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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Strickland Opens Up

JB

Mayor Srickland in the center of supporters (top) and being buttonholed by them (bottom)

On Tuesday afternoon, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, freshly introduced by School Board member Michelle McKissick (who in turn had been introduced by County Commission chair Van Turner) took a look around the crowd that surrounded him on the vacant floor of the former Spin City on Poplar Avenue and professed himself “humbled to see so many people from all walks of life.”

That was how Strickland formally opened his 2019 reelection campaign, clearly trying to present himself as a man for all seasons and factions.

The Mayor promised the crowd “a few words,” which turned out to be a semi-lengthy recounting of what he considers his accomplishments over the 3 ½-year period of his tenure so far.

These included an accelerated hiring of police officers, a doubling of the city’s paving budget, and the use of “data” to “drive government decisions.” He would quickly amend that formulation to “data and good people,” working in a brag on city employees.

Apropos that matter of data, Strickland served up more stats, claiming : a quickening of the city’s 911 response to an average of 7 seconds per call; an enhanced survival rate at the city’s animal shelter; an increased MWBE percentage (rate of contracting with firms owned by women and minorities); a 90 percent increase of summer jobs for youth; 22,000 new jobs in 3 ½ years; etc., etc.

“All of that without a tax increase,” Strickland proclaimed promising more via his administration’s Memphis 3.0 growth plan. “Memphis does have momentum,” he said.

The Mayor cited some encouraging appraisals from the Bloomberg organization of Manhattan and got a rise out of his crowd of supporters when, in boasting the rate of job growth in Memphis, he said it surpassed that in such other major cities as Houston, Dallas, and “a small town east of here called Nashville.”

There was more such upbeat boasting, some of it borrowed from other governmental jurisdictions, as when Strickland cited state government’s provision of free education at community colleges and tech schools.

All in all, the Mayor’s presentation was rhetorically lean and in line with his oft-stated concept of his job as essentially that of handling the “basics.”

He is making a point of running on his record, and it will be up to his several opponents to question his data and his conclusions and to offer arguments of their own as alternatives. At least two of them — County Commissioner Tami Sawyer and former Mayor Willie Herenton — seem prepared to make such an effort, but they are both well behind with respect to one important piece of data not mentioned by Strickland on Tuesday.

That would be in the matter of campaign budgets, where the incumbent Mayor has an amount on hand close to one million dollars. That is one “basic” that will be hard to counter.

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News News Blog

$40 Million Revamp Headed for Elvis Presley Boulevard

The Guest House at Graceland sits on the stretch of Elvis Presley Boulevard that will be redone.


A multi-year makeover of an approximately 3-mile stretch of Elvis Presley Boulevard in Whitehaven is slated to begin soon, city officials announced Thursday.

The $40 million project will impact the stretch of road from Brooks to Shelby Drive, where Elvis Presley Enterprises’ Graceland attractions sit. The road will be repaved, widened, and made more “aesthetically pleasing,” Robert Knecht, director of the city’s Public Works said. “Overall, the enhancements will make the street more usable and more walkable.”

Construction will “start any day now,” and wrap up in 2022, Knecht said. When work is completed, it will be a “brand-new street,” he said.

The corridor will get bike lanes, sidewalks, LED lighting, and other amenities that Knecht said will be up to the residents in the community to decide upon. Knecht said this is the first time a community has been really engaged throughout the entire process.

The director adds this will also be one of the few projects in the city to use full LED lighting.

Construction will take place in three phases to minimize the impact on traffic, officials said. Funding for the endeavor comes largely from the Tennessee Department of Transportation, which is providing 80 percent of the funds. The remaining 20 percent comes from a local match.

The project has been in the works for a while, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said.

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Strickland said the Memphis City Council approved the project in 2012, when he sat on the council. When Strickland took office in 2016, he said he realized “the process had not gone very far.”

“We dug in and dealt with a lot of red tape,” Strickland said. “We negotiated deals with the property owners and put the contract out for bid last fall. And here we are today, ready to launch a much-needed and much-deserved work to bring new life to Elvis Presley Boulevard.

“These improvements are going to make great enhancements to this street, not only functionally, but also in appearance.”


Kevin Kern, vice president of public relations for Memphis Tourism, said “it’s an exciting day” for the Whitehaven community, as well as the tourism industry.

