Tag: Jim Strickland

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Politics Politics Feature

First Licks in the Tennessee 8th District

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

As introductory campaign events go, the forum for 8th District congressional candidates held Tuesday night last week by the East Shelby Republican Club at Germantown’s Pickering Center was somewhat tentative — as most such debut cattle calls are — but it contained plenty of foreshadowing of the slings and arrows to come.

Four of the main GOP players were there — state Senator Brian Kelsey, radiologist/radio executive George Flinn, Shelby County Register of Deeds Tom Leatherwood, and advertising man/consultant Brad Greer of Jackson. Missing among the touted contenders were former U.S. Attorney David Kustoff and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell.

The outlier of the group, both geographically and, to a large extent, philosophically, was Greer, whose chances for prevailing are maybe not quite as good as those of then state Senator Marsha Blackburn when she ran for the 7th congressional seat in 2002 against three Shelby Countians— the aforesaid Kustoff, then Shelby County Commissioner (now state Senator) Mark Norris, and then Memphis City Councilman Brent Taylor. 

Blackburn, whose home base was Brentwood in Williamson County, campaigned well across the 7th District, even in Shelby County. She would win easily, taking advantage of the split vote among Shelby County natives, none of whom exactly ran like a house afire anyway.

But if Greer’s public image is not as well honed as was Blackburn’s, who at the time was one of the preeminent leaders of the anti-income tax movement in Tennessee, he has even more opponents from Shelby County than had Blackburn in 2002, and thus can count on an even more advantageous split.

Jackson Baker

(l to r) Brad Greer, George Flinn, Brian Kelsey, and Tom Leatherwood in Germantown

Flinn, Kelsey, Kustoff, Luttrell, and Leatherwood (to list them in the order of their campaign financial holdings) could very well divide the vote in their home county of Shelby, wherein resides 55 percent of the 8th District electorate. And that could pave the way for an upset victory for Greer, whose Madison County bailiwick is closer to the traditional heartland of the District, which since 2010 has been served by Crockett County resident Stephen Fincher, who is voluntarily relinquishing the seat.

That might especially be the case if the 8th District votes according to the same pattern as in March on Super Tuesday, when the distribution of votes for the hotly contested Republican presidential primary was, according to Greer, 60 percent in the non-Shelby part of the district and only 40 percent in the Shelby County bailiwick of Flinn, Kelsey, Kustoff, Luttrell, and Leatherwood.

To be sure, Greer has some competition of his own among fellow Jacksonians Hunter Baker, David Bault, and George Howell, none of whom, however, have raised much money at this point or figure to run well-supported races. And prominent Madison County kingmaker Jimmy Wallace, a major force behind Fincher, is putting his eggs this time in the basket, not of Greer, but of Kelsey, who also has good support and fund-raising potential in the Memphis area.

For the record, candidate cash on hand, as of the first-quarter reporting period, was: Flinn, $2,930,885; Kelsey, $439,005; Kustoff, $319,682; Luttrell, $144,570; and Greer, $103,713. No one else had amassed $100,000, or anything close to it. (And Flinn’s total should be taken with a grain — or perhaps an airplane hangar — of salt. Like Donald Trump at the presidential level, he is wealthy enough to self-finance, and, unlike The Donald, actually does so to a substantial degree; he does minimal fund-raising as such.)

All of the foregoing is a recap of the basic paper facts. Last week’s forum at the Pickering Center gave a partial foreshadowing of how the race might be run and of some of the intangibles involved. Herewith are some (admittedly sketchy) reviews of how and what the participating candidates did:

First up was Greer, who established the fact that he represented rural Tennesseans and had handled 18 West Tennessee counties in the 2006 U.S. Senatorial race for Republican victor Bob Corker. He distinguished himself from the others when an audience member asked about trade policy, and Greer wasted no time blasting away, Trump-like at the purportedly ruinous effects of various free-trade pacts on ordinary working folk. “I don’t give a good rat’s ass about other countries before my fellow countrymen,” Greer declared, in what may have been the line of the night.

