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Mayor Seeks Public Input on Park Renovation After Neighbors’ Complaints

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s office says that it will seek public input concerning renovations to Audubon Park, after several complaints from neighbors.

The $8 million project was recently announced by Memphis Parks, and will include a new playground, pavilion, and golf course, according to a post on the Memphis Parks Facebook page. 

The post also states that Memphis City Council approved the budget, and Strickland signed off on it. The renovation was part of Strickland’s 2022 budget proposal for $95 million in capital improvements that also promised a new Lester Community Center and a new Mt. Moriah police precinct. 

According to Angela Link, leader of a group called “Saving Audubon Park,” the Memphis Parks department released design renderings of the proposed Links at Audubon. She says that these renderings failed to acknowledge that the renovations will eliminate public use of green spaces by the lake at Audubon Park.

Several citizens have voiced their concerns regarding these renovations, with many criticizing the lack of transparency by Strickland. A new website, savingaudubonpark.org, states that citizens found out about these plans through other media outlets. 

“Despite the mayor’s suggestion that he wants transparency in his administration, there have been no public meetings to discuss the plan or get feedback from the people who currently use this area, the taxpayers of Memphis,” the website says.

The Flyer reached out to the mayor’s office regarding these concerns, and they released the following statement.

“​​The golf course design portion of Audubon Park in question has yet to be finalized,” reads the statement. “Greenspace near the lake will be available for use by the public. Memphis Parks will be seeking public input in an upcoming community engagement forum.”

Link agrees the course needs a renovation, but there “is no need to expand the course at the expense of all the greenspace.” 

“This greenspace and lake area is used by picnickers, walkers, dog walkers, teens playing hacky sack, families flying kites, and feeding the ducks, people just eating their lunch looking at the lake and all the rest people who are seeking a quiet calm refuge to just enjoy nature,” Link says. “If this plan moves forward, there will be nowhere in East Memphis for all these people to go to enjoy the outdoors by a lake.”

On Tuesday, September 27, citizens Laine Agee and Cathy Minch set up a table at Cancer Survivor’s Park to encourage parkgoers and visitors to sign a “Save The Park,” petition, in hopes of reaching 150 signatures. According to Minch, an employee with Memphis Parks informed her that if they received 150 signatures, a meeting would be set up to discuss concerns.

The Flyer reached out to Memphis Parks but has not yet not received a response.

Minch says that she recently went to a groundbreaking ceremony for the new pavilion and playground at Audubon Park. She initially thought this ceremony was for the golf course.

“There were about 25 people down there, and Mayor Strickland was at the podium, and he had this big mound of dirt behind him with shovels stuck in them, a big [public relations] opportunity for him,” Minch says. “While they were filming him talking, I held my sign up behind him. One of them said ‘sneaky deals,’ and the other one said ‘don’t tell the public.’ I held both of those up and people started coming from both ends.”

Minch says that they threatened to call the police if she didn’t stop, but she didn’t care. It was at this moment that she was approached by an employee and was able to receive pertinent contact information.

“It got their attention,” Minch says. “I consider this a success.”

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“I Want You To Stay and I Want You To Fight” — Officials React to “Evil Actions” of Rampage Killer

Editor’s note: After receiving numerous complaints from readers for displaying a photo of Wednesday night’s assailant in this space, we have decided that its news value as an identifier of a dangerous person at-large is no longer applicable, so we’ve removed the picture.

Here is Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s statement in full:

“I want to first, express my deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families who are suffering from this senseless murder rampage. I’m angry  for them, and I’m angry that our citizens had to shelter in place for their own safety until the suspect was caught. This is no way for us to live and it is not acceptable.

The people of our city were confronted with the type of violence no one should have to face. Ezekiel Kelly was charged with criminal attempted first degree murder but pled guilty in April of 2021 to the lesser charge of aggravated assault. He was sentenced to three years, but only served 11 months and was released on March 16th, 2022 — less than six months ago.

These evil actions show why truth in sentencing is a must, and we should do all we can to make our city safe. We should not be terrorized by anyone who wants to strike fear in our hearts and take away what we love about Memphis. We must unite around this principle and stand up to the challenge of violent crime in our city. 

If Mr. Kelly served his full three-year sentence, he would still be in prison today and four of our fellow citizens would still be alive.

Thank you state legislature, led by [state House Speaker Rep. Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville) and [Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge), for passing truth in sentencing. From now on, three years for aggravated assault means three years.

Our judicial system is too often a revolving door.  A citizen emailed me today — ‘until/unless there are real consequences for criminal behavior, it will continue.’

I agree 100 percent. We need the courts and additional state laws to stop this revolving door and I need the public to make their voices heard by those decision makers.

