Tag: Memphis City Council

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News The Fly-By

Several Thousand Rape Kits Still Await Analysis

More than 7,400 of the 12,374 untested rape kits discovered by the Memphis Police Department (MPD) in late 2013 and early 2014 still await laboratory analysis.

The latest update on the city’s rape-kit backlog, which includes sexual assault kits taken as far back as 1975, were disclosed during the Memphis City Council’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee meeting on Tuesday, January 20th.

According to the Sexual Assault Kit (SAK) Taskforce, by the end of December, there were still 6,340 untested rape kits. Another 1,142 have been processed for serology (evidence of bodily fluids) but haven’t been sent off to a laboratory for DNA analysis.

This leaves the number of kits that have been analyzed or are at the lab awaiting analysis at 4,892.

“Testing the kits is the easy part,” said Doug McGowen of the SAK Taskforce. “We’ve already started 280-plus investigations. Each investigation takes 40 hours of police officer time. It’s going to cost a significant amount of money to put police officers and the significant support in place to do the number of investigations that we’re going to have to do.”

It’s estimated to cost more than $6.5 million to test all of the city’s backlogged rape kits. Thus far, the city has reportedly allocated $4.25 million, and the state has provided $1 million toward kit testing. 

A funding gap of $512,855 remains. The gap must be closed before the city can access a $750,000 challenge grant that was awarded by the Plough Foundation to help in the city’s kit testing.

To fill the gap as well as provide additional personnel for investigations and prosecutions, the SAK Taskforce has applied for funding being offered by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. The agency has committed to providing $35 million for rape-kit testing nationwide.

The SAK Taskforce will also apply for the White House/Department of Justice Grant Program, which is allocating $41 million to help eradicate the nation’s rape-kit backlog and improve sexual-assault investigations. The program has yet to begin accepting applications.

Additional funding for kit testing has come in the form of individual donations. More than $12,000 has been collectively donated to the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis’ Sexual Assault Resource Fund. 

A climate-controlled storage room that can hold up to 50,000 pieces of DNA evidence is projected to be completed by late May. The city council allocated $1 million to the MPD for its establishment. The storage room will be located in the old International Harvester building.

“We have an unprecedented opportunity to get additional justice in our community,” McGowen said. “We understand that there are individuals who are worrying about the status of their case and do not have closure in that part of their lives. This work is so important to do.”

Rape Kits By the Numbers:

• 12,374 total rape kits discovered untested in 2013/2014

• 6,340 kits untested by end of December 2014

• 2,075 kits at forensic laboratories now

• 1,142 processed for at least serology

• 1,771 negative for serology

• 1,046 processed for DNA

• 281 investigations have been initiated

• 105 investigations remain active

• 176 investigations have been closed

• 21 individuals identified as being previously convicted

• 52 indictments issued

• 19 named suspects

• 33 John Does (unidentified)

• 22 victims/suspects are deceased

• 30 victims declined to participate in an investigation

• 2 victims were unable to be located by law enforcement

• 28 cases were past the statute of limitations

• 19 cases had insufficient/degraded DNA

• 3 cases investigated did not meet the statute definitions of a crime

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News News Feature

Memphis’ Political Morass

In an interview after he had been selected as the new interim

District 7 Memphis city councilman, a relieved Berlin Boyd admitted he had been temporarily been taken aback by a question from Councilwoman Janis Fullilove.

At first, warmly referring to Boyd’s previous interim tenure on the council after the resignation of former Councilwoman Barbara Swearengen Ware, who also happened to be a candidate for this year’s opening, Fullilove abruptly spit out a hypothetical inquiry into whether, if chosen, Boyd’s loyalties would lie with the seventh floor (code for Mayor A C Wharton) or with the constituents he’d represent in the 7th District.

To his credit, Boyd was unwavering in his answer. “I am my own man,” he said. “No one has given me anything in life. I have and will make my own decisions.” With those resolute remarks there was no need for any additional follow up.

That exchange struck me as the epitome of the political morass in Memphis we have endured for decades. Never has a city administration and the council been at loggerheads as strongly as they are now. The past week’s announced mediation settlement of the long-delayed funding for Shelby County Schools only reflected the great chasm of distrust, contempt, and miscommunication that exists between the seventh and bottom floors of City Hall. With a city-wide election coming in October, the level of rancor would only seem to be headed toward even greater depths of political grandstanding, divisiveness, and the embarrassing exploitation of racial bigotry from blacks and whites alike.

