Tag: Mary Wilder

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Opinion Viewpoint

Thoughts About How to Win Memphis Council District 5

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Some readers may recall that, in 2015, I ran unsuccessfully for the Memphis City Council as an avowed progressive in District 5. Since then, I have heard several people comment that District 5 was won by a conservative because three progressive candidates ran and split the vote. Now that the 2019 city elections are on the horizon, I would like to dispel that myth and look at what is potentially different for the district in 2019.

Justin Fox Burks

John Marek

Even if only one progressive had run in 2015, that one progressive would have lost. Worth Morgan, the current councilman and eventual winner, had $300,000 in his campaign war chest, and the votes of conservatives Dan Springer and Morgan combined were 55 percent of the total vote, as compared to 42 percent of the combined percentages of Mary Wilder, Chooch Pickard, and, me, all progressives in good standing.

Democratic turnout was lower than expected that year. A lot of working-class and middle-class voters were upset over the city council’s votes on pension retrenchment, and they evidently did not see any alternative that excited them enough to show up to the polls. Meanwhile, conservatives came out strong for mayoral candidate Jim Strickland.

Strickland and I both happened to be at one of the polling sites on Election Day, and I said to him: “Based on who has voted early and the seemingly low turnout today, I believe what is going to help you is going to hurt me.”

Having seen the early voting data, I also mentioned to Mary Wilder my belief that it would be Morgan versus Springer in the runoff, because of the high conservative turnout.

The fact is, District 5 is not exactly a blue district. Yes, it has Midtown and Binghampton, but it also contains most of East Memphis. In essence, Midtown progressives saw all of their districts either transformed or moved elsewhere in Tennessee in post-2010 redistricting. Congressman Steve Cohen’s former state Senate district was affected, as were the state House seats formerly occupied by Jeanne Richardson and Mike Kernell.

I would consider the current council District 5 to be purple in a high-turnout scenario and red in a low-turnout scenario. It’s regrettable that we don’t hold all of our local general elections on the same day we hold our state and federal general elections. We would save money thereby, and simultaneously reap a higher turnout of progressives.

In any case, in 2015, any progressive who might have made the runoff would have lost handily. I thought I could prevail on the strength of personally knocking on some 6,500 doors in a four-month period, while my supporters were doing likewise. Hindsight tells me I was over-optimistic.

Had any of us progressives made that runoff, the older and wealthier white vote would have shown up in higher numbers, and no amount of knocking on doors would have prevailed over the tidal wave of money committed to the conservative contender.

Instant runoff voting (IRV), which should already have been implemented after the 2008 referendum approving it, could well transform the electoral situation if it is employed in 2019. Runoffs have allowed the city’s economic elite to control a council that should by all rights have a majority voted in by working-class voters and people of color. That is why the IRV issue mattered enough for me to volunteer on its behalf in the referenda of both 2008 and 2018.

Looking ahead to 2019 voting, I find myself wondering whether or not the blue-wave turnouts we saw last year will continue to prevail in non-federal elections. If  IRV is properly implemented, a progressive could win District 5. That result would not be guaranteed, although a progressive with the ability to at least partially self-finance would, in my judgment, have a fair chance of  success.

I have heard rumors about one potential progressive candidate who would fit that profile, and that person would benefit from the absence of a runoff via IRV, as well as not having to worry about the divisive effects of multiple progressive candidates, as in 2015.  

Our current council members — and the status quo types behind them — thought it was a good idea in 2018 to try to undo decisions already made by voters in 2008, and they had the temerity to spend $40,000 of our taxpayer money to campaign for such a result in last fall’s referendums.

I would just say this: If you are a progressive prepared to run hard and govern well, please announce your intentions soon, because your city needs you.

John Marek is a lawyer, activist, and
occasional candidate for various offices.

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Opinion Viewpoint

A Compromised Greensward “Solution”

Mary Wilder’s June 15th Viewpoint column describes a great success story. Wilder lauds the million dollars recently raised by the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) and says this money will “end parking on the Greensward forever.” The truth is buried a few paragraphs later: “This will result in the loss of some park land on the northern edge of the Greensward … ” This attempt to reinvent reality is very troubling to me and should be to anyone else who cares about preserving public land.

Wilder uses the words “compromise” and “solution” to justify her opinion that it’s fine to pave one-quarter of the Greensward and give it to the Memphis Zoo. According to the current “compromise” map on the OPC’s website, the northern three acres of the historic Overton Park Greensward would be paved and lost forever. There is no compromise here. This is nothing but a naked land grab by zoo leaders. Amazingly, zoo leaders have conned the public into paying half the cost of destroying our own parkland.

Wilder claims to speak for 19 civic groups known as the Overton Park Alliance. I expect many members of those groups would be shocked to realize they have been used to justify the destruction of one-quarter of the Greensward. How did this happen? Why are these groups so eager to surrender our city’s free open space to benefit corporate interests?