I want to thank the men and women of our Memphis Police Department, and all the supporting law enforcement agencies who supported in capturing the suspect tonight, and aided in the search for Liza Fletcher earlier this week.

This has been a painful week in our city, but I have hope for Memphis, I have love for Memphis, I know that united …..we will endure.”

Camper

State House Minority Leader Rep. Karen Camper (D-Memphis):

“Our city is hurting. My heart goes out to the families of those killed and injured tonight. It was an unspeakable horror and it occurred just days after our city was devastated by another tragedy: the terrible murder of elementary school teacher Eliza Fletcher.

“It’s been a sad few months for Memphis. There is a long road ahead and much work ahead for us to do in order to begin to heal our city and we will have those policy discussions. But now we have to lock arms and pray for all of the victims of this week and the past few months and not let these tragic circumstances tear our hearts away from the city we all love.”

Greater Memphis Chamber President and CEO Beverly Robertson:

“The Greater Memphis Chamber and our entire business community are deeply saddened by the tragic events our city has lived through in recent days. We extend our condolences to the families and friends of those lost to these senseless acts of inhumanity.

“The Chamber remains committed to working with our business leaders, elected officials, and residents to thoughtfully identify real solutions that lead to real results. I have already reached out to the mayor and police chief of Memphis to ensure the business community will be at the table as we move forward.

“We all must play a role in driving positive change in our community, and this journey is just starting. Working together, we will make a difference.” 

State Rep. London Lamar:

Lamar

“The book of Psalms says ‘I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words.’

This morning, our families in Memphis are crying out for accountability and justice. We are hoping that, together, we can summon the courage to take real action against gun violence.

No community should have to live with the trauma of mass shootings and terrorism. But this isn’t the first senseless tragedy and it won’t be the last if we are unwilling to turn our prayers into action.

I have consistently fought for evidence-based reforms that prevent violent crime. We will continue our work to expand access to mental healthcare. And our mission to end generational poverty never ceases.

But our work is being crippled by policies that make it easier for dangerous people to access deadly weapons. I am a gun owner, but I understand the right to carry must come with meaningful rules and responsibilities.

Again, I am asking anyone at the Capitol who will listen: Please acknowledge the deadly consequences of guns falling into the wrong hands and work with me to end gun violence against our families.”

Taylor

Shelby County Health Department Director Dr. Michelle Taylor:

“The shootings last night in Memphis that left four people dead and three injured, and the kidnapping and death of Eliza Fletcher are a wake-up call for our community.

Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) extends its deepest sympathies to all the victims, their friends and families, and everyone in our community impacted by this past week’s violent events. We also thank the many law enforcement personnel and first responders who risk their lives every day to bring an end to violent crime in our community and make Memphis a “place of good abode,” as it was called when it was founded.

The principles of public health practice are well suited to implement a violence prevention framework that addresses the root causes of violent crime. The key to addressing the endless cycle of shootings and imprisonment in our community is to heal the generational trauma that makes violence appear to be the only option. Adverse childhood experiences and adverse community experiences have increased over time, due to the structural and institutional failures to address the issues leading to inequality and conflict in our community.

Shelby County Health Department is committed to expanding access to behavioral health resources for everyone throughout their lifespan as a first step to addressing the generational traumas that can lead to community violence. SCHD provides a wide range of prevention and screening services. We are expanding our reach by convening behavioral health resources and acting on our analysis of gun violence as a public health crisis in our community. As a part of that work, SCHD has begun a Cure Violence Global pilot program using a local subcontractor (Heal 901) to replicate Cure Violence’s data-driven, evidence-based approach to crime prevention here in Shelby County.

Please join the Shelby County Health Department in our meaningful and collaborative action to bring an end to the senseless violence that harms everyone in our community. To learn more about how to get involved, please visit our website: shelbytnhealth.com.”

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis):

Cohen

“What has been happening in my hometown is harrowing and disturbing. I have been concerned for some time about the crime situation and have spoken with the relevant public officials about addressing the issue.

I have suggested convening a summit with the two mayors, the District Attorney General, the Police Director, the Shelby County Sheriff, the school board president, and the juvenile court judge. We need a comprehensive approach involving the schools and the juvenile justice system to help reverse these disturbing trends.

Today I wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland to explain the situation in Memphis, noting the high-profile killings in recent days and weeks, and asking him to look favorably on discretionary grants from the Edward Byrne Memorial Grants Assistance and COPS programs and to provide any and all other assistance available from the Department of Justice. I also asked to speak with him at his earliest convenience.”

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Strickland: City is Delivering Bottled Water

Statement from Mayor Strickland on Water Distribution — February 20, 2021

We’re facing the unprecedented situation of low water pressure in our homes and taking the precaution of boiling our water. But we’ll get through this challenge together.

