Tag: Berlin Boyd

Categories
News News Blog

Council Budget May Be Held for Review of Referenda Campaign Cash

A Memphis City Council member wants to hold approval of the council’s portion of the city’s budget until after a full, public review of the nearly $40,000 the council spent on an education campaign for three referenda last year.

In November, voters here gave the thumbs down to all three referenda before them in November — one that would have eliminated runoff elections, another that would have given longer terms for the mayor and city council members, and another that would have eliminated instant runoff voting (IRV).

In October before the vote, five council members approved spending money on a “public information campaign” on the referenda to “explain their potential benefits” and “counter some of the misinformation presented.” The campaign was to answer what council members described as a flood of phone calls to their office from the public about the referenda.

Three council members — Ford Canale, Kemp Conrad, and Worth Morgan — voted against the campaign. At the time, Morgan promised that ”every dollar spent by the chairman on this informational campaign will be tracked, accounted for, and made easily available to the public.” 

Morgan

On Wednesday, he said there’s still not been a full accounting of the money. From documents he’s reviewed, Morgan said the money into and out of the campaign don’t match up. He said he understands it could be mathematical error and he said he hopes the discrepancy is an error.

Budget talks got underway at city hall last month. Morgan said it’s the right time to review the nearly $40,000 spent on the referenda campaign.

“We need to have a whole accounting of where the money from the city council account actually got spent, and we still don’t have that,” Morgan said. “This is a perfect time to review it, ask for it. And if we can’t get it, I would be inclined to hold the city council budget until we do.”
[pullquote-1] Morgan asked Berlin Boyd, then the council’s chairman, in November how the funds were spent, according to a story in The Commercial Appeal. At the time, Boyd said he was still waiting on final numbers. He said the money was given to the Carter Malone Group to create the campaign.

That campaign did include advertisements in the Memphis Flyer, The New Tri-State Defender, and IHeartRadio, according to Steve Mulroy, a former Shelby County Commission member and outspoken critic of the instant runoff voting referendum. He said the campaign targeted African Americans.

Steve Mulroy

“They made a conscious campaign decision that the only way to beat these referenda would be to, in my view, falsely suggest that this was somehow bad for African American voters and exploit racial fears,” Mulroy said. “So from their perspective, it was just a smart campaign move, ‘we’re going to spend the money where we think it would be most effective.’

“But that just underscores and puts in stark relief that this was not in any sense, a public education campaign for the city of Memphis as a whole. It was a targeted campaign effort to defeat referenda that would have made elections more competitive.”
[pullquote-2] Morgan said the campaign was a “serious mistake” and that it just looked bad for council members to advocate for something that would have likely benefitted them.

The resolution for the campaign money never appeared on any city council agenda and came up for a vote toward the end of a regular meeting.

“The reason that’s done is to usually is to limit debate,” Morgan said. “If you know something’s going to be coming, you know what it says, you’re much more able to talk about it and debate it. Then, somebody that might oppose it, they might not even be able to be there to oppose it because they didn’t have any notice. 

“That’s been something that happened a few times on the council over the last four years. Hopefully, there’s not any more patience for it and we won’t let it happen again.”

The resolution for the campaign passed with same-night minutes, meaning the vote couldn’t be undone at a later date.

Aaron Fowles, president of Save IRV, a group formed to defeat the instant runoff referendum, said the matter is still important even if the referenda were defeated.

“There are still roadblocks that have been erected by Berlin Boyd and others,” Fowles said last month. “Berlin Boyd was on the news saying, ‘people like how they vote now’ and completely ignoring he fact that people voted to use a different method of voting.

Jackson Baker

IRV supporters at victory party. L to r: Aaron Fowles, Steve Mulroy, and Racquel Collins

“The city council still has got to do a few things to implement (IRV). You know, we’d like to believe that they will listen to what voters have said and act on that.”

Mulroy said the campaign needs further review on simple principle.

“I think the public needs to understand what happened and how there was a conscious effort to avoid transparency in this taxpayer-funded propaganda game,” Mulroy said.
[pullquote-3] The city council is slated to review its own budget for the next year on Monday, May 6th at 4:45 p.m. Watch it live here.

Categories
News News Blog

Council Recap: Memphis 3.0, Pre-K, & Cannabis

Some Memphis City Council members raised questions Tuesday about the Memphis 3.0 plan, a comprehensive plan that will guide the city’s investments and developments for the next 20 years.