Flinn was next, and right away declared his fealty to presumptive GOP presidential nominee Trump. He went on to express, as he does in his now-frequently-appearing TV ads, some of the well-worn GOP shibboleths of recent years, fretting that “we’re being killed by entitlements,” and promising to “represent you to D.C., not D.C. to you.” (I can’t help fantasizing about what would happen if the genial and accomplished Flinn dispensed with such pedantic bromides and let fly something defiant about the independence secured by his self-financing, a la “If you like Trump, you’ll love me!”)

Kelsey was third to speak, and in his allotted two-minute introductory spiel, he must have used the self-defining phrase “proven conservative” perhaps 50 times. Okay, that’s hyperbole, but variations on the phrase dominated his brief remarks to an overwhelming degree. In fairness, he did get to elaborate on his record during the Q-and-A portion of the evening, touting his sponsorship of a constitutional amendment to ban a state income tax and his enmity-to-the-death for Medicaid expansion.

Most compellingly, Kelsey signaled his willingness and intent in the future to attack the absent Luttrell, a supporter of Governor Bill Haslam’s ill-fated “Insure Tennessee” proposal: “We have Republicans in this very race who supported extending Obamacare.” And later: “As I mentioned before, we have Republicans who want to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.” 

And there was Leatherwood, whose hold on his county register’s job owes much to a neighborly demeanor and a competent, customer-knows-best attitude but who, when running for offices of partisan consequence, prefers to present himself as some kind of avenging Robespierre of the Right. He vies with Kelsey in his contempt for “socialism” and regard for “free enterprise” and, on matters of education policy, gave notice of his wish to purify both state (“Frankly, TNReady is merely Common Core by another name”) and nation, promising to support the abolition of the Department of Education.

In brief, Flinn, Kelsey, and Leatherwood all essentially stuck to well-worn Republican talking points, and Greer evinced at least some disposition, in this year of Trump and Sanders mass assemblies, to go yellow dog.

The next forum for these Republican contenders is scheduled for this Thursday night in Dyersburg.

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News The Fly-By

City Opens Up Mid-South Coliseum for Review

CREDIT: Brandon Dill

The Mid-South Coliseum’s structural challenges are “solvable and certainly not insurmountable,” according to some who have toured the shuttered facility last week. City officials will open the building up to preservationist groups next week.

The Coliseum has been in “full shut-down” since about 2006, meaning limited utilities and no heating or cooling. The building was targeted for demolition last year in an overall plan that would have transformed the Mid-South Fairgrounds into a youth sports destination. 

It seems that plan has been at least temporarily shelved as its main booster — former Housing and Community Development director Robert Lipscomb — was fired last year in the wake of a rape scandal. 

But before that, two grassroots groups — the Coliseum Coalition and Save the Mid-South Coliseum — were fighting to save the building from the wrecking ball. They organized community members and hosted special events around the building to show its potential.      

Brandon Dill

A look inside the Mid-South Coliseum

On Friday, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced he will allow citizen groups access to the Coliseum to evaluate the building’s potential for renovation. Those groups must bring with them qualified inspection experts like architects, engineers, or consultants specializing in sports and entertainment facilities, historic preservation, or those versed in the American with Disabilities Act (ADA).

All of them must sign a waiver, releasing the city of all liability from any harm caused due to potential hazardous materials or conditions in and around the building. Those tours are offered for the five days between June 6th and 10th in four-hour blocks. Groups can do up to two tours per day.

One group has already toured the Coliseum. Last week, architect Charles “Chooch” Pickard led a team from brg3s architects, SSR Engineering, Code Solutions Group, the Memphis Center for Independent Living, and Restoration Clean to examine the building. Experts tested everything from the building’s plumbing system to its mold and air quality. The team was assembled by the Coliseum Coalition and Save the Mid-South Coliseum.   

“I’m delighted that after spending three hours looking at all of the challenges, our team’s preliminary opinion was that the issues were solvable and certainly not insurmountable,” Pickard said. “When creative minds come together to create solutions to the challenges in old buildings, it often leads to a change in perception about the feasibility of renovating a historic structure.”