To make sure some of our most vulnerable residents have safe water, the City of Memphis purchased and delivered 27,648 bottles of water on Friday. 1,728 bottles each went to, Christ Missionary Baptist Church, Healing Center Church and Neighborhood Christian Centers. Another 22,464 bottles were delivered to the Memphis Housing Authority.

Mayor Strickland

The City has also purchased an additional 44,472 bottles of water that will be distributed in partnership with the Memphis City Council on Sunday at 10 a.m. at the locations below. One case of water per car.

District 1 – New Raleigh Civic Center – 3384 Austin Peay District 2 – Bert Ferguson CC – 8505 Trinity District 3 – Hickory Hill CC – 3910 Ridgeway District 4 – Fire Station 22 – 2690 Lamar District 5 – Pink Palace – 3050 Central District 6 – South Memphis (Ruth Tate) Senior Center – 1620 Marjorie District 7 – Hollywood CC – 1560 N. Hollywood, and Lewis Senior Center – 1188 N. Parkway

We are also working with other partners to increase the amount available. Cash Savers donated 3,500 bottles and we anticipate more.

I want to thank our Director of General Services, Antonio Adams and Director of Parks Nick Walker who quickly organized the delivery and distribution of water Memphians will need in the days ahead. Thanks to Kroger, CashSaver, and Coca-Cola for the discounted water.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

AG Barr, in Memphis, Touts Operation LeGend, Is Protested

Attorney General Barr

On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who normally makes news pushing legal agendas backed by President Donald Trump, came to Memphis and, in the presence of local law-enforcement officials, touted Operation LeGend, a joint federal-local operation in which Memphis is one of several high-crime cities targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Speaking at the Memphis Police Department’s Ridgeway Station, Barr began with a tribute to the law-enforcement profession in general.

“Today, it’s probably ten times harder than it’s ever been.” he said. “Part of that climate is characterized by media coverage that often distorts the world and somehow has taken some very unfortunate incidents and and used them to create a false narrative in which you were the bad guys.”

Barr said that, despite a general impression that law enforcement was “on a treadmill,” discernible progress had been made.

“I was Attorney General 30 years ago when crime was at its peak. Victimization rates in 1991 and 1992 were 70 per 1,000 persons. Today it’s more like 30.”

Protesters at the event

“Thousands and thousands of lives” had been saved by carefully applied law enforcement, Barr said.

“A lot of that progress was getting back to basics and going after violent offenders who were responsible for a disproportionate number of crimes,” he said. “We can acknowledge that we’re not the only solution, but I think people have to recognize there can’t be the solution without us.”

The Attorney General then gave a rundown on the effects of Operation LeGend, in which the Justice Department decided to intervene with agents and other forms of support.

“That’s why we came to Memphis, we put in 96 additional federal agents, $9.5 million, approximately, to support 50 additional police positions, additional monies for technology upgrades and brought in additional forensic specialists and investigators to work on crimes.”

He boasted good results.

“In just several months, in just a couple of months, we’ve had over 5500 arrests nationwide. And 1100 of those were charged federally. Here in Memphis, we’ve had 64 suspects charged. I know, in Memphis, some of the crime has proven to be particularly stubborn. The homicide rate is still very high.”

But he said, there had been significant abatement in other areas like robbery and rape.

“And leads developed for over 1500 gun crimes.”

Barr concluded his brief remarks by saying, “We look forward to continued joint operations.”

Not looking forward to that prospect at all was Hunter Demster, one of several local activists protesting the occasion, who said of their demonstration, “Decarcerate Memphis is hosting this event in response to William Barr coming in town and pushing the harmful Trump policies and using Memphis as a testing ground for these federal agencies.”

Demster said his group had “major concerns” about Operation Relentless Pursuit and LeGend.

“We have major concerns around these task forces in general and with their accountability and purpose — Memphis being as poor as it is and people being food-insecure, job-insecure, health-insecure. Memphis needs help and it’s not more police. So we want them to redistribute the money they’re using for these federal operations into social services that actually prevent crime and address people’s basic needs.”

Demster was critical also of Mayor Jim Strickland for cooperating with Operation LeGend and, he said, with the objectives of the Trump administration.

“It fits right in line with Mayor Strickland’s policies the entire time, he’s invited [former Attorney General] Jeff Sessions with open arms. He’s invited William Barr with open arms, he’s invited [U.S. Senator] Marsha Blackburn with open arms. … I think it’s a ploy to to make it look like the Trump administration is doing something significant, when in actuality they’re doing more harm.”

The remarks by Demster, who was later taken into custody by police, paralleled those made in a recent article in MLK50 by University of Memphis professor Tony Velasco, who also saw a synchronicity of sorts in the policies of the Memphis Mayor and the President.

