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Council Wants Company to Curb Cancer-Causing Emissions

The Memphis City Council wants Sterilization Services of Tennessee to start curbing its harmful emissions now, rather than waiting for a mandate from the federal government. 

The company, on Florida Street in South Memphis, emits ethylene oxide (EtO), an odorless, colorless gas used to sterilize medical equipment and other materials. EtO is a carcinogen and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned that residents around the facility are at a higher risk of getting cancer. 

An EPA review of EtO found it it to be 60 times more toxic than previously believed. The agency did not learn the chemical could lead to higher cancer risks around emitting facilities until 2016. 

An EPA risk assessment of Sterilization Services published in October found that if 1 million residents around the facility breathed air with EtO all day every day for 70 years, 100 of them would be expected to develop cancer due to the exposure. However, the agency couches the projection, noting it “cannot predict whether an individual person will develop cancer.”

City council member Dr. Jeff Warren said Tuesday most of the company’s EtO emissions are not released through a smokestack. Rather, they are “fugitive emissions,” released through doors and “just the natural operations of the business,” Warren said. 

Caroline Freeman, director of the EPA’s Region 4 (which includes Memphis) told council members two weeks the agency was concerned about the situation in South Memphis. As of October, however, the company had not installed new EtO pollution controls and had no plans for new controls, according to the EPA.  

However, Freeman told council members the agency is working on new regulations for EtO emissions and hopes to issue a new rule on them this year. But the Clean Air Act gives companies two to three years to comply with new rules, according to council research. 

On Tuesday, a council committee unanimously approved a resolution asking the company to start work on the issue soon. The resolution wants Sterilization Services to immediately begin working with the EPA, the state of Tennessee, and the Shelby County Health Department “to halt fugitive emissions, in lieu of waiting for the passage of federal regulation as the health and safety of Memphians continues to be at risk.”

“This particular company has multiple locations across the country,” Warren said Tuesday. “In some of the other locations, they are already moving to initiate activities to limit fugitive emission. What we’re doing here is … asking them to initiate those same interventions that they they’r putting in other sites across the country.”

The resolution also asks for the named government agencies to keep citizens updated with information about the company and its emissions. 

Most members of the council’s Parks and Environment Committee signed on as co-sponsors to the resolution. Council member Edmund Ford Sr. got the heart of the matter saying the move was “very important because it puts in the air something we don’t want for our people.”

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Ford Claims Ignorance on “Gender Mess” Tirade

Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford Sr. said he did not understand gender identification in a statement issued late Friday meant to ease the bellicose insults and threats he issued at citizens during a meeting last week. 

Ford berated Alex Hensley, an aide to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, and George Boyington, who leads intergovernmental relations and special projects for Shelby County Assessor of Property Melvin Burgess. 

Hensley listed “she/they” in her signature on a letter given to council members about an ordinance before them. In referencing the letter, Ford called the pronouns “so irrelevant” before sarcastically asking Hensley, “Who is she and they?” Hensley said, “Me … that’s a letter from me.” Ford did not continue the conversation.

Later in the meeting, Boyington came to Hensley’s defense. Ford invited him to speak only to “blow you out of the water back across the street” to the county adminstration building. Boyington called Ford’s behavior “unprofessional.”

The Shelby County Committee of the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP), said Ford’s actions were “bullying, trolling, and abusive” and called for action by other council members.  

For his gender comments, Ford said the use of them on the letter was unfamiliar and the meant “no disrespect” to Hensley. However, it was clear the topic was not new to him as he accused Boyington Tuesday of wishing to speak about what Ford called “gender mess.”

As for his many other insults and threats, Ford said he’d only keep in mind suggestions to temper his remarks. 

Here’s his statement in full:

“As the representative of District 6, I am well-known as a passionate advocate for my community. Admittedly, my passion, especially in my support or defense of my position, can sometimes be a bit too forceful. It has been suggested to me that my position on matters might be better received if my remarks were more tempered. I will keep this in mind in the future.