But, 2015 offers us a chance to get on track toward positive change, and I’ll tell you why it should happen.

Since Councilman Jim Strickland officially entered the mayoral race, I have read the fervid Facebook comments of those who believe that a white candidate cannot possibly understand or embrace the hopes and dreams of a predominately black populace. But, isn’t a mayor someone who is supposed to be a visionary leader for all citizens regardless of his own ethnic background? Isn’t a mayor the chief executive who vows, “The buck stops here,” and then comes before the city’s governing body to make his case in person, rather than send others to do it for him?

Let’s be brutally realistic. It’s been almost 24 years since Willie Herenton became the first African-American mayor of Memphis. During his tenure, there were stellar successes, not the least of which was the extinction of many blighted areas in black communities that had come to symbolize degradation and hopelessness.

But tearing down those concrete facades did not really elevate the majority of the city’s black — or white — population. Memphis is still one of America’s poorest cities, and we still have one of the highest crime rates in the nation. Has black leadership on the seventh floor or black majority representation on the council changed the fact that 47 percent of Memphis’ black children are still caught in the cycle of generational poverty? We should have learned by now that the color of our leaders’ skin is irrelevant.

There are those who want to perpetuate the stale argument that a white man could only be elected to lead this city if the black vote gets split up among a handful of candidates, including the incumbent. I’ve lived in this city way too long to swallow the notion that because someone has my skin color, my life is automatically going to get better if he or she is elected to public office. When it comes to those we’ve voted for to lead this city over the past two decades, too many of us, black and white, have ignored the wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Our choices shouldn’t be based on a candidate’s skin color, but rather the content of their character.

That’s probably why Boyd’s heartfelt response to Fullilove’s politically motivated question made such an impression on me. In this year of decision, we must closely look at those who promise results but whose track records would indicate otherwise. Go to political forums where you can see and talk to candidates, not just for the mayor’s office, but the council, as well. Then decide who you think offers the best direction for this city. If it will help, close your eyes and just listen to what they have to say.

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Politics Politics Feature

It’s a New Year in Politics, Too

As the second week of the New Year began, the aura of the holidays finally began to fade, and politics per se moved into high gear, locally, statewide, and nationally.

In Memphis, the city council stumbled over an early deadline that left a majority of applicants ineligible for a council vacancy, including a putative favorite, then recovered its balance with a fresh interpretation of the city charter by attorney Allan Wade that gave all seven hopefuls more time to complete their petitions.

In Nashville, the 2015 General Assembly convened to take on such key issues as health care, educational standards, changes in taxation, and legislation designed to exploit the constitutional changes effected by the state’s voters in the November 2014 election. In the cases of educational standards and “Insure Tennessee,” Governor Bill Haslam‘s proposal for Medicaid expansion, the trick will be to back into the essential structures of Common Core and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), respectively, with improvised Tennessee-specific substitutes.

Nationally, Tennessee’s two Republican U.S. Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, attained new levels of influence as a consequence of the GOP’s capturing a majority in the Senate. Alexander became chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and Corker ascended to the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Alexander, who is behind legislation to revise the Bush-era “No Child Left Behind” act, is widely regarded as a possible liaison between Republicans and Democrats in the highly fractionated Senate. Corker indicated, in a conference call with Tennessee reporters last week, that he intends to bring a new activist focus to what he regards as a drift in the Obama administration’s foreign policy. For that, he has been touted by columnist George Will as potentially “the senator who matters most in 2015,” though Corker has drawn more attention of late for his proposals to raise the federal gasoline tax.             

• The city council imbroglio and subsequent fix stemmed from the revelation late last week that only former Councilmember Barbara Swearengen Holt Ware and local Democratic Party Chairman Bryan Carson had met what appeared to be the council’s deadline for filing a petition bearing 25 valid signatures of voters in District 7.

That would have meant that five others — including former interim Councilman Berlin Boyd, regarded in some circles as the favorite — could not vie for the right to succeed Lee Harris, now a state senator, in the vacated District 7 seat. Most of the five, including Boyd, were credited with 23 or 24 valid signatures — one or two short of the total needed — though all five had met the filing deadline of noon, last Thursday.