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Mayor Sets New, Nightly Curfew

Mayor Sets New, Nightly Curfew

A new, nightly curfew begins tonight from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in an effort to calm protests here related to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland set the curfew in a special news briefing Monday afternoon. He said the curfew is an “effort to keep things peaceful” and will go on “as long as necessary.”

“This means if you’re out during those hours, you can be arrested with the exception of essential workers and those with medical [emergencies],” Strickland said.

Strickland said the decision to institute the curfew came after a weekend phone call with mayors and police directors with the 40 largest U.S. cities.

“They felt a curfew was needed when there was property damage or violent acts,” he said. “We saw that last night. [There were] broken windows and bottles being thrown. So we decided it was appropriate at this time to have a curfew.”

Strickland began the special news conference this way, “Thank you.”

“Thank you to the protesters in Memphis, for those conducting themselves in a peaceful and powerful manner,” Strickland said. “I applaud you and I thank you for your leadership and passion. I know that you’re hurting and that you’re angry and that you want change. I’m with you on that.”

Strickland said the city of Memphis and the community at large have made strides in decreasing poverty, improving education and workforce development, and reducing violent crime. However, in all of those regards and others, Strickland said, “we must do better.”

“As I said days ago, the needless death of George Floyd and too many other souls around our country serve as a constant reminder that we must do better,” Strickland said. “We must do better. In our country, we as Americans and as Memphians, we deserve better.”

“Moving forward, I want you to know that I hear you. The Memphis Police Department hears you. The city of Memphis hears you.”

In his closing remarks, Strickland described what he called “two types of protestors.” The first group “that I believe is the vast majority or protestors” believe in their message and want “to get it across in a peaceful, powerful, and respectful way.” The other group, he said, “wants destruction and chaos, regardless of the cost and how many people they may hurt.”

“We cannot let the second group steal the message to end systematic racism and take it from those of us who love our city and want to bring meaningful and lasting change to a broken system.”

The Tennessee National Guard has been activated to respond to protests here and across the state. Neither Strickland nor Memphis Police Department director Michael Rallings were precisely sure of the Guard’s movements here.

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What’s Next as Tennessee Restarts Its Economy?

As the song made famous by the late Doris Day has it, “Que sera, sera/Whatever will be, will be/ the future’s not ours to see/Que sera, sera … ”

Indeed, but the residents of Memphis and Shelby County, like those elsewhere in the inhabited world, can’t be blamed for wondering: Just what does come next?

So far, there have been no armed protests locally, like those that took place in the Michigan state capitol last week. And no reason to, inasmuch as the officialdom of Memphis, Shelby County, and the county’s other six municipalities have all concurred on a business-reopening plan to begin this week.

But there remains a distinct possibility that medical circumstances could impose a hitch on those plans. After all, it is known that the reopening plan was originally scheduled to be announced by the powers-that-be on Monday of last week but was delayed until Wednesday by a reported spike in the number of coronavirus cases.

Still, here we are, with a timetable for reopening, after tiresome weeks of isolation and social distancing and shuttered establishments of virtually all kinds, public and private. Local officials made every effort to accentuate the positive, but there was inevitably a tight-lipped ring to their statements, a left-handedness to their public optimism. The opening paragraph of the reopening announcement, undersigned by mayors and health officials, for example, went this way:

“After careful study of the data, and on the advice of our medical experts including the Shelby County Health Department, the mayors of Memphis, Shelby County, and the six surrounding municipalities have determined that May 4, 2020, is the date that we can begin phase one of our Back to Business framework.”
Brandon Dill

Mayor Jim Strickland

That first salvo of official broadsides had Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland proclaiming this: “Along with our doctors, we believe it’s time to slowly start opening our economy back up and get Memphians working again.”  

Not exactly bursting with confidence. And Strickland sounded even less certain when asked to elaborate in interviews. Here he was, speaking to WMC-TV, Action News 5 last Thursday: “We feel comfortable that over the last month, for the most part, the new cases and hospitalizations have remained fairly static.” [Italics ours.] With all due respect, the effect of those two qualifying phrases — “for the most part” and “fairly static” — is daunting.

The fact is, the way forward is strewn, not with palms or garlands, but with thorns and pitfalls. April was, if not the “cruelest month” of poetic legend, unkind enough. At the beginning of the month, some two weeks into his March 23rd stay-at-home order, Strickland took stock of the city’s financial outlook and found, as he put it, anything but a “pretty picture.” With the budget yet to be calculated, the mayor foresaw revenue losses of some $80 million in the coming fiscal year. As the month wore on, his estimate rose to at least $100 million — fully a seventh of what would be a maintenance budget of $700 million.