“It is with this understanding that in addressing the staffers, I could have been less harsh in my delivery and tone. Unfortunately, the Shelby County staffer presenting on the Unified Development Code ordinance received the brunt of my frustrations.

“In seeking clarification on who exactly authored the letter that was presented to the Council by the County, I asked the representative who was ‘she/they’ in the signature line. The term ‘they’ suggested to me that there was perhaps an additional author of the letter. 

“Once the Shelby County representative clarified that she was both ‘she’ and ‘they,’ I supported her answer and right to specify her gender and pronouns without further inquiry.

“My time on the council has meant that I have gained knowledge and understanding on a variety of unfamiliar topics. The use of gender pronouns in the letter was unfamiliar to me so I had a lack of knowledge of this practice when I made the query. My asking about the use of ‘she/they’ had nothing to do with gender identity, because I had no familiarity with this as a means of self-identification. 

“I now know about this practice and hope people understand that no disrespect toward the Shelby County representative’s gender identity was meant by my question.”

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LGBTQ Group: Ford Tantrum Was “Bullying, Trolling, and Abusive”

An LGBTQ leader is calling for accountability from the Memphis City Council after a board member openly threatened and insulted two citizens during public meeting Tuesday [above)]. 

Council member Edmund Ford Sr. berated Alex Hensley, an aide to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, and George Boyington, who leads intergovernmental relations and special projects for Shelby County Assessor of Property Melvin Burgess. 

He told Hensley, who was representing Harris, “don’t you come back here,” and “you sit your behind down” after they spoke on an ordinance before the council. In commanding Boyington to come before the council, Ford said he did so “to blow you out of the water and back across the street” to the county administration building.  

What has raised the ire of LGBTQ leaders, though, is Ford’s treatment of Hensley’s pronouns. She listed “she/they” in their signature on a letter given to council members about the pipeline ordinance. In referencing the letter, Ford called the pronouns “so irrelevant” before sarcastically asking Hensley, “Who is she and they?” Hensley said, “Me. … that’s a letter from me.” Ford did not continue the conversation but called for a vote on the pipeline ordinance. 

Boyington came to Hensley’s defense, calling Ford’s conduct “unprofessional.” He was the only person to speak against Ford’s behavior. Not a single city council member spoke up, stepped in, or said a word against Ford’s outbursts.   

Ford’s actions were ”bullying, trolling, and abusive” and “unacceptable and unbecoming of a public official,” according to Shahin Samiei, the Shelby County committee chair of the Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ advocacy group. Samiei included those remarks and more in a letter to each city council member. 

“Both Memphis city and Shelby County governments have made remarkable strides in the past decade to be inclusive for employees and citizens regardless of who they are or who they love,” Samiei wrote. “This kind of behavior is embarrassing, unprofessional, and discriminatory.

“With all respect to the office, if an elected official finds himself, herself, or themself unable to discharge their representative duties with constituents and/or other public officials who are not like them, they should make room on the council for someone who can.

”Our community is watching, and we expect for this body to take action.”

Council member Martavius Jones, found himself on the business end of a Ford tantrum last year. Ford called him a “short-ass man” and said Jones had “butthole problems” during a public meeting [above]. Jones told The Daily Memphian Thursday he should have intervened in Tuesday’s verbal attack on members of the public. 

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Council Silent as Ford Threatens County Employees, Calls Pronouns ‘Irrelevant’

Memphis City Council members remained silent during a meeting Tuesday while a council member insulted, threatened, and belittled two county employees and said one’s pronouns were “so irrelevant.” 

The angry words came as the council debated rules against pipelines in the city limits. Alex Hensley, special assistant to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, showed up to speak for Harris’ office. Hensley gave each council member a letter, which listed “she/they” as pronouns. 

Sounding frustrated, council member Edmund H. Ford, Sr. held up the letter and said, “this is so irrelevant. It’s got ‘Best,’ your name, and then it says ‘she/they.’ Who is she/they?”  

