Tag: Herenton

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News The Fly-By

Double Stuff

CREDIT: Photo Illustration

When one of my friend’s parents moved to the area, they bought a nice house in Collierville. Their daughter, a tried-and-true Midtown girl, asked them why they would want to live so far from the center of town.

Their answer was simple: For the same amount of money that they would pay for property and
taxes in the city, they got a much larger house in the suburbs.

It’s hard to argue with economics like that. For most Americans, their home is both their greatest asset and largest investment. And when faced with a decision that gives you more house for your money (and probably a better rate of return) or spending that same budget on taxes, it’s a wonder anyone is still living within the city limits.

Of course, the city has a way of keeping its population stable and propping up a slumping tax base: annexation. Because of a state-mandated growth plan, the unincorporated areas of Shelby County have already been divvied up between the municipalities. It’s not a question of if they’ll be annexed, it’s a question of when.

And for some of the Memphis reserve areas, when might be as early as the end of this year.

In mid-October, the City Council began the process of annexing two areas of the Memphis reserve: the Bridgewater area near East Memphis and a piece of southeastern Shelby County. If approved, the areas will become part of Memphis December 31st. A public hearing and the final council vote on the matter are scheduled November 21st.

The annexation proposal came at the request of the Needs Assessment Committee, an all-volunteer body created to review facility needs in both the city and the county school systems. Because of earlier annexations in the Countrywood and Berryhill areas, Memphis City Schools (MCS) officials were looking at an additional 2,500 students next year but not enough schools to handle them.

The proposed Bridgewater annexation would help solve this problem, giving MCS “the Dexters,” an elementary and middle school crucial for serving students in that area. But though the annexation is necessary to solve some of the problems, it doesn’t solve the main one: sprawl.

Shelby County and the city of Memphis are like a pair of conjoined twins, intricately connected and utterly dependent on one another, but the division of resources is not always equal. In part it’s that inequality that pushes people to the east and eventually pushes Memphis east, as well.

Are two heads really better than one?

Some services, such as the health department, are funded equally between the city and the county governments. That means that city residents pay for their share once in their city taxes and once in their county taxes.

And that’s not the only spot where citizens see double: look at the Memphis Police Department and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department, schools, mayors. The county and city governments are in discussions to combine fire services, but it looks like it will be a tough sell.

It would be one thing if the city and the county were two land masses, sitting side-by-side instead of overlapping. As it is: Why pay for the same — or similar — services twice?

In the past decade, the population of Shelby County Schools (SCS) has remained fairly stable. In 1995, it had 43,800 students. In 2005, it had 45,000. But the equation should look more like a complex algebraic formula: As citizens migrate to the reserve areas, bumping up the population of the county schools, the city schools lose students. Then Memphis annexes an area and the numbers reverse: SCS loses students while MCS gains them. And because both systems are “growing,” they build new schools.

If you have the same number of students, why would you need to build more schools, you ask? Whether it’s within the Memphis city limits or not, the local population is amassing in the southeast area of the county. SCS may have room for additional students in Millington, but busing them from the crowded southeast schools would cause skyrocketing transportation costs. The same could be said of the city schools. While they have space in their schools near downtown, they have an over-capacity problem in the southeast area, as well.

Wouldn’t it be more efficient to provide services based on geography rather than jurisdiction? We don’t want to get to a point where the only people who live in the city are the rich (because they can afford to) and the poor (because they can’t afford to move).

Someone needs to draw a line on sprawl … as long as it’s not right down the center.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Color and Politics

“He can go places and do things I can’t,” mused Memphis mayor Willie Herenton in an offhand moment last Friday. And it was hard to read his expression — a purely pensive one suspended somewhere between regret and acceptance.

The “he” referred to by Herenton was Congressman Harold Ford Jr., the Democratic nominee currently running neck-and-neck against Republican Bob Corker in what everyone — locally, statewide, and nationally — now recognizes as a pivotal U.S. Senate race.

