Tag: Jeff Warren

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Politics Politics Feature

Apropos the Crisis

Among the consequences of the current pandemic is that various public events, some of them long-scheduled, are now off the calendar until some undefined future point — or canceled outright. There is, of course, a third option, involving reliance upon the various forms of virtual presence the cybernetic age has made possible.

An example of the latter is the Democrats’ selection of delegates to the party’s upcoming summer convention.

Local Democrats met at Kirby High School for two major-party presidential nominating conventions the weekend before last to choose “selectors” for the official party caucuses, which, for Democrats in the 9th Congressional District, were set for the same location this coming weekend. Those for the adjoining 8th District, which includes part of Memphis and Shelby County, were designated for the Carroll County Fairgrounds.

In either case, not anymore. Instead, the party will be conducting its delegate selection online at various times across the state on Saturday. Each candidate’s selectors will caucus on conference calls via separate phone lines. Procedures have not yet been decided on for at-large delegates and those in a P.L.E.O. category (for “party leaders and elected officials”).

political consultant Michael Life, City Councilman Dr. Jeff Warren, and state Representative Dwayne Thompson.

• When he made his successful race for the City Council Super District 9 last year, Jeff Warren, a physician, used medical metaphors for the improvements he proposed to bring to city government. “For a Healthier Memphis” was his catch-all slogan.

As a member of Mayor Jim Strickland‘s newly convened COVID Task Force, the councilman is now involved in such a clinical role in earnest. This week, he dispatched a prescription of sorts to constituents via email. Included in his recommendations:

1. Please do not panic and stockpile food and supplies. Our supply chain can provide what we need. Reach out to a neighbor and offer to sell or donate supplies if you did and this will allow our stores to restock and address everyone’s needs.

2. Practice social distancing and avoid crowds of any kind. Many restaurants and businesses are leading the way in removing tables and chairs, and the city is now limiting any gathering to fewer than 50 people. 

3. Wash your hands, practice good hygiene, and avoid touching your face.  

4. Stay home and avoid contact with as few people as possible until we have actual local data to see where we are on the epidemic curve.

Apropos the latter point, Warren was among the attendees at what may have been the last organized public political event to be held in these parts for a while, a fundraiser last week for Democratic state House District 97 candidate Allan Creasy, held in a back-tent area at Celtic Crossing, where Creasy serves as a bartender.

• Another legislative candidate, Jerri Green, a Democrat seeking the state House seat in District 83, suspended campaigning and also issued some similar online advice, part of which read as follows:

All of the following are looking for donations of goods, monetary gifts, and some even need volunteers to help: Mid-South Food Bank, Hope House Memphis, Dorothy Day House, Trinity United Methodist Church.

Then, look for other simple things you can do: Support your favorite small business or restaurant if you can now, or buy gift cards for later use.

Tip folks extra if you can. Uber Eats drivers, bartenders, baristas, you name it, they need it!

Find your local favorite musician’s latest album and BUY it. They will be booking fewer gigs.

Check on friends, neighbors, co-workers (text them!). This is intense, and we need to vent a little.

Say a prayer for RBG. Seriously.

What I won’t be doing during this time: campaigning. I won’t be fundraising or door-knocking or generally being a politician.

• Interesting message received from MoneyGeek, a start-up company proffering financial information and advice: In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, the White House recently released a statement announcing that it would once again seek to repeal Obamacare after the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments challenging the ACA. MoneyGeek recently completed a study analyzing the risk to patients with pre-existing conditions and found that over 12 million Americans could lose coverage, and that would include losing coverage for vaccines and treatment related to coronavirus. Tennessee would be one of the most impacted states if these laws change:
* Over 325,000 people (8.2 percent of the population of Tennessee), are either uninsured or on the ACA today, and have a declinable condition. This population would suffer the most, either losing coverage or having difficulty securing new coverage.

* 11 percent of the population is on ACA programs/direct-to-consumer insurance plans.

* Over 500,000 people (14.7 percent of the population) are currently uninsured.

