Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke

Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke gave a spirited and provocative speech at Memphis Magazine’s fourth annual “Summons to Memphis” luncheon Thursday, at the Holiday Inn at the University of Memphis.

The crowd of 300 or so was fronted by a Who’s Who table that included Mayor Jim Strickland, former Mayor AC Wharton, County Mayor Mark Luttrell, Berke, and Maura Sullivan, now chief operating officer of the city of Chattanooga and formerly a top aide in the Wharton administration.

Mayors Strickland, Berke, Luttrell

Berke began by acknowledging the difficulties all four major Tennessee cities have in dealing with a GOP legislature that is controlled by rural interests. “This legislature doesn’t like cities very much,” he said.

Moving from that point of urban commonality, Berke said his city has followed a four-point plan that has lowered its unemployment to 4 percent and has resulted in a booming economy and a thriving city built on the ashes of its departed steel-manufacturing industry.

“In 1967. Walter Cronkite called Chattanooga ‘the dirtiest city in America,'” Berke said. “And when the most trusted man in America says you’re the dirtiest city in America, people believe it.”

Berke alluded to the ‘Chattanooga Way,’ the four points of which are: Working Together Works; Investing in Public Spaces; Great Cities Plan for a Great Future; and Provide More Paths for the Middle Class.

Berke went into each seemingly platitudinal point in great detail, demonstrating the concrete steps Chattanooga has taken to achieve each goal. He was particularly proud of the city-owned broad-band network that is available to every home and business in Chattanooga.

The crowd was attentive and appreciative, seeming to enjoy Berke’s occasional irreverence and his upbeat message.

Contemporary Media, Inc. publisher Kenneth Neill presented Berke with a signed copy of Peter Taylor’s novel, A Summons to Memphis in appreciation of his appearance.

Berke and CMI Publisher Kenneth Neill

Jackson Baker

Mayors Berke and Strickland after testifying in Nashville, Wednesday.

NASHVILLE — After a two-hour hearing on the now-famous de-annexation bill by the state Senate’s State and Local committee, both Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Chamber of Commerce president Phil Trenary professed themselves satisfied that progress had been made toward either de-toxifying the bill or defeating it outright.

Two amendments were discussed and voted on, the first returning the House version of the bill to the status of a previous Senate version that applies the provisions of the bill statewide, thus eliminating the controversial winnowing down of target cities to five “egregious” offenders in the House bill that passed overwhelmingly last week.

That amendment passed 8-1. A second amendment that clarified aspects of debt repayment required of de-annexed areas and left the way open for widening the scope of those debts passed 7-1. Ready in the hopper, when the committee reconvenes on Tuesday is an amendment that would include pension and OPEB obligations among those debts remaining on the tax bills of de-annexed citizens.

Both amendments were regarded as congenial by members of the large delegation in attendance from Memphis. Trenary said, “I think everybody’s eyes have been opened up here.” He and Strickland both indicated they thought the House bill was destined to be a thing of the past.

The very fact that the State and Local Committee only scratched the surface of a flock of amendments and will need to reconvene on Tuesday is an indication that things are moving in the direction of the Memphians in attendance. Chairman Yager did say, however, that the clock would not run out on the bill, that a version readymade for voting would be ready next week for House-Senate conferencing and a final vote.

Testifying before the committee on aspects of the bill were Strickland and fellow mayors Andy Berke of Chattanooga and Madeline Rogero of Knoxville, as well as Pitt Hyde of Auto-Zone, and David Popwell and Jim Vogel of First Tennessee Bank.

Strickland repeated reservations about the bill he had previously stated — including the fact that the city stood to lose 110,000 residents under the provisions of the House bill and financials losses amounting to 12 percent of its annual budget. Further, he said, the city would fall from 23rd largest in the nation to 33rd and be faced with a profile of instability that would adversely influence potential business/industrial clients looking to relocate.

Although Berke and Rogero did not envision results for their cities that drastic, they each testified that urban and state affairs would be put in a state of uncertainty and confusion if the House version became law. Hyde and the First Tennessee officials underscored the negative effects the bill would have on economic prospects for Memphis.