Herenton has to be one of the most conflicted observers of the spirited race being run by Ford, a member of a local political clan that the mayor has always regarded with varying degrees of hostility — especially considering Chattanoogan Corker was so recently a member, and a friendly one, of the statewide mayoral fraternity.

Herenton is a Democrat, though he has strayed from the reservation on occasion — publicly endorsing the GOP’s Lamar Alexander for the Senate in 2002, as one example. And he had dropped a veiled hint or two earlier in the year that he would sit out the current Senate race — or maybe even endorse Corker, with whom he had conferred in camera during a visit by the Republican to Memphis last month.

That was the same day, September 6th, that Herenton and his county-government counterpart, Mayor A C Wharton — the two of them being the most prominent African-American officeholders here or elsewhere in Tennessee — made a point of endorsing the congressional candidacy of 9th District Democratic nominee Steve Cohen. Cohen’s opponents are Republican Mark White and, notably, independent candidate Jake Ford, brother to the Democrats’ senatorial nominee.

On that occasion, not only had Herenton publicly scoffed at first-time candidate Jake Ford’s credentials, he had rubbed in his disdain for the Ford clan at large. “You know, I’ve resented for decades the politics of the Ford family,” the mayor said. “The family seems to think they should have a monopoly on all elected positions in this state and this county.”

Having said that, it may have cost Herenton something to have swallowed his pride earlier this month and endorse Ford — “at the urging of a group of clergy and business leaders,” stipulated the mayor, who added, “I can look at the big picture.” Herenton made it clear that only local-unity and party loyalty considerations kept him from throwing in his lot with Corker. He added, “I might have had a greater respect for Mr. Corker had an endorsement of him been possible.”

Under those circumstances, it is probably little wonder that Representative Ford has not yet followed up on Herenton’s offer to make joint campaign appearances. “I haven’t heard a thing from him,” the mayor said last Friday. He went on to make the statement quoted in the first paragraph above concerning Ford’s accessibility to a wider electorate.

“It’s a matter of color,” the mayor stated flatly, addressing an issue that is rarely raised these days on the surface of politics and punditry but one that has fueled abundant private speculation concerning Representative Ford’s chances in rural sections of Tennessee. Note, however, that Herenton said “color” and not “race.”

“Ford’s light enough that he can go in there and be accepted by those folks. I’m realistic enough to know that I wouldn’t have a chance. I’m just too dark.”

The mayor reflected a moment. “That kind of thing is even an issue among our people,” he said, clearly meaning African Americans. “When I was down in New Orleans recently, I was told by a guy down there that I wouldn’t have the same chance of being elected in that environment as someone like [Mayor Ray] Nagin, who’s black but had just the right skin tone.”

From there, Herenton went on to lament in another direction — that “if some of these campaign charges made against Corker’s mayoral tenure in this race were made against me, I’d be indicted.” That remark, too, he made it clear, was color-related.

Another question Herenton reflected on briefly last Friday was his forthcoming race for reelection in 2007. He knows that he will be opposed by City Council member Carol Chumney, who is white, and he, like everybody else, wonders if a “name” black candidate will enter to complicate the issue.

In any case, he says he’s not worried. Color him confident but wary.

Jackson Baker is a Flyer senior editor.

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Politics Politics Feature

Cutting to the Chase

Mayor Willie Herenton for Harold Ford Jr. Governor Phil Bredesen and Commissioner Sidney Chism for Steve Cohen? Say it ain’t so!

Fact is, it is so. Really.

None of the endorsers mentioned above were exactly jumping through hoops or shouting “Hallelujah!” but they made firm commitments of support, all the same.

Most forthright was Herenton’s endorsement of Ford, made after the mayor’s attendance at last week’s prayer breakfast for Senate candidate Ford at The Peabody.