City officials presented the plan to a council committee Tuesday ahead of the first of three votes on an ordinance approving the plan in two weeks.

Councilwoman Cheyenne Johnson said she was “impressed” with the plan, but still had several lingering questions.

“What’s in here that might not be fully disclosed because of how people might interpret what’s actually written?” Johnson asked.

[pullquote-1]

Johnson also inquired about the 15,000 Memphis residents said to have participated in creating the 3.0 plan.

“Who were those 15,000 individuals?” she said. “How many of those were developers or builders? What are the classifications of the 15,000 which still represents less than 3 percent of the population?

”Do you think this is an adequate number to set out a plan that will be in place for the next 20 years?”

Ashley Cash, Memphis’ comprehensive planning administrator, said the city “made every effort” to have broad participation from the public, which meant developers, stakeholders, and residents were involved.

Johnson also wanted to know if the plan will guide equitable investments in the city and if the efforts will be balanced across all Memphis neighborhoods.

John Zeenah, who heads the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development said the anchors, or places identified in the plan for further development, are “evenly distributed” around the city.

Councilman Reid Hedgepeth expressed concerns about the unintentional consequences the plan could have.

“There’s a lot of things that I have heard from developers, from builders, and from people saying, ‘Wait, I’ve got to do what?’” Hedgepeth said. “These are things that I didn’t know. How can you assure us when we approve these 400 pages it’s not going to be similar to the UDC (Unified Development Code) and we had unintended consequences when we approved it.”

Josh Whitehead with the city/county Office of Planning and Development told Hedgepeth that the plan will be updated and amended frequently to keep it “relevant.”

Council members also asked for the “big bullet points” from the 400-page document, highlighting how things will change once the plan takes effect.

The council will take its first of three votes on an ordinance to adopt the plan in two weeks.

Memphis 3.0 planning meeting


The council also passed an ordinance that enables the city and county to appoint a fiscal agent to manage its pre-K fund.

This move comes as an $8 million grant that funds 1,000 pre-K seats in the county is set to run out in June. Now, the city and county are on track to fund those 1,000 seats plus an additional 1,000 beginning this fall.

The city/county joint ordinance paves the way for a fiscal agent to be appointed. The agent would be responsible for managing the fund, bringing in private dollars, and creating a high-quality pre-K program.

The Shelby County Commission will vote on a similar ordinance at its March 25th meeting.


The council also approved a resolution supporting three cannabis-related bills introduced by Tennessee lawmakers. The bills deal with decriminalization of certain amounts, medical marijuana, and taxation of cannabis.

The resolution, sponsored by council members Berlin Boyd and Martavius Jones, passed with a 5-4 vote.

Councilman J. Ford Canale, one of the members voting no, said he supports legalizing medical marijuana, but not decriminalization of the drug for other uses.

Boyd said that decriminalizing small amounts of cannabis would help the number of Memphians who have felony charges because of marijuana possession.


A vote to impose a plastic bag surcharge at certain retail stores was delayed until May, as state legislators are working on a bill to prohibit local governments from putting those types of fees in place.

The fee is meant to curb plastic bag usage to reduce litter, especially in the city’s waterways, Boyd, who is sponsoring the resolution, has said.

Tuesday Boyd said the fee would be 4 cents, instead of the 7 cents he first proposed last year. If approved, it would take effect January 2020.

Categories
News News Blog

Boyd Says Not Voting for District 1 Seat Was Nonpartisan Move

Council chairman Berlin Boyd

Some members of the public have questioned Memphis City Council Chairman Berlin Boyd’s leadership during the council’s November 20th

attempt to fill the vacant District 1 seat, but Boyd said Thursday his decision not to vote was a measure to keep the decision nonpartisan.

A little over week after the council stood deadlocked on two candidates — Rhonda Logan and Lonnie Treadaway — Boyd released a statement saying he decided not to vote after the process “quickly became noticeably partisan in a nonpartisan body.”

“I decided early on that it was not prudent or appropriate for the chair to assert any influence on the process or vote on a matter that had the obvious potential to fall upon partisan lines,” Boyd said.

Boyd did vote for Treadaway a handful of times throughout the 100 rounds of voting, joining Council members Worth Morgan, Frank Colvett Jr., J. Ford Canale, Reid Hedgepeth, who were strong Tredaway supporters.