“We’re sitting here in one of the three visitors centers that welcome visitors from all over the world to Memphis,” Kern said. “This one sits here in a vital part of our city. This is a major artery, a welcome mat.

“Much like an airport, Elvis Presley is a handshake to the 11.8 million visitors who came to Memphis last year, who deposited $3.5 billion in economy and $98 in local sales taxes.”

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News News Blog

Strickland’s Proposal for Fire, Police Raises More Criticism


Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s proposal to give 3 percent pay increases to all commissioned Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers and Memphis Fire Department (MFD) personnel continues to receive pushback from unions representing the two agencies.

After the mayor announced the move last week, he was hit with criticism from both the fire and police unions, who said there was not enough discussion of the increases.

Strickland touted the proposal is his weekly newsletter on Friday.

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“It’s the right thing to do for the men and women who quite literally put their lives on the line every day,” Strickland said in his email. “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve partnered with the city council to accomplish, thanks to improving revenues, fiscal discipline, and some private donors.”

Dan Springer, the deputy director of media affairs in Strickland’s office, said the proposed 3 percent increases aren’t related to the private donations mentioned by the mayor. Instead, Springer said it refers to the $6.1 million grant previously given to the Memphis and Shelby County Crime Commission (MSCC) for retention and recruitment.


Details surrounding private donations to the MSCC were recently at the center of a lawsuit filed earlier this year by Wendi Thomas, founder of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, and the Marshall Project, a New York-based nonprofit news organization.

Less than a week after the suit was filed, the names of the 2018 donors were available on the MSCC’s website, according to MLK50. Some of the largest donors last year, giving more than $100,000, include AutoZone, First Tennessee Foundation, and Memphis Tomorrow.

The cost of raises for 1,632 fire department employees and 2,089 police officers would be about $9 million. That’s nearly all of the additional $10 million Strickland said is added to the budget each year.

“The pay increases we propose will eat up the vast majority of that — which I think sends a strong message of just how big of a priority public safety pay is,” Strickland said last week.

MPA

Michael Williams, president of the Memphis Police Association

Michael Williams, president of the Memphis Police Association (MPA), questions the motive behind the proposed pay increase, saying that officers are “being used as political pawns.”

“We knew that we would not get a raise last year,” Williams told the Flyer. “But because this is an election year, we are being used as that golden nugget.”

Williams also said that 3 percent is not an adequate increase, but only a “gesture.”

“We have fallen too far behind and now we are playing catch-up,” Williams said. “It will not make a dent in what we really should be getting paid for the job that we do.”

Between 2010 and 2015, officers didn’t receive any raises. During that time from 2011 to 2013, officers instead had their pay cut by 4.6 percent.

Even after the 3 percent increase, Williams said MPD will remain one of the lowest-paid departments in Shelby County.

“We deserve to be brought up to equal pay of the highest-paid department in Shelby County for now,” Williams said. “That would be a great start and we feel is not asking too much.”

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Ursula Madden, chief communications officer for the city, responded to Williams’ claims saying that “it unfortunate that MPA views a 3 percent raise in this light.”

“If council approves this raise, this administration will have increased police officer pay between 8.75 percent and 10.75 percent since 2016,” Madden said. “Would the mayor like to do more? Absolutely. But, we have a finite amount of resources and this is the best we can do.”

After Strickland announced the increases last week, representatives of both the fire and police unions said the announcement was made without proper negotiations and that they hadn’t agreed to the 3 percent proposal.

MFA

Thomas Malone, president of Memphis Fire Fighters Association

Thomas Malone, president of the Memphis Fire Fighters Association (MFFA), said Strickland’s announcement of the pay increases came at the same time he and others from MFFA were meeting with city officials to discuss the increases: “No decisions had been made.”

Malone said he wasn’t bothered by the amount of the increase, but by the fact that there was no real negotiation period before the proposal was made public.

Malone met with city officials Wednesday morning to renegotiate the amount, proposing a 3.8 percent increase rather than the 3 percent set forth by the mayor.

Malone said the meeting was “uneventful” and that the group is at a standstill until the mayor presents his budget to the Memphis City Council next month.

“I think we made an offer that was very well thought out and data driven,” Malone said. “From our research it’s an amount that the city can afford. We are not trying to break the bank here.”

The mayor will present the 2020 fiscal year budget to the city council on April 16th. The council has until the end of May to discuss, alter, and pass the budget.