Strickland said sales taxes, which represent about 23 percent of the operating revenues for the city’s general fund, were estimated to decline by 25 percent, with a worsening of a situation that had already seen “significant reduction in the services we provide to thousands of citizens and layoffs of hundreds of city employees.”

In the course of the month, the city received assurances of $113 million from the federal government, but it could not be used as bailout money. The strings were that every penny would have to go for COVID-related expenses. Ditto with the $50 million of CARES Act money expected by Shelby County government. The city holds a reserve fund of some $78 million but needs to hold on to most of that as a last resource in case the disaster takes even more unpredictable turns.

Conflict in County Government
Shelby County’s budget situation is uncertain as well, and like much else in county government, is subject to a kind of internally raging civil conflict. The discords of the moment, under Mayor Lee Harris, are hardly as pronounced as were those of the administration of previous Mayor Mark Luttrell, who, during his second term (2014-2018) found himself almost totally estranged from the Shelby County Commission. 
Justin Fox Burks

Mayor Lee Harris

Although Luttrell was a Republican and the commission had a Democratic majority, their differences were not partisan. Indeed, Luttrell faced his severest tests under two Republican chairs, Terry Roland and Heidi Shafer. Democrats still dominate the commission, but party loyalties, now as then, provide no cushion for Harris, himself a Democrat. His difficulties, like those of Luttrell, stem from disagreements over budgetary matters.

Luttrell’s alienation from his legislative body began when he evinced a determination to play fiduciary matters close to the vest, withholding information in 2015 about a looming budget surplus that commission members, once they tumbled onto its existence, decided they had plans of their own for. From that point to the end of Luttrell’s tenure, a power struggle persisted. When Harris took office in 2018, he took pains to express solidarity with the commission that had been elected that year, but discovered that maintaining an effective liaison with commissioners required a more systematic and continual effort than he had realized.

When he proposed his first budget in early 2019, he told commission members he wanted passage that very evening. He didn’t get it, of course. The budget didn’t get finalized until weeks later, after the usual give-and-take of negotiations. But in essence, he hazarded something similar this year, announcing last month, in the first blush of the coronavirus crisis, that he’d worked out a series of emergency reductions, across the board of county agencies, totaling $10 million, that would allow the county, by the nearest of near things, to escape bankruptcy.

Several department directors disputed his cuts, and the commission members couldn’t agree on them, and the bottom line was that nothing got done, not even a $2.5 million appropriation that was to have been the county’s contribution toward the costs of PPEs and other local COVID expenses.

Second thoughts on the commission’s part got that latter omission rectified two weeks later, and by then Harris had retooled his own plans, announcing a “lean and balanced” austerity budget of $1.4 billion that now required $13.6 million in cuts as well as a loan of $6 million  from the county’s fund balance, leaving that reserve fund at the “go-no-lower” level of $85 million. There were a few fillips, too, in the way of pre-K expenditures, money for the sheriff’s deputies who’ll have to be hired to police newly de-annexed areas of Memphis, and a few million dollars extra for the schools.

The gremlin in the mix was the ever-unpopular idea of upping the county’s wheel tax, to the tune of an additional $16.50 to be added to the base automobile license fee of $50. No other place to go, said Harris, inasmuch as local property and sales taxes had already topped out.

Between that meeting and this Monday’s, the commission held committee meetings last Wednesday in which disagreement over budget possibilities flared into open name-calling between Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. and Harris.

Serving as vice chair to budget chair Eddie Jones, the two of them opened up a tear in Harris’ plans, which Ford called “garbage,” floating a plan to ignore the mayor’s “lean”model budget and replace it with a thinly reconditioned version of the old 2020 budget, coming in at $1.3 billion.

“I used to think I was halfway decent at math, but it’s obvious that I can’t add,” CFO Mathilde Crosby said. Harris accused Ford of having been a “bloodletter” when they both served on the Memphis City Council, and Ford reciprocated that Harris was “presumptuous and arrogant and ignorant.”

Perhaps wisely, Harris kept his distance from Monday’s commission meeting, at which the Ford-Jones idea of rehabbing last year’s budget was happily forgotten and the mayor’s own “lean” budget was equally ignored. With all hopes of agreement dissolving, Commission Chair Mark Billingsley seized upon the expedient of a budget retreat to be held on Friday in FedEx quarters at Shelby Farms, with only the commissioners, the mayor, CAO Dwan Gillom, and CFO Crosby there to reason together at six-foot distances and find both the humane initiatives favored by Commissioner Tami Sawyer and the “shorter shoestring” demanded by conservative Republican Commissioner Brandon Morrison.

