully committed to a vision of the future Fairgrounds area that included the demolition of the vintage structure. The Tourism Development Zone proposal favored by Lipscomb proposed a basic start from scratch on much of the Fairgrounds acreage, leaving in place the newish Kroc Center, a renovated Liberty Bowl, and the Shelby County Schools administrative facility in the complex that was once Fairview Middle School. The plan envisioned a youth sports complex, a new multi-purpose athletic facility at the site of the now dormant Coliseum, along with retail facilities and a hotel. Though the Coliseum was in disrepair and needed serious renovation to be used for any kind of contemporary purpose, the real problem with the building was that its use as a performance arena for sports and concerts clashed with the terms of the non-compete clause between the city and FedExForum. That contract was the price of attracting the Grizzlies to Memphis.

But the Coliseum has deep connections to the hearts of Memphians and Mid-Southerners. Elvis, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and — perhaps most memorable of all — some truly legendary performers of the ‘rassling arts performed there. Memphis’ preservationist community joined legions of fans in wanting to see the building restored, perhaps as a wrestling museum. A variety of demonstrations made the point, and the ULI-conducted public meetings were a necessary response to the demand. The droves of citizens who turned out overwhelmingly backed the idea of preserving the Coliseum, but they also made other useful suggestions, most of them, as it turned out, consistent with the root premises of the proposed TDZ.

The ULI folks listened, and they submitted recommendations to the city that made a compelling case for the Coliseum transformed into an open-air structure, seating a maximum of 5,000 persons, and able to compete with other nearby arenas (Snowden Grove in Mississippi, for example) for mid-range concerts. Other recommendations were for a water park and a conservancy, whose managerial reach would extend beyond the Fairgrounds proper to Tobey Park on the north side of Central Avenue.

The ULI report made for a proposition that was probably more realistic than such features of the original TDZ proposal as the imagined hotel and large-scale big-box retailers, which were arguably too dependent on a philosophy of build-it-and-they-will-come.

In any case, the ULI’s recommendations seem to have gone down well with people on both sides of the previous conflict line — those who wanted a whole new shuffle on the Fairgrounds property and those who wanted to maintain a bit more tradition.

Lipscomb says he and his team are reviewing the feasibility of a revamped TDZ proposal in line with the ULI recommendations. We hope that he sees in them the ingredients for a happy ending in which everybody can go home satisfied.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Memphis Mayor’s Race is On

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Janis Fullilove may be feeling lonely, but she’s not going to complain. As of the end of Monday, the Super District 8, Position 2 councilwoman was the only incumbent running for reelection in this year’s city election who did not have a declared opponent. All other city races are contested at this point (which is to say that multiple petitions have been drawn for each of them, actual filing having occurred so far in only a minority of cases). 

The other council seats would seem to be assured of contests, with District 5 and Super District 9, Position 2 — the seats vacated, respectively, by mayoral candidate Jim Strickland and Shea Flinn — attracting the most action. There are eight entries so far for District 5, most of them with enough backing to appear serious, and something of the same situation exists for the Super District 9 vacancy, where six petitions have been drawn up to this point.

By contrast, Position 3 in Super District 8, which, as was recently announced, will be vacated by council Chairman Myron Lowery, has so far seen only three petitions drawn. One of those was by the incumbent’s son Mickell Lowery, and the legacy name may be enough to dissuade most comers. District 4 incumbent Wanda Halbert‘s announcement of non-candidacy (she’s a candidate instead for City Court clerk) is too recent to have occasioned a rush of would-be candidates. Four petitions have so far been drawn for that seat.

Another mayoral candidate, Harold Collins, will be vacating his District 3 seat, and that one has generated a fair amount of action, with five petitions drawn so far.

The race for mayor has seen 13 petitions drawn; and it is a safe bet that more are coming. Meanwhile, the first mayoral debate — or forum, as emcee Kyle Veazey of the sponsoring Commercial Appeal, preferred to call it — of the 2015 city election season took place before a good crowd at the old Tennessee Brewery Monday night, and, while there were no winners as such among the five hopefuls invited, it was possible to make out some distinctions. 

