Allen Fossil Plant (Photo: TVA Web Team | Creative Commons | via Wikimedia Commons)
The people of Memphis deserve clean air, affordable power bills, and a reliable energy system that doesn’t come at the cost of their health or future. Instead, TVA is pushing to expand the Allen gas plant in Southwest Memphis with six new methane gas-burning turbines. That means more pollution, higher bills, and more risk for the communities that have already been asked to carry too much. Let’s be clear: This is a bad deal. Memphis deserves better.
If these gas turbines are built, they will produce large amounts of air pollution that will cause and worsen serious health problems for nearby residents. Southwest Memphis residents already experience high rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, and adding more pollution to the air from burning methane gas will only deepen public health impacts and worsen the climate crisis.
This project is deeply unfair for communities in Southwest Memphis, where residents already carry heavy environmental burdens from the decades of pollution from fossil fuel infrastructure: the Allen coal plant, Valero refinery, Allen gas plant, Southaven gas plant, xAI, and now TVA’s Allen plant gas expansion plan. This is what the continuation of environmental injustice looks like.
TVA claims the gas expansion is necessary to meet electricity demand, but they’ve done a poor job of seriously evaluating other options. They haven’t conducted even basic analysis of how clean alternatives could meet power needs in a way that’s less risky and less harmful. TVA has tried to frame this as a binary choice: either build the new methane gas turbines, or do nothing and risk not meeting demand. But that’s a false choice. In reality, TVA could meet energy needs through a mix of proven, affordable solutions — like solar, wind, battery storage, energy efficiency, and demand reduction programs — that don’t come with decades of pollution and health consequences of burning methane gas.
But TVA is still pouring money into fossil fuel infrastructure that would lock Memphis into another generation of pollution, higher bills, and increased climate risk. At this point, it feels like TVA would rather keep polluting communities than do the work of building a cleaner, more just energy future. This is the same tired playbook: rush the process, sideline the public, and pretend there are no alternatives. That’s not leadership. That’s business as usual — and people are done with it.
It’s not just about pollution — though that alone should be reason enough to stop this. It’s about the massive opportunities that TVA is choosing to ignore. TVA has a long history of underinvesting in energy efficiency — simple, low-cost solutions like sealing air leaks and adding insulation that could make homes across Memphis healthier, safer, and more affordable to live in. These upgrades are especially important for low-income residents, many of whom want to improve their homes but can’t afford to do it on their own. TVA’s programs are often too limited, too complicated, or just not designed to reach the people who need them most. And while TVA has started to show some progress, it’s unacceptable for them to ignore the lowest cost, most immediate way to reduce energy demand while trying to justify building more gas infrastructure. Instead, TVA should be expanding programs that cut energy use and ease strain on the grid because that’s how you lower bills, improve reliability, and reduce pollution without making vulnerable communities pay the price.
Memphis has thousands of megawatts of rooftop solar potential, many times over what TVA says it needs from this gas expansion. That’s power from the sun, right here in the city, with no emissions and no added health risks. Shelby County also has tremendous capacity for utility-scale solar. MLGW’s own studies point to local solar as the smartest and most cost-effective choice for meeting power needs. And wind is already being harnessed just across the state line in Tunica County. Battery energy storage makes renewable energy available around the clock, improves the reliability of the grid, and can help bring the grid back online from a power outage. The tools are here. The technology is proven. The moment is now.
As someone working alongside partners in Memphis who are organizing around this issue, I’m proud to support their leadership. The voices coming out of Southwest Memphis are powerful — and they are calling for what every community deserves: transparency, accountability, and a future built on clean energy, not more pollution.
TVA was created to serve the people of the Tennessee Valley — not corporations, not industry. Its mission was public service. But somewhere along the way, that mission got lost. Now is the time to get back to it.
TVA should invest in the communities that have powered this region for generations — not sideline them. It should make real investments in proven, available clean energy that reduces bills, creates long-term, good-paying local jobs, and keeps the lights on without poisoning the air. Southwest Memphis doesn’t need more pollution. Memphis doesn’t need more excuses. And the people of the Tennessee Valley don’t need another generation locked into dirty energy and economic inequality.