Jackson Baker

Matters of State
Governor Bill Lee’s own “shelter-in-place” resolve was hardly long-lasting, and it was none too stout to begin with, although an online survey of Tennesseans, conducted by a condominium of northeastern universities found that Lee’s now-you-see-them, now-you-don’t actions have been welcomed by some 64 percent of Tennesseans, while only 13 percent disapproved.

In Nashville, this year’s session of the General Assembly was abandoned when the dimensions of the pandemic and its reach into Tennessee became clear. It was at a time, for better or for worse, of much unfinished business. Left pending were such matters as the funding (and timing) of private-school vouchers, the designation of the Bible as the state book, a carry-over anti-abortion bill, and open-carry gun legislation.

As reported by Erik Schelzig, the diligent and ever-accurate editor of the Tennessee Journal newsletter, “Senate leadership has made it clear its preference is to focus only on downward adjustments to the budget required by the economic impact of the coronavirus. But a vocal faction in the House wants to instead throw open the doors to the legislation left hanging when lawmakers left town in March.”

A not unimportant matter is the question of whether state legislators, if indeed they resume deliberations by the planned date of June 1st, would authorize “no-excuse” absentee voting. Early voting for the August 6th election round is scheduled for July 17th, mere weeks later. As of now, a firm cut-off date of May 8th still applies to absentee applications. As Schelzig notes, “There’s been little sign so far state Republicans are becoming more receptive to liberalizing rules on voting by mail. And they have ample political cover from President Donald Trump, who has been a vocal critic of allowing more absentee voting. If it remains just Democrats advocating for sweeping changes to Tennessee’s current vote-by- mail laws, the issue will likely be dead on arrival.”

Locally the ballot will contain a mini-Shelby County general election and, as elsewhere in Tennessee, a primary for state and federal offices. The much-beleaguered county commission, on which Democrats have an 8-to-5 partisan edge, has formally resolved both to seek an extension of the absentee ballot and to urge the county’s Election Commission to purchase new equipment enabling hand-marked paper ballots. Indeed, the commission has conflated the two matters into a single resolution, which has passed twice now with the minimum seven votes required.

Under the more limited approach, a small number of committees would meet the last week of May before gaveling into session June 1st for as little as a week. Under the situation-normal approach, the session could last as long as three weeks — or even butt up against the end of the budget year on June 30th.

Jackson Baker

The Pending August 6th Election
Leaving aside the seemingly remote chance that a re-summoned legislature would facilitate an expansion of absentee voting, the chance that Governor Lee would support such an undertaking is equally unlikely. As indicated, the issue has no place in the playbook of the state’s Republican super-majority.

What is more to the point of reality is the issue of new voting machines for Shelby County, which county election administrator Linda Phillips has expressed hopes of putting to use in time for the forthcoming August election.

As indicated, early voting for that election is scheduled to begin on July 17th, a fact that presents a drastically foreshortened timetable for resolving a matter that has been seriously contested, in one way or another, for years, and confounded local elections for a decade or more.

No one needs to be reminded of the numerous electronic glitches that have led activists to join forces to campaign for a particular kind of machinery, which, perhaps ironically, constitutes a throwback to a less technological time. Among these activists are Shelby County Election Commissioner Bennie Smith, an acknowledged expert in the field of voting machinery; law professor and former Shelby County Commissioner Steve Mulroy; White Station High School government teacher Erika Sugarmon; and Mike Kernell and Carol Chumney, both former state representatives and veterans, respectively, of the Shelby County School Board and the Memphis City Council.

All of the foregoing are advocates of hand-marked paper ballots and argue that given Shelby County’s own checkered and error-prone voting history, and in acknowledgement also of the hacks and rumors of hacks that have plagued national elections, a resort to hand-marked ballots verified by scanning machines would be both safer and less costly. And, in a time of potential viral infections of metal surfaces, they would also be safer than the kind of ballot-marking devices that Phillips and the GOP members of the Election Commission have expressed a preference for.

So far the battle over voting devices has been a back-and-forth affair, and the forced reversion to electronic webinar meetings of the Election Commission occasioned by the coronavirus outbreak has complicated things further. A definitive choice of machine vendors by Phillips and a subsequent vote on her recommendation by the Election Commission members were both aborted by an electronic snag that kept member Brent Taylor, a Republican but a potential swing voter, from participating in a virtual executive session of the EC last week.

The Election Commission is slated to have another go this week, and so, for that matter, is the Shelby County Commission, which, unlike the EC, is dominated by Democrats and has repeatedly voted its preference — twice recently — for hand-marked ballots. Given the fact that the county commission controls the purse strings, the stage is set for a possible showdown between the two bodies over the voting-machine matter.

Meanwhile, the major pressure on all public bodies is the determination on so many people’s part and in so many jurisdictions everywhere to resume public activities — in advance of the reasonably arrived-at phases announced by President Trump requiring 14 straight days of declining coronavirus cases, advances in testing and contact tracing, and much else — parameters that have been roundly ignored everywhere — and not least in the White House itself.