To start with, Justin Ford, the youthful county commission chairman, demonstrated likeability but nothing much to anchor it except a recap of his résumé and prerogatives (“I make appointments.”), a recommended slogan (“Listen, Assist, and Invest.”), and enough platitudes and expressions of good will to start a smarm farm.

This is not to doubt Ford’s capability, merely to suggest that he was short on specifics, no doubt on purpose, and did nothing to counter a widespread impression that he is in the race not so much with expectations of winning it as to extend his name recognition for some future electoral purpose.

By contrast, Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams, generally considered a long shot, was all agenda. Pledged to represent the interests of city employees and ordinary citizens, Williams talked up small business and deplored the strategy of enticing big industries here by means of PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of- taxes) arrangements. Indeed, he went so far as to suggest that Electrolux, a relatively recent acquisition on the city landscape, is already looking to go “out the door” because “they didn’t get the profits they thought.”

Williams suggested that Memphis’ problem was not limited revenue but over-spending. He said the city should stick to basics and hire more fire and police. He also weighed in on behalf of those citizens who want to save the Mid-South Coliseum. More than the other candidates, he had audible boosting from a claque of supporters on hand.

Councilman Collins, whose task is to expand on his sprawling Whitehaven base and to convince voters that he and no one else is the legitimate alternative to incumbent Mayor A C Wharton, sounded notes akin to those of Williams, advocating a focus on education to create the basis for “professional” jobs at a “living wage” and against the “$9- or $10-an-hour jobs” available at “Bass Pro and Mitsubishi.”

Collins also joined with Williams in taking a dim view of bike lanes, an issue that separated the five hopefuls into two camps. Collins and Williams made the point that Memphis has an automobile culture and that bike lanes in what Collins called “major neighborhoods” (meaning Frayser, Raleigh, and Whitehaven) were impediments to necessary transportation.

Ford disagreed, pointing out that the bike lanes were paid for by federal “pass-through” money, a point made also by Councilman Strickland, who took Mayor Wharton to task for having “zero bike lanes in the budget” until prodded by the council, after which the mayor allegedly “relented.” Wharton, who had touted the bike lanes early in his remarks as part of his vision of planning for the “city on the move” and the citizens of the future rather than “through the eyes of today,” seemed irate at Strickland’s allegation and insisted that his “plans underway” for the bike lanes were retarded by one city engineer but had been re-established, at the mayor’s insistence, by a “new engineer.”

That bit of sniping seemed more in line with the “debate” that Veazey suggested the CA would be sponsoring down the line than with the informational forum he had in mind for Monday evening. But in fact, everybody but Ford, who was careful to praise his fellow participants, did a little mud-balling. 

The most obvious confrontation was between Strickland, the former two-time budget chairman and self-proclaimed “fiscal conservative” who has been aiming at the mayoralty for years now, and the increasingly beleaguered Wharton, still too spry to be a sitting duck but, clearly, Target Number One for the others in this year’s mayoral race.

Although circumstances could turn out to belie the premise, most observers (and virtually the entire media) see the rest of the mayoral field as being made up of supporting players, while the real drama is the one-on-one between Strickland and Wharton, both well-endowed financially, essentially by donations from the same business interests, and waging an intense battle for the hearts and minds of the Poplar Corridor.

Strickland’s tough-love pitch is to arrest what he sees as the city’s dangerously dwindling population base by practicing fiscal efficiency and focusing on “basic services” and eliminating frills (the city’s “Music Commission” was one he named) and a superfluity of “deputy directors and P.R. people,” while simultaneously attacking blight and crime.

Wharton counters this image of “gloom and doom” with a concept of “revitalizing the entire city in growth mode” and concentrating on “quality of life” issues. This week’s grand opening of the Bass Pro Shop monolith in the Pyramid did not go unspoken for as an exhibit of the mayor’s vision (although the project, brainchild of city housing and community development director Robert Lipscomb, was actually hatched during the mayoralty of Wharton’s predecessor Willie Herenton). 

What gives the notion of a Wharton-Strickland race some validity is the fact that the councilman’s presumed lower profile in African-American communities is balanced by potential inroads there, at Wharton’s expense, by “neighborhood” advocates like Collins and Williams.