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Politics Politics Feature

Council Switch; New House Speaker; Legislative Alteration

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

A decision by the presiding officials of the local AFL-CIO on Sunday to prohibit speeches by political candidates at their annual picnic at AFSCME headquarters downtown — even by those whom the union has chosen to endorse — has stirred some disquiet. Jackson Baker

Charley Burch (l) with K.C. and Jeff Warren

It has also prompted some action on the city-council-candidate front. Charley Burch reacted to the unprecedented acton by arranging a press conference for Monday afternoon involving himself, state Representative G.A. Hardaway, and fellow council candidate Jeff Warren. The purpose of the press conference?

Said Burch: “It’s to make the point that couldn’t get made at the picnic because we didn’t have the opportunity to say it — that those of us friendly to labor have to bond together in support of common goals.”

In Burch’s case, those common goals would be served by his using the Monday press conference to endorse Warren, who, along with Burch, Cody Fletcher, and Tyrone Romeo Franklin, is on the ballot for Position 3 in Council Super District 9. Presumably Burch would have availed himself on this option on Sunday if allowed to.

Eighth District Congressman David Kustoff addressed a National Federation of Small Business group at Regions Bank on Poplar last week and, as he has in the past, made a point of backing as many of President Trump’s initiatives as possible, including one that has been somewhat overlooked in the crescendo of recent political developments.

Said Kustoff: “An issue that I’m going to continue to fight on is the U.S., Mexico, Canada Agreement (CAFTA), which will replace the old NAFTA. The president renegotiated NAFTA, I think, to the betterment of the United States. Mexico’s ratified it. Canada’s ratified it. So we need Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi to put it on the floor. And the challenge that I see right now — should we go back on September 9th in Washington — is that we’ve got 41 legislative days or something like that.

“You’ve  got some Democrats who say they want to do it. But some who don’t, who say it’d be a win for Donald Trump. It’d be a win for the United States of America.  But that’s the mentality. That’s the mindset. And I’m concerned that with the presidential election, which is already in gear, that the longer she waits, the tougher it’s going to be to to get it to get it done.”

At the same NFIB meeting, state Representatives Ron Gant (R-Rossville) and Tom Leatherwood (R-Arlington) both attested to their belief that Representative Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), newly nominated by the majority Republican caucus to be speaker of the state House of Representatives, will be a positive antidote to the confusion and mistrust that accompanied the one year-reign as speaker of Glen Casada (R-Franklin), who lost a vote of confidence in his caucus to remain in that position of leadership.

Gant told an affecting story about how Casada called him to the front of the assembled House in the last session and tried unsuccessfully to get him to change his No vote on the issue of private-school vouchers. Eventually, the then-speaker did manage to get another representative to change his vote, breaking the tie and allowing the voucher measure to progress.

As it happens, new Speaker Sexton was a No voter on the issue and has expressed a desire to postpone implementation of the new voucher law, which, as written, applies only to Shelby and Davidson counties. Gant allowed as how he thought some “tweaking” on the law might occur in the 2020 legislative session, which begins in January.

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Politics Politics Feature

Council Race Switcheroo; Tax Rate Questioned

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Petitions for elective positions on the October 3rd city of Memphis ballot continue to be pulled, and there has been one major surprise of late — a switch of intent on the part of city council candidate Cody Fletcher, who has withdrawn his petition for the Super-District 9, Position 1 council seat and has picked up another petition for the Super-District 9, Position 3 seat.

The change does not alter the geographical location that Fletcher, a University of Memphis development specialist, hopes to represent, but it certainly shakes up the dynamics of races for the two council positions.

Jackson Baker

Criminal Court Clerk Heidi Kuhn (right) was recently presented with a “Good Samaritan” Award from the County Commission for her heroic life-saving efforts at the scene of a traffic accident. Commissioner Reginald Milton does the honors.