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News News Blog

Memphis to Train and Hire More Police Officers. Will It Affect Crime Rate?

In an effort to reduce violent crime in the city, the Memphis Police Department (MPD) is actively looking to hire more officers, with a goal of 2,300 commissioned officers by the end of 2020.

In his State of the City Address last month, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said MPD is on track to have 2,100 officers by the end of this year, after dropping to 1,900 in mid 2017.

The recent rise in the number of officers was aided by improved recruitment efforts and better pay for current officers, Strickland said.

“Our officers have received raises of as much as 7.75 percent since we took office, after almost seven years without any raise at all,” Strickland said in his address. “And as we assemble this year’s budget, pay for our public safety employees is at the top of our priority list.”

Anthony Rudolph, training commander at Memphis Police Training Academy attributes the increase in officers to the department’s enhanced recruiting efforts through attending job fairs and community events, both locally and in major cities as far away as Seattle.

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The academy has also added more training and testing dates to accommodate more interested applicants, Rudolph said.

In order to maintain the quality of the department as the quantity grows, Rudolph said MPD has “beefed up” the staff in the background unit, which is now at “full capacity.” The unit’s sole job is to screen applications, looking into the background of applicants to make sure they are suitable for the job.

When recruits leave the academy, Rudolph said they are “highly trained in what they do.”

In 2018, three police recruit classes were held, while five classes with 75 recruits in each are slated for this year, Rudolph said.

Why 2,300?

The mayor said employing more officers is an effort to continue to lower the violent crime rate here. The violent crime rate was down 4.2 percent in Memphis and 3.6 percent in all of Shelby County last year, according to an analysis released in January by the Memphis and Shelby County Crime Commission (MSCC).

Ursula Madden, the city’s chief communications officer said at the height of MPD’s staffing in 2011, there were roughly 2,400 commissioned officers. During that time, the violent crime rate was at its lowest since the MSCC started measuring the rate in 2006.

“Mayor Strickland has made it a priority to rebuild the police department,” Madden said. “To that end, our human resources team used our headcount from 2013 to set a goal to recruit and retain 2,300 officers by the end of 2020, while our consultants conduct a workforce analysis.”

Madden adds that the number could change based on the analysis of the consultant, which the city hasn’t received yet.

Will it Work?

Josh Spickler, executive director of Just City, a group that works to minimize the impact of the criminal justice system on people here, said “there is absolutely nothing wrong” with MPD wanting to hire more officers. But, not when done with the intention of reducing crime rates.

Josh Spickler

When the city says crime is up, so more officers need to be hired, Spickler said the city is “very overtly” saying that more police officers will impact the violent crime rate. But Spickler argues there is “no magic number” of officers at which violent crime decreases.

“Is there empirical evidence to suggest that hiring more officers will actually achieve that purpose?” Spickler said. “There’s no empirical evidence that I’m aware of that shows the number of officers has an effect on crime rates. If it’s there, show us. But it’s not there.”

Spickler said it’s “disingenuous” for the city to use violent crime as the reasoning for hiring more officers, saying he would rather hear the department say they have a personnel or staffing problem.

“That’s a totally different conversation and a very worthwhile one to have,” he said. “It leads to conversations about community policing and best ways to use our resources — the men and women in uniform. That’s the conversation I wish we would have.”

Spickler adds that in his opinion, parts of the community here are over-policed, saying that Memphis already has a high number of officers per capita.

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“I don’t think more officers on the streets is necessarily a good thing for the community,” Spickler said. “A big, big percentage of this community already experiences too much interaction with the police department.”

A Different Approach

Spickler said violent crime is typically the result of a lack of opportunities and hope for individuals, and that the community has to work to create that.

“I think that means engagement with those most susceptible to violent crime,” Spickler said. “How can we engage them in a way that gives them hope and opportunity. And you see some of that stuff from many different parts of city government.”

Spickler cites expanded community center and library hours, summer job programs, youth recreation, and gang intervention programs as some of the most valuable anti-crime measures the city has taken.

The country has passed the threshold in which more police presence, enhanced punishments, tougher prosecution could have an impact on crime, Spickler said.

“Yet, the community is very, very bad about that still,” Spickler said. “Those are the things that don’t work. We’re way past that, and yet that’s what we fall back on.”