There are other candidates, to be sure, including many who were not included in Monday night’s event (several were seated or standing in the audience, however, and Collins gallantly gave shout-outs to several of them), but the distribution of voices Monday night gave some preliminary sense of how this election will play out. If firebrand pastor/former school board member Kenneth Whalum ends up in the race instead of Williams (as per their agreement that one of them, and one only, will run for mayor), the kaleidoscope could shift and radically so.

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Politics Politics Feature

From Nashville to Memphis: A Venue Change

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

In Nashville, things were coming to an end, with the 2015 session of the General Assembly scheduled for a likely finish this week. Meanwhile, in Memphis, things were, in a sense, just getting started. It finally became possible on Friday of last week for would-be contestants in the 2015 Memphis city election to draw candidate petitions from the Shelby County Election Commission.  

On the first day, the most noticeable visitor to the Election Commission’s second-floor office downtown was the Rev. Kenneth Whalum Jr., about whose intentions (particularly as a possible candidate for mayor) a good deal of speculation had swirled. Whalum both satisfied and furthered the suspense by drawing not one but three petitions — for Mayor; for City Council, District 5; and for City Council Super-District 9, Position 2.

The two council positions are those about to be vacated, respectively, by mayoral candidate Jim Strickland and Shea Flinn. As of last week, when District 4 Councilwoman Wanda Halbert announced she would be seeking the City Court clerk’s position instead of seeking reelection, there will be a total of five open seats on this year’s ballot — six if you count, as some observers do, the District 7 council seat, now that of interim Councilman Berlin Boyd and formerly the seat of Lee Harris, now a state Senator.

Whalum made it clear, both at the Election Commission and on Saturday, at a public-education forum in Raleigh, that while he regarded himself as a prospective winner in the mayoral race, he would defer to Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams (an attendee at the Raleigh affair at Bob’s Country BBQ), should the latter choose to run for mayor, as he has previously indicated he would.

“Whatever race I run in, education will be my platform,” said Whalum, a former school board member who advocates that Memphis take steps to resume a de facto city school system.

The known mayoral field so far continues to consist of incumbent A C Wharton, councilmembers Strickland and Harold Collins, County Commission Chairman Justin Ford, Williams, and former University of Memphis basketball player Detric Golden.

 

The Other Brian Kelsey: Whatever his popularity in his own District 31 — which begins in Midtown and extends into East Memphis, Cordova, Bartlett, Germantown, Collierville, and Lakeland, – which continues to reelect the state Senator comfortably, Brian Kelsey has a wholly different reputation elsewhere in Shelby County.

Among those Memphians who consider themselves progressives, for example, Kelsey is about as popular as, say, Dick Cheney or Ted Cruz would be at a Democratic National Convention. At one time or another, he has had his hand in legislation antagonistic to gays, abortion-rights advocates, proponents of living-wage ordinances, income-tax advocates, public-school defenders, believers in gun control, and to supporters of the Affordable Care Act in general, and to Medicaid expansion in particular.

That list should not be regarded as fully inclusive. Kelsey is an equal-opportunity exacerbator. In addition to his perceived offenses against Democrats, he has also taken an abundance of positions considered objectionable to various members of his own Republican Party, notably including Governor Bill Haslam, who has labored to keep Kelsey in check on issues ranging from voucher legislation to restraints on gubernatorial privilege.

It should be said that Kelsey sees himself as a champion of liberty, as he would define that term, and — hark! — there are bills of his that actually do bridge the enormous gap between him and a multitude of others who would define that term wholly differently. 

In last year’s legislative session, Kelsey secured passage of SB 276, which struck down obstacles to employment for reformed felons, and in the session now coming to an end, the senator sponsored SB 6, the “Racial Profiling Prevention Act,” which has now passed both chambers and awaits only the governor’s signature to become law.

The bill defines racial profiling as “the detention or interdiction of an individual in traffic contacts, field contacts, or asset seizure and forfeiture efforts solely on the basis of the individual’s actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, or national origin” and would require all police departments and sheriff’s departments in Tennessee to adopt by the end of this year a written policy in conformity with the definition.