While, Logan was supported by Jamita Swearengen, Martavious Jones, Patrice Robinson, Joe Brown, Edmund Ford Jr., and Janis Fullilove.

Logan repeatedly received six votes — one shy of winning. While Treadaway averaged about three votes.

Boyd said when the meeting appeared to be getting out of hand and “there was no way we would get to seven votes for either candidate, he made efforts to adjourn the meeting so that “emotions could settle down and cooler heads could prevail at another meeting.”

The residents of District 1 deserve representation and a fair, nonpartisan process as set forth by the Charter of the city of Memphis, Boyd said.

“Again, I will be calling upon my fellow council members to allow their wisdom to supersede their emotions so that we can facilitate a smooth election process to fill these seats,” he said.

The chairman said he has not decided if he will be voting when the council picks up the process at its December 4th meeting.

“Leadership requires hard choices at times, and leading is exactly what I intend to do,” Boyd said.


The District 1 seat became vacant earlier this month after Bill Morrison resigned to serve as the Shelby County Probate Clerk.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

The Council Deadlock

On Tuesday, November 20th, when the Memphis City Council began to vote on a replacement for Bill Morrison, the District 1 councilman elected on August 2nd to serve as Probate Court clerk, the racial distribution on the council effectively shifted from a 7-6 African-American majority to one, for voting purposes, of 7-5.

Hold on to that fact for a few paragraphs of background.

Though the population of District 1 is a black-majority one, voting habits have made that gap more or less marginal, and Morrison, a white educator, had little trouble winning reelection since his first win in 2007, that one stemming from  a runoff victory over Stephanie Gatewood, an African-American candidate.

Given the district’s ambivalent demographic factors, it is hard to argue that a “gentleman’s-agreement” circumstance should have mandated a white-for-white replacement in the appointment process. It would be just as easy, if not easier, to suggest that District 1’s majority-black status calls for a credentialed African-American candidate to serve on an interim basis until next October’s regular election process can account for the election of someone to serve a full four-year term.

The elephant in this room is that special replacement elections on the regular November ballot, at negligible cost to taxpayers, could have been facilitated by the timely resignations of Morrison and two other council members who won elections to county positions in the August 2nd general election — District 8, Position 2 Council member Janis Fullilove, now Juvenile Court clerk, and District 6 member Edmund Ford Jr., now a member of the Shelby County Commission.

For whatever reason, all three county election victors chose to push their council incumbencies to the maximum 90-day post-election limit permitted by the city charter, thereby stifling the prospect of their replacement by constituent voters in November and making necessary an appointment process overseen by the remaining council members — already under suspicion, here and there, of tendencies toward bloc voting and collusion.

A note thereto: Current chair Berlin Boyd, an African American, has earned a reputation for siding consistently with the business-friendly, development-minded council bloc largely made up of the body’s white members.

Indeed, such votes go more toward defining Boyd’s profile than racial factors do, and he was the target of barbs from other black council members last Tuesday when he declined to add his vote, which would have been the seventh and deciding one, to the total acquired, over and over in the council’s more than 100 separate tallies, by District 1 applicant Rhonda Logan.

Lonnie Treadaway, Rhonda Logan

Consequently, Logan, president of the Raleigh Community Development Corporation and an African American, was unable to win a majority, while her main opponent, Flinn Broadcasting executive Lonnie Treadaway, a white man, topped out at a maximum of  five votes from white council members and, upon occasion, one from Boyd.

And now, with a new council vote scheduled for December 4th to fill the Morrison vacancy and Fullilove’s and Ford’s as well, that 7 to 5 ratio in which Boyd’s could have been the deciding vote is no more. The new arithmetic will be 5-5, an even ratio suggesting that, if the white and black members of the council continue to vote as racial blocs (as, for all practical purposes, they did last week), they will, in theory, have an equal chance of prevailing.

The fact is, though, that  two of Logan’s votes — those of Fullilove and Ford — will be gone, while all of Treadaway’s previous votes will still presumably be available, and there is no reason to suppose that his candidacy is anything but live and well.

It is fair to say that eyebrows were raised by Treadaway’s bid, given the well-publicized fact that Treadaway ran for an alderman’s position last year in Senatobia, Mississippi (“a community that all would be proud to call home,” his campaign literature proclaimed, along with the statement of fact that he had lived in that city’s Ward 4 for 16 years).