In a recent discussion on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, various experts were heard to theorize that a second, more virulent phase of the pandemic would be coming in the fall and that, sans some unforeseen good fortune to concocting a vaccine, the plague would be with us for at least two more years.

That, said one of the authorities on tap, explained the sudden mania to hit the beaches, the supermarkets, and the national shrines. It was a matter of get-it-while-you-can, the scientist — not a fantasist — theorized. And it is undeniably a goad to our public bodies. Somewhere out there our future beckons — into some rosy and becalmed sunset in which to find our dreams or, if things should take a dystopian turn, there’s Edgar Allan Poe and “The Masque of the Red Death.”

And there is surely something in between.

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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.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Trash Matters: About Those Proposed Changes to Garbage and Recycling Schedules

With the holiday season in full swing and spontaneous weather that turns autumn foliage into cold mildewy blankets, one cannot be blamed for letting the lawn debris pile up. At least that’s what I tell myself most years, when the neighbors are taking their Christmas lights down and I’m trudging through a six-inch wall of decomposing leaves to get to my car in the morning.

This year’s different, though. When we cranked up our backpack blower last weekend, we were among the first on our street. For someone who usually ends up overpaying someone to vacuum our front lawn into a truck in, like, February, it was a major feat. Most years I’m shamed into action by my fear of judgment, or worse, of a letter from code enforcement. I’m on the ball this year, motivated by a message from the mayor, whose blight reduction strategy has taken a bizarre detour.

What a damn mess

Last week’s weekly email from Mayor Strickland’s office started on a hopeful note. Great news! We fixed our garbage collection issues! Everything’s been running like clockwork. Well, of course it has. The bar was low. When you reward contracts to the lowest bidder, you get what you pay for. Garbage collection is thankless work: If you don’t pay well, there’s no reason to care. Hire the people, give them the tools they need, and compensate them appropriately. Do this in literally any situation and there’s a decent chance you’ll succeed. The bad news is: Now that we know how much it costs, we have to stop doing all the stuff that was working. Makes perfect sense.

There are two possible scenarios here. One, the mayor’s people miscalculated the long-term cost of bringing the job in-house, hiring the people and purchasing the equipment necessary to do the work properly. Or, they overestimated the community’s enthusiasm for paying more for a basic public service. So they requested a more than $7 per-month rate hike that Memphis City Council, unsurprisingly, did not approve. I’m neither a politician nor an economist, but increasing the cost of something by more than 30 percent at once seems like a tough sell. Yes, Strickland said they “may well have to” propose a rate increase, but that’s about the equivalent of your dad saying “we’ll see” when you ask to borrow the car.

So they’re going to lay off 275 sanitation workers. They’re going to cut back services to what appears to be an even lower level than before solid waste collection was “fixed” in Memphis. Happy holidays to everyone who wished for a return to the good old days of spotty pickup and broken bins! Starting January 6th, there will be no more outside-the-cart pickup. Recycling will get picked up once a month, so pounds and pounds of recyclable materials will end up in a landfill. Sorry, it’s the only way, says the mayor. Better get those leaf bags to the curb by the end of the month or else they’ll be there forever.

This is a bluff, right? It has to be because I am struggling to reconcile “Memphis has momentum” and “brilliant at the basics” with “we cannot afford to pick up your trash.”

“I’m never a fan of raising rates, but this is our only option” might sound more sincere if I hadn’t just read about yet another developer getting tens of millions of dollars in tax incentives. None of those guys can chip in, so we’ll just wait around and let the trash pile up for a few weeks or months or years until city council comes around on the rate increase. Sounds like a plan. Maybe one hard rain will be enough to remind them streets flood when storm drains are full of leaves that didn’t get bagged because nobody is coming to pick them up. Here’s hoping the pothole budget is as flush as it was last year.

Jen Clarke is a digital marketing strategist and an unapologetic Memphian.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Hands Off CLERB

Councilmen Kemp Conrad and Worth Morgan are attempting to disband the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) in favor of a City Council Law Enforcement Review Board. CLERB, which existed in the 1990s and was revamped around 2014, has struggled to be what it was intended to be, due to Police Director Michael Rallings refusing to accept any of its recommendations.  

John Marek

On May 10, 2018, CLERB unanimously agreed to send a letter to Mayor Jim Strickland and the Memphis City Council, making suggestions on how the board could be more effective.