Kelsey, it seems, can work across the aisle. The racial profiling bill was co-sponsored by Memphis state Representative John DeBerry, and the previous year’s bill on behalf of ex-felons was co-sponsored with state Representative Karen Camper. Both DeBerry and Camper are inner-city Democrats.

Now, an even more striking piece of collaboration may be in the offing. At a meeting Monday night at Celtic Crossing of “Drinking Liberally,” a group of self-styled progressive Democrats, political consultant Liz Rincon, a key member of the group, was sharing portions of some online correspondence with Kelsey, wherein the state senator seemed to be expressing himself open-minded about the prospect of raising the minimum wage for servers in food and drink establishments.

Hmmm. The senator from District 31 could be a work in progress.

…

As the General Assembly prepared to close out 1) without acting on Governor Bill Haslam’s Insure Tennessee Medicaid-expansion proposal; and 2) with House concurrence on a Senate bill that would impose a 48-hour waiting period on abortions among other restrictions, dissenters made their feelings known.  

Jackson Baker

First Baptist Church on Broad pastor Keith Norman (left) and state Representative Joe Towns presided over a press conference last week at Christ Community Health Services adjacent to Norman’s church as part of statewide information session on Insure Tennessee sponsored by the House Democratic Caucus. They vowed to continue efforts to secure passage of the governor’s Medicaid-expansion proposal — in a new special session, if need be.

As the House in Nashville prepared to put its imprimatur on new abortion restrictions, protesters at the Poplar Avenue headquarters of Planned Parenthood, many of whom had made repeated visits to the General Assembly in an effort to dissuade legislators, indicated they, too, would continue their opposition to what they regarded as backward-looking legislation. To make the point, they affected the period dress of pre-Roe v. Wade times. (See picturel, top of page.)

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Politics Politics Feature

The Beat Goes On

As the Election Commission’s April 17th date for making candidate petitions available approaches, the 2015 city election season becomes ever more clearly a case of the old making way for the new. Within the past few weeks, such core pillars of the city council as Chairman Myron Lowery and Councilmen Shea Flinn and Harold Collins have announced they will not be candidates for reelection. Flinn’s future plans remain unknown, although they are rumored to involve some sort of relationship with the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce. Another key councilman, Jim Strickland, announced back in January that he would not run for reelection and would opt instead for a mayoral race, which is now fully underway. Collins’ announcement of non-council candidacy was widely regarded as confirmation of his long-indicated plans to join the widening cast of characters in the contest for mayor. So far the dramatis personae in that race are Strickland, county commission Chairman Justin Ford, Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams, and former University of Memphis basketballer Detrick Golden.

Meanwhile, the incumbent, Mayor A C Wharton, kept himself front and center over the Easter weekend with a “coffee and chat” on Saturday morning at the Midtown IHOP on Union Avenue, followed by a number of appearances at events held in conjunction with the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination.

After the IHOP event, sponsored by Shelby County Commissioners Melvin Burgess Jr. and Reginald Milton, Wharton was asked if the proliferation of opponents in the mayoral field would help or hinder his chances of reelection. “You can’t worry about that,” he answered. “I just have to keep my attention on what I’m doing.”

The mayor shed some light on a bit of verbal zig-zagging he had indulged in earlier this year on the prospect of the city’s gaining a Cheesecake Factory, confirmed last week as coming to Wolfchase Galleria. On the occasion of his State of the City address in January, Wharton had alerted his listeners to the likelihood of the popular restaurant franchise coming to Memphis.

But shortly thereafter, at a well-attended address at Lafayette’s Music Hall, the mayor made an effort to pass off his earlier forecast as having been merely a thinking-out-loud recollection of his daughter’s telling him she’d like to see such a happy event come to pass.

Now that the Cheesecake Factory was definitely on track, had the mayor’s rhetorical fluctuations been something of a screen for the to-and-fro of negotiations, he was asked on Saturday. “You’re very discerning,” was his answer, accompanied by a self-effacing chuckle.

Council Chairman Lowery had long ago dropped hints that he might not be a candidate, and that his son Mickell Lowery, a sales representative at FedEx, might be on the ballot instead as a successor for the Position 3 seat in Super-District 8.