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

The Scramble for Position

**The Shelby County Republicans’ Master Meal (this year re-christened as “Reagan Day Master Meal) went off as usual at the Great Hall of 

David Lillard at GOP Master Meal

Germantown on Thursday night, but this year, the event, which featured state treasurer David Lillard as keynoter, was characterized by an unusual omission. Despite the presence, at the front of the mammoth hall, near the dais, of two life-sized cutouts, one of the Great Communicator and another of the current president, the event featured no mention — that’s zero mention — of Donald J. Trump, the POTUS. Well, there was one mention, technically, when Lee Mills, chairman of the Republican Party of Shelby County, informed the several hundred arriving celebrants they could, if they chose, be photographed with either of the two cutouts, After that, nada — not from Lillard not from two prior speakers, state Senator Brian Kelsey or state Representative Mark White.

Considering that the Master Meal is an annual party event rivaling the RPSC’s annual Lincoln Day banquet, usually held in February, that was downright unusual. Keynoter Lillard did brag of the fiscal achievements of “state government” (which is to say the Treasurer’s office, assisted by the GOP-dominated legislature) but did no boasting whatsoever of Trump, nor, for that matter, of Republican Governor Bill Haslam.

Outgoing County Mayor Mark Luttrell came in for some praise and was granted a curtain call for a farewell speech, but most of the rhetoric of the affair went toward praising the pedigrees and boosting the chances of the many local Republican office-holders and GOP candidates for reelection against challenges from what Kelsey acknowledged was a newly invigorated Democratic Party. Mayhap an omen in all this? Or merely an oversight?

Chris Thomas

As usual, Shelby County Republicans turned out in force for their annual Master Meal at Germantown’s Great Hall.

**The Tennessee Nurses Association, local members of which gathered in Memphis at Coletta’s Restaurant in Bartlett earlier Friday evening to hear updates from Crystal Walker of the UT College of Nursing and TNA executive director Tina Gerardi, has been trying hard to have sit-downs with each of the six major candidates for governor, hoping, among other things, to get endorsements for state-authorized Independent Practice for nurse practitioners. The TNA remains hopeful, despite being stiffed by the GOP’s Randy Boyd, Diane Black, and Beth Harwell, who have failed so far to arrange a rendezvous with TNA officials. The two Democratic candidates, Karl Dean and Craig Fitzhugh, have each indicated support for Independent Practice authority, however, and hopes were high at the Friday dinner for a positive encounter on Saturday with Republican candidate Bill Lee, who had responded eagerly to an invitation to meet with TNA members during his planned “Super Saturday” event on Saturday at his Shelby County headquarters on Poplar Avenue. Meanwhile, all the candidates have received copies of a TNA questionnaire, the results from which will at some point be publicized by the nurses’ organization.

Another guest of honor at the Tennessee Nurses Association bash on Thursday night was Sara Kyle, the District 30 state senator who, along with her Senate colleague Lee Harris (now a candidate for Shelby County Mayor), is on what can only be called a crusade to cast out yet another Shelby County senator, Reginald Tate of District 33, in favor of Democratic challenger Katrina Robinson. Tate’s sins are those of incessant collaboration with the Republican powers-that-be in Nashville, the fact of using important committee memberships — Education, Health & Welfare, Finance, Ways & Means, Judiciary — not for the aims and purposes of his constituents or party-mates but to advance Republican goals often regarded as antithetical to his District 33 base. In an effort to propitiate the ire of his fellow Democrats, Tate resigned his long-term affiliation with ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), the Koch-brothers-funded source of arch-Republican legislation, but allowed himself to be captured, on-mic, at a recent TV appearance as calling himself a “black Republican” and denouncing Democrats as “full of shit.”

Worst of all, Tate made no effort to oppose the legislative action to withdraw a previous $250,000 grant to Memphis for its 2019 bicentennial celebration as punishment for the city’s taking down Confederate statues in time for this year’s April 4th commemoration of Martin Luther King events, just as he had made no effort to oppose the Norris-Todd bill of 2011 that resulted in the sundering of a merged city/county school system and the creation of breakaway school districts in each of Shelby County’s suburban municipalities.
Jim McCarter

State Senator Sara Kyle with TNA members

  Ironically, Tate had scheduled his headquarters opening at 3556 Mendenhall for Saturday afternoon, at the same time that Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee was having a “Super Saturday” bash at his headquarters at 5576 Poplar.