TVA can still choose to lead. If they won’t, they’ll be remembered as the ones who stood in the way. Because the future is clean. The future is just. And the future will be powered by the people.
TVA is accepting public comments on this project until April 28th. Now is the time to speak up. Tell TVA to stop the methane gas expansion at the Allen Plant and invest in a clean energy future built on energy efficiency, solar, wind, battery storage, and demand reduction. Tell TVA to do better because Memphis deserves better — and the Tennessee Valley does, too.
As the decarbonization advocacy coordinator for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), Tracy O’Neill is a passionate advocate for clean energy and community empowerment.
Agricenter International’s five-acre solar farm produces enough energy to power the entire 1,000-acre Agricenter complex. (Photo: Tom Hrach)
After years of stagnation, Memphis is finally taking major steps toward creating a solar power system.
The news broke last month when Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) announced it would seek a site to install solar panels and purchase batteries to store electricity.
CEO Doug McGowen said the city-owned utility is seeking proposals to install 100 megawatts of solar generation and up to 80 megawatts of battery storage. The move is significant for Memphis, which trails many Tennessee communities and is far behind other Southeastern cities in developing community solar power.
Doug McGowen, president and CEO of Memphis Light, Gas and Water (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)
“In our nation and around our world, our demand for energy will soon outpace our collective ability to meet it,” McGowen said in March. “If we are going to meet our needs here locally and nationally, we need everyone in the game. With today’s announcement, I will tell you MLGW is in the game. We are taking an important, huge first step in helping our community … meet the challenges ahead.”
The development hinges on a tentative “side agreement” with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) that would allow MLGW to generate some of its own power. MLGW currently gets all its electricity from TVA under an exclusive contract that forbids it from getting electricity from any other source.
That decades-old contract has long stood in the way of MLGW developing solar power. First signed in December 1984, the rolling, five-year contract contains language preventing MLGW from getting power anywhere other than TVA.
MLGW is one of just five local power companies in TVA’s 153-local-utility system that hasn’t agreed to a long-term contract that allows signers to get up to 5 percent of their power from other sources. Some local utilities that have signed those 20-year contracts have left Memphis far behind in developing solar power.
McGowen hopes to change that.
“This does nothing to change our fundamental power agreement that we have with TVA,” he said. “This is going to be a side agreement, an amendment. That is what we will work on together, on something that will work for both organizations.”
Solar power is something MLGW has had in the works for at least two budget cycles. MLGW inserted money into its budget for solar power in fall 2023 when it prepared its 2024 budget. Money was then also included in fall 2024, when it prepared the budget for the current year.
McGowen’s March 5th announcement follows a report in February by the Institute for Memphis Public Service Reporting that detailed the impediment that the TVA contract poses to developing solar power.
“The community needs more energy. The demand is going up. Where are we going to get it? We do not want to burn more fossil fuels, so solar is where it can come from,” said Dennis Lynch, a Midtown Memphis resident and member of the MLGW citizens advisory committee.
“I could imagine many empty blocks in Memphis covered with solar panels and then people signing up to be members and getting reduced rates for electricity, but even that is not allowed in the current TVA contract.”
In 2022, MLGW discussed entering a 20-year agreement with TVA, which would have allowed the creation of its own solar power system. But that long-term agreement was never signed, so the terms of the 1984 agreement remain in place. In May 2023, McGowen announced that the utility would stick with TVA as its power supplier under the terms of the old contract for now.
Was that a mistake?
Not so, said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a Knoxville-based nonprofit. That is because committing long-term to TVA means Memphis likely could never get out from under TVA’s onerous exit clauses to pursue cheaper and cleaner energy sources, Smith said.
Under the terms of the current contract, MLGW must give TVA a five-year notice if it wants to leave. A long-term contract would require a 20-year notice, which means it would be decades before Memphis could get free from TVA.