“That’s me,” Hensley responded. “That is a letter from me.” 

“Okay,” Ford said as someone laughed off camera. “So, you’re she and they. Okay.”

Ford called for the question on the vote before the council before diving into gender issues. However, he did have time to warn Hensley and Harris.

“Don’t you come back here,” Ford threatened Hensley. “You tell [Harris] to bring his behind here. And that’s from me. See there? Now, you can sit your behind down.”

Tuesday’s insult-laden rant was certainly not the first insult-laden rant from Ford. Nearly a year ago, Ford — angered at council member Martavious Jones — said Jones had “butthole problems” and was a “short-ass man” in an open-meeting tirade that ended only when then-Council-Chairwoman Patrice Robinson muted the mics of nearly all council members. The tirade earned Ford an ethics probe initiated by council member JB Smiley, though the probe seemingly fizzled with no formal action against Ford. 

Angered by Ford’s treatment of Hensley Tuesday evening, George Boyington, who leads intergovernmental relations and special projects for Shelby County Assessor of Property Melvin Burgess, picked up a public comment card to speak but, ultimately, decided against it.

However, Ford called him out before the council to hear what he had to say and to “blow you out of the water and send you back across the street [to the county building].” Ford claimed Boyington planned to speak with him about “some gender mess,” alluding to Ford’s questions on Hensley’s pronouns. 

After calling him out, Ford silenced Boyington, a move seconded by council chairman Frank Colvett who said, “the council member did not recognize you.” Ford told him “don’t ever play with me” and then told him to “get on out of here.” Then, he instructed Boyington to take the microphone, telling him “I want you to look at me” and “don’t ever play with me.” Ford promised to respond to Boyington’s comments but told him “you should never have come over here,” before saying, “go right ahead.”

“I was moved by your remarks toward a colleague of mine earlier,” Boyington began. “I did not feel as a constituent, a tax-paying, law-abiding public official who came over here to address the matter and — being the consummate professional that they are — that such beratement from the dais was warranted, sir. 

“Professionally, as a government and legislative affairs officer for a county constitutional officer, I deal with public officials all the time and I have never seen someone talked to so badly about something that has nothing to do with their business. It was very unprofessional, sir. And you calling me from back there, double.”

Ford said, “you know, you’re through. I can call you from wherever in the heck I want to. And if you read her little letter, maybe your behind would not have brought yourself over here. You hear me?”

Earlier in the meeting, Ford promised “I’m not afraid of Melvin Burgess [Boyington’s boss]. I’m not afraid of the county mayor [Harris].” Ford threatened to call Burgess about Boyington’s behavior but later relented.        

Not a single other council member spoke up about Ford’s behavior Tuesday evening. However, laughs and applause could be heard as he hurled insults.   

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WATCH: Council Member Edmund Ford Sr. Insults Martavious Jones, Gets Mic Cut Off

WATCH: Council Member Edmund Ford Sr. Insults Martavious Jones, Gets Mic Cut Off

Tuesday’s Memphis City Council meeting ended in a vulgar display of anger as one council member called another nasty names, his words are now part of an official city ethics probe.

Council member Edmund Ford Sr. said council member Martavius Jones had “butthole problems” and was a “short-ass man” in a tirade that ended only when council chairwoman Patrice Robinson muted the mics of nearly all council members.

The insults came directly after the election of Frank Colvett Jr. as new council chairman, whom Ford had nominated. Jones was nominated, too. During remarks before the vote, Jones referenced a similar situation on a previous council election that involved Edmund Ford Jr., the son of Edmund Ford Sr.

After a brief speech from Colvett, Ford requested permission to speak from Robinson. She granted it and Ford laid into Jones.