Though the word “Democrat” does not appear on the senator’s signage at his new headquarters, neither does the word “Republican.” Tate did, in fact, have some identifiable Democrats at the opening, and, when he was asked about the public disaffection from him of fellow Senate Democrats Kyle and Lee Harris, he handed out a flyer listing various benefits to Shelby County which he said were results of his Senate tenure, and he suggested that the coolness to his candidacy of various Democrats owed more to their envy of his achievements (alternatively, of his legislative committee assignments) than to any partisan apostasy on his part.

JB

Reginald Tate (2nd from right) with friends atSaturday headquarters opening. Flanking are County Commissioner Willie Brooks and Young Democrat Alvin Crook, with former City Clerk Thomas Long nearby.

**As for the aforementioned gubernatorial candidate Lee, he had several members of the TNA at his “Super Saturday” affair (which was to have included some door-to-door campaigning in nearby locations, that had to be postponed, pending a break in some sudden rain showers).

Neither his questionnaire nor those of his gubernatorial opponents have as yet been received and tabulated by the TNA, but candidate Lee made a point of acknowledging his support for one of the key wish-list items wanted by the nurses’ association, legislation enabling independent practicing authority for nurse practitioners. One of his auditors on Saturday was TNA stalwart Connie McCarter, who pronounced herself pleased.
Another candidate for governor, U.S. Representative Diane Black, has invited members of the association to meet with her during the course of a CPAC event at FedExForum on Monday.

JB

Gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee with friends at Lee’s ‘Super Saturday’ event.

**Even as most local political attention is fixed on the races to be decided in the state and federal primaries and county general election August 2nd, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland made a major move to ready his reelection campaign for the city election of 2019. Strickland, who has been steadily been holding campaign fund-raisers, scheduled his most recent one for Tuesday of this week at the Beale Street Museum and Studio of the late Ernest Withers, the late revered photographic chronicler of the Civil Rights Revolution.

The crowded affair, at a minimum of $150 a head, drew a Who’s Who of influential black businessman and civil eminences, and suggested good tidings in 2019 for Strickland, whose 20915 upset victory over then Mayor A C Wharton, involved the draining away of significant African-American votes from Wharton. In his remarks to the group, Strickland did not fail to note that he had put himself on the line in the successful effort to buck state resistance in the removal of Confederate memorials downtown, that he had geometrically increased the amount of city contracts with black-owned businesses, and that he had addressed black voters’ concerns in numerous other ways.

It remains uncertain who Strickland’s opponents will be in 2919, though a former mayor, Willie Herenton, has proclaimed a wish to run, and Mike Williams, head of the Memphis Police Union, a fourth-place finisher in 2015, has already basically declared. Both are African-American. Strickland’s aim is clearly to stay a step ahead, and holding on to his impressive share of the black base is a key part of his strategy. JB

No, Elvis and BB, as famously pictured by Ernest Withers, are not quite life-size, but even if they were, they’d have had to defer, size-wise, to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, who held a successful fund-raiser in the Withers Museum and Studio on Thursday night.

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News News Blog

Mayor Fires Back at Graceland Claims

Elvis Presley Enterprises

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland fired back Friday at a Graceland official who said Thursday that the city has been unresponsive to the company’s expansion plans.

Joel Weinshanker, managing partner of Graceland Holdings LLC, told a crowd in Whitehaven Thursday evening that Strickland has not been willing to work with Graceland on its proposal to construct a performance arena and convention center.

Weinshanker discussed how the development would “uplift” the neighborhood and urged residents to support the plans, which he claims the mayor “won’t even speak to us” about.

In a statement responding to these claims, Strickland said Weinshanker’s words are “all about his desire for public money,” which the mayor says is needed for public safety services.

Strickland’s full statement reads:


“At a meeting last night in Whitehaven, Elvis Presley Enterprises managing partner Joel Weinshanker made some misleading — and downright false — claims in regard to the economic development plans he’s made public.

Today, I want to correct the record.

Cut through it all, and this boils down to one thing: Mr. Weinshanker simply wants more public cash for his business.

We want him to build whatever entertainment complex he wants to build. We’re excited to see it happen, in fact. But he wants to build it with your money — cash that would have to come out of our operating budget. All told, that amounts to about $3 million.