“MLGW is losing out on clean energy, particularly solar, due to the fact that they are not independent from TVA,” Smith said. “But I do not think that signing a long-term contract would be worth it. Memphis would lose out by agreeing to stay with TVA for so long.”
One reason is that the 5 percent limit TVA places on its long-term customers is miniscule compared to the potential for solar power in West Tennessee, Smith said.
“MLGW did absolutely the right thing by not signing that long-term contract. Instead, we would like MLGW to start re-negotiating that agreement again and start using the leverage it has to encourage the use of renewable energy,” Smith said.
Baby Steps to Solar
Outlining his 2025 capital improvement plan at the October 2, 2024, MLGW board meeting, McGowen said the utility is doing what it can to move toward solar power by installing a first-ever battery storage system.
McGowen has acknowledged MLGW is prevented from creating its own solar power because of the current TVA-MLGW contract.
“We are still committed to that. I want to get the battery storage rolling first,” he said. “We have some architecture and engineering money allocated for solar. We are working with our partners at TVA to determine how to do that in the constraints of our current contract. That remains a priority for us.”
Solar power would be part of what McGowen called “an aggressive expansion of capacity” to provide electricity for Memphis. At an MLGW board meeting on February 5th, McGowen noted that the request for proposals for the battery storage would be out soon. But he offered no exact timetable. McGowen has said Memphis needs to expand its ability to provide electricity in order to support economic growth.
The best example is the establishment of the xAI facility in south Memphis, which has huge power demands. Bloomberg News reported that new artificial intelligence data centers can be drivers of economic growth for communities, but they have huge power demands. Communities that are prepared to provide increasing amounts of electricity will be the beneficiaries. And part of providing increasing amounts of electricity is that local communities need to be generating their own power instead of just buying it from someone else.
Battery storage is pivotal to plans for implementing solar power at the utility scale because the sun does not shine at night, so the electricity must be generated during the day and then stored for use at other times. But a battery storage system is only the first step toward using the sun to generate electricity.
Memphis Falling Behind
Scott Brooks, senior relations specialist for TVA, confirmed via email that Memphis is way in the minority when it comes to developing its own power generation, writing, “Many of our partners are doing solar and community solar.”
Other TVA communities that are generating their own solar power are the Knoxville Utilities Board, BrightRidge (which serves the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee), and the Nashville Electric Service.
A 2023 study done by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy titled “Solar in the Southeast” confirmed that Memphis was behind Knoxville and on par with Nashville when it came to using electricity generated by the sun.
The same study showed that Memphis will be even further behind Knoxville by 2027 if things stay the same with the TVA contract. And Tennessee, which is almost entirely served by TVA, is miles behind the average utility in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
The goal of creating Memphis’ own solar power system is not new. It was part of the Memphis Area’s Climate Action plan written in 2020. That 222-page plan said: “Transforming our energy supply over the next 30 years will need to take an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach, with actions ranging from partnering with TVA to increasing renewables in their portfolio, to encouraging and constructing local sources of renewable generation (particularly solar).”
The plan said the city of Memphis and Shelby County would work with TVA to explore changes to the MLGW contract. The report mentions solar power 35 times as a key goal for the community.
Yet more than five years since that report, no substantial progress had been made toward establishing a local solar power system in Memphis.
Photo: Tom Hrach
Some solar power exists
Despite the restriction, solar power is not absent in Memphis. The TVA contract does not prevent companies, individuals, or even government entities from putting up solar panels and generating power. One of the most visible solar projects in Shelby County is happening at the Agricenter International, where thousands of vehicles whiz by five acres of solar panels on Walnut Grove Road.
That project, launched in 2012, is generating enough electricity to power 110 homes per year. And it is connected with TVA’s system, showing the potential for solar power in Memphis. The Shelby County government also generates electricity with the establishment of its modest collection of solar panels off of Farm Road behind the county construction code enforcement office.
How can Memphis start maximizing the benefits of solar power?