I only claim to speak for myself. I have been involved in more than a few land protection campaigns over the past four decades. In 1986, I was one of the founders of Save Shelby Farms Forest and helped write the legislation that created the Lucius Burch State Natural Area. I was one of the first board members of the Wolf River Conservancy (WRC) and helped establish the Ghost River canoe trail in 1989. In 1997, I became the first executive director of the WRC and helped protect thousands of acres of land along the Wolf including the Ghost River State Natural Area.

In 2008, I helped revive the Citizens to Preserve Overton Park (CPOP) volunteer group that saved Overton Park from being destroyed by Interstate 40 in 1971. I supported the three-year-long CPOP campaign that created the Old Forest State Natural Area with unanimous approval from the Tennessee state legislature in 2010. Those 126 acres remain the only legally protected acres in the 342-acre Overton Park, which is why CPOP began their ongoing “Save the Greensward” campaign in 2014.

All of this is to say that I have witnessed and used a variety of tactics to protect green space for citizens to freely enjoy — including protests, letter-writing campaigns, lobbying for local and state legislation, and outright purchase and donation to state agencies. Before now, I have never seen a group of advocates come to the negotiating table in order to surrender to their aggressor. I have never seen a group of advocates willing to pay a million dollars to partly destroy the resource they ostensibly want to protect.

It is obvious that zoo leaders want as much of Overton Park as they can grab. In 1990, they fenced off more than 20 acres of old growth forest and destroyed four of those acres for the Teton Trek exhibit in 2008. Zoo leaders personally lobbied our city officials and Tennessee legislators to oppose CPOP’s campaign to create the Old Forest State Natural Area. And zoo leaders currently control public access to the northern three acres of the Greensward, due to the failure of OPC and city officials to defend this public land.

Those who favor giving up the Greensward to the zoo without a fight are a symptom of a bigger problem. They are part of a long tradition of political behavior in which cowardly but power-hungry people position themselves as leaders, then bow to threats and intimidation, then sandbag and deflate the efforts of others, then reframe the outcome as a necessary compromise and a success.

I believe the zoo can be driven off the Greensward if enough citizens demand it. Where zoo leaders park cars is their problem to solve — it is not the responsibility of citizens to provide funding or sacrifice parkland for a rich corporation that refuses to plan ahead. Zoo leaders claim to run a “world class” facility that is visited by a million people yearly. You cannot tell me those same people are mentally and financially incapable of devising ways to handle their traffic without paving parkland.

The Greensward fight is not over. Battle lines are now clearly drawn between those who think it’s fine to pave one-quarter of the Greensward and those who want to save it. I will continue to support CPOP and the citizens who remain committed to saving the entire Greensward, in the belief that it is priceless common ground that should be protected for everyone.

When the protests start again, which side of the zoo’s fence will you be on?

Larry J. Smith is a lawyer, environmentalist, and lifelong Memphian.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Off the Grass in Overton Park — Forever.

CREDIT: Overton Park Conservancy

Overton Park Conservancy

It’s time to move forward and end parking on the Overton Park Greensward — forever. It’s past time, actually, and the neighborhoods and groups that make up the Overton Park Alliance and thousands of other supporters of Overton Park want to see the Memphis City Council accept $1 million in funding from the zoo and the Overton Park Conservancy at its June 20th meeting and move this process forward.

Overton Park, established in 1901, is a 342-acre park in the heart of Memphis with more than 100 acres of rare old-growth urban forest. The park was catapulted into national significance in the 1970s, when it was saved by the U.S. Supreme Court from government plans to bisect it with Interstate 40, leading to permanent nationwide protection of park land from highway construction.

The park suffered from years of neglect after that, especially after the City Council abolished the Memphis Park Commission in 2000. The Memphis Zoo’s occasional use of the Greensward for overflow parking increased in frequency over the years. The Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) was formed in 2011, funded in part by the city. The OPC has breathed new life into the park in a few short years. Overton Park is now safe, clean, and heavily used by diverse Memphians from all over the city. 

In early 2016, the Memphis Zoo removed two dozen trees from the Greensward and sued OPC, contending the zoo had rights to the entire Greensward. Mayor Strickland arranged for the zoo and OPC to engage in mediation. While the mediation was pending, large protest gatherings on the Greensward demonstrated the public’s strong desire to end parking in that space. Nevertheless, the council rushed through a surprise resolution giving most of the Greensward to the zoo and then moved toward passing an ordinance making the change permanent.

When the mediation ended in June 2016 with no agreement, Mayor Strickland stepped in with a compromise solution that became the basis for an agreement between the zoo and OPC. The City Council largely confirmed the agreement in a resolution in July 2016. That resolution requires reconfiguration of the zoo’s parking lot, plus 415 additional parking spaces. This will result in the loss of some park land on the northern edge of the Greensward and will allow the zoo to continue parking on the Greensward until construction is complete. That resolution also requires OPC and the zoo to share the cost of the zoo’s parking solution equally, despite the fact that OPC manages a free park, generates little revenue, and is funded primarily by philanthropic and membership contributions — and that the zoo will keep all revenue from the new parking lot.