It is also fair to say that a cloud of suspicion for the origin of Treadaway’s ambition immediately fell upon Flinn Broadcasting general counsel Shea Flinn, a former councilman who later became a prominent Chamber of Commerce executive and promoter of various strategies to accelerate the economic growth of the Memphis community.

Flinn makes no secret of his confidence in the abilities and sense of purpose of Treadaway, Flinn Broadcasting’s national sales manager for many years (“Yeah, I support him”) but disclaims any responsibility for his council bid.

“I’m trying to live a Christian life. I’m steering clear of politics,” protests Flinn, a family man with children who also happens to be both a political natural and a wit of some talent.

He and other supporters of Treadaway note that their man has worked in Memphis for at least 20 years, now indisputably lives in District 1, and, they say, has a keen desire to serve the community.

Much the same is proclaimed by supporters of Logan, whose website describes her as a “community developer” and quotes her as saying, “My life’s work is devoted to counseling, advocacy, & help.”

For the record, she, like Treadaway, is a transplant to District 1, having lived much of her life elsewhere, though in the city of Memphis.

There’s no law of nature saying that the contest for District 1 must be restricted to one of Treadaway versus Logan, though those were the lines that held through multiple hours of balloting last Tuesday night.

Flinn offers the thought that the balance of forces on December 4th, when the council will try again, to select representatives for three council seats, not just one, will enforce the necessity for compromise, since neither side will be able to impose its will without enticing votes from the other side.

Given the demographics of the three districts in question, the question will likely turn on whether three new African-American members will be named, creating an 8 to 5 black majority on the council, or two African Americans plus one new white member, which would keep the present ratio intact.

In the long run, meaning by next October’s city general election, the same issue will be up for resolution again. That is, if the council meanwhile is able to name anyone at all to fill the three vacancies. Some observers are already imagining scenarios emerging from the current deadlock that will result in a special called election, after all — one that the taxpayers will be on the hook for, and one that may decide whether the city is governed by an economic vanguard or anew, from the grass roots.

Categories
News News Blog

Council Looks to Fill Vacancy Left by Morrison

CREDIT: Memphis City Council

Memphis City Council

Bill Morrison

The Memphis City Council District 1 seat will soon be vacant, as Councilman Bill Morrison’s resignation from the council becomes effective on Thursday, November 1st.

Candidates wishing to fill the vacancy may be nominated by council members and the general public, or interested candidates can submit an application packet to the council office in Memphis City Hall. The packets can be picked up from the office beginning Friday at noon and must be submitted before Wednesday, November 14th at noon.

All candidates must submit proof of residency documents, as well as a sworn affidavit and nomination petition with at least 25 registered voter signatures who live in District 1.

The council, who will ultimately decide who fills the seat, plans to vote on a candidate at its meeting on Tuesday, November 20th. At the meeting, the qualifying candidates will have the chance to deliver speeches and answer any questions council members may have for them. Then, the council does multiple rounds of voting.

The process calls for the candidates receiving less than two votes in the first round to be eliminated. The voting continues until one of the candidates receives seven votes. After three rounds of voting, Chairman Berlin Boyd has the option to only consider the top two nominees.

Morrison, who was elected to the council first in 2007, then again in 2011 and 2015, was elected Shelby County Probate Clerk in August. Morrison, along with Janis Fullilove and Edmund Ford Jr., is one of three council members to be elected to other posts. Fullilove and Ford have yet to resign.

Categories
News News Blog

City Council Considers Plastic Bag Tax

A seven-cent plastic bag tax could soon be implemented in Memphis retail stores.

A Memphis City Council committee began the discussion Tuesday of a city ordinance that would put the tax in place, and will vote on the first of three readings Tuesday evening at its full meeting.

Chairman Berlin Boyd, who introduced the ordinance, said the purpose of tax is not purely to create revenue, but “is all about sustainability, “being good environmental stewards,” and protecting the city’s waterways. Single-use plastic bags are never truly biodegrade and often end up in the water supply, Boyd said.

“We need to make sure future generations have an earth that is sustainable because we were mindful stewards,” Boyd said. “No matter where we drive throughout the city, you see plastic bags flying in trees, under cars, waterways, and drains.”

Of the seven cents that stores would charge for non-recyclable plastic bags, two cents would go to the store, and the remaining five cents would go to the city. The amount of extra revenue to the city would “largely depend on consumer behavior” and whether or not shoppers are willing to pay the tax or opt to use an alternative bag option, Boyd said.