Still, city officials have not yet made a firm commitment to saving the building. However, the tours show they are willing to at least explore the idea. 

The Coliseum was closed in 2006 after losing more than $1 million in the last four years of its active life. Fixing the building, too, carried a big price tag. 

Bringing it to ADA compliance alone would cost $8.6 million, according to a 2009 study from OT Marshall Architects. After fixing the roof, flooring, kitchens, sprinklers, drywall, and everything else, the total cost to bring the building back to life was $32.8 million, according to the study. 

The Urban Land Institue recommended the Coliseum be saved or “at least part of the structure or its shell [be saved] for reuse as an indoor facility with a larger outdoor stage,” the group said in a November study of the building and the Fairgrounds.

Plans for the Coliseum and the Fairgrounds remain in flux as a new mayor and nearly new Memphis City Council begin to put their stamps on city issues. Also, a new grassroots organization — Friends of the Fairgrounds — are organizing efforts for civic input around the future of that massive space.

Doug McGowen, the city’s chief operating officer, said the Strickland administration have not yet committed to any plan for the Fairgrounds. 

“We are reviewing the previous [Lipscomb] plan along with the [Urban Land Institue] recommendations before advancing any plan,” read a statement from Strickland’s office.

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News News Blog

Animal Advocacy Groups Approve of New Shelter Director

Mayor Jim Strickland and MAS Director Alexis Pugh

Both Community Action for Animals and S.O.S. Memphis (Save Our Shelter) expressed their approval for Mayor Jim Strickland’s appointment of Alexis Pugh to run Memphis Animal Services (MAS). Strickland introduced Pugh in a press conference at MAS Friday afternoon.

Pugh served as the executive director of Mid-South Spay & Neuter Services, a low-cost spray/neuter clinic, for the past year. She’ll be replacing former MAS director James Rogers, who was fired in December as Strickland reorganized his personnel after taking office. 

“Save Our Shelter Memphis is very supportive of Mayor Strickland’s decision to appoint Ms. Pugh to the director of MAS,” said Sylvia Cox with S.O.S. “She has great experience. She’s local. She knows the history of MAS, and she understands those issues and what’s been going on, which gives her a better perspective on how to make changes more quickly than someone who may have come in from out of town.”

Community Action for Animals released a statement praising Pugh as “a trained, progressive, compassionate, and intelligent director, a director who loves animals and is aware of the pros and cons of our animal services, and who will hold the staff accountable, support, and encourage spay/neuter, properly assess the animals, and make certain euthanasia, when needed, is performed humanely.”

Pugh identifies herself as “an animal advocate and an animal lover.” She has three rescue dogs, and she’s fostered many others.

Pugh is taking on a shelter that’s been widely criticized over the years for its high euthanasia rate. Although Rogers managed to get pet adoption numbers up and euthanasia numbers down during his tenure, his critics argued that animal intake rates dropped, and they contended that was the real reason for lower euthanasia rates. Pugh said she will focus on ensuring that the field officers — those charged with picking up stray animals, responding to calls, and investigating cruelty — are doing their jobs.

“I think there will be an emphasis on every aspect of operation and certainly field officers are no exception to that,” Pugh said at the Friday press conference. “We’re going to expect them to perform their jobs to the performance level that they can just like everyone else here. And if that means that we need to increase the number of calls they’re responding to, if we need to monitor the number of calls they’re responding to, if we need to look more closely at how they’re handling those cases and if they’re taking cases to court, all of those are parts of their job that we’re going to be reviewing just like every other staff member here. If your job description identifies something as part of your role, you’re going to be held to that.”

Also, under Roger’s administration, a number of “clerical errors” led to several animals being mistakenly put down. Pugh said she has a goal of finding ways to improve processes at MAS to prevent accidental deaths.