The situation was repaired with a hastily issued opinion from council attorney Allan Wade, who interpreted the city charter as giving additional flexibility on the deadline for submitting valid voter signatures. The new deadline was established by Wade as being Thursday, January 15th — a date that would seem to give the other candidates enough leeway to qualify.

Of the five, Boyd and Curtis Byrd Jr. had already submitted 23 signatures deemed valid by the Shelby County Election Commission (whose chairman, Robert Meyers, had noted that it was the council, not the commission, which had applied the signature requirement for regular elections to the instance of filling vacancies). Audrey Jones and David Pool had 24, and Charles Leslie had 15.

The council will choose a successor to Harris from among the ultimately eligible candidates next Tuesday, January 20th.

• At a farewell dinner last week for Harris, who was recently elected by his party colleagues in the Senate to be Democratic leader there, the new state senator got off a memorable quip: “Within this month, I’ll be drawing three government checks — from the city council, from the state Senate, and from the University of Memphis Law School. That proves I’m a Democrat!”

• The council does not lack for quipsters. Councilman Kemp Conrad, who was the host for a massively well-attended holiday party over the break, responded to someone’s suggestion that he might consult city planning czar Robert Lipscomb for help in building a parking garage to accommodate excess traffic. “A TDZ!” Conrad proposed.

• It would appear that the forthcoming session of the General Assembly in Nashville will not lack for controversy. The formal convening of the legislature, at noon on Tuesday, was preceded by a 10 a.m. “Women’s March on Nashville,” whose participants included another new state senator from Memphis, former Tennessee Regulatory Authority member Sara Kyle, who was elected in November to succeed her husband, Jim Kyle, now a Shelby County chancellor.

The rally was called to address several matters, including health, wage, and poverty issues, but a central concern of it was to counter a proliferation of bills in the legislature to impose new restrictions on abortion in the wake of the narrow passage of Amendment 1 by state voters in November.

Tennessee Right to Life, an organization that supports the proposed restrictions, indicated in advance that it had plans for a counter-demonstration.

Besides the abortion measures, other expected controversies include a renewed fight over proposed Common Core standards and efforts by several Republicans, including state Senator Brian Kelsey of Germantown, to abolish the Hall Income Tax in the face of resistance from Governor Haslam, who considers the potential loss to state revenues to be prohibitive.

But the major battle will take place in a session within the session. Haslam has called a special session, to begin on February 2nd, dealing with his “Insure Tennessee” proposal for accepting Medicaid expansion funds under the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).

The governor’s plan, which apparently is assured of a waiver from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides for a two-track structure in which persons eligible under poverty-level guidelines could either accept vouchers to purchase private health insurance plans or come under TennCare, the state’s version of Medicaid, through acceptance of modest co-pays and premiums.

Funding could amount to as much as $2 billion annually, with the federal government absorbing the full costs for two years and 90 percent of them after that period. The state Hospital Association, which has been lobbying tirelessly for the Medicaid expansion funds, has indicated it would assist with the remaining financial obligation after the two-year period.

Haslam has made a special appeal to the General Assembly’s Democratic minority to help him pass enabling legislation for Insure Tennessee. A bill spearheaded by Kelsey and other opponents of Medicaid expansion to require legislative approval of any administration plan under the ACA was passed in the last General Assembly. And, though Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey has expressed a degree of open-mindedness, Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris of Collierville and several other GOP members seem reluctant to endorse Insure Tennessee.

The sentiment of six GOP legislators from Shelby County who addressed the Republican Women of Purpose group at Southwind TPC last week varied from lukewarm to defiantly opposed to the governor’s plan.

State Representative Curry Todd prophesied “a lot of blood-letting” in the special session regarding the plan; Kelsey insisted Republicans needed to “shrink the size of government, not … expand the size of government,” and cast doubt as to whether the federal government would or the state Hospital Association could pay its pledged share in two years’ time. State Representative Jim Coley lamented the plan’s “dependence on the federal government” and said he “hope[d] to persuade the governor this is not the most appropriate plan.”

State Representative Steve McManus said it might not be so easy to opt out of the plan after two years as Haslam suggests. He contends that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services might withhold Medicaid funds entirely as retribution. “It’s like Hotel California,” he said, meaning that once you check into the plan, you can never leave.