Let me make a finer point on it: Mr. Weinshanker wants us to direct taxpayer money that would otherwise go to services like police and fire to his business. We would have to cut city operations to enable these cash payments to a business that keeps 100 percent of the profits.

I chose not to do that.

As for the manufacturing facility he proposes, I’ve told him for over a year that we want him to build it. We’d be thrilled to work with Elvis Presley Enterprises on a tax incentive to bring new jobs to our city — not unlike when we grant incentives for other projects to bring jobs. We stand ready to make it happen.

Also, please know that, contrary to what Mr. Weinshanker said last night, we have indeed met with him to discuss his plans. I’ve met or spoken on the phone with him about half a dozen times. Members of my staff have met with him or members of his staff more times than that.

But at the end of the day, please understand that Mr. Weinshanker’s words are all about his desire for public money, and my decision not to divert taxpayer money from services to his private business.”

This comes after the Memphis and Shelby County Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) earlier this month unanimously approved the convention center and tentatively okayed the arena, pending judicial review.

City officials are still concerned that the arena could violate the city’s noncompete clause with the Grizzlies for the FedExForum.

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Editorial Opinion

Statue Removal Process Sets Wrong Precedent

Forrest and his wife still remain buried where the statue once stood

Dawn’s first light of 2018 found two empty pedestals where symbols of oppression once stood — and in their place, fresh concerns have grown about the method and processes that emptied them.

Officials at the highest levels of local government toiled in secret harmony over many months to devise the complicated plan that yielded the seamless choreography of the night the Confederate statues came down. The government process is most often likened to the ugly, blood-and-guts  process of making sausage, so anything seamless is an improvement.

The Memphis City Council publicly heard plans, options, legal opinions, and more for weeks, as the ordinance to remove the statues moved through the legislative and legal process. But in the end, council members unanimously approved a plan that was never vetted in a public hearing.

During the day of Tuesday, December 20th, government officials began enacting a process that was shielded from the public and the press. While council members went about their daily business at city hall, police readied to secure the parks for the statues’ removal. Contracts selling the parks to Greenspace Inc. had been proofed, finalized, and waited only for Mayor Jim Strickland’s signature.

When the time came, council member Edmund Ford Jr. brought a substitute ordinance to his colleagues. Surely every council member knew what the ordinance contained and surely each and every one of them had already agreed to it. Because they all approved the new rule without discussion. They didn’t read it aloud. They didn’t even offer up copies of it to the public after the vote. The public was left in the dark.

With the council vote in hand, Strickland quickly signed the sale documents. Police mobilized, possibly even before the ink had dried. Soon, blue lights flooded Health Sciences Park on Union Avenue and Memphis Park on Front Street.

We’ve been supportive of the removal of the Confederate statues numerous times in these pages, but we cannot support the new precedent for the city council to do whatever it wants without any public inspection or input.

What if the council had simply sold Overton Park’s Greensward to, say, the Memphis Zoo? The new precedent would have certainly streamlined that process, of which more than one council member complained.

Council member Kemp Conrad recently poked fun at the public’s mistrust of the city council. During a discussion of proposed changes to the city’s rules for permitting races, protests, and other public gatherings on WKNO’s Behind the Headlines, Conrad joked that “It’s not like [council member Reid Hedgepeth] is riding around in a black helicopter trying to figure out a way to quash free speech.”

But if you wonder why some Memphians don’t trust the council, look no further than the vote that brought those statues down.

Experts could argue, perhaps, that the method of the final vote was completely legal. And they may be correct. But is it the right way to govern?

We don’t think so. The public has every right to know what their council is voting upon. They earn that right every time they pay taxes and every time they pull the handle in a voting booth.

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Opinion The Last Word

Which History Should We Honor?

As I drove down the winding highway to the small East Tennessee city of Athens last Thursday, I wondered what the next day’s Tennessee Historical Commission meeting would hold. Under no circumstances did I think the members of the commission would approve Memphis’ waiver request to remove Nathan Bedford Forrest’s statue from our public park.

And as I anticipated, the waiver was denied, and “leave history alone” was a recurring theme of the morning.

After Mayor Jim Strickland pleaded with the commission to vote on the city’s request and other officials spoke both for and against the statue, a pro-Forrest teacher from Memphis was the first to take the podium for public comment.

She began her two minutes by saying, “It seems that this day and time everyone is trying to make everything pleasant and fair for everyone.”