Citizen action is what is needed to change the situation, says Lynch, a frequent public speaker at MLGW board meetings and member of the West Tennessee Sierra Club.
“Citizens need to better understand what is the story,” Lynch says. “They need to knock on the doors of MLGW and ask MLGW, ‘What are you doing to allow TVA to allow us to install solar?’”
At the March 5th announcement, Mayor Paul Young specifically thanked TVA for agreeing to allow Memphis to move forward with solar power. And he acknowledged how Memphis has been behind when it comes to solar power and creating sustainability energy.
“We know that power is one of the utmost concerns for people throughout this nation. We are thinking about ways to do this with more sustainability, cleaner, thinking about ways we can limit our impact on the environment,” Young said. “This is such an important step. I cannot say enough about how many strides MLGW has been taking.”
Young cited reliability as a key. Solar power and the batteries to store that power help a community keep the electricity flowing during blackouts, storms, and natural disasters.
Mike Pohlman, MLGW board chair, also acknowledged that Memphis has been behind in creating solar power. He said the board has been pushing MLGW for years to get moving on solar power.
“We have gotten out of the pace of snail. And things are happening a lot quicker. We have been looking at this solar thing for two years now. It is finally coming to fruition,” Pohlman said.
McGowen said the proposals for solar generation and battery storage are due back to MLGW by the end of April. He said the goal is to start producing and storing electricity by the end of 2026. MLGW has not yet identified a site for the solar facility.
Tom Hrach is a professor in the department of journalism and strategic media at the University of Memphis. He has a doctorate degree from Ohio University and has more than 18 years of full-time experience as a journalist.
The Nuclear Option
Earlier this month, the future of energy development in the Tennessee Valley was thrown into uncertain territory. TVA is owned by the federal government, having been established in 1933 during the first wave of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. Its original purpose was to electrify the rural areas of Tennessee, which had been neglected by for-profit electric utility companies who feared the high cost of building thousands of miles of electrical transmission infrastructure to serve a relatively small population in what was at the time the most impoverished region in the country. These days, TVA receives no taxpayer money and operates by selling electricity to ratepayers like a privately owned utility company.
But the executive branch still has control over TVA’s board of directors, and in April, the Trump administration removed two board members, Michelle Moore and Board Chairman Joe Ritch. No reason was given for their removal. The board usually consists of nine members, but with the removal of Moore and Ritch, only four remain. That means that there is no longer a quorum on the board, effectively paralyzing the $12 billion organization which provides power for more than 10 million people.
Shortly before the firings, the board appointed Don Moul, the utility’s former chief operating officer, as the new president and CEO. After the firings, Justin Maierhofer, a longtime TVA executive, was appointed as chief of government relations. A new Enterprise Transformation Office, created by an executive order from President Trump, will seek to reorganize the utility’s leadership structure, according to reports from Knoxville News Sentinel. The office will seek at least $500 million in savings to make way for building new generation capacity.
What, if any, effects this shake-up will have on MLGW’s solar power plans are unclear. But if Tennessee senators Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn have their way, TVA’s focus will not be on solar but on nuclear energy. This is familiar territory for TVA, which was a pioneer in civilian use of nuclear power in the 1960s and ’70s. But the utility’s nuclear program has stagnated, thanks to ballooning costs for building huge power plants like the one at Watts Bar in Spring City, Tennessee, where the last new reactor came online in 2016 after decades of development and construction.
In an op-ed published in Power magazine, the two senators call for TVA to invest in a new fleet of nuclear power plants which would be smaller and easier to construct than the mammoth facilities the utility currently operates. “With the right courageous leadership, TVA could lead the way in our nation’s nuclear energy revival, empower us to dominate the 21st century’s global energy competition, and cement President Trump’s legacy as ‘America’s Nuclear Energy President.’” — Chris McCoy
Weather Channel reporter Charles Peek caught some great photos of lightning strikes in Memphis during last week’s severe storms.