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News The Fly-By

The Latest on Parking, Permits, and Sidewalks

CREDIT: Brandon Dill

Here’s an update on some of the stories that we began covering in 2014 and will continue to follow in the New Year.

• Overflow parking for the Memphis Zoo will continue on the Greensward at Overton Park for a period that could stretch until 2019.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton said while his “clear preference” was not to use the space for parking, the experience of this past summer made it clear to him that the Greensward “will be an important relief for zoo parking until such time as a viable alternative is realized.” 

The news came in a letter from Wharton to Tina Sullivan, Overton Park Conservancy executive director, on Wednesday, December 31st. The sentiment is a complete departure from a Wharton letter in May that said the city was committed to eliminating Greensward parking by the end of 2014.

“We were very surprised and disappointed to receive this letter from the city a few hours ago,” read a Facebook post from Get Off Our Lawn, a group organized to fight Greensward parking. “The fight for a car-free Greensward continues.”

Going forward, Wharton wants zoo and park stakeholders to work together to develop a viable plan for parking that does not include the Greensward. 

He called Overton Park a “great treasure” and called the zoo a “tremendous asset.” Wharton wrote, “The city will allow parking on the Greensward, as may be absolutely essential to zoo operations, until a plan is implemented, [or] Jan. 1, 2019, whichever comes first.”

Brandon Dill

Naomi Van Tol and Stacey Greenberg protest Greensward parking.

• Special parking permits will be issued to some residents who live around the Overton Square entertainment district but not as many as originally thought. 

The move to start a special parking permit program there surfaced in April. Residents complained to Memphis City Council Chairman Jim Strickland that Overton Square visitors were blocking their driveways and alleys with their cars and sometimes even parking in their yards. 

The program was approved by the council in August. Petitions were sent to neighbors in the proposed new parking district, an area bound by Cox Street on the east, Morrison Street on the west, Union Avenue on the south, and Jefferson Avenue on the north. A section of Lee Place North was also included. 

If at least 75 percents of residents on the individual streets approve permit parking for their street, they would be placed in the special parking district and permits would be issued to them. 

In all, only 10 permits will be issued to residents on a section of Monroe Avenue between Cooper and Cox. The council approved those permits on an unannounced agenda item during its last meeting of 2014.  

“Basically, [Restaurant] Iris agreed to pay for half of the first-year of permits for 10 permitees who live on the street,” said councilmember Kemp Conrad. “The neighbors … and Iris have agreed to basically split the north side of Monroe in the middle of the street.”

• The moratorium on forcing residents to fix their sidewalks was extended in late December.

City officials began enforcing a long-standing rule last year to make homeowners either fix their sidewalks or be hauled into Environmental Court. 

The council passed a two-month moratorium on the enforcement of the rule in May. Once that expired, a six-month moratorium was approved. 

The council approved its latest moratorium to last either six months or until the Wharton administration officials could propose a viable alternative. City engineer John Cameron said he and his office are working on the project and should present an alternative to the council in the first two months of 2015.

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News The Fly-By

The Council and the Mayor

When I heard it, I thought, “This is the quote of the year.”

Thomas Malone, the ever outspoken president of the Memphis Firefighters Association, railed in frustration, “The city administration is like an addict on crack. They will buy, steal, and do anything they can from anybody, to get what they want!” So, Tommy, tell us how you really feel, huh?

Based on the events of 2014, there are a lot of Memphians bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by the actions of the administration of Mayor A C Wharton and the Memphis City Council. Malone’s bitter assessment came just days after the council rammed through a surprising vote on the long-debated city employees’ pension plan.

After nearly a year of discussion, with the Wharton administration at first presenting a proposal with Draconian cuts to appease a warning from the state comptroller on addressing a more than $500 million pension deficit, the council decided on a 9-to-4 vote to go with Councilwoman Wanda Halbert’s plan to only apply the benefit cuts to city employees with seven-and-a-half or fewer years of service. It also happens to neatly include council members, as elected officials. Halbert’s plan was a complete reversal of her previously staunch support of city employees seeking no cuts to benefits. Her apparent flip-flop will be the fodder for much discussion as she reportedly will seek to unseat incumbent Thomas Long for the city clerk’s office in 2015.