In 2016, the city established a steering committee to guide the project that includes representatives of the zoo, OPC, the Overton Park Alliance, the public, and various city departments. (The meetings of the committee are open to the public; a website [http://www.memphistn.gov/Government/ExecutiveDivision/OvertonParkParking.aspx] provides information on the process, including a timeline.) In February, the committee selected Powers-Hill Design (PHD) to design and lead the project.

In April, the council was asked by the steering committee to accept $250,000 from both the zoo and OPC to fund the project’s design. The zoo threatened to pull out of the process unless OPC agreed to contribute half of the entire cost of the project up front. The council voted in favor of the zoo and mandated that both the zoo and OPC demonstrate they had $1 million to contribute to the project by June 11th.

With the support of over 1,000 donors and contributors from 40 states and 28 Memphis zip codes, including large and small donors (and some generous zoo board members), OPC has met the enormous fund-raising burden placed on it by the council and raised the required $1 million in two short months.

It’s time for the council to accept this funding and let the city-appointed steering committee’s process to go forward. It’s time to quit throwing roadblocks in the way of this painstakingly crafted solution. The Overton Park Alliance and other park supporters remain committed to monitoring the design and construction of the zoo’s parking solution to achieve the best possible solution, not only for the Memphis Zoo, but for Overton Park as a whole.

Mary Wilder is a member of the Overton Park Alliance, which is comprised of the Free Parking Brigade, Humans of Overton Park, Memphis Heritage, Midtown Action Coalition, Midtown Memphis Development Corporation, Park Friends, Inc., Physicians for Urban Parks, Stop Hurting Overton Park (Facebook group), and 10 Midtown neighborhood associations.

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Politics Politics Feature

Memphis Council Elections: Not Over Yet

A substantial minority of the members of the Memphis City Council — five of the 13 overall — have yet to be chosen and will be determined after the runoff elections on November 19th.

The runoff races were made necessary when no candidate achieved a majority of the votes cast in the five districts in the regular general election that ended on October 8th. The five districts, and the two top vote-getters in each, along with the percentages they received as of October 8th, are:

DISTRICT 2: Frank Colvett Jr. (49.5 percent), Rachel Knox (22.5)

DISTRICT 3: Patrice Robinson (48.4), Keith Williams (20.8)

DISTRICT 4: Jamita Swearengen (33.0), Doris DeBerry-Bradshaw(24.4)

DISTRICT 5: Worth Morgan (31.9), Dan Springer (23.3)

DISTRICT 7:  Berlin Boyd (26.5), Anthony Anderson (24.0)

Going merely by the percentages, it would seem that the tightest runoff races would be in Districts 4, 5, and 7.

Dan Springer

Worth Morgan

The one in District 5, based in Midtown and East Memphis and formerly occupied by Mayor-elect Jim Strickland, had one of the largest fields in the regular general election, with seven candidates competing. Of those, three — John Marek, Mary Wilder, and Charles “Chooch” Pickard — were generally lumped together as appealing to Democrats and progressives, while two — Morgan and Springer —  were considered to be candidates whose base was Republican or conservative.

The progressive trio finished with vote percentages of 18.55 percent for Wilder, 16.90 percent for Marek, and 6.37 percent for Pickard; Morgan and Springer got into the runoff with percentages of 31.92 percent and 23.28 percent, respectively.

No sooner had the votes been counted on the evening of October 8th than the two runoff candidates promptly began competing for the support of candidates who had been eliminated. 

Here was Springer in a Facebook statement on October 9th: “I’ve made many new friends over the past several months on the campaign trail. And I know voters are grateful for the willingness of John Marek, Chooch Pickard, and Mary Wilder to not only put their names on the ballot, but also to bring to the forefront serious topics that deserve our attention. I know how hard they all worked, but I also know them well enough to know that they will remain committed to making Memphis a better place to live for all of us.

“Over the coming weeks, I look forward to sharing my clear vision about how we can address our community’s serious challenges in regards to job creation, education, and public safety, while promoting and building up all the good things about our city.”

Translation: Springer, who had gained the endorsement of the Shelby County Republican Party in the general election, thanks mainly to his yeoman’s service previously for GOP candidates and office-holders, notably for U.S. Senator Bob Corker and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, believed himself credible enough among moderates, independents, and Democrats to make an active pitch to the erstwhile supporters of Marek, Pickard, and Wilder.

Springer was rewarded with a statement from Wilder, the leading vote-getter among progressives, urging her supporters to consider Springer in the runoff. That was publicly hailed as a “classy” move on Wilder’s part by County Trustee David Lenoir, a Republican considered certain to be a candidate for county mayor in 2018.

For his part, Morgan won the public approval of former candidate Pickard, the third-place finisher among progressives and the fifth-place finisher overall.

In a statement that paid tribute to the previous field of candidates (“amazing people who felt the call to public service in a similar capacity as myself”), Pickard, referring to himself as “an architect and community leader,” said, among other things: “I want to make the public and formal endorsement of Worth Morgan. Over the 10 months we spent campaigning for the position, I was impressed with Worth’s integrity and the ethical way he ran his campaign. I believe Worth Morgan will make a great city councilman and has the ideals to best represent the diverse population of District 5 through truly listening to his constituents and making rational decisions in the best interest of our community.”