Fletcher’s withdrawal from the Position 1 race basically leaves that contest a one-on-one between two major contenders, Shelby County Schools teacher Erika Sugarmon and developer Chase Carlisle. Previously, Sugarmon, daughter of the late African-American legal eminence Russell Sugarmon, was in a position to take advantage of vote-splitting between Fletcher and Carlisle, who drew on similar East Memphis business constituencies.

Fletcher now finds himself essentially in a mano-a-mano battle for the Position 3 seat with Jeff Warren. It remains to be seen whether the shift, recommended by consultant Brian Stephens, who advises both Fletcher and Carlisle, actually increases Fletcher’s chances since he and Warren, an early and well-established entry in this year’s election, also draw upon similar bases of support.

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• As previously noted in this space, the Shelby County Commission managed last week to approve both a budget and a tax rate, thereby beating the timetable of preceding commissions, which generally were still wrangling well past July 1st, the traditional beginning of a new fiscal year.

One longtime observer of county government isn’t so sure that such promptness was called for or even desirable. Jimmie Covington, longtime reporter on Shelby County government for The Commercial Appeal, before his retirement some years back, still keeps a close watch on county affairs.

In a Facebook post, Covington wrote: “Did the Shelby County Commission act contrary to state law when it approved this year’s county property tax rate on third and final reading on Monday, June 24? For 30 years or so, the commission has been setting the tax rate after July 1 of each year.

“One year, when the late Vasco Smith was serving on the commission, commissioners set the rate before July 1. Smith, who objected to the move, filed a lawsuit in which he charged that state law prevented the county from setting the rate before July 1. Smith won the lawsuit.

“Every year since then, the county has been holding third reading on the rate after July 1. Last year, the rate was set on July 9. … With a new county mayor, new county attorney, and eight new commissioners in office this year, did a mistake occur?”

Covington cites state law: section §67-1-701(a) [our italics].

“Establishment of county tax rate: It is the duty of the county legislative bodies, on the first Monday in July, or as soon thereafter as practicable, to fix the tax rates on all properties within their respective jurisdictions for all county purposes, except that in any county having a population in excess of seven hundred thousand (700,000) … establishing tax due dates other than the first Monday in October each year, in accordance with §67-1-701(a), shall have the authority to fix tax rates for all county purposes at dates prior to the first Monday in July.”

Apropos the seeming loophole of that last clause, Covington notes, “The due date for collecting taxes in Shelby County has not been changed from the first Monday in October.”

Hmmm. “No foul, no penalty” is our guess.

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Politics Politics Feature

They’re Off! Warren Files; Casada to Resign

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Jeff Warren, who may have been the first person, several months ago, to float a City Council candidacy for the 2019 Memphis general election, on Monday became the first candidate to pull a petition for office from the Election Commission. As he had indicated he would do, Warren, a primary care physician, is running for Position 3 in the Council’s Super District 9.

And Warren, who had previously served as a member of the Memphis School Board from 2005 to 2013, has what would seem to be a blue-chip organization to steer his campaign. He has named three campaign co-chairs — 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen, Desi Franklin, and Kelly Fish, with Fish serving as campaign manager. Warren has a campaign treasury of more than $100,000 already, and a campaign treasurer in Milner Stanton. In a press release, the candidate also announced that he has a 31-member steering committee and listed the following names of supporters: Ron Belz, Joey Beckford, Andrea Bicks, Steve Cohen, Kathy Fish, Scott Fleming, George Flinn, Desi Franklin, Tom Gettlefinger, Joe Getz, Kate Gooch, Mitch Graves, Althea Greene, Shawn Hayden, Dorsey Hopson, Kashif Latif, Sara Lewis, Tom Marshall, Reginald Milton, Herman Morris, Billy Orgel, Autry Parker, Chooch Pickard, Jack Sammons, Frank Smith, Diane Thornton, Henry Turley, Jefferson Warren, Nicole Warren, A C Wharton, and Dynisha Woods.