But, after nearly a year of debate, why was Halbert’s proposal fast-tracked for a vote? As Malone told me, he asked for time for actuaries to run the numbers again on all the plans presented. His request was rejected. It certainly makes you wonder.

Certainly the communication gap between the mayor’s office and the council has never been more obvious than with the proposed settlement agreement Wharton and Shelby County School (SCS) Superintendent Dorsey Hopson privately reached. The facts are that two courts have ruled against the city’s counterclaim that they are owed the interest on $100 million given to legacy Memphis City Schools for buildings. They alleged their claim trumps the $57 million both courts ruled the city owes the school system, dating back to 2008. Councilman Myron Lowery told me last week the majority of his colleagues feel their counterclaim will win out as both sides continue mediation efforts. Two glaring discrepancies come to mind as the battle lines are drawn for the upcoming showdown over whether the council will approve funding for the school settlement in early January.

It doesn’t surprise me that Wharton, Hopson, and the SCS board members are happy with this deal that essentially amounts to $43 million in cash and other amenities, such as $2.6 million in police protection for schools and a balloon payment of $6 million in February. What bothers me is how Wharton decided to communicate this agreement to the council in a terse, written memorandum delivered just as the pension vote was about to be made. He apparently hadn’t even told those council members on the mediation team he’d reached a deal. It’s an example of Wharton’s confounding “lawyers know best” mentality. He comes from the world of plea bargains and deals in criminal justice. But, as the city’s chief executive, he has to be more open and candid about his dealings, especially when the final approval for funding lies with the council.

And speaking of the council: Back in 2008, tired of the “maintenance of effort” in voluntarily funding city schools for years, they went rogue. That proved to be a costly mistake for all concerned. It can be reasonably argued that their failure to pay the $57 million led to the collapse of the legacy Memphis City Schools two years later. Their decision to divest themselves of that obligation led to millions of taxpayer dollars being wasted on the protracted litigation between the city and the county that followed.

Now the ball is in their court again. A second chance to begin to right the foolish mistake the city council committed six years ago. If council-members decide to reject this settlement because of bruised egos or personal agendas, then they should be made to pay the price at the ballot box in 2015. It will be a fitting answer for those we elect who once in office suffer from the “addiction” of power. If we as voters don’t respond? Maybe we’re on crack.

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News The Fly-By

Beale Board Gets Council Review

CREDIT: Dreamstime.com

Temporary managers are now running Beale Street, but a new set of permanent, Memphis City Hall-appointed overseers is on the way. 

The city owns the four-block entertainment district and had a lease/management deal with the privately held Performa Entertainment for more than 30 years. That agreement ended January 1, 2014, and the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) took over. 

The next step in the overall plan for the street is to appoint a board of directors to manage the district. That board will, more than likely, look for another private company to run the day-to-day operations of Beale Street.  

The Memphis City Council got its first look this week at a plan to organize that board of directors, called the Beale Street Tourism Development Authority (BSTDA). The plan is the work of Memphis Mayor

A C Wharton and city council co-sponsors Kemp Conrad and Edmund Ford Jr. The council reviewed the plan on Tuesday. 

The board of directors is to be comprised of nine voting members, all appointed by the mayor and approved by the city council, according to the council resolution. The board would also have two non-voting members, one to represent the mayor and the other to represent the council. The members would have to be Memphis residents and registered voters.    

Conrad said the framework for the BSTDA exists under Tennessee law. He pointed to examples in Memphis like the New Arena Public Building Authority, which oversees the FedExForum, and the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority, which oversees Memphis International Airport.

“We are tapping into the best and brightest in our community of people that understand real estate and entertainment,” Conrad said. “But [the BSTDA] will make sure that [Beale Street] is ultimately controlled by the city, through mayoral appointments and county and city council confirmations.”

Dreamstime.com

Beale Street

The DMC took charge of Beale Street at the stroke of midnight between 2013 and 2014. Wharton gave the task to the board a little more than a month before New Year’s Eve, making for what DMC President Paul Morris called “an extremely aggressive ramp-up.” 

After adjusting to the basics of Beale Street management (things like responding to maintenance calls and collecting rent), the DMC began to develop the district. The group cut expenses and tried to reintroduce locals to the tourist hot spot through social media and events like “Lunch on Beale Street Day.”