Councilman Lowery had served consecutively since his first election in 1992, with a brief intermission during his three-month service as interim mayor in 2009, following the retirement of longtime Mayor Willie Herenton. And, like the practiced politician that he is, he contrived to get the maximum amount of public notice for his departure and his son’s prospective advent.

First came a press conference in Lowery’s City Hall office last week in which the chairman gave his own bon voyage to the attendant media, expressed gratitude for having been able to serve for so long, and predicted that there would be a spirited race to succeed him, no doubt including many candidates. Wife Mary was on hand for the occasion, and so, conspicuously, were son Mickell Lowery, his wife Chanisa, and young Milan Lowery, the councilman’s granddaughter. Asked his own intentions after the press conference, the younger Lowery indicated only that he would have “something to say” soon. When, he was asked. “It won’t be too long,” was the reply.

Indeed it wasn’t. Mickell announced his own candidacy for the seat on Monday, from the steps of LeMoyne-Owen College, his alma mater, as well as his dad’s. The choice of venue, said the aspiring councilman, was symbolic in that the school represented “advancement in our community,” a quality he saw as consistent with his campaign theme, “New Leadership for a Better Memphis.” 

Candidate Lowery added that he wanted “to make sure that the priorities of City Hall match the priorities of the community.” He named crime reduction as one of his priorities, and may have intended to cite some more. 

But just then a chip off his block — his toddler daughter Milan, who nestled in granddad’s arms — made a bit of a noise, and Daddy Mickell demonstrated his quickness on the uptake with what seemed a relevant segue: “I intend to be talking with students as early as elementary school,” he said.

Asked about his advantages in what might still become a competitive and well-populated race, Mickell stressed what he said were years of “hard work” for the community as a neighborhood football coach and “on various boards.” By way of further emphasizing his community work, he added, “That’s why I didn’t try to run 10 years ago, simply off my last name.”

Even so, his beaming father was on hand again on this second announcement occasion, as well as Mickell’s wife and child and a decent-looking collection of friends and family.

• As had been widely predicted, Flinn’s long-expected announcement of non-candidacy for his Position 2, Super-District 9 seat, opened up the possibility that candidates already announced for Strickland’s District 5 seat might effect a shift of venue into the at-large race.

It may or not signal a trend, but one of the previous District 5 hopefuls has already made the passage over. That would be Joe Cooper, the ever-persistent pol who may ultimately eclipse all existing records for the maximum number of candidacies launched during a lifetime.

In the truest sense, Cooper’s campaign strategies have been out-of-the-box, and so have many of his proposals, such as his advocacy, during a race for county commissioner some years back, that the resident bison at Shelby Farms be moved out to make room for possible development on the rim of the park property. That idea backfired, drawing the wrath of every environmentalist within geographical reach.

Cooper’s latest proposal is equally idiosyncratic. This week, he floated the idea of turning the Coliseum building and its parking lot over to the proprietors of the Wiseacre brewery for the creation of a “tourist attraction” that would simultaneously allow visitors to observe the beer-making process and alternately to spend time with a museum featuring the grunt-and-groaners who once rassled at the Coliseum.

Oh, and the two airplanes owned by the late Elvis Presley and now scheduled for eviction by the new gods of Graceland could find a resting place in the parking lot.

Another frequent political candidate, former County Commissioner George Flinn, has thrown his name in the hat as a would-be successor to state Republican Chairman Chris DeVaney of Chattanooga, who made a surprise announcement recently that he would be departing the position to head up a hometown nonprofit.

Flinn said he would seek, as chairman, to promote unity among the state’s Republicans and to promote “inclusiveness” in party membership.

His most recent electoral run was as the GOP’s 2014 candidate for the state Senate seat vacated by now Chancellor Jim Kyle and won ultimately by Kyle’s wife Sara Kyle, the Democratic nominee.

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News News Feature

The Natural

In all the years I’ve reported on Memphis politics, I’m convinced only Jack Sammons could rightfully hold the title of “The Natural.” His energetic personality, his still-boyish charm, even at age 59, and his infectious belief that Memphis can still be that “shining city on a hill” are all undeniable.