“Councilman Jones, you shouldn’t have went there,” he began. “Don’t ever go there again with me and my family, my son, or anybody else. You did it once. You did it once before. Do not go there anymore. You keep your comments to yourself. Because you don’t want me to come out there and talk about …”
[pullquote-1-center] The rest of the words become indecipherable as Jones began to retort and the audio becomes garbled. To be heard over the noise, Ford leaned directly into his computer’s camera and yelled, “because you got butthole problems, don’t you?” Ford’s mic is muted. Though, he can be seen mouthing angrily on camera.

Many other council members were clearly uncomfortable at the words. Sign language interpreter Brenda Cash’s (bottom row in between Ford and J Ford Canale) expression was one of disbelief.

Robinson then asked staff members to mute all mics except for those acknowledged by her. Ford continued to mouth angrily and somehow manages to un-mute his mic.
[pullquote-2-center] “My mic is off but he’s a little short-ass man,” Ford said, before being muted for the last time.

The exchange was less than a minute long, but it drew a formal ethics probe from council member J.B. Smiley, who has also requested a rule change to not allow council members to insult one another.

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Memphis City Council: Smiley Requests Ethics Review of Ford After Tense Meeting

City of Memphis

Smiley

A Memphis City Council member has filed an ethics complaint against another council member for behavior displayed during Tuesday’s council meeting.

Council member J.B. Smiley filed the complaint against Edmund Ford Sr. for his behavior toward a member of Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration and for “using profanity and personal insults” toward another council member.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Ford had harsh words for Robert Knecht, the city’s public works director, over contracts to cut grass in cemeteries. Ford also squabbled with council member Martavius Jones in a tense debate over that day’s election of Frank Colvett Jr. as the council’s new chairman.

Smiley asked current council chairwoman Patrice Robinson to convene a three-person ethics committee to review the matter.
City of Memphis

Ford

Smiley also wants an amendment to ban council members from making “personal, impertinent, slanderous, or profane remarks to any member of the council, administration, staff, or public during a council meeting.”

”… there are certain behaviors that we cannot and should not allow to continue,” Smiley wrote in his letter Wednesday. “I have witnessed a pattern of verbally abusive behavior toward the administration and our very own colleagues. Enough is enough. I am asking you and the rest of this body to put an end to this blatant disrespect and dishonor for individuals and the offices we hold.”

For his amendment, Smiley explains that the Memphis public is now held to a level of decorum not required of council members. Members of the public cannot take the floor of any council meetings and “make personal, impertinent, slanderous, or profane remarks to any member of the council, staff, or general public.” This kind of talk and disorderly conduct can get members of the public removed from the council chamber and committee room.

”Let this be the last time it can ever be said that the Memphis City Council does not hold itself to a higher standard than we hold the constituents we serve,” Smiley said.

See the letter and amendment here:

[pdf-1] [pdf-2]

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Family Matters: It’s Father vs. Daughter in Council District 6 Race

While the Memphis city election was still in the petition-pulling phase, it looked for a while that there might be several family members — mostly named Ford — who might be running against each other in pursuit of the same office.

By the time last month when both the filing and the withdrawal deadlines had come and gone and the Election Commission had certified an official candidate list, however, most of those intriguing matchups had failed to materialize. They were cases, generally, in which various candidates had considered a variety of races before settling on one, and, when the settling occurred, the potential familial rivalries disappeared from the election roster.

There was one exception: the District 6 City Council race, in which two candidates named Bond are competing — Perry Bond and Theryn Bond. They are father and daughter, as it happens, and when the two of them, along with candidates for other offices, turned up at AFSCME headquarters on Beale Street last Thursday for a forum sponsored by various Demoratic Party groups, the only reference to the pairing came from the senior Bond, who noted for the audience, “My daughter is in this race, too, and she has every right to be there.”

Jackson Baker

Theryn Bond Perry Bond

In her turn, Theryn Bond described her race as a venture in courage — appropriately enough, since, as she explained, she has in the last several months faced and overcome cervical cancer. Even before that, Theryn Bond made something of a name for herself at council meetings as an articulate and consistent opponent of the established order of things on the current council.