Other cities including Chicago, Washington D.C., and Seattle have implemented the tax, and have generated revenue ranging from $5 million in one year to $10 million over 10 years.

Although Boyd said the goal of the tax is not solely to produce revenue, with additional funds the city could offer environmental awareness campaigns, improve riverfront conservation, and help mitigate blight around waterways, which Boyd said are usually full of plastic bags and bottles. Currently, each year, the city has to spend between $3 and $4 million dollars removing plastic bags.

Customers over 65, as well as those who receive government benefits would be exempt from the tax. Initially, the tax would be applied only in larger retailers, and then later the ordinance would be amended to include smaller mom and pop stores, Boyd said.

Councilman Worth Morgan, unsure about the proposal, said he is “genuinely torn,” calling the tax a “complex issue.”

“Something is going to replace the plastic bags,” Morgan said. “Whether it’s paper or it’s cotton, we have to think about where that’s being sourced from, how it’s transported, and how its produced. But if it’s just about litter, I’m almost all on board.”

However, Morgan said anytime the city introduces a new fee or tax, he has a lot of hesitation. Morgan said the council needs to have a “thoughtful conversation,” as “there’s a pretty high burden of proof before we can put a new tax to the citizens.”

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Herenton Contends Term-Limits Referendum a “Fraud” Aimed at His Candidacy, Will Sue

CREDIT: JB

JB

Herenton and Spence at press conference

Although the office of Memphis City Attorney Bruce McMullen disclaims any responsibility for the wording of Referendum #5676 on the November 6th ballot, former Mayor W.W. Herenton is charging that the referendum is illegal and fraudulent and designed expressly to prevent his intended 2019 race for Mayor.

Herenton and his attorney, Robert Spence, announced at a press conference in Spence’s office, Wednesday morning, that they would be filing a lawsuit against the city and those officials (unspecified except for council Chairman Berlin Boyd) who, they say, doctored the originally intended referendum.

Spence displayed three different versions of the term-limits referendum on a screen. Version One, approved on January 23rd by the city council, says the following:

Shall the Charter of the City of Memphis, Tennessee, be amended to extend the number of terms [that one] may be eligible to hold or to be elected to the office of Mayor or Memphis City Council from two (2) consecutive four-year terms to three (3) consecutive four-year terms and to repeal all provisions of the city’s Charter inconsistent with this amendment?

Version Two, approved by the council on the same date, and later certified by the Comptroller’s office, to be on the ballot:

No person shall be eligible to hold or to be elected to the office of Mayor of Memphis City Council if such person has served at any time after December 31, 2011, more than three (3) consecutive terms, except that service by persons elected or appointed to fill an unexpired four-year term shall not be counted as a full four-year term.

On April 5th, in between those versions and a final one sent to the Election Commission, Herenton announced his intention to run again for mayor.

Then, on August 23rd, the following version was signed by council chair Boyd and sent to the Election Commission:

Shall the Charter of the City of Memphis, Tennessee be amended to provide no person shall be eligible to hold or to be elected to the office of Mayor or Memphis City Council if any such person has served at any time more than three (3) consecutive four-year terms, except that service by persons elected or appointed to fill an unexpired four-year term shall not be counted as full four-year term?

As Herenton and Spence noted, the date of December 31, 2011, specified in the version approved by the council, is deleted in the version forwarded to the Election Commission and included on the ballot.

Speaking for the city attorney’s office, Deputy City Attorney Jennifer Sink said that the wording of the resolution was a matter decided upon by the council and that the administration’s responsibility was only to certify such fiscal impact as was carried by the referendum.

Herenton and Spence, however, were insistent when asked that no other interpretation was feasible except that the referendum was changed to preclude his race for mayor and that a lawsuit would be forthcoming against all those responsible for the deception.

Said Herenton: “This is not fake news. The Russians are not involved. This has taken place … It involves officials in high places. … Someone threw a rock at Willie Herenton.  This is deception, it’s conspiracy, it’s fraud.”
Herenton said that “common sense” told him that the referendum wording was revised “with one clear intent” and that was to prevent his candidacy. Herenton said the “illegal” word change affected only “a class of one,” himself.

“Why didn’t they just say, ‘This is the Willie Herenton ordinance designed to prevent him from being a candidate for Mayor in 2019.” He blamed the administration of current Mayor Jim Strickland and said someone in the Election Commission office might also be involved.