I was baffled. Why is it wrong that people of color want a pleasant and fair experience sans a monument of a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard when visiting a public park?

Isn’t that what America is supposed to be all about? Do civil rights not grant everyone the privilege of fairness — especially in public places, if, after all, we live in a country with “liberty and justice for all”?

Continuing to justify why Forrest should be glorified and his statue untouched, the teacher went on to talk about the general’s late-life conversion to Christianity, how he begged for forgiveness for the number of people he mistreated, and turned his life around as a result. “Didn’t Christ forgive us for our many sins? If God can forgive Nathan, why can’t we?” she asked the room.

I can’t speak for everyone in this city or all people of color, but I forgive Nathan. I don’t hate him. I, like many others, would just prefer for him not to be memorialized with such grandeur in a public space in my city.

At Friday’s meeting, Mayor Strickland referenced this article from the Memphis News-Scimitar that was published when the Forrest statue was erected in 1905.

Also, what Forrest did in his personal and religious life is not our concern or a relevant justification for having a statue of him in a public park. He might have repented for his wrongdoings, but that doesn’t change what he did, who he was, and what he stood for.

“The next thing y’all will want to remove are the crosses from our many churches. When does the insanity stop?” the teacher asked rhetorically, as her allotted speaking time ran out.

Was she legitimately putting Nathan Bedford Forrest in the same category with Jesus Christ?

How does a Confederate army general and KKK grand wizard compare to a man that only preached and practiced love. That’s insanity.

After the teacher’s two minutes were up, Lee Millar, the spokesperson for the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, was the next to speak.

He claimed that “thousands and thousands” of Memphians support the statue and the history it represents, saying that the statue and history should be left alone.

I understand that history is important. But I don’t understand why someone on the losing side of history deserves a statue. And I definitely don’t understand why the statue of an oppressor is the kind of history that people want to hold on to.

Also, if keeping history in place is the argument for keeping the statue where it is, then it’s faulty. The only history that ever took place where Forrest is buried is the empowerment of whites and the demoralizing of blacks. Which part of history does the statue really honor?

Not the Civil War. As Mayor Strickland pointed out earlier in the meeting, the park where Forrest and his wife are buried now was not a Civil War battle site.

The statue was not erected until years after the war, just as Jim Crow laws were becoming enacted in the South. It was 40 years after the war when the bodies of Forrest and his wife were disinterred from Elmwood Cemetery and moved to the park where the statue was dedicated. The mayor said the park was a landmark that many African Americans passed daily on the way to work, ensuring that Forrest would be ever present and so would the laws of Jim Crow.

“Simply put: This is a monument to Jim Crow,” Strickland said.

I agree. The statue’s got to go. Move Forrest and his wife to a museum, back to a cemetery, or anywhere else but a public park in a majority black city.

Maya Smith is a Flyer staff writer.

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News News Blog

Historical Commission Votes Down Forrest Waiver

Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue in the Health Sciences Park.


As the clock ticked closer to 9:00 a.m. in Athens, Tennessee, on Friday, anticipation overflowed in a packed room at the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum.

Three hours later, the Tennessee Historical Commission (THC) voted down Memphis’ waiver request to remove the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue from a Memphis park.

Before the commission voted, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland told the commission he is speaking on behalf of a very united Memphis that wants the statue removed.

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“But first we must understand and come to terms with why this statue exists in the first place,” Strickland said, citing that the statue was put in its current location 40 years after the Civil War, just as Jim Crow laws were becoming active. “It’s a monument to Jim Crow.”

Strickland concluded by adding that his administration has respected the legal process thus far and he asked that the commission would “respect the will of Memphis” and formally take up the waiver request.

However, Sons of Confederate Veterans spokesperson Lee Millar told the commission the picture that Strickland painted about Memphis’ consensus to remove the statue is not accurate. Thousands of Memphians say leave history alone, he said.

One of those Memphians is history teacher Elizabeth Adams, who told the commission that everyone is not in agreement with the mayor and city council.

“If you don’t know your history, you are doomed to repeat it,” Adams said. “Next they’ll want to remove the crosses from our churches.”

Steven Stout, an attorney with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, advised the commission not to vote on the waiver until after the new THC rule-making process is completed and becomes effective, which could take until February.

“It would be a poor decision to not vote until the rules are adopted,” Stout said.