“I know there’s an excellent software program in place here, but until I start and get in, I’m not going to know where those challenges lie from a logistics and administration standpoint, but if we’re finding there are processes that are causing errors to be made, then my goal will be to find ways to improve those processes so my staff has clear direction on how to do their job and how to successfully do it without clerical errors causing the loss of lives,” Pugh said.

Cox urged animal advocates to be patient with Pugh and give her time to turn the shelter around.

“SOS encourages all animal advocates to give her the time and the opportunity to get started, to do the research she was discussing, to learn what goes on, and to analyze that and come up the positive changes that are needed to be made,” Cox said. “That will take time. It doesn’t happen over night.” 

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News News Blog

Strickland Names New Memphis Animal Services Director

Alexis Pugh

Alexis Pugh has been named the new director of Memphis Animal Services (MAS) , according to a Facebook update from Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.

Pugh served as the executive director of Mid-South Spay & Neuter Services, a low-cost spray/neuter clinic, for the past year. She’ll be replacing former MAS director James Rogers, who was fired in December as Strickland reorganized his personnel after taking office. Although Rogers managed to get pet adoption numbers up and euthanasia numbers down during his tenure, his critics argued that animal intake rates also dropped while he was in charge, which they contended was the real reason for lower euthanasia rates. A number of “clerical errors,” as Rogers called them, during his time there led to several animals being mistakenly put down.

At Mid-South Spay & Neuter Services, Pugh was responsible for overseeing and managing all clinic operations. And during her time there, the organization increased surgical productivity by 11 percent and generated more than $50,000 in new donor and grant-funding, according to Strickland. Before serving in that role, Pugh was the executive director of the Humane Society of Memphis & Shelby County.

Pugh will start her new position next month. She will report directly to city Chief Operating Officer Doug McGowen. Previously, the MAS director reported to the director of the Division of Parks and Neighborhoods.

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News The Fly-By

Strickland Vows to Make City Friendlier for Breastfeeding Moms

Trinity Poole’s tattoo

On Trinity Poole’s bicep, there’s a tattoo of a mother breastfeeding her child in a ring sling. It symbolizes dual passions — breastfeeding and baby wearing.

“I got it because those two things have been a very big part of bonding with my son,” said Poole, 36, who has an 18-month-old son and a daughter due in October. “My first resource was my sister Meredith, who became passionate about nursing in public and breastfeeding rights when she had her youngest daughter. It sparked an interest in me.”

Mayor Jim Strickland recently signed a pledge to make Memphis a more supportive environment for breastfeeding mothers. Immediate steps include a lactation support policy for city offices, which would require designated storage for breast milk in workplace refrigerators and an employee orientation. And eventually, the policy will lead to the opening of lactation rooms at City Hall. Strickland did not respond to a request for comment.

If 90 percent of mothers exclusively breastfed for six months, the United States would save $13 billion and 911 lives per year, a Cambridge Health Alliance found. Though infant mortality stems from widespread issues, breastfeeding is known to lower the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Enter the Shelby County Breastfeeding Coalition, an advocacy group comprised of nurses, certified lactation consultants, breastfeeding peer counselors, dietitians, nutritionists, and, of course, mothers.

“Breastfeeding is important because of the significant health benefits,” said Coalition Chair Allison Stiles, a physician who practices breastfeeding medicine. “There’s less of all types of infections for the baby: less infant mortality, less obesity, less Type 1 and 2 Diabetes. As well as for mom — fewer sick days, lower insurance costs, less breast cancer, Type 2 Diabetes, and less obesity.”

Shelby County reports some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the United States and an infant mortality rate that has long exceeded national numbers. The Centers for Disease Control’s target infant mortality rate is six deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2014, Shelby County’s rate dropped from around 14.9 to 9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births — the lowest in the last 100 years.

Though Tennessee has laws in place to support and protect breastfeeding mothers, the Coalition goes to bat when those laws are violated, Stiles said. They once had a case where a mother was told she couldn’t nurse at a daycare. Another mom was told she couldn’t breastfeed at a downtown courthouse. There’s also a lack of opportunity at the workplace — though Tennessee laws require flexible time for mothers to pump in a private space.