Pending a legal resolution of the issue, Herenton said he would be recommending a “No” vote on the term-limits referendum. He noted that Chancellor Jim Kyle had withheld issuing a pre-election ruling against the term-limits referendum and two others that had been challenged by plaintiffs on the grounds that the referenda were confusing.

Kyle ruled that a post-election challenge would be more appropriate and that he would reconsider the matter then. The new challenge from Herenton could alter that timetable.

Categories
News News Blog

Council Chair Pushes Public for Votes on Referenda, Move Called ‘Unethical’

Council chairman Berlin Boyd

Memphis City Council Chairman Berlin Boyd used his most-recent, widespread chairman’s recap email to lobby citizens on upcoming referendums — a move some in Memphis don’t agree with.


Gordon Alexander, longtime Midtown activist, called Boyd’s attempts to lobby citizens to vote for three city council-related referendums on the November ballot “unethical.”

“In my opinion, it is unethical for the chairman of the city council to use this platform to urge a vote on an item that will affect him and his fellow council members,” Alexander said. “We don’t need to extend term limits. Because of their indifference to Midtown and our interests, we feel there are some on City Council who have already worn out their welcome.”

In his chairman’s recap, which reviews some of the moves by the council following a meeting, Boyd said that restricting council members to two consecutive terms in office “constricts” the amount of work they can do in their districts.

“By extending the term limit to three consecutive terms, council members have more time to work on behalf of their constituents and to see the fruits of items they have proposed,” Boyd wrote in his recap. “Thus, council members are just beginning to legislate effectively. The third term would be used to finish business and set up the next generation of council members. Vote “YES” to referendum number 1 to ensure the council is able to effectively work for you.”

[pullquote-1]

The recap continues, asking citizens to vote in favor of repealing Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), also known as ranked-choice voting, for council single district seats, as IRV “will disenfranchise the very voters proponents argue it will assist,” Boyd said.

Boyd did not immediately respond to the Flyer’s inquiry about his use of the recap to lobby citizens.

The three referendums in question, with simplified explanations provided by the League of Women Voters, are below.

Courtesy of the Memphis Public Libraries

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Shelby Politics Won’t Take a Break After August Election

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

For all the ballyhoo, emailed appeals for more cash, and intensified public rhetoric of recent days, the known world will exist in more or less its usual form after the electon results of this week are digested.

There are more election matters to be decided, for one thing: Someone will have to succeed the late state Representative Ron Lollar as the Republican nominee for state House District 99 on the November ballot. Lollar’s death occurred after the ballot was irrevocably composed, but on August 6th, a GOP caucus will meet to name a successor to run in November against Democratic nominee David Cambron.

The caucus will be made up of the members of the Shelby County Republican Committee who represent District 99. Those are current GOP chair Lee Mills, Mills’ wife Amber Mills, Becky Parsons, and Kenny Crenshaw. Among those interested in becoming the District 99 nominee are chairman Mills himself; Bartlett alderman David Parsons (husband of Becky Parsons); Lakeland Mayor Wyatt Bunker; and County Commissioner David Reaves.

For obvious arithmetical reasons, Lee Mills would seem to have an edge. The chairman has already cleared a prospective leave of absence with FedEx, for whom he is a pilot.

• Still unresolved, too, is the matter of whether residents of three City Council districts in Memphis will have a chance to vote on replacing any of three council members who may have been elected to county positions this week. The three are Bill Morrison of District 1, candidate for Probate Court Clerk; Edmund Ford Jr. of District 6, candidate for the County Commission; and Janis Fullilove of Super District 8, Position 2, candidate for Juvenile Court Clerk.

There had been, as of this week, no definitive answer as to when any of the three, if victorious in their county races, would formally resign their council positions. They could resign immediately upon election to their new posts, but the county charter allows them to retain their current position for as long as 90 days. If they should stay on the council for the entirety of their allotted time, there would be no opportunity to schedule a special election on the November ballot.

Jackson Baker

Janis Fullilove advocating for IRV.

What several local activists fear is that the dominant council faction, which has close ties to the city’s business elite and whose members tend to vote as a bloc, would relish the opportunity to skirt the election process and appoint the successors to any or all of the vacated positions.