Park Damage
Posted to Facebook by Overton Park
Those storms were unkind to Overton Park. A large tree fell over the paved trail close to Overton Bark and the limestone running trail “suffered significant erosion,” park officials said.
Park officials warned that the effects from the storm might not be over. The soil is still saturated and that “may mean that more trees are vulnerable even in the beautiful weather to come. So, please use caution on the trails and refrain from any high-impact usage of the dirt trails until they have a chance to dry out.”
Praise Be
Posted to Reddit by u/Hunterwho43
Redditors praised Memphis Light, Gas & Water’s tree-trimming efforts that likely kept the lights on for thousands of customers during the rainfall torrent. They also praised the weather-bending magic of Mongo and the Crystal Skull.
The MEMernet was wild for the white stuff last weekend. It was that “good snow,” making snowmen, snowballs, and snow sledding all easy and fun and driving not so dangerous.
“These children give added meaning to ‘birdie’ while taking flight Saturday above the Overton Park golf course,” said Tom Bailey on Facebook.
The Memphis Zoo’s socials were blown up last weekend. Reels showed tigers playing, a grizzly bear rolling in the snow, and Babu, a mandrill, knocking over a snowman.
Posted to Facebook by Memphis Zoo
There was also lots of love out there for the often-maligned city and Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW). Redditors tipped their hats to MLGW’s tree-trimming efforts, which helped to keep the lights on, and to the city for keeping the roads clear. Wow.
CA for Arts?
Posted to Facebook by Jay Etkin
Art gallery own Jay Etkin wants to turn the former Commercial Appeal building on Union into the Flow Museum of Art & Culture. Etkin said he is in talks with city, county, and state leaders on the idea.
The building is on the auction block at the end of the month. Another idea would turn the building into a vocation training center for youth (see here).
Memphis Light, Gas & Water last week invited customers to play bingo with a card holding squares that said, “bragged about my low utility bill,” “didn’t lose power during a storm,” and more.
Commenters (not so gently) reminded MLGW of the impending 4-percent energy rate increase this month and that their power can still be unpredictable. Many said the post was “tone-deaf,” with some suggesting that it was proof of MLGW’s “toxic” relationship with customers.
New Year’s Tear
Posted to Facebook by Moth Moth Moth
Drag artist Moth Moth Moth was on a Facebook tear New Year’s Eve morning, saying, “Understand this. I will rip this town apart and sew it back together myself if I have to.”
By that afternoon, though, Mothy softened: “I’m not feeling grumpy anymore! I just needed to eat some toast.”
“Distinctive Weapon”
Posted to Facebook by WREG
Comments went wild-larious on two WREG posts about the search for and arrest of Jayden Burns. He allegedly robbed Midtown stores, using an old-timey, long-barreled pistol. Steve Clarke said, “Hear ye! Hear ye! Unhand thy currency!”
We have a video podcast! Wait. Does that make it just a talk show? Either way, we’ve been working on a new weekly … thing. It’s not polished up yet but head over to our YouTube channel for an early look.
Weird Elon
Posted to YouTube my Elon Musk
Memphis businessman Elon Musk tweeted something just so weird last week, earning him millions of ughs and boos from every corner of the internet.
Underground, indie singer/songwriter Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president with a picture of her cat (iykyk). This prompted Memphis businessman Elon Musk to tweet, “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”
Propers
Posted to Reddit by u/AlfofMelmac
Reddit user AlfofMelmac gave propers where they were due last week with a post titled, “Good job, MLGW!” The remnants of Hurricane Francine blustered through Memphis last week and the Redditor was “pleasantly surprised to see that there weren’t a whole lot of lights out on my commute, and not a ton of outages compared to prior big storms!”
Jaslyn Banks and her family got adorably into the rock, paper, scissors challenge on Nextdoor.
MLGW
Posted to Facebook by MLGW
Head over to Memphis Light, Gas & Water’s (MLGW) Facebook page for a ton of news you can use. There you’ll find the newest water quality report, which is aces once again. The Memphis Sands Aquifer, it says, “contains more than 100 trillion gallons of rainwater that some experts believe fell more than 2,000 years ago.” Whoa.