Aside from Papua New Guinea, the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t require employers to offer paid maternity leave. Staggering, more so, when considering that mothers supply the primary income for 40 percent of U.S. families with children 18-years-old or younger, the Pew Research Center found.

“Many moms return to work in as little as two weeks,” Stiles said. “It’s hard to see returning to work and pumping. How is a mom who works in the hub, a warehouse, the tarmac, or at McDonald’s going to imagine pumping? [Memphis] needs to be sure all city facilities have lactation access, not just City Hall. … One big area of opportunity is in a more supportive maternity leave policy.”

Meanwhile, the breastfeeding coalition and other advocates are doing all they can to make breastfeeding in public more commonplace. Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women is sponsoring what may turn out to be the largest breastfeeding event in the city this year. On August 6th at Trinity Baptist Church, breastfeeding moms from across the Mid-South will come together for Latch On Memphis, an attempt to break the record for the most mothers simultaneously nursing.

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News News Blog

Strickland Announces Demolition for Blighted French Fort Hotel

A crumbling, long-vacant hotel that has greeted I-55 travelers for years as they first enter Memphis will be demolished by September 1st, according to a consent order from the Shelby County Environmental Court.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland — flanked by Memphis City Council members, French Fort residents, and the building’s owner Lauren Crews — made the announcement on Wednesday afternoon in the shadow of the boarded-up, five-story hotel that’s situated just a couple blocks away from the National Ornamental Metal Museum.

“Our administration facilitated an agreement that will lead to its demolition. This has been an eyesore to the neighborhood and passers-by on I-55 for 30 years,” Strickland said.

Crews said he purchased the property from an out-of-state owner several years ago because he didn’t want to see a non-Memphian do anything undesirable with the property.

“I’ve never been a proud owner of this building. I purchased it to protect the neighborhood. I didn’t want anyone to do anything with it that wouldn’t be advantageous to the neighborhood,” Crews said.

Crews owns quite a bit of land in the French Fort neighborhood, including the long-abandoned Marine Hospital that sits next door to the Metal Museum. Crews said he would eventually like to develop some of the abandoned properties, including the Marine Hospital, into new, mixed-use and residential property.

Crews had originally planned on reusing the old hotel building by fixing it up and turning it into new residential space. But he said the long-stalled Tennessee Department of Transportation Crump Boulevard/I-55 Interchange project has held up his ability to get financing for that project. After the hotel is demolished, Crews hopes to eventually develop the empty land.

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News News Blog

Council Axes Private Guards at City Hall, MPD

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland wants to use armed guards from a private company to secure Memphis City Hall and the new Memphis Police Department (MPD) headquarters but Memphis City Council members axed the plan.

Strickland’s 2017 budget included $650,000 for the new guards, instead of using officers from MPD. Antonio Adams, director of the city’s general services division, said the plan would put those police officers back on the street.

He said the plan was vetted and approved by former MPD director Toney Armstrong and by current interim director Michael Rallings.

But council members beat back at the plan, noting that the mayor has police protection and that they (council members) deserved the same, not “rent-a-cops or flashlight cops,” said council member Berlin Boyd.

The armed guards would have guns, Adams said. Also, the move would not remove the mayor’s detail nor would it remove the council’s officer. It is only the officers at the entrances to the buildings.

“So, everybody’s dead,” said council member Joe Brown. “Am I correct?”

The council defeated a similar move in A C Wharton’s budget last year.

Adams said he’d at least like to keep $400,000 in the budget this year for armed guards at the new MPD headquarters at the former state building at 170 North Main. He said MPD officials have “emphatically stated that they (MPD) will not be armed security at” that building.

The MPD headquarters, Adams said, needed 24-hour security as a whole host of of different people – suspects, victims, and family members – would enter the building at all hours.

Boyd countered that MPD headquarters is also filled with trained, armed police officers.

“They all have guns on their hips,” Boyd said. “I don’t have a gun on my hip. They can have all the security they want.”