“At the urging of a group of clergy and business leaders, I agreed to endorse Congressman Harold Ford in his bid for the United States Senate,” said the mayor in an interview with the Flyer. “I can look at the big picture,” maintained the frequent Ford-family foe. Herenton said his decision had been made “in the interests of Democratic Party solidarity,” and “in the context that I have previously endorsed Governor Phil Bredesen for reelection and state senator Steve Cohen for Congress.”

The mayor said he had “deliberated for the last two weeks” on the matter of an endorsement and noted that, while Ford had requested an endorsement “in passing,” there had been “no Memphis conversation” at which the congressman had sought his support.

Herenton contrasted that with the fact that former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker, the Republican candidate, had “appropriately and respectfully” requested his support and discussed with the mayor his plans regarding Memphis, if elected. “In that sense, I might have had a greater respect for Mr. Corker had an endorsement of him been possible.”

But, said Herenton, he had made it clear to Corker that no such endorsement would be forthcoming and that for reasons of local unity and party solidarity the choice for him came down to either non-endorsement or endorsing Ford. He said that his endorsement was not a “left-handed” one and that he was at Ford’s disposal for campaign appearances.

Meanwhile, Cohen, the Democratic nominee for the 9th Congressional District, got a stamp of approval from two major politicians with whom his relations have been, to understate the case, something other than sunny.

During a visit to Memphis last week, Governor Phil Bredesen confirmed that he intended to support every statewide Democratic nominee, “and that certainly includes Senator Cohen.”

Also acknowledging his support for Cohen was former interim state senator and current Shelby County commissioner Sidney Chism, who expressed himself similarly, saying, “I am going to vote for every Democratic nominee, including Senator Cohen.”

Memphis became the center of the state’s political consciousness — and, in the case of one race, the nation’s — last weekend as debates were held here for the contenders in three major races: the United States Senate, the governorship, and the 9th District.

First was a Saturday-night showdown on WREG-TV between Ford and Corker.

In an affair that was widely commented on thereafter in the national media, both contestants in a potentially pivotal race for control of the Senate continued to hew to the same generally centrist (or mildly rightist) themes.

Considering that Corker, by virtue of a clearly overdue staff shakeup, had just stabilized what had been a disastrous decline in the polls (and was lucky to come into this event more or less even), it was surprising that he started out playing the political equivalent of a prevent defense.

Perhaps, as one observer suggested, Corker just wanted to get safely through this first encounter on Memphian Ford’s home turf and save his real game for a later debate elsewhere, where a good performance might put him over the top.

Maybe. But that assumes Corker can keep it close until then, and on the strength of Ford’s energetic performance Saturday night, that can’t be assumed.

Ford was having a fine time exhibiting his performance skills — a little too fine in that once in a while his adrenaline seemed to be getting the best of him. His penchant for flip asides, delivered via casual moves on and off his stool, reminded some viewers of Bill Clinton and others, longer of tooth, of the first Kennedy-Nixon debate, back in the summer of 1960 — although Kennedy was a much more controlled, less hyper presence, and Corker was on point and poised enough not to be Nixon.

If Ford seemed somewhat over-active and glib, that may have been merely the boil-over of a very self-assured presence — the same one the state’s viewers have seen over and over in Ford’s TV ads, most of them stressing themes of national security and patriotism — de facto rebuttals of Corker’s disastrous early “Ford’s a liberal” attack ads that have now been shelved in favor of a more personal approach by the GOP candidate’s new campaign manager, political vet Tom Ingram.

Corker warmed up to a little direct action himself midway into Saturday night’s debate, taking a shot at the “Ford political dynasty,” one which Ford rebutted by the kind of “I love my family” response that, artfully and simultaneously, establishes distance between the congressman and his kindred.

Failing receipt of a “recipe” for picking one’s family, the Memphis congressman advised his opponent to “be quiet, and let’s run for the Senate.” But the Corker team afterward left no doubt that further attacks on the Fords as a political clan would be heard from in the last month of campaigning.