Unfortunately, Director Rallings chose to try to render the board ineffective by rejecting all of its recommendations, which were to implement one of the following: 1) The police director should be reasonable and at least meet the board in the middle on its decisions (compromise); 2) a new police director who would work with the CLERB; 3) a new ordinance that would give CLERB binding decision-making power; or 4) an amendment to the current ordinance, which gives appellate power to the mayor over the police director’s decisions.

If any of the four CLERB suggestions had been accepted by the council and/or Mayor Strickland, CLERB would have been able to function the way it was intended. But it was not to be.

The police-involved shooting incident in Raleigh last summer is a prime example of why CLERB is so important. We do not want to be the next Ferguson. While gated neighborhoods in Memphis may not appreciate the importance of CLERB, lower-income and impoverished areas of Memphis understand the trust issue that exists between the police and some of our city’s residents. CLERB was intended to be the group that gives citizens a fair hearing, and, if implemented properly, it would help our community build trust between civilians and the local police. 

Without CLERB, we are solely dependent on MPD Internal Affairs to investigate complaints by civilians about police. MPD Internal Affairs is itself a conflict of interest; self-regulation does not work. Instead of taking advice from CLERB’s 2018 letter, the mayor has taken no action to address the issue. And now, certain council members are attempting to eliminate the board’s independence completely. 

The mayor’s lack of action has been a disappointment. As a councilman, Strickland was a strong voice in favor of the CLERB ordinance. He understood the issue well, and he and Councilman Alan Crone were instrumental in passing the legislation. As mayor, Strickland has preferred to avoid the issue, and he has not done anything to address any problems identified by the board. 

The first and second suggestions from CLERB can only be carried out by the mayor and through his influence. He appoints the police director, and the police director answers to him. Though Strickland was excellent at balancing Midtown and East Memphis concerns as a councilman, he seems to go a lot more with his East Memphis constituency as mayor. Hopefully, he will cater less to his donor base during his current term since he will be term-limited in 2023. 

One interesting point from local activist Paul Garner: Does the city council really want to have the responsibilities of CLERB? Politically, it could be dangerous, as they will be judged by supporters of both sides of any issue the council publicly makes decisions about regarding complaints against MPD.

Garner saw silver linings in the passage of the council-led review board ordinance: 1) When a case’s facts are clearly in the citizen complainant’s favor, will Rallings continue to ignore decisions when they come from the council? 2) If the council actually exercises its subpoena power to require officers to testify, will they show up? (Officers have ignored requests to do so by CLERB.) 3) Inasmuch as these meetings would be required to be public, does the city council want the additional media coverage created by the council’s openly hearing complaints against MPD?

One major consequence of passing CLERB on to the city council could be that its members would be tempted to eliminate any type of review board after passage of the initial transforming legislation. Another concern is that documents that should be made public would be deemed “confidential” by the council. 

There are a lot of negatives in switching CLERB to a council-led board, but could there be a truckload of silver linings to follow? I hope we do not have to find out.

I hope the current council will think this approach through and allow the newly elected council to make the final decision. Lame ducks should not be voting on the proposed ordinance.

And Mayor Strickland, please reconsider the suggestions from the 2018 letter from CLERB.

Lawyer/activist John Marek, a recent candidate for the Memphis City Council, was a charter member of CLERB and instrumental in its creation.

Categories
News News Blog

‘State-of-the-Art’ Tennis Facility in the Works for Memphis

A new “world-class tennis facility” is coming to Memphis, the city, along with the University of Memphis and local organization Tennis Memphis announced Monday.

The three entities are partnering to renovate Leftwich Tennis near Audubon Park into what officials call a “state-of-the-art facility.” The $19 million project will “dramatically improve” the facility with the construction of 32 new courts. Twenty of those will be outdoors, and 12 will be indoors. The center currently has 12 courts in total.

Upon completion, the renovated Leftwich Tennis Center will remain a public facility open to the community for competitive and recreational play, as well as tennis lessons and clinics. It will also be the new home courts for the men’s and women’s Tiger tennis teams.


Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland was at Leftwich Monday for the announcement. He said the new facility will be a “true gem” for the community.

“I can’t say enough about how excited I am for this project to begin,” Strickland said. “And I’m not the only one. The philanthropic support shown for this has been exceptional. Not only will this be a tremendous asset for the University, but it will be a true gem for our community and all tennis lovers.”

Officials said the majority of funding for the project was raised privately, while $3 million is coming from the city and $5 million from the university.

U of M president M. David Rudd said the tennis center will be “one of the finest in the country, one that all Memphians will be proud of.”

Paul Goebel, coach of the U of M men’s tennis team said the new facility will be fit to host major events, such as national tennis tournaments and NCAA and conference championships. Goebel anticipates that will “attract thousands of out-of-town visitors each year.”

The new facility is slated to be completed by January 2021.


‘State-of-the-Art’ Tennis Facility in the Works for Memphis