Early voting for the runoff races begins October 30th and runs throughNovember 14th, with final election-day voting taking place on November 19th.

• As a reminder, the council members elected outright on October 8th are as follows, with the winning percentages for them and their closest competitor:

DISTRICT 1: Bill Morrison (incumbent), 77 percent, over Wayne Roberts, 21.88 percent.

DISTRICT 6: Edmund H. Ford Jr. (incumbent), 72.24 percent, over Perry Bond, 18.43 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 8, POSITION 1: Joe Brown (incumbent), 69.15 percent, over Victoria Young, 20.41 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 8, POSITION 2: Janis Fullilove (incumbent), 76.78 percent, over Isaac Wright, 12 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 8, POSITION 3: Martavius Jones, 44.93 percent, over Mickell Lowery, 40.97 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 9, POSITION 1: Kemp Conrad (incumbent), 70 percent, over Robin Spielberger, 16.90 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 9, POSITION 2: Philip C. Spinosa, 47 percent, over Kenneth Twigg Whalum, 23.61 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 9, POSITION 3: Reid Hedgepeth (incumbent), 61.23 percent, over Stephen Christian, 19.59 percent.

MEMPHIS CITY COURT CLERK: Kay Spalding Robilio, 26.35 percent, over Wanda Halbert, 24.91 percent.

It will be noted that incumbents running for reelection had easy going, and that the closest of these decided races, Jones vs. Lowery in Super District 8, Position 3, and Robilio vs. Halbert for City Court Clerk, might well have ended with different results if subjected to runoffs.

The same 1991 decision by the late federal District Judge Jerome Turner that prohibited runoff elections for mayor that year subsequently has also prohibited runoffs for the clerk’s position and for the super district council seats, all considered “at large” positions.

Turner’s ruling permitted runoffs only in regular district races. The prohibition of runoffs for mayor is credited with the victory of Willie Herenton in 1991 (with 49 percent in a three-way race) and with that of Jim Strickland (with 42 percent) in this year’s multi-candidate race.

The Shelby County Election Commission will meet to certify the October 8th vote results at noon, Friday, at the commission’s operations center at 918 Nixon in the Shelby Farms government complex.

• Of the nine applicants to succeed former Chief Justice Gary Wade on the state Supreme Court, four claim to hail from Memphis, though only three have a current address in these parts.  

The ex-Memphian in the bunch is Ted Hayden, an attorney and compliance director in the state Department of General Services. Hayden now lives in the near-Nashville suburb of Gallatin, and his wish to be considered a Memphian boils down to his having been, as he stated on his official application, “extremely active” for 24 years at Bellevue Baptist Church.

Aside from his undoubted piety, Hayden makes the claim of a Memphis connection because two of the current state justices are from the Middle Tennessee grand division, where Gallatin is (and Memphis isn’t), a fact which means that Wade’s replacement must come from either East Tennessee or West Tennessee, where Memphis is (and Gallatin isn’t).

The three real Memphians whose hats (or robes) are in the ring are: Memphis lawyer Robert D. Meyers, chairman of the Shelby County Election Commission; former state Representative Larry Scroggs, chief counsel and administrator for Shelby County Juvenile Court; and Memphis tax lawyer Matthew Cavitch, who caught the attention of the state political newsletter “The Tennessee Journal,” with this line in his letter of application: “I work alone, so I handle everything. Unlike most tax lawyers, I actually know something about the rules of evidence and how to draft a motion in limine.”

Under the new judicial selection formula approved by the state’s voters in a 2014 referendum, the selection will be made by Governor Bill Haslam, subject to confirmation by both chambers of the General Assembly. Whoever is chosen and approved will serve for the balance of Justice Wade’s eight-year term, which concludes in 2022 and is then eligible to serve another eight-year term if approved by the voters in a retention election.

Prior to Haslam’s selection, a Council for Judicial Appointments, whose members were named previously by the governor, will interview the nine applicants next Tuesday, October 27th, in Nashville, and submit three names for Haslam to consider.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Despite Report, Cohen Not Ready to Endorse

CREDIT: JB

JB

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (second from right) at Saturday fish fry event for Super District 9, Position 2 Council candidate Paul Shaffer (second from left). Others are Jeff Sullivan and Carol Risher.

Candidates trying to get into public office no doubt envy those who are already there. But being an office-holder has its special quandaries.

Take 9th District congressman Steve Cohen, for example. He’s been in public life for so long and in so many different guises — County Commissioner, state Senator, and even, briefly, General Sessions Judge — that he’s accumulated an expectedly large number of friends and political allies. And he, like everybody else, has his ideological preferences.

At election time, understandably, several of the aforementioned friends and allies crave special attention from the Congressman.

Specifically, they’d like his endorsement — a commodity that, both in theory and in proven practice, is a help in getting elected.

The problem is that often there are several friends and allies all seeking the same position, and that puts the Congressman — and other officials in a similar situation (think Wharton, Luttrell, Haslam, etc., etc.) — in a bit of a bind.