The next encounter, televised via WKNO-TV on Sunday afternoon, was a League of Women Voters forum featuring Bredesen and Republican opponent Jim Bryson.

The most remarkable aspect of that one may have been Bryson’s success in getting to the governor’s left on the issue of health care.

Bryson said that the programs Bredesen put in place as partial substitutes for TennCare, notably the “Cover Tennessee” plan of insurance supplementation, were “bare bones” solutions that would not resolve the issue of uninsured and uninsurable patients the governor had cut from the program, many of them, Bryson said, with “terminal” illnesses.

Bredesen countered by suggesting that his disenrollment effort had been aimed primarily at aspects of TennCare most subject to fraud and other abuses and said the program, instituted by former Governor Ned Ray McWherter and continued under former Governor Don Sundquist, had been “over-blown and over-bloated.”

Other points of divergence were: Bredesen’s defense of the jury-trial system of deciding medical-malpractice issues vs. Bryson’s call for caps on punitive damages; and the GOP challenger’s call for using the state surpluses accumulated under Bredesen to pay for elimination of the sales tax on groceries.

Finally, there was a sometimes stormy three-way debate Sunday night on WREG-TV featuring 9th District candidates Cohen, Republican Mark White, and “independent” Democrat Jake Ford.

Ford, first up, characterized himself as a champion of “working-wage Americans.” Next, primary winner Cohen expressed solidarity with his fellow Democrats for conferring the party’s nomination on him and promised he would “never turn … my back” on them, meanwhile chastising Ford for avoiding the party primary. Finally, White argued for a “coming together” of “new people, new blood” to create a different political reality in the traditionally Democratic district.

Thereafter, the genial White became something of a bystander as favored veteran Cohen and newcomer Ford scrapped for bragging rights.

The exchanges between Ford and Cohen became ever brisker, with Ford characterizing Cohen as “too liberal” on the issues of “gambling” (Cohen is the acknowledged father of the state lottery), marijuana (the senator has proposed legalizing medical marijuana), and, most controversially, same-sex marriage (Cohen opposes what he calls “constitutional tampering” to deal with the matter).

At one point, Ford went so far as to say that Cohen’s position on gay marriage was “certainly, I hope, not for personal reasons.”

Meanwhile Cohen made a point of stating for the record that he had never been arrested, “nor has Mr. White,” leaving it to Ford to acknowledge, without specifiying, that he might have had such trouble between 1990 and 1993, when his father, former Congressman Harold Ford Sr., faced federal indictments.

These and other heated exchanges between Cohen and Ford suggest that, as this race continues, there will be further trouble between the two, right here in River City.

Note: complete accounts of the three weekend debates may be found in the “Political Beat” section at MemphisFlyer.com.

Categories
Opinion

2007: The Tipping Point

By now most everyone is familiar with the term “tipping point” thanks to the bestselling book by Malcolm Gladwell about how little things can make a big difference.

At a time when Memphis is being called the second-most violent urban area in America, when a fire has turned the next big downtown thing into the next bad downtown thing, when the City Council has been asked to raise taxes to hire 650 more cops, and when thousands of people leave the city each year for neighboring counties, it’s reasonable to wonder if Memphis is at a tipping point.

With a year to go until the next city election, the man who will have a lot to say about that is Mayor Willie Herenton. His 16th year in office could be either his greatest or his worst. Even though he sometimes gets booed at public appearances and blasted on the radio and in letters to the editor, a longer and more balanced view of Herenton’s career suggests that he will rise to the occasion and that 2007 will see him at his best, which is better than anyone else in local politics.

Here’s why: Before the tipping point there was the “tilt factor.” In Memphis, that term was coined by former Memphis City Schools administrator O.Z. Stephens, a colleague of Herenton’s when the mayor was a teacher, principal, and superintendent. The tilt factor was the point where white-student enrollment fell off the table and a school went from mostly white or mixed to all black. Stephens put it at about 30 percent. He saw it happen dozens of times in the 1970s and ’80s, after the onset of busing and the Plan Z desegregation plan, which Stephens co-authored.