So, why am I not enthusiastic over the possibility the ubiquitous businessman, former councilman, and current Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority Board chairman could become this city’s next chief administrative officer (CAO)? I’ll tell you why, and it has nothing to do with the amiable Sammons on a personal or professional basis.

Just as teams recycle grizzled baseball managers and football coaches, we in Memphis continue to recycle the same people through the meat grinder of government. In a city of more than 640,000 people, in a county of just under 1 million people, how is it that our pool of the brightest and most innovative minds is somehow limited to the same patronage stream that has been fished in for decades?

I’ve often been asked, “Why don’t more good people step up to the plate when it comes to engaging in public service?” My usual reply is a sad rhetorical question: Why should they?

From what I’ve observed, most people who run for office or seek appointment come in with idealism. They start out truly believing that their determination and desire to serve their constituents will bring about meaningful change and right long-standing injustices. Some, like former councilman and now 29th District Tennessee state Senator Lee Harris, defiantly weathered the hypocrisy. He fought for the people of his district even when he didn’t win, against forces that were entrenched in self-serving agendas and political grandstanding. I also see that quiet determination to earnestly serve the public in interim Councilman Berlin Boyd. Both these men are fighting the idea that Memphis government doesn’t have to be trapped in the same stale ideologies of the past. But, these young, bright minds are sadly the exception, and not the rule, when it comes to those participating in Memphis government.

So it was with some consternation that I reported on the details of Jack Sammons probable return to city government. Regardless of what Mayor A C Wharton has said, this is a political appointment. Long ago, Wharton separated himself from the have-nots of this community. It’s not about initiating programs to help. It’s about what’s left of his desire, spirit, and will to carry out these programs to bring about positive change. I truly believe his tank is nearly running on empty in all those categories.

No further evidence has to be shown on that account other than his leaving out-going CAO George Little to twist slowly in the wind during the debates over pension and health-care reform for city employees. Wharton appeared content to let Little take the heat from the council and the public. If you’re Jack Sammons, it should be a signal as to what you’re getting yourself into.

If I were Sammons, I’d also ask myself why it’s taken five years for Wharton to decide to appoint me as CAO, when I effectively served in the position for five months under interim Mayor Myron Lowery and was fired by Wharton in 2009.

Sammons has always had the ability to be a “fixer” in government, similar to the role Rick Masson played during the early years of the Willie Herenton administration. And, of course, it’s going to take some legislative hoodoo to allow Sammons to retain his job as Airport Authority chairman while he serves as CAO. Tell me this doesn’t smack of an old cigar-smoke-filled backroom deal.

Why do we continue to tolerate this blatant kind of political musical chairs? If Wharton truly believes the time has come to take this city in a different direction, why not find new faces with new ideas to get us there? Career bureaucrats, those who’ve been recycled because of their failure to meet the demands of their old jobs and political cronies need not apply. We need those people who are willing to put in the elbow grease to work for the good of the city they live in. We need to find the people who are “naturals” at what they do, and City Hall needs to give them their unmitigated support.

Les Smith is a reporter for WHBQ Fox-13.

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Politics Politics Feature

Spring Training

It’s still a little less than two months — April 17th, to be exact — before candidates for city offices can even pull a qualifying petition from the Election Commission. And it’s nearly five months after that until the November 3rd election itself — seven month total.

For emphasis, let’s put that last figure in Arabic numerals: 7 months before Memphis voters can finish signaling their intentions on city offices — encompassing the lengthy span from now, when major league baseball teams are beginning spring training, to a date when the World Series is likely to still be happening.

And yet the roster is rapidly filling up for the most important race on this year’s election calendar — that for Memphis mayor. With the formal announcement of candidacy on Monday of this week by Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams, the number of well-known names still expected to be on the mayoral ballot has shrunk to two — City Councilman Harold Collins, who appointed an exploratory committee last fall and former Memphis School Board member and New Olivet Baptist church pastor Kenneth Whalum Jr.

[IMAGE-1]Whalum is forthright about his own plans, which to a great extent are based on an understanding with Williams, whose views on city matters overlap with his own. It boils down to this: “If Mike follows through and picks up a petition when the time comes and files, I won’t run,” says Whalum. “If he doesn’t, it’s 100-percent certain that I will.”