Everything the DMC did on Beale Street in 2014 netted about $216,000 for the city’s coffers. Morris said it was the first time Beale Street operations showed a profit for the city “in maybe forever.” Also, the street became fully leased under the DMC’s watch.  

He said establishing Wharton’s Beale Street board is the right next step. Also, he said Beale Street needs a long-term “developer manager.” 

“I don’t think we should be looking for somebody to just manage day to day,” Morris said. “We should be looking for somebody to have a vision to grow Beale Street’s product and brand and get it better connected to what’s going on Downtown.”

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Opinion Viewpoint

Dividing by Zero

I’m all about creativity, but it seems our civic imagination has gone wild. The Fairgrounds and Graceland projects have fundamental flaws that would render them untenable as private investments, so why should the public invest?

Memphis Housing and Community Development Director Robert Lipscomb dazzles politicians with PowerPoints and distracts us with ghostly promises of private investment, jobs, and kids playing. He says all the public money is sales tax that otherwise would go to the state. While true, the effect is to get everyone so jazzed they forget the project’s premise is extremely risky.

The Fairgrounds Tourism Development Zone (TDZ) application justifies a $176 million public investment by claiming a private investment of $133 million. The application leaves unsaid that the investment consists of money already spent by Loeb Properties and others on privately financed development projects and anticipated dollars from a to-be-determined private developer.

The project relies on a major retailer swooping in to anchor a massive new retail and hotel development. But there is no lease. There isn’t even a named prospect. At the Fairgrounds, the best location is the corner of Central and East Parkway, which is currently occupied by a school and the Kroc Center. If Target or Walmart was interested, they’d tell us. We don’t need to build it and then see if we can entice them to open in a sub-par spot.

There’s probably rebuttal evidence and “proof” that youth sports is the future in the studies Lipscomb commissioned. Of course, the people who provide these studies are the same ones who are later paid to consult on the development, and their advice can be boiled down to something entrepreneur Richard Branson would say: “Screw it, let’s do it.” Of course, when he says that he’s talking about using his own money, not yours.

As for the Graceland project, there is certainly a public benefit to creating jobs in Whitehaven and improving a major tourist attraction. The Commercial Appeal reports that a public investment of $125 million in the Graceland Hotel project might yield 282 jobs. From a return on investment (ROI) perspective, this does not seem to shake out for taxpayers. From the developers’ perspective, it’s fine, but I can’t calculate their ROI because real numbers aren’t divisible by zero.

Investors use the phrase “skin in the game” to refer to putting something of yourself into the project — usually cash. It gives them comfort to know the risk they’re taking is reciprocated. Apparently, the Graceland Hotel developers are putting zero capital into this project. While they stand to earn all the profits from the venture, they risk nothing. Any investor would be nervous, so why aren’t we?

Public investment has its place. Without it we wouldn’t have the Grizzlies. I can even justify Bass Pro —  at least there’s an actual company with a plan, investing money of its own. The Fairgrounds and Graceland projects represent a $300 million public investment with virtually zero committed private money. Compare that with Crosstown and Overton Square, where public money represented less than 10 percent of the total investment. In these cases, taxpayer investment is secured not only by public oversight but by the natural inclination of private developers to protect their investments.

When Memphis plays developer without market checks and balances, the result is seldom good. The smart play here is to pause and take a breath. The Fairgrounds and Graceland are tremendous assets for our city. The right projects will surface when the time is right. It’s the government’s job to recognize that reality and get out of the way when it happens. Invest incrementally. Instead of huge, risky, public debt-financed projects, invest in many small, neighborhood-level private projects and iterate off what works.

Private money doesn’t flow to projects that don’t make sense, so why should public money be any different? No one I know supports these proposals in full, except the politicians. Of course, if these projects go through, millions of dollars will find their way to lawyers, contractors, bankers, and consultants — the very same people who line the campaign war chests of our local politicians. So, no, nothing’s likely to change here in the city famous for building an upside-down triangle arena inside a right-side-up triangle. Common sense ain’t so common around here.

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News The Fly-By

Memphis Gun Down Faces Budget Cut

CREDIT: Dreamstime.com

A budget request for Memphis Gun Down was shot down last week in a Memphis City Council meeting in favor of a smaller budget for the youth violence prevention program.