The bottom line: Reports to the contrary notwithstanding, Cohen has not endorsed anybody for anything yet in the Memphis city election, as he made clear on Saturday, when he stopped by a fish fry at the IBEW building on Madison, in honor of his longtime friend and ally, Paul Shaffer, a candidate for the City Council, District 9, Position 2 seat.

“I may do something close to the [July 16] filing deadline,” Cohen said, “but I’m not endorsing as of yet.”

Shaffer is certainly a prime candidate for a Cohen endorsement; so are several candidates in other races.

Take Council District 5, for example: At least three candidates in the multi-candidate field are close to Cohen, either personally or politically of both. They are John Marek, Mary Wilder, and Charles “Chooch” Pickard. (One or two others in that field he finds potentially attractive, as well.)

Cohen posted some flattering remarks on his Facebook page this past week about Marek (his former campaign manager in two recent reelection efforts), and he’s certainly very fond of Marek and very impressed by him and encouraging of Marek’s political ambitions.

“But I have other friends in that race, too,” he clarified Saturday, indicating that he could speak highly of them, as well.

At least one published report stated flatly, though, that Marek had Cohen’s “endorsement,” and, to repeat, the Congressman insists that is not literally the case, as the word “endorsement” is commonly understood in the case of a political race.

All of this will work out in the wash, and it may well be — but it’s not guaranteed — that Marek will get a formal endorsement at some point. Meanwhile, friends of Wilder and Pickard — are perhaps those candidates as well — are bending Cohen’s ear.

As indicated, he is likely to confer an endorsement either just before or just after the filing deadline — if for no other reason than he is aware that three candidates vying for the same essential constituency (call it “progressive” or Democratically-inclined or what-have-you) could split the district vote in such a way as to leave them all outside the frame of a runoff election.

It is known, in fact, that Cohen counseled with at least one candidate, and perhaps more, about that prospect some weeks ago, before the field expanded.

Anyhow, if nothing else, the current confusion has made Cohen’s ultimate decision — about District 5 and other races — something of a suspense factor in a city election season getting ready to dispense with training wheels and pick up speed.

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Politics Politics Feature

Chism Backs Strickland for Mayor

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Adherents of City Councilman Jim Strickland‘s campaign for mayor are certainly pleased with their guy’s ability to go fund-raising dollar-for-dollar against incumbent Mayor A C Wharton (both candidates having reported $300,000-plus in their first-quarter disclosures). And they’re counting on a good showing for Strickland in both the Poplar Corridor and Cordova, where his message of public safety and budgetary austerity resonate.

But those predominantly white areas of Memphis (to call them by their right name) are probably not enough, all by themselves, to get Strickland over, especially since Wharton has his own residual strength in the corridor and with the city’s business community, where the mayor can hope to at least break even.

There is also the mayor’s advantage in being able to command free media on a plethora of governmental and ceremonial occasions.

Yes, it’s probably true that A C’s support in predominantly African-American precincts ain’t what it used to be, and it never was what you would call dominating, not this year with all the well-publicized cuts in city services. And not with Mike Williams working the African-American community, along with Whitehaven Councilman Harold Collins and Justin Ford, and with the Rev. Kenneth Whalum ready to grab off a huge chunk of that vote, should he make what is at this point an expected entry into the mayoral field.

Still, Strickland needs to grab a share of the black vote to have a chance to get elected. Where does he get it? Well, he’s attending African-American churches on Sunday, one of the well-worn pathways in local politics. So that will help. But probably not as much as the endorsement he got last Saturday at the annual Sidney Chism Community Picnic on Horn Lake Road from the impresario of that event. Longtime political broker Chism early on announced his support of Strickland from the stage of the sprawling picnic grounds.

Time may have tarnished Chism’s reputation a bit, as it did his longtime ally, former Mayor Willie Herenton (an attendee at the picnic), but the former Teamster leader, Democratic Party chairman, state senator, and county commissioner still has enough influence to have basically put Randa Spears over as Shelby County Democratic chair earlier this year. And he may have enough to give Strickland that extra boost he needs to be fully competitive. We’ll see.

Chism, as it happens, is mired in a couple of controversies at the moment. His employment as a “media specialist” by Sheriff Bill Oldham is regarded with suspicion as a political quid pro quo and pension-inflater by several Republican members of the Shelby County Commission, who at budget-crunch time are making an issue of it, along with an Oldham-provided job for former Shelby County Preparedness director Bob Nations.

And Chism may have reignited another long-smoldering situation when he used the bully pulpit of his picnic to attack an intramural Democratic Party foe, Del Gill, who was runner-up to Spears in the party chairmanship contest. Chism did so at first indirectly, on the front end of the event, while he was acknowledging from the stage the presence in the crowd of party chair Spears.

“She’s been catching a whole lot of flak from one crazy person, but I hope y’all put him out of this city, and he’ll be all right.” Chism chose to be more explicit when he returned to the stage after a series of candidates in the city election had made their public remarks.