Already declared, besides Williams, are incumbent Mayor A C Wharton, City Councilman Jim Strickland, former County Commission Chairman James Harvey, current commission Chairman Justin Ford, and former University of Memphis basketball player Detric Golden.

And, while Ford, who has commission business to attend to, has not yet finished stockpiling his artillery, and Harvey has not yet begun to fight, the others are already doing battle. Strickland is speaking lots and firing away at Wharton on an almost daily basis via Facebook and Twitter; Williams and his supporters are active on the same social media; and the mayor is playing his bully pulpit for all it’s worth, materializing in numerous speech appearances and press conference formats that allow him to do double duty as city official and candidate for reelection.

And Golden, who has yet to demonstrate what his political base is, is turning up at public events, including those held by other candidates, and for well over a year has been conspicuous by driving around town in a car that is tricked-out with signs advertising his candidacy.

The mayoral-campaign activity so far is a form of spring training, and, like its baseball equivalent, it is a way of working the kinks out, finding a groove, and getting the jump on the competition. For that reason, Collins and Whalum won’t be able to procrastinate much longer on revealing their own intentions, and an announcement from one or both of them may well beat this issue to the printer.

There’s another reason why time is of the essence: money, which is a finite resource, especially here in hard-pressed Memphis, and won’t stretch far enough to cover every candidate’s needs. In a certain sense, it’s a matter of first come, first served, and the most accomplished self-servers so far are Wharton and Strickland. Both of them have been at it for a while — with receipts through January 15th showing a campaign balance for Wharton of $201,088 and for Strickland of $181,595.

The others have some catching up to do.

• As one of the first commenters to the Flyer‘s online coverage of the event said, “A very sad day, indeed, for the Shelby County Democratic Party in more ways than one.”

The event in question was the forced resignation on Saturday of Shelby County Democratic Party Chairman Bryan Carson, well-liked in his own right and the son of the widely admired Gale Jones Carson, a former local party chair herself and the longtime secretary of the state Democratic Party.

In a nutshell, the younger Carson had, on the fateful Saturday, faced a no-holds-barred interrogation into his oversight of party finances by the party’s executive committee — 76 strong, at peak, with roughly 50 on hand for the occasion, which was closed to the press and public. Saturday’s meeting followed two prior closed-door meetings with Carson last week by the party’s smaller 11-member steering committee, the second of which had resulted in a unanimous vote of “no confidence.”

All three meetings had been called out of a sense of crisis that developed from Carson’s repeated failure either to address party members’ concerns about the state of party finances or to deal satisfactorily with ominous promptings for an accounting from the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance. The bureau had already levied three $500 fines on the local party for late or incomplete submissions of financial disclosure statements and threatened another of $10,000, along with a showdown meeting in Nashville in March.

There were two immediate issues: The first was a disclosure statement that had been overdue since October 28th. Carson would hurriedly prepare one and submit it, such as it was, to the bureau on Wednesday, February 18th, the same day as his second meeting with the party steering committee and their vote of no confidence.

The other issue was even more troubling. It concerned an ad hoc audit, prepared at the request of the steering committee by Diane Cambron, wife of David Cambron, the local party’s first vice chair, and Dick Klenz, longtime president of the Germantown Democratic Club — both with unimpeachable reputations for fair-mindedness.

The audit showed that, since last September, Carson had made 63 withdrawals from the party’s bank account, in an amount totaling $8,437.89, and could produce no receipts for what he contended had been cash payments on behalf of the party. Even allowing for figures submitted in what Carson called a “self audit” (again, unaccompanied by receipts and made difficult to trace by virtue of the chairman’s having arbitrarily switched the party banking account), there seemed to be an amount of $6,091.16, which the Cambron-Klenz audit referred to as “unsubstantiated.”

Carson maintained in all three meetings with party committees that he had done nothing wrong and that the apparent discrepancies were the result of an overload of activity during the 2014 campaign year, coupled with the fact that he had been compelled, he said, to try to function as his own party treasurer.

That last was another fact that confounded committee members, who had thought that party member Jonathan Lewis was functioning as party treasurer. It turned out during the week’s discussions that Lewis had shied away from the service and had not registered with the state after being given a glimpse by Carson into the actual state of party finances.