Jackson Baker

Cody and Steven Fletcher

The list is, as Warren indicates, highly diverse — “a great slice of Memphis,” as he puts it. “On my steering committee, I count Democrats and Republicans, blacks and whites, straights and LGBTs, young and old; they all have one thing in common — a love for Memphis. I look forward to all of us working together toward a healthy Memphis.”

Warren, who would seem to be prepared in-depth, may well have the Position 3 race to himself, though another early-bird candidate, developer Chase Carlisle, is also expected to file for one of the Super District 9 positions, as is University of Memphis development officer Cody Fletcher, who has indicated he will run for the Position 1 seat in District 9.

The Position 1 and Position 3 seats are open, inasmuch as they are now occupied by two-term incumbents — Council Chair Kemp Conrad and Reid Hedgepeth, respectively, both of whom are term-limited and cannot run again. The incumbent in Super District 9, Position 3, is Ford Canale, who won appointment to his seat last year and later won a special election. He is expected to run again.

Jackson Baker

Election Commission

Now that petitions for office in the forthcoming election are available (as of Monday), a flood of new candidacies is expected over the next several weeks. Filing deadline is noon on Thursday, June 20th, for all positions in the October 3rd Memphis municipal election. Withdrawal deadline for candidates is June 27th at noon.

• Though his initial instinct on Monday was to respond in the negative to the latest call for his resignation as speaker of the Tennessee House — this time from members of the House Republican caucus — Glen Casada (R-Franklin), has finally capitulated. He first indicated in a statement on Monday that he intended to remain in office, despite a lopsided 45-24 vote against him by his fellow House Republicans.

The last straw for Casada was Monday’s caucus vote, which was followed almost immediately by a statement from Republican Governor Bill Lee that the governor would call a special session of the legislature to consider the matter of Casada’s tenure if the beleaguered speaker resisted resignation. “Today, House Republicans sent a clear message,” Lee said.

The vote, the governor’s statement, and calls for Casada’s withdrawal from other members of the Republicans’ legislative leadership — including House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) and Senate Speaker/Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) — finally made that message clear.

As indicated, Casada’s first response to the caucus vote had been one of continued resistance. “I’m disappointed in the results of today’s caucus vote,” the speaker said on Monday. “However, I will work the next few months to regain the confidence of my colleagues so we can continue to build on the historic conservative accomplishments of this legislative session.”

That statement was supplanted on Tuesday by this one: “When I return to town on June 3rd, I will meet with caucus leadership to determine the best date for me to resign as speaker so that I can facilitate a smooth transition.”

GOP House members have indicated they intend at some early point to conduct a new internal election to pick a new speaker.

Though the pressure on Casada to resign as speaker (he will presumably remain as a House member) had mounted steadily over the weeks, his ordeal is only a month old. It arose from revelations that his main aide, Cade Cothren, was guilty of multiple sexual harassments, some against interns, and of expressing racist and misogynistic attitudes in emails that came to light. Cothren also admitted having snorted cocaine on state premises and was suspected of altering a date on an email to Casada from a protester so as to make it appear that the protestor had violated a no-contact judicial order.

Though he quickly jettisoned his aide, Casada himself had become implicated in some of these issues, including a suspicion that he and Cothren had electronically spied on House members. Emails between himself and Cothren also surfaced, rife with sexist jesting and misogynistic attitudes. Casada, who had just concluded his first session as speaker, had also run afoul of criticism for having appointed state Representative David Byrd (R-Waynesboro), an accused pedophile, to an education subcommittee chairmanship.

Prior to the negative vote by his own House caucus, Casada was the subject of formal repudiations from the House Democratic Caucus and from the Legislative Black Caucus.

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Politics Politics Feature

The Swinging Door

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

As one election, a national one, finally heads to an end (with votes still being counted here and there), the next process of electoral transition is underway, locally.

This week, an abbreviated one because of the Thanksgiving holiday, sees the beginning of turnover on the Memphis City Council. Of the body’s 13 available seats, three will be spoken for during the next few weeks. Those are the ones that were scheduled for vacating as of August 2nd, when three council members — Bill Morrison in District 1, Edmund Ford Jr. in District 6, and Janis Fullilove in Super District 8, Position 2 —  won elections for positions in Shelby County government.