“I said something earlier,” Chism said. “I said there was somebody who needed running out of town, and that person, I didn’t call his name, but that person is Del Gill. … He ain’t worth two cents. … He’s been lyin’ on me for 10 years He won’t show up and do it to my face, but he lies all the time.”

In a widely circulated email response, Gill returned fire, reminding his readers that he had taken the lead in having Chism censured by the local Democratic Party executive committee in 2014 for allegedly attempting to subvert the sheriff’s campaign of Democratic nominee Bennie Cobb in favor of Republican Oldham.

Chism used his attack on Gill as a platform from which to launch his recipe for Democratic success at the polls: “We’re not going to win any elections in Shelby County until we get into the mindset that we’ve got to get in the middle. If we get in the middle, we can elect Democrats, qualified Democrats.

“I didn’t say you’ve got to be a super-intelligent magna cum laude educated person. I’m saying you ought to be smart enough to know that the people in this country are in the middle.” He urged his listeners to “vote for the right person, and he ain’t got to look like me; just act like me.”

Actually, the two Chism battlefronts — his employment battle with GOP county commissioners and the Democratic Party fireworks — are connected. Such commission critics of Chism as Heidi Shafer and David Reaves, both Republicans, have made pointed remarks in private about what they claim was Chism’s disservice to fellow Commissioner Reginald Milton, a Democrat, in intervening against Milton’s own bid for party chairmanship. And Milton, perhaps unsurprisingly, has expressed his own skepticism about the sheriff’s budget requests.

Shafer and Reaves, along with GOP Commissioner Terry Roland, are also suspicious that Oldham’s wish to have Chism (and other Chism associates) aboard is related to a potential 2018 campaign by Oldham for county mayor, an office for which Roland, for one, has essentially already announced.

Oldham has been mum on the subject of his future political intentions, if any, but it is a fact that the progression from sheriff to county mayor has been made already by several predecessors — Roy “Skip” Nixon, Bill Morris, and current County Mayor Mark Luttrell.

Random notes: The newly elected president of the Shelby County Young Democrats is Alvin Crook, who made something of a stir last year when, in the course of a public debate, he formally endorsed Van Turner, his Democratic primary opponent for a county commission seat.

Crook, who is employed as a courtroom bailiff, says his group will be making endorsements in the city election this year.

Other new Young Democrat officers: Regina Beale, first vice president; Jim Kyle Jr., 2nd vice president; Matt Pitts, treasurer; Rebekah Hart, secretary; and Justin Askew, parliamentarian.

• Two Shelby Countians, state Senator Mark Norris and attorney Al Harvey, were among three Tennesseans who were invited guests of British royalty at Monday’s ceremony in Runnymede, England, commemorating the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta there.

Norris was invited in his capacity as immediate past chairman of the Council of State Governments; Harvey, along with General Sessions Judge Lee Bussart Bowles of Marshall County, represented the American Bar Association.

A sure sign that the city election season is heating up: On Thursday, June 18th, from 5 to 7 p.m., Patrice Robinson, a candidate for city council, District 3, and Mary Wilder, candidate for the council’s District 5, will be holding simultaneous fund-raisers in different parts of town.

Overlapping events of this sort, still uncommon, will at a certain point in the election cycle, become routine.

• In its latest issue, the Tennessee Journal of Nashville takes note of the Tennessee Republican Party’s concerted “Red to the Roots” campaign directed at capturing as many of the state’s county assessor positions as possible next year.

The newsletter also notes that Shelby County Assessor Cheyenne Johnson, a Democrat, will be exempt from the purge attempt, having already won reelection to a four-year term in 2014. Johnson’s being on a different cycle from other state assessors is a consequence of the county commission’s consolidating all county offices into a common election cycle via 2008 revisions to the county charter.

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Politics Politics Feature

Outliers and Insiders

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

The history of American politics demonstrates that positions that seem unconventional, even outrageous, when first broached have a way of becoming the norm with the passage of time — and sometimes not much time at all.

Think “Defense of Marriage Act,” now blink your eyes and think “Marriage Equality Act.” Even simpler: Think “Bruce,” don’t waste time with blinking and now think “Caitlyn.”

Though there was a time when the political left was responsible for most innovations (think 1960s, sit-ins, or even Social Security), the initiative where change is concerned seems to have shifted over to the right. Or at least to some mutating middle.

On the urban scene — and not just in problem-plagued Memphis city government — the idea of de-annexation may be finding its time. A bill to that effect got a trial run in the General Assembly last year, and it’s sure to take another bow in 2016.

Now you find the phenomenon of three city council candidates running as a ticket on that idea — which seemingly originated with suburban conservatives, but coupling it with such street-populist and Mempho-centric ideas as saving the Mid-South Coliseum and restoring pension and benefit levels for city police and firefighters.

The three are Jim Tomasik, a veteran of Libertarian Party politics; Lynn Moss, who admits to being Republican; and Robin Spielberger, whose politics are more amorphous. The trio of council candidates (Moss, Super-District 9, Position 2; Tomasik, District 2; and Spielberger, Super-District 9, Position 1) held an open-air meet-and-greet/fund-raiser Saturday at Lost Pizza Company on Poplar (site of the old Ronnie Grisanti’s Restaurant).