The city program that has shown success in reducing youth gun violence in certain target areas of Frayser and South Memphis had about a quarter of its budget request slashed.

Representatives from Memphis Gun Down, an initiative established by the city’s 2011 Bloomberg Philanthropies grant funds, approached the Memphis City Council last week to request $250,000 to keep the program going. But the council ended up passing a resolution to cut their budget by $62,000.

“We are very appreciative of what they have given us, and it will still allow us to move forward, but it will cut us short on a program manager,” said Memphis Gun Down Director Bishop Mays. “And we won’t be able to robustly pursue other models and strategies that we were looking at. We may not be able to expand our program to as many other parts of the city as we had planned.”

The cuts were proposed by Councilman Harold Collins, who thought that Memphis Gun Down’s mission sounded too much like that of the mayor’s Memphis Youth Ambassador (MAP) program. But other than working with at-risk youth, the two programs actually don’t have much in common, according to Mays.

MAP is a year-round program that helps more than 400 kids in grades 10 through 12 develop life-building skills and college and career readiness. Memphis Gun Down focuses on youth violence, and they work specifically with gang-involved youth through programs like the 901 Bloc Squad, a team composed of people who were formerly caught up in street life and who now mentor at-risk youth.

Gun Down also offers midnight basketball games for youth who might otherwise be getting into trouble late at night. And they run a hospital violence intervention program, where mentors meet with young adults who end up in the hospital following violent incidents in the hopes of helping to turn those kids around.

“What the Office of Youth Services is doing [with MAP] is needed. They are able to expose kids to positive alternatives for their futures, like going to college. But we’re different,” Mays said. “They don’t have persons who are directly connecting with gang-involved youth. We’re reaching out to that segment, and to compare us just isn’t fair.

There’s also a chance that Collins misunderstood exactly what Memphis Gun Down does.

Dreamstime.com

“I said, ‘You tell me the number of guns that you have taken off the street since your program started.’ And the director [Mays] said, ‘We don’t take guns off the street.’ And I said, ‘Well, how could you have a Gun Down program if you don’t take guns off the street?'” said Collins, explaining an exchange between he and Mays in last week’s council meeting.

Mays said Memphis Gun Down focuses on preventing youth from picking up guns in the first place.

“Getting guns off the street is more of a function of the police. There are armed individuals out there, and the police are armed. They’re equipped to do that,” Mays said. “We’re not law enforcement officers. We’re trying to change the desire to pick up that gun.”

Earlier this week, Mayor A C Wharton praised Memphis Gun Down’s success in an article he wrote for CNN: “We will always have more work to do, but we are seeing results.”

And according to crime stats, it looks as though Memphis Gun Down is on track to reduce crime among teens and young adults. From 2012 to 2014, murder, aggravated assault, and robbery were down 23 percent for all ages and 21 percent among people under age 24 in their target area in a portion of Frayser. Those same crimes decreased by 25 percent for all ages and 55 percent for people under 24 in their focus area in South Memphis.

“We’re providing them with positive alternatives, like Summer Night Lights [a program that provides youth with recreational activities like art classes, pizza parties, and dancing on summer nights], which we believe has impacted the desire to commit gun crimes in those areas,” Mays said.

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News The Fly-By

MLGW’s 2015 Budget Allows For Additional Smart Meters and More

Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) has big plans for 2015. And the Memphis City Council’s approval of the utility’s $1.7 billion budget proposal last week will enable many of those plans to come to fruition.

A big chunk of that budget — $27 million — will go toward implementing the next phase of smart meter installation across Shelby County. In addition to being used to purchase 50,000 electric, gas, and water smart meters, that money will fund a telecommunications system, which will collect information transmitted from smart meters, as well as a data management system to administer all data sent from smart meters.

With the compressed natural gas (CNG) market evolving, MLGW will take $2 million from its 2015 budget to construct a new CNG public access filling station. Made from methane stored at a high pressure, CNG is a less expensive alternative for fueling vehicles than gasoline. The upcoming facility will be the third that MLGW has constructed and is slated to be located on Lamar.

MLGW President Jerry Collins said the 2015 budget will enable the company to continue to provide customers with the lowest combined utility rates of any major city in the country.