Jackson Baker

Jeff Warren

At the Flyer‘s press time on Tuesday, the first of these seats — that of Morrison, who was elected Probate Court clerk — was due for reappointment that evening by vote of council. The applicants were Paul Boyd, Mauricio Calvo, Faye Morrison, Tierra Holloway, Rhonda Logan, Danielle Schonbaum, and Lonnie Treadway.

The seats currently held by Ford and Fullilove will be filled next. Fullilove, now Juvenile Court clerk, has announced her resignation, effective November 23rd, and Ford’s resignation will take effect two days later, on November 25th. Applicants for either seat must submit proof of their residency, a resume, a letter of interest, a sworn affidavit, and a nominating petition with 25 signatures of registered voters in the relevant district.

Registration packets for the two seats will be available as of noon next Monday, November 26th, and the deadline for filing applications is Thursday, December 13th. The council is expected to vote on filling the two seats at its meeting on December 18th.

The seats held by Morrison, Ford, and Fullilove became points of controversy following the August 2nd election, when local activists insisted in vain that the council members resign their positions soon enough to permit the inclusion of their vacated seats on the November 6th election ballot. Instead, the three members chose to continue occupying their council seats for nearly the full 90 days post-election that the city charter permitted — a fact making it necessary to fill the seats by appointment and giving the remaining council members the say-so over replacing the departing members.

Ford, now a member of the Shelby County Commission, was even deputized by commission chair Van Turner to serve as a de facto liaison between the two local legislative bodies.

The councilman’s forthcoming resignation is not the only change on his horizon. He was named financial literacy coordinator for Memphis Public Libraries last week, and, as he informed his fellow commission members on Monday, Ford’s employment as a teacher in the Shelby County Schools system would end on Wednesday of this week — a fact permitting him to vote without recusal on an issue affecting school funding.

Ultimately, all 13 council seats, including the three being filled between now and year’s end, will be up for grabs in the 2019 city election scheduled for next October. At least one seat, the one for Super District 9, Position 3, now held by Councilman Reid Hedgepeth, has already drawn a challenger.

Seeking the seat will be Jeff Warren, a physician who served on the old Memphis City Schools board that went out of existence with the merger of Memphis and Shelby County systems. Warren was a member of the Memphis board minority that resisted the crucial vote of December 20, 2010, to surrender the MCS charter.

“I believe we are on the verge of turning a corner in Memphis,” Warren said in announcing his candidacy. “We  have had many recent successes, despite our long-term challenges. We have been pushing educational growth and do not need to let up. Mayor Strickland will continue to need support and advice to increase job growth.”

• The county commission acted decisively on a number of matters at its Monday meeting. Especially noteworthy were a vote on authorizing a TIF (tax increment financing project) for a forthcoming Lakeland Commons development and a vote resolving a holdover schism regarding the ongoing opioid crisis between former county Mayor Mark Luttrell and the commission that expired with the August 2nd election.

There were several aspects to the divide between Luttrell and the commission, who engaged in a more or less continuous power struggle, but the opioid matter was the matter with the most relevance to the community at large.

The disagreement arose last year when then commission chair Heidi Shafer, supported by other commission members, availed herself of clauses in the county charter that, she argued, allowed her to contract for legal action against various parties, including physicians and pharmaceutical companies, involved in the over-distribution of opioids in Shelby County.

Shafer’s action arose from her conviction, shared by former chair Terry Roland and a majority of other members, that opioid abuse had become rampant to the point of causing serious damage to Shelby Countians and that the Luttrell administration had been slow in pursuing remedial action.

Unsurprisingly, Luttrell disagreed and, putting forth his own plan of action, insisted that the county charter left the authority for pursuing legal remedies entirely in his hands.