In any case, the predominant mood of the party executive committee on Saturday was to reject Carson’s explanations, as well as his expressed wish to maintain at least a titular hold on the office of chairman (while handing over actual control to first Vice Chair David Cambron) through the party’s scheduled March caucus-convention rounds that are scheduled to produce a new executive committee and chairman on March 28th.

Vice Chair Cambron has been named acting chair, and he announced that one of his first acts would be to open a new party banking account this week, so as to provide a revised and reliable financing accounting from the ground up.

Beyond that, there has been no word from anyone speaking for the party to take further action or pursue legal remedies and no apparent appetite for doing so.

Various online commenters on the matter have made a point of noting that the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office has issued a warrant of “theft over $500” against Axl David, former treasurer of the Young Republicans in that Middle Tennessee county, for what Sheriff Robert Arnold called “several discrepancies in the management of Club funds.” But no one has demonstrated any analogy between that situation and the one in Shelby County.

Bryan Carson, meanwhile, apparently still intends to seek the open District 7 City Council seat in this year’s city election. In January, he finished one vote behind Berlin Boyd in a council vote to name an interim District 7 councilman to succeed Lee Harris, who had resigned to assume his new duties as a state Senator.

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Politics Politics Feature

A Mayoral Battle Royale in Memphis?

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Now, this is getting interesting!

Within the past couple of weeks, the roster of candidates for Memphis mayor in 2015 has gotten more complete, more complicated, and maybe more competitive. And there’s obviously room for more in all the above categories.

First, there was the announcement, the week before last, of Jim Strickland, the District 5 city councilman whose support along the Poplar Corridor is generally understood to be deep enough to give incumbent Mayor A C Wharton a run for his money.

Then there was the almost simultaneous announcement from Shelby County Commission Chairman Justin Ford that he, too, is considering a run for mayor. Dropping hints of running such-and-such a race is a standard means of raising one’s name recognition for all kinds of future-tense political possibilities, but there are several reasons why such a declaration from the 20-something Ford, a second-termer on the commission, has to be regarded as more than fanciful ego-tripping.

First of all, he is a Ford, and that political clan still counts for something. Secondly, he demonstrated with his surprise election this year as commission chairman — an outcome that depended on Democrat Ford’s building a bridge to the commission’s Republican minority for support — that he possesses an ability to politick.

Then, too, Ford has nothing to lose by running. As he demonstrated by his strong — if ultimately unsuccessful — lobbying two years ago for the commission to redistrict itself according to the old formula of large, multi-member districts, he is interested in obtaining the maximum possible arena for expanding his name recognition.

To say the least, a mayoral campaign would give him that. Meanwhile, a loss would leave him still in possession of his current bully pulpit on the commission. And who knows? If the mayoral field proliferates as it might, the campaign might take on battle-royale proportions with fair chances for several candidates to win.

Councilman Harold Collins, who appointed an exploratory committee last fall, is likely to throw his hat in, and he will have a fair degree of clout, especially in Whitehaven and South Memphis, where Ford also has strength.

Another who is likely to enter the race is the Rev. Kenneth Whalum, former Memphis School Board member and pastor of New Olivet Baptist Church, whose strong showing in last year’s Democratic primary for Shelby County mayor surprised even him.

And still another is Mike Williams, whose lengthy tenure as president of the Memphis Police Association over the past several stormy years of confrontation with City Hall have made him a figure to reckon with.

Williams addressed a standing-room-only crowd Monday night at a “Campaign for Liberty” event at Jason’s Deli on Poplar. The audience was oriented toward Tea Party concerns about govermental interventions and corporate rip-offs, and seemed receptive to Williams’ free-wheeling populist remarks on themes of chicanery in city government, loss of citizen influence, and predatory actions by moneyed interests.

Throw in former county commission Chairman James Harvey, already declared, and you have the makings of a field that could split unpredictably in numerous ways.

Understand: Incumbent Mayor Wharton may be increasingly under fire, but he has serious financial support. He has dedicated followers and a seasoned political organization. And, most importantly, he has the office, with all its potential for commanding public attention. But he isn’t taking anything for granted. Nor should we.