Their slogan (on a sign alongside a downtown-skyline graphic) indicates the ambivalent appeal of their position. “Right for Memphis/Cordova,” it says, and the fact is, sentiment for de-annexation seems to have just such a divided appeal. Recently annexed suburbanites (Moss and Tomasik are Cordovans) want independence (though they might settle for autonomy); meanwhile, a growing number of Memphians, like Spielberger, are concerned about the high costs of providing services to the sprawling outer areas annexed in recent years.

Maybe these three are wasting their time (competing with well-financed traditional candidates is going to be a problem), and maybe they are pathfinders, and maybe they’ll even run competitive races. All that remains to be seen, and how it works out may tell us something about our future.

• The developing matchup in council District 5 involves more conventional candidates and enough conservatives and liberals to allow for intramural contests within the larger race itself.

Of the nine potential candidates who have so far drawn petitions, five have drawn the most attention, and, though the nonpartisan nature of city elections allows for a certain flow across party preference and ideological lines, those five divide into two groups, basically.

Dan Springer, a still-youthful veteran of government service and Republican politics, and Worth Morgan, an even more youthful insurance executive with family ties to elite Memphis business circles, are regarded as battling it out for the loyalty of conventional conservatives. (Morgan’s first-quarter financial disclosure showed upwards of $150,000 on hand; my friend Kyle Veazey of the Commercial Appeal may not like the term, but that’s a war chest.)

On the other side of the ideological spectrum, Mary Wilder, Charles “Chooch” Pickard, and John Marek, will be competing for the support of those voters who see themselves as progressives (a designation that has largely replaced “liberal” as a self-signifier).

All three have overlapping interests and platforms, with Wilder noted for neighborhood advocacy, Pickard for preservationist activity, and Marek for campaign management. Wilder and Pickard have been in the field for some time, while Marek, a longtime advocate of police reform and loosening of restrictions on marijuana, is poised to begin a serious effort.

Expectations are that a runoff is inevitable, with no candidate able to get an absolute majority as of October 8th. It seems almost certain that either Springer or Morgan will make the runoff, to vie against whoever predominates among the progressive trio. But it is not impossible that the two perceived conservatives, given the depth of their anticipated resources, will end up opposing each other.

It is less likely that the runoff will be drawn exclusively from the Wilder-Pickard-Marek aggregation, but that is possible.

The Rev. Kenneth Whalum drew a petition for a District 5 race, along with petitions for Super-District 9, Position 2, and mayor, but it’s now being taken for granted that he will end up in the mayoral field.

Colonel Gene Billingsley, Jimmie Franklin, and Jennifer James Williams, all of whom have drawn petitions for District 5 (Franklin has actually filed), have to be regarded as outliers, on the basis of the name-identification factor alone.

• At its meeting of June 3rd in Nashville, the Tennessee Ethics Commission met to consider several new penalties for alleged campaign-finance offenders and to reconsider several already assessed. One of the latter was a $1,000 fine imposed on then Shelby County Democratic Party chairman Bryan Carson last September.

As the commission recapped the situation last week: “Mr. Carson was assessed $1,000 at the September 17, 2014, meeting for failure to file the Statement of Interests. Mr. Carson has subsequently filed and appeared before the commission to explain the tardiness of his filing. After the discussion, Mr. [Jim] Stranch made the motion to reconsider and to waive the penalty as it was Mr. Carson’s first time filing. Mr. [Greg] Hardeman seconded and the motion passed 5-0.”

Carson — who ran afoul of his executive committee and the state Election Registry for his accounting procedures a few months ago and subsequently resigned his chairmanship — offered this explanation: “A few months ago, I learned that each candidate running for public must file a Statement of Interest and submit it to the Tennessee Ethics Commission. I ran for the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee last August 2014 and did not know that I needed to complete a Statement of Interest which was due in September 2014. 

“All candidates were required to complete another statement in January 2015, of which I completed and filed on time. Running to serve on the TNDP was my first time running for public office, therefore, that weighed heavily on the final decision of the Tennessee Ethics Commission.”

• Fresh from serving as host for a “Memphis for Hillary” rally held on Saturday in a Southeast Memphis storefront owned by her family, state Representative Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) is in Canada this week, guest of the Embassy of Canada, which selected her and seven other legislators from the United States for a week-long “Rising State Leaders Program.”

The program began in 2006 with the goal of facilitating understanding between the two neighbor countries on business, trade, and cultural matters. The 2015 program, focusing on eastern Canada, will take legislators to Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. It began on Sunday and will continue through Saturday.

Following the death of longtime legislative eminence Lois DeBerry in 2013, Akbari won a special election to represent DeBerry’s District 91 House seat in the Tennessee General Assembly. She was easily reelected to full term last year.

A member of the House Criminal Justice Committee and Subcommittee, Akbari also serves on the House Education Instruction and Program Committee, where she closely monitors the effect on Memphis public schools of various state programs. She has sponsored several pieces of legislation designed to safeguard the structure of Memphis schools during a period of rapidly imposed innovations at the state level.