What ensued was a back-and-forth between the two branches of county government that required several hearings in Chancery Court and would not be fully resolved until agreement on coordinated action was reached between new Mayor Lee Harris and the new commission, culminating in the vote on Monday, authorizing a settlement.

Shafer, who would receive several testimonials of appreciation from commission members, was present for the vote and expressed her pleasure that no more intramural acrimony would be occurring and “we can concentrate on dealing with the bad guys.”

The Lakeland matter, involving a $48 million development at the site of an abandoned remainder mall, drew attendees from both sides of the recently concluded municipal election in Lakeland, with Mayor-elect Mike Cunningham and supporters asking the commission for a delay of two weeks on approving the TIF, giving the new administration time to acquaint itself with the details of a project that had been strongly favored by the administration of outgoing Mayor Wyatt Bunker.

The commission approved the TIF 9-2, after noting that authority for continuing with the project would still rest with the Lakeland city government.

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Opinion

Smarter than a Fifth Grader? Maybe Not on TCAP Test

Chris Barbic, ASD superintendent

  • Chris Barbic, ASD superintendent

What I would love to see is the TCAP test for elementary school kids given to a random sample of adults in Tennessee. I bet a lot of them would fail it, or make a score far below what the state considers “proficient” in science, reading, and math.

Not because the adults are dumb but because school knowledge and test-taking skill are not the same as being a successful functioning member of society. Are you smarter than a fifth-grader? The answer is probably yes and no.

As you probably know by now if you are reading this, the TCAP scores for the six schools in the Achievement School District came out Wednesday. Five of the schools are in Memphis. Students improved in science and math, but the number of students deemed proficient in reading dropped by 4.5 percent to just 13.6 percent overall.

“It’s the first year the kids have been held to a higher standard, and I think we need to continue to give the ASD our support,” said school board member Dr. Jeff Warren.

Said board member Kenneth Whalum Jr., “The fact that some TCAP testing areas show improvement among ASD students proves that student achievement isn’t rocket science. Focused attention, additional resources, smaller class sizes, and parental involvement usually enhance a poor student’s ability to perform well in school. It also shows that “teaching to the test” works well. The fact that the Reading scores are down, as I understand it, proves that there is no guarantee that a child’s comprehension skills are bettered by any measure aside from improving the home life of the child, as home is where
communication skills are honed.”

I agree with both of these gentlemen.

The ability to read can’t be faked, at least not on a standardized test. Most kids from reasonably well-to-do families learn to do it before they are in the third grade, with lots of help from family members. Kids who can’t read a lick by then are screwed, and so is the teacher whose job rating depends on making them “proficient”. My first job was teaching reading in Nashville, using flash cards, menus, road signs, and a baby book about “Cowboy Bob” to try to teach embarrassed teenagers how to read. Despite having the smallest classes in the school, I would not have made the ASD cut by a mile. Such is the road to journalism.

Basic literacy might not be enough to achieve “proficiency” because reading comprehension questions about random passages can be baffling and prompt a “don’t have a clue” reaction. Reading for survival, entertainment, and spiritual sustenance has little relationship to the goofy questions that show up on tests and compare-and-contrast theme assignments.

Math is a code. If you have a fourth-grader or have ever been one, you know the tipping point is simple fractions, percentages, and relationships. Give Archimedes a lever and a place to stand he could move the world. Give a teacher a pizza, a pizza cutter, and a reasonable class size and he/she can move the scores. If you don’t know what one-fourth means, much less that it is the same as 25 percent, you’re screwed. Algebra? Bet there are plenty of college-educated business professionals who would flunk Algebra I today if they haven’t been in a classroom in decades.

Science, I suspect, is a statistical outlier because it is rarely if ever taught at all in some failing schools, so any exposure at all, combined with practice testing, is likely to increase test scores.

So give the ASD some slack, and I hope the ASD gives its teachers some slack too, because longer hours and higher demands and drill and kill are going to turn classrooms into “sweat shops” as Kriner Cash said and drive them out of teaching, where most of them are badly needed.