Adams repeated the move was approved by MPD officials but Brown said “I don’t buy that,” noting that Armstrong was likely under pressure from Wharton at the time.

In a sprawling statement to help defeat the move, Brown described a new American tension, in which people are angry at government and “are not afraid to shoot guns now” and reminded that a man broke windows at Memphis City Hall recently.

“Around the country, I’ve seen officers shot up at precincts,” Brown said. “I’ve seen elected officials shot in St. Louis. For a few pennies, we’re not going to drop our guard [at City Hall].

“We’re in trouble. The average citizen is angry at anything that happens at City Hall.”

Brown ended his statements by noting that “in reality [MPD] can’t even secure Orange Mound” and that the city council “is going to stay protected, I don’t care what you [Adams], or the mayor or what anybody says.”

While Adams pleaded his case for the funds, council members eventually removed the money from the budget. Councilman Worth Morgan voted against taking the money out of the budget.

The amendment could be changed, however. All of the budget amendments made during the council’s budget review aren’t final until the council approves a final budget, which will probably come some time later in June.

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Toby Sells’ post “Greensward Protest Caused ‘Almost Irreparable Harm'” …

A recent statement from the Memphis Zoo to the Flyer regarding last weekend’s protest on the Greensward was filled with false insinuations, half-truths, and outright lies, and I cannot let it be disseminated to the general public without responding. 

Here is a portion of the zoo’s version of what transpired last Saturday: “Many families parked blocks and blocks away because they were directed by protesters acting as zoo volunteers, only to arrive to see plenty of paved parking available but blocked by protesters. Still others were unable to visit the zoo at all.” 

Wrong on all points. 

I am a proud member of the Free Parking Brigade. I was at the corner of Galloway and McLean with my friends last Saturday, and at no point did we impersonate zoo employees. What we did was work our tails off from10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., directing cars to available parking on city streets. Most of them were from out of town, had no idea what all the fuss was about and, when told, were horrified that the zoo would park vehicles on the grass.

We must have directed over 1,000 zoo visitors to free parking, and a Memphis police officer helped them cross the busy street safely while a zoo employee stood there and took a video of us working. We probably brought in an extra $10,000 for the very zoo that seems to despise us. 

Though they did stand their ground on the Greensward, it is not true that protesters blocked any zoo patrons from using paved parking. 

The Memphis Zoo is held in such low regard at this point simply because they continue to be arrogant and obstinate, and issue false information through the media to support their claim to the Greensward.

It’s way past time to act like a responsible adult, Chuck Brady, and join thousands of other Memphians who love their park and seek to become part of the solution to this controversial issue, and not part of the problem.

Gordon Alexander

Two solutions for the zoo: It should build its own parking with the support and help of the community for funding and planning, as any other responsible community partner would. Or they can choose the path they are on: spin, pivot, and lie to avoid the inevitable. The protests will continue, and eventually people will stop coming, thus also resolving the parking problem.

I’m good with either one.

Fitz Dearmore

Wouldn’t it be hilarious if this whole zoo parking debacle turned out to be part of the conspiracy perpetrated by the old money, East Memphis land speculators and developers to diminish the livability of Memphis proper in order to continue to fuel their ill-conceived (yet so far perfectly executed) concept of “growth”? Or, more correctly, what has been spoon-fed to us as growth but in truth has resulted in nothing more than personal gain at public expense. 

You hear the argument in the news even now; it’s the underlying truth behind “de-annexation” and “tax base.” This phenomenon, this conspiracy, is precisely what has given us the precariously imbalanced city we all know and love, with so much economic power focused out East, while the vast majority of the city (geographically speaking) is an economic wasteland.

Either way, you can rest assured that the real forces behind this situation have little or nothing to do with the big bad zoo bullying a bunch of peaceniks. Ask yourself why so many politicians, people supposedly elected by you and me, are inexplicably siding with the zoo. Or why they seem not only deaf to reasonable compromise, but adamantly opposed to it? I’m not quite ready to watch it all go to hell just yet. I believe I shall take a stand.