“We do a survey every year for a typical wintertime bill for residential customers, and we survey cities all across the country. And as we look at those numbers, MLGW quite comfortably has the lowest combined utility rates for electric, gas, and water,” Collins said. “We have developed a pretty good gap between us and the other major cities.”

MLGW will build a new CNG station in 2015.

MLGW is in the process of replacing a 25-year-old computer system. Slated to be finished next year, Collins said the total project costs $50 million and that $18.5 million will be used from next year’s budget to complete it.

“It’s basically all of the back office-type applications for computer systems, which includes things like general ledger, inventory, accounting, work order management, engineering design … It touches many aspects of our operations,” Collins said. “But we’re getting rid of an antiquated system and putting in a new state-of-the-art system, which ought to really save us a lot of time as we do our transactions in the future.”

Other things on MLGW’s list of plans include replacing old transformers at numerous electric substations throughout Shelby County and improving the piping and water treatment system at its Davis Pumping Station.

There will also be 28 infrastructure employees added to MLGW’s gas division to help maintain gas distribution to local homes and businesses.

One thing that won’t be implemented by MLGW in 2015 is a 35-cent monthly water rate increase for residential customers. Last week, the city council voted against MLGW’s request to do so.

The utility company requested the increase to counterbalance losing its largest water customer, Cargill. In January, the food, agriculture, and industrial product company is closing its corn milling facility in Memphis. The facility accounted for about five percent of MLGW’s water sales.

Due to the rate increase not passing, Collins said MLGW would be a little further in the hole financially in 2015 than anticipated. But aside from that, Collins is excited about what the new budget will bring for MLGW.

“There’s lots of good news,” Collins said. “We will continue to try to make sure that our customers get the best possible service at the lowest possible price. And we want to make sure that we have the cheapest utilities in the whole country.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Looking Back at a Visit to an Hourly Motel

CREDIT: bianca phillips

In 1997, former Flyer reporter Phil Campbell wrote a cover story titled “Cheaper by the Hour,” which detailed the operations of local hourly rate motels three years after a zoning ordinance was passed to try and relocate the motels.

“But three years after the zoning ordinance was passed, the hourly rate motels have not moved from their old locations in the commercial districts,” Campbell wrote. “The council has been told by the courts that it simply cannot shut down independent motels that charge by the hour, and the motel owners do not appear ready to give up their current locations. The motels persist as the most accessible place in Memphis to both buy and have cheap sex, and they continue to blight declining neighborhoods.”

bianca phillips

Campbell spent the night at the Bellevue Inn, located at 1250 South Bellevue, and described his interactions with prostitutes as they repeatedly approached him and asked if he’d like some company.

“Before I reach my room, a woman jumps out of a parked van and asks in a wooden voice, ‘Can I come, too?’ Her eyes are unfocused, strung out. I tell her maybe later. It is only 7:30. Business is still slow,” writes Campbell.

According to Memphis City Council Chairman Jim Strickland, a mechanism was set to combat existing hourly rate motels when ownership transfers. There isn’t much the council can do, however, about m otels that have been charging hourly rates for years and haven’t changed owners.

“Any transfer of ownership of a hotel has to come before the city council, even if the name of the hotel isn’t changing, even if the employees aren’t changing,” he said. “If the ownership is changing, they have to file an application and come before the city council. Through that process, the rates are verified, and they cannot be hourly rates. All of the new owners have to come in. Their testimony is recorded, saying it’s not an hourly rate motel.”

By having the transfers of ownership come before the council, any crimes that occurred at the motel over the previous one to two years can be reviewed by councilmembers.

“If there’s a prostitution arrest there, that’s a red flag,” Strickland said. “If an owner comes in, testifies to us that it’s not going to be an hourly rate motel, and it turns into one, we can file suit to shut them down. But in my six-and-a-half years on the council, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a complaint that something we approved ended up being an hourly rate motel.”

Last year, a year-long Memphis Police Department investigation from the Organized Crime Unit called “Operation Bed Bug” temporarily closed seven local motels that had been declared public nuisances by District Attorney Amy Weirich.

The Bellevue Inn, the same motel that Campbell visited in his story, was one of the seven.

“It’s a quality of life issue. No matter where you live, what religion you are, what race you are, what gender you are — you want nice, clean, safe neighborhoods,” Strickland said. “We all want those same things. Prostitution violates that quality of life standard that we all want.”