Uncertainty on the point has been whetted by the claim of council Chairman Berlin Boyd, a member of the dominant faction, that the city charter does not allow for a replacement election on a November ballot. Council attorney Allan Wade apparently backs Boyd on the issue.The activist group cites charter language specifically licensing a potential November election for the purpose, and the matter is further complicated by ambivalence as to the post-election intentions on the part of the three council members whose seats would be in question. 

While continuing to keep her own counsel on the resignation matter, candidate Fullilove did choose, weekend before last, to make a public break from her council mates on another matter —  the referendum scheduled by the council for November that, if successful, would repudiate an earlier 2008 referendum enabling Ranked Choice Voting (aka Instant Runoff Voting), a process that Election Administrator Linda Phillips had scheduled for the 2019 city election.

Fullilove’s statement: “Back in 2008, as a charter commission member, I voted to support Instant Runoff Voting. I also supported it during the 2008 referendum Campaign, when 71 percent of Memphians voted for it. That was a good idea then, and it’s a good idea now. Last fall, I deferred to some of my colleagues on the city council who expressed concerns about IRV. But I have rethought my position. The people have already voted for this. We ought to give it a try. So I am … announcing my support for instant runoff voting and my opposition to any attempt at repeal. I call on my council colleagues to take both IRV referenda off the November ballot. Thank you.”

So far, there have been no takers on Fullilove’s request, and the referendum still stands. But chalk up at least a partial victory for the activist group, Save IRV Memphis, many of whose members have doubled up on the lobby process concerning the resignation matter.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Termite Inspection

When you’re scanning the sky for incoming artillery, you don’t always notice the termites chewing away at the beams in your basement.

That’s another way of saying, when you’re obsessed with the latest episodes of King Don Un’s reality show up in D.C., you sometimes forget to pay attention to what’s happening in your old home town. Specifically, what’s going on with the Memphis City Council and with certain members who are running for other offices to be decided in the upcoming August 2nd election.

I’m generally in favor of term limits, as are most local voters, judging from the fact that they’ve voted in two-term limits for most county offices and for the Shelby County Commission and, in 2008, voted by a three-to-one margin to limit the Memphis City Council to two terms. In that same election, Memphians voted by a similar margin to institute Instant Runoff Voting, which allows voters to rank their choices and by so doing, eliminate expensive runoff elections.

One perhaps unforseen result of term limits has been the ongoing recycling of various office-holders from one county job to another. Term-limited out of the county clerk’s office? Just run for county assessor or Juvenile Court clerk or trustee or register of deeds. Anyone can register a deed, right? The roles change, but the cast of characters remains the same. It’s a hassle to have to find a new public office to run for every eight years. Such a drag.

This year, three city council members — Edmund Ford, Bill Morrison, and Janis Fullilove — are candidates for the county commission, Probate Court clerk, and Juvenile Court clerk, respectively. If any or all of the three wins their prospective new offices, a pivotal question arises: How long will they will hold on to their council seats before resigning them? By law, they can wait 90 days. If they do, it complicates an already complicated matter.

Memphis City Ordinance #1852 reads, “on any vacancy occurring in the Council … a successor shall be elected to fill out the remainder of the term. … That special municipal election shall be held on the date of the next August or November election.” If any these council members are elected to another office on August 2nd and hold onto their council seat for 90 days, a November election for those seats becomes nearly impossible.

Further muddying the water is the fact that city council Chairman Berlin Boyd and council Attorney Allan Wade have cited an as-yet-unseen (and perhaps nonexistent?) legal memo that states that the next council election can’t be held until next August. If that decision prevails, then any vacant council seats would be filled via appointment by the current council, thereby depriving those represented by said councilmembers the right to decide who represents them.

The sad fact is, this city council seems quite willing to ignore the will of Memphis voters. In January, council members voted to put a referendum on the November ballot to allow voters to give them three terms instead of two. They have also managed to avoid implementing the Instant Runoff System approved by city voters in 2008 and have put a couple of confusing IRV referendums on the November ballot to thwart or reverse that decision.

Bottom line, if the council gets its way: Citizens in the three possibly affected districts won’t get to vote on who represents them for more than a year. But, as a consolation prize, this November, we will all get a chance to give them three terms instead of two. Tough call.

Frankly, I think it’s time we go to the basement and check the beams. Something’s chewing away down there.

Editor’s note: The house pictured on last week’s cover was not the house being objected to by the Cooper-Young couple quoted in the cover story. Thanks to gracious home-owner Monica Braun, who pointed out the possibly misleading image.