Aaron James

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News News Blog

Wastewater Leak Stopped in Cypress Creek

McKellar Lake

The city Division of Public Works has set up a bypass to carry wastewater around a broken sewage line in Cypress Creek, following a sewer line break that began late last week.

The break happened just west of McKellar Lake and Paul Lowry Road, and it’s responsible for pouring millions of gallons of raw sewage into Cypress Creek. Following the spill, local and state officials issued warnings about touching or fishing in Cypress Creek or McKellar Lake.

A news release issued by Mayor Jim Strickland’s office Thursday said the city is now beginning work on a permanent repair of the collapsed sewer line. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation will continue testing the water twice a week, and the city is bringing in an environmental expert to advise on clean-up efforts.

“Now that the spill is stopped, our next focus will be to repair the damage pipe and work with the state to evaluate and collaborate on any long-term remediation needs,” said Strickland. “The cost for this operation and the repairs is 100 percent sewer-funded. No general funds will be used. We expect the permeant fix to be completed in three to four months.”

From the news release:

“We cannot stress enough how important it is for people NOT to have contact with the water until further notice. Shelby County Health officials are warning people to avoid recreational activities and touching or fishing in Cypress Creek or McKellar Lake. Tests show levels of E. coli up to 300 times the recreational criteria for streams and up to 580 times the level for lakes.”

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Editorial Opinion

De-Annexation Pollyannas

We know that politicians, even wise and knowledgeable ones, whose local constituencies lie primarily outside the current boundaries of the city of Memphis, may find it difficult to fully tell it like it is in the case of the de-annexation bill under consideration in the Tennessee General Assembly.

That fact might explain why Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, whose views on city/county affairs are normally quite balanced, professes not to be unduly concerned about a bill which, on the face of things, threatens to dismember Memphis, depriving it of geographic areas that are prime sources of sustaining revenue.

At this moment, Luttrell necessarily has to be looking to that part of his bailiwick — suburban east Shelby County — that will supply the lion’s share of the votes in the pending election for the 8th District congressional seat which Luttrell is seeking in this year’s election. Fair enough. Sentiment in that area seems, on the basis of attitudes taken by its representatives in the legislature, to be either favorable toward the bill or indifferent to its consequences. However, if the final version of the bill, in its sanction of easy dissolutions, turns out to apply to all incorporated municipalities statewide, including all of those in Shelby County, they may have another think coming.

In any case, we note by contrast to Luttrell’s hands-off approach the response of Sheriff Bill Oldham, who has viewed with concern and simple common sense the increased burdens, financial and otherwise, that will accrue to his department if it becomes wholly responsible for law enforcement in areas that might separate from Memphis.

Unfortunately, the attitude of the Shelby County’s aforementioned suburban legislators seems characterized either by an attitude of vengefulness toward Memphis, as in the case of state Representative Curry Todd, or an affected Pollyanna-ism in the case of state Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, both of Collierville. We find disingenuous Norris’ protestation that the bill doesn’t de-annex anybody but merely gives annexed populations the right to vote on their status. That’s especially misleading, given Norris’ public rebuke of Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland for laying out the consequences to Memphis of the bill, at least as originally written — notably the potential financial losses to an already cash-strapped city of from $27 million to $78 million.

Norris blithely upbraided Strickland for stressing the bill’s downside (one that the Greater Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce, other Tennessee mayors, and major business leaders like AutoZone founder Pitt Hyde and ranking officials of First Tennessee Bank have testified is realistic). According to Norris, Strickland should be emphasizing Memphis’ advantages to residents rather than what he calls “the parade of horribles” itemized by the Memphis mayor.

Norris seems to believe that the proponents of de-annexation are seeking to physically remove their areas miles away from Memphis, distant from the job opportunities and attractions and developed infrastructure that the city offers. The fact is, all these amenities would still be available to the de-annexed populations; the latter would simply cease to help pay for them. They would become exploiters of Memphis rather than partners in maintaining the city. He should know better, and probably does.