He added it is “practically impossible” to take a vote and provide reasoning for the vote without referencing the rules. This could present legal challenges in the future.

He says his counsel is aimed to make the commission “less vulnerable.”

But, after nearly two hours of hearing comments and discussion, commissioner Keith Norman of Memphis made a motion to vote on the waiver, which was seconded by Beverly Robertson, also of Memphis. Norman and Robertson are two of three African Americans on the commission.

Heeding legal counsel, the commission voted the waiver request down, but in a second motion voted to approve the city’s declaratory order to pursue an administrative law judge. The judge will decide if the 2013 law prohibiting the removal of war monuments is relevant to the Forrest statue.

This process is expected to be complete by November.

After today’s decisions by the THC, Strickland said he is still hopeful that the city will meet its goal of having the statue down by April 4, 2018.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

A Policy That Stinks

After a decade of rough economic times, Tennessee is finally starting to show credible signs of recovery. But an unexpected issue has arisen that could choke off Shelby County’s being able to participate in that economic recovery.

The city of Memphis’ administration has issued a policy ceasing sewer connection to properties outside the city limits. This has dire consequences for every single taxpayer in this county.

Heidi Shafer

Most of us take our sewage system for granted. We walk over the round covers in the street stamped “Sewer” without even recognizing they are there. Sewage and sewer access aren’t the most pleasant topics. The fact is, though, that few issues are as fundamental to a society as the success, safety, and access to a reliable sewer system.   

Property without sewer availability is virtually without value. Property distant enough from residential or commercial developments can be turned back into farm ground (taxable at a much lesser rate). That means a direct loss of tax dollars flowing into the county coffers to cover the school system and teachers, the health department, Regional One, the jails, sheriff’s deputies, the courts, and even the Rape Crisis Center.

With so much at stake, and with city residents also paying county taxes, why would the city of Memphis upset the proverbial apple cart?

Part of what the city is doing makes sense to me: As Memphis seeks to become “brilliant at the basics” while reconfiguring its mission based on a reduced ability to annex surrounding areas by fiat, reexamining established systems is timely.

I agree that it likely doesn’t serve Memphis or Memphians to extend new sewer connections outside of the Memphis limits. For decades, Memphis had expanded its outreach, perhaps assuming that all the areas would one day be within its limits.

Now that areas can be annexed only if the residents petition to be annexed, and with some areas actively seeking to be de-annexed, a recalculation and adjustment is needed.

So where is the “stinky” part of this sewer proclamation? The city of Memphis has begun what I can only term as “failing to process” applications of properties where sewer lines are already run to the area, and the sewer only needs to be “tapped.”

About a month ago, I began receiving calls notifying me that properties with sewer lines already run out to them were being effectively denied: The city was contacting the owners and asking if the owners wanted their building plans returned or shredded, since the city was not authorizing new taps, effective immediately.

Here are a few basic facts:

1) The persons or businesses who are using the systems are paying for their development and upkeep.

2) The 1970s treatment plant and subsequent interceptors were built to EPA specifications in order to obtain federal grant dollars.

3) Some surrounding municipalities rely in part or wholly upon the regional sewer system run by the city of Memphis.

4) Residential fees funding the development and upkeep of the sewer are numerous and outlined in various documents.

5) The county has also been paying millions directly to the city of Memphis to help with redevelopment inside Memphis’ city limits.

6) Some property owners outside Memphis through the years had planned to treat their own waste, but were induced to be added to the Memphis treatment system and were given “sewer credits.”  

Building a new sewage treatment plant for the county is doable, but will take three to five years to complete. And Memphis does not currently have a transition plan in its policy.

The one troubling reason for this draconian sewer policy being implemented so swiftly is the mistaken belief that if development is extinguished for three to five years outside Memphis, it would force development inside Memphis’ city limits.

If only that were true! People and business tend to go the path of least resistance. If I am looking at building a business, here are my choices: I can build within the Memphis city limits with its high taxes, crime problems, and bureaucratic requirements, or outside of Shelby County in DeSoto County, Tipton County, or Fayette County, with their larger undeveloped tracts of land, lower property costs, lower taxes, and simplified codes and procedures.

We in Shelby County government hope to work with the city of Memphis to develop a plan that helps Memphis adjust to current circumstances and creates a way for everyone in the county to move forward together.
Heidi Shafer is chairman of the Shelby County Commission.