As a young superintendent, Herenton’s response to the tilt factor was to start and support the optional-schools program. Its purpose, as former Grahamwood Elementary School principal Margaret Taylor recalled last week, was “to keep all the white students from leaving the school system.” This is the same man who is now accused of driving Memphians away to DeSoto County.

Over the next 25 years, all but about 10,000 white students would leave anyway. But Herenton’s advocacy was crucial to getting the program started and defending it against opponents. His next big move as superintendent was to close 18 schools. His successors have been unable to close more than a handful of schools even though the combined enrollment (and more important, the number of graduates) of the four smallest city high schools is now less than the enrollment at either of the two largest high schools.

Herenton has said several times that more schools should be closed. He has recommended for at least 10 years full or partial city and county consolidation, with or without separate school systems. He proposed rebalancing city and county property taxes 10 years ago. He explored the sale of MLGW, whose pension obligations could one day outweigh the benefits of public ownership. All of these proposals were dropped, maybe because of Herenton and maybe because Memphis wasn’t at a tipping point.

Herenton’s crime proposals were, in part, a response to meetings with Memphis Tomorrow, an elite group of business leaders. Ken Glass, president of Memphis Tomorrow, said crime has taken on “greater urgency” and Herenton and Police Director Larry Godwin must use “known, proven ways” to fight it. The model will be New York City and the “broken windows” approach outlined in Gladwell’s book.

Herenton kept his own counsel and told the businessmen that crime was going to get worse before it gets better. He’ll need all the help he can get to sell his crime plan. By opposing a payroll tax and recommending efficiency studies but ducking consolidation, business groups have left the mayor and City Council no options besides a tax increase to pay for 650 more cops. Citing a big drop in the number of fire calls due to code improvements, some council members think fire stations can be closed to shift more money to police. But that was before last week’s rash of downtown fires.

At his best, Herenton can lead a New York-style turnaround in Memphis. At his worst, he could lose key supporters and his job.

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News The Fly-By

Police State

Don’t expect to see more police officers hitting the streets anytime soon.

Last month, Mayor W.W. Herenton announced a proposal to add 650 new officers to the Memphis Police Department, a move that came in response to an FBI report ranking Memphis the second most dangerous metro area in the country.

But if the City Council approves the 50-cent property tax hike needed to hire more cops, it may still be a few years before the extra officers will be able to make a dent in Memphis’ high crime rate.

It could take as long as two years to get officers from the first batch of recruits onto the streets as full-fledged officers, according to public information officer Vince Higgins.

“You have to recruit the first group, get their background checks and physicals, and get them pre-screened for the job,” says Higgins. “They’ll be at the police academy for 21 to 24 weeks, and they have a year of probation.”

Higgins says the first class would probably include 150 potential officers. Generally, only about 10 percent of applicants qualify for the academy.

The recruitment process — background checks, interviews, physicals, etc. — for the first 150 officers could take anywhere from three to six months. Then, the officers would attend the police academy for five to six months.

“Keep in mind there’s attrition in the class. Some fail the academics. Some fail the firearms. Some are injured during training,” says Higgins. “At the end of six months, we might end up with 125 officers graduating.”

Those who complete the training will enter a year-long probationary period, during which they’ll ride with a partner for nine months and continue to be monitored for another three.

City councilman Ricky Peete says the mayor’s proposal to hire 650 officers within two years is unreasonable given the time it takes to recruit and train.

“It’s highly unrealistic,” says Peete. “I think a much more manageable number is somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 new hires a year.”

Herenton’s proposed 50-cent tax hike includes funds for officer salaries, as well as necessary equipment: cars, uniforms, weapons, and electronic PDA systems.

Last week, the City Council asked the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission to review the mayor’s proposal.