Categories
Opinion

Loeb Wants Decision on Overton Square in 2011

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Robert Loeb says his company’s redevelopment of Overton Square can move forward with or without an underground storm water detention basin, but he needs to know by the end of this year what the city is going to do.

Loeb Properties has a contract to buy the property that expires December 31st. The company proposes to spend $19 million on Overton Square. The city is considering spending up to $19 million for a parking garage, underground detention basin, and street improvements. The proposed investment has to clear the City Council, which has two more meetings this year.

Loeb said he has no preference between an $8 million detention basin and a smaller, less expensive one, but believes the smaller one — less than one tenth the size of the bigger one — wouldn’t hold enough water to do much good.

“If the funds are in there it isn’t my decision,” he said. “But it works kind of hand in hand with the garage structure.”

Without a garage, Loeb said “we’ll have low-density, surface development” and shared surface parking with Playhouse on the Square and others instead of high-density development.

Overton Square and other Midtown developments with big parking lots such as the Home Depot at Poplar and Avalon contribute to the flooding problem during heavy rains. Detention basins (the soccer field at Christian Brothers University is one example) hold water temporarily, as opposed to retention basins that retain it. The city engineering department is considering several flood abatement options for Midtown, including the one at Overton Square and another one in the Snowden School playing field. A detention basin in Overton Park on the greensward was rejected because of public opposition.

“I’d like to be a good neighbor,” said Loeb, who presented his company’s plan earlier this year at Playhouse on the Square. It included restaurants, new and renovated retail spaces, and a new home for the Hatiloo Theater.

Flooding after heavy rains is a problem for residents in Midtown neighborhoods north and south of Overton Square. The total cost to protect them against a 25-year flood is estimated at $24.3 million.

Mary Wilder, cochairman of the Lick Creek Storm Water Coalition, has followed this issue for years and is also a Midtowner in the Vollentine-Evergreen Community Association (VECA). She sent me the article here. She makes a strong case for small-scale “green” measures that, if they catch on, can have a significant impact on flood abatement.

The coalition opposes detention basins in Overton Park and supports Loebs’ project “as long as detention is part of it.” She adds that even the largest detention basin under Overton Square “is not going to solve VECA’s flooding problem” because Lick Creek picks up more water between the square and the VECA neighborhood. Wilder is frustrated that city engineers “start talking engineering to you” and have not been clear on why the cost of the proposed Overton Square detention basin suddenly went up so much. There is suspicion that Overton Park will come back in play as an alternative.

I am a shameless homer on this one. I live in Midtown, although not near Overton Square, and like driving five minutes instead of 20 minutes for dinner and a movie. I was for the Loeb-Henry Turley fairgrounds redevelopment, Fair Ground, that was rejected by the previous administration and the City Council. But the football crowd won that one, and the result, for better (Tiger Lane, Southern Heritage Classic, AutoZone Liberty Bowl) and worse (about 2000 people at the last Memphis home football game, acres of empty parking lots, nine events a year, and nothing at the old Libertyland site) is plain to see.

Low density or high density, Loebs’ development would be a nice addition to a budding “theater district” hanging on to memories of better days in the Sixties and Seventies. I’d like to see an upscale grocery store in the mix and believe it could still happen. I question how much a relocated repertory theater company brings to the party and prime space on Cooper.

A $6 million parking garage? I don’t know about that. Can’t imagine it being free for long, if ever, and pay-to-park can be a deterrent when there are alternatives. If there are a few nights when the theaters are full and so are the bars and restaurants so parking is scarce, well, we should have more such problems.

As for the financing, I think the place in Memphis for a Tourism Development Zone (TDZ) is Graceland. That’s clearly other people’s money, and Whitehaven and Elvis Presley Boulevard, as Councilman Harold Collins says, are overdue for attention. In hindsight, Whitehaven should not have hitched its wagon to Robert Sillerman’s grandiose plans for Graceland.

The Fair Ground TDZ was tied to that specific project and it’s gone now. Getting another TDZ is easier said than done. It took Turley’s considerable reputation and political skill to get the first one.

Another funding alternative is a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district. That captures the incremental growth in sales taxes and pours it back into project financing, but the proposed boundaries are bigger than Overton Square. I don’t think higher tax revenue from a pizza joint on Union Avenue or small business on Central necessarily has anything to do with new investment in Overton Square. And TIFs strike me as very similar to special school districts.

Finally, or foremost depending on where you live, there is flooding. I would be going ballistic if I lived in one of the flooded areas in the big flood of 2010 or in a house where sewage came up through the basement drain and flooded my living room and the city was slow-walking flood abatement. There’s a case to be made for bundling flood abatement and development of Overton Square, but there’s a better case to be made for doing what’s best for flood-afflicted residents regardless and paying for it out of general funds. Much as I wish the money could be taken away from boondoggles such as Beale Street Landing, that isn’t going to happen. So we will see what the city council does in December, and Loeb will make its decision after that.