Alphabetical order being what it is, the two Bonds lead the list of candidates on the October 3rd ballot. That should help their vote totals in a district race which already has some drama. Edmund Ford Sr., the former holder of the seat, is attempting to regain it, and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, engaged in a running feud with Ford’s son, Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr., has endorsed yet another candidate, Davin Clemons, a minister/policeman who serves as the MPD’s liaison with the LGBTQ community.

• Yes, it’s true: Steve Cohen has an opponent. The 9th District Congressman, who has knocked off a serious string of Democratic challengers since 2006, when he first emerged victorious from a multi-candidate primary field, now faces a 2020 bid from Corey Strong, the former Shelby County Democratic chairman.

Strong acknowledges that Cohen has made the appropriate votes in Congress, supported legislation that a Democrat should have supported, properly backed up Democratic President Obama, and has correctly opposed Republican President Trump. Further, says Strong, the congressman has successfully become a factor in key national dialogues.

What he has failed to do, Strong maintains, is to bring jobs to a home region that desperately needs them. Strong even finds evidence of this alleged failure in a well-publicized stunt staged by Cohen last spring on the House Judiciary Committee. That was the occasion in May when the congressman ridiculed the failure of Attorney General William Barr to answer a subpoena by wolfing down pieces from a Kentucky Fried Chicken basket at his seat on the committee.

Cohen got headlines, both pro and con, and, says Strong, “I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is that we’ve got all kinds of local fried-chicken enterprises here in Memphis, and he could have made his point with them if he wanted. But he didn’t.”

Strong is well aware that Cohen, who is white and Jewish, has easily dispatched all previous would-be party rivals in his predominantly African-American Memphis district since that first victory in 2006. He has triumphed over Justin Ford, Willie Herenton, Tomeka Hart, Ricky Wilkins, and Nikki Tinker, all of whom had either name recognition or financial support or both.

He has done so, as Strong acknowledges, by careful attention to the needs of his constituency in most ways — save the aforementioned inability to raise the income level of his district.

Strong believes he can succeed at that task, where, he says, Cohen has not. And one way of demonstrating his prowess will be to raise a campaign budget that will allow him to compete with the financially well-endowed incumbent Congressman on relatively even terms.

“I will do that,” says Strong, a Naval Reserve officer who in 2017 became the renovated Shelby County Democratic Party’s bounce-back chairman after it was decommissioned by the state Democrats a year earlier during a period of internal stress and discord within the local party.

Strong acknowledges that Michael Harris, his successor as local party chairman, has had a difficult problem arousing support from party cadres because of issues stemming from his suspended law practice. But, says Strong, local Democrats have a duty to support their party.

The future congressional aspirations of current Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris have become so obvious as to make Harris’ ambitions something of a public proverb, and a good race next year by Strong, even if unsuccessful, could serve the purpose of setting up a future challenge against Mayor Harris. But Strong insists he is in the 9th District race this year to win.

• The 2019 session of the Tennessee General Assembly is over, but one of the key pieces of legislation that emerged from it — a bill to permit private school vouchers via public money — is apparently still subject to change.

It will be remembered that the bill barely passed the state House of Representatives, and did so only because then-House Speaker Glen Casada held open the vote for an hour, during which time he bargained with members opposed to the measure in an effort to change at least one vote.

That vote turned out to be that of Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), who succumbed to a pledge from Casada that the voucher bill would be rewritten to exclude Zachary’s home city.

With an eye toward future potential opposition in the state Senate, the bill was rewritten, in fact, to exclude all localities except Memphis and Nashville, which became the sole subjects of what was now styled as a “pilot” program.

A vigorous opponent of the bill, which was a pet project of Governor Bill Lee, was Representative Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), who has now become Speaker in the wake of a scandal that forced Casada out of the position.

Sexton continues to oppose vouchers and wishes at the very least to delay their onset. Lee, meanwhile, has reacted to the change of circumstance by expressing a desire to speed up the implementation of vouchers from 2021 to 2020. The coming legislative session may well come to focus on the struggle over the issue between the two leaders.