The utility also wants to hire you, buy stuff from you or your business, and let you use a new mobile app to make appointments for in-office visits. Also, a new survey asks how you get (and want to get) information from MLGW.
Southern Roll
Posted to YouTube by SkateLyfe TV
SkateLyfe TV posted a new video last week from May’s Southern Roll Memphis 2024. The 8th annual epic skate party brought some of the best on wheels to the city. SkateLyfe’s video makes the rolling, dancing, grooving, and showing out all look effortless and fluid. It’s worth a watch.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water’s (MLGW) 2024 Comparative Rates Survey concluded that the company’s combined rates remain to be among the lowest in the United States. The agency has also marked 10 years among “lowest winter utility bills.”
“We want to earn our customers’ business every day by providing great value,” MLGW president and CEO Doug McGowen said in a statement. “Reliability and the best possible rates are what we strive to deliver to our customers.”
According to MLGW, this survey compares Memphis’ combined electric, gas, and water utility rates to 39 other cities in the country that were “geographically close to Memphis, as well as utilities that are similar in size to MLGW.” Among those cities were Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; Nashville, Tennessee; and Houston, Texas.
The costs measured in the survey are those that are effective as of January 2024. The rankings include “what a homeowner would pay for 1,000 kilo-watt-hours (kWh) of electricity, 200 hundred cubic feet (CCF) of gas, and 10 CCF of water.”
Some of the guidelines included calculations based on monthly consumption and applicable seasonal rates. Components such as special early payment discounts, time differentiated rates, and “taxes not booked as revenue by the utility” are excluded.
Memphis ranked lowest on the list of “typical residential winter bills,” with its combined electricity, natural gas, and water bill totaling to $246.42. The city with the second lowest total was Omaha, Nebraska, averaging at $272.43, with Springfield, Missouri, coming in third at $307.19.
MLGW ranked 10th among residential electric bills. This is measured in kilowatts per hour (kWh).
“One kilowatt-hour equals ten 100-watt light bulbs staying on for an hour,” the report said.
For 500 kWh the city averaged $69.22. Springfield, Missouri, ranked number-one at $54.70 for 500 kWH.
The city ranked number-one for low residential gas bills — measured in one hundred cubic feet (Ccf) — with an average of $15.28 for 10 CCF. MLGW also came in first in low general service gas bills at $113.24 for 200 CCF.
Memphis ranked second for low residential water bills at $11.97 for five CCF, and third in low general service water bills averaging $273.18 for 100 CCF.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) will listen to customers in a series of community workshops planned for March and April to look at opportunities and problems the community might face in the next 20 years.
The workshops are planned from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at locations across Memphis. The utility also launched an online survey for those unable to attend in person.
Find a workshop here:
• March 5
Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Ave.
• March 7
Hickory Hill Community Center, 3910 Ridgeway Rd.
• March 18
Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center, 3663 Appling Rd.
• March 21
Orange Mound Community Center, 2572 Park Ave.
• March 26
Gaston Community Center, 1048 S. Third St.
• April 1
Whitehaven Community Center, 4318 Graceland Dr.
• April 2
Ed Rice Community Center, 2907 N. Watkins
• April 11
Raleigh Community Center, 3678 Powers Rd.
• April 16
Gaisman Community Center, 4221 Macon Rd.
• April 25
Bert Ferguson Community Center, 8505 Trinity Rd.
• April 30
Lucius E. & Elsie C. Burch Jr. Library, 501 Poplar View Pkwy.
The original “One Memphis” logo on a vintage souvenir umbrella from an A C Wharton mayoral campaign. (Photo: Jackson Baker)
Talk about déjà vu!
When Memphis Mayor Paul Young — still, some 50-odd days into his new administration, working on organizational matters — brought forth his latest innovation, involving the slogan “One Memphis” to denote a series of community meetings to come, echoes were generated in the minds and memories of numerous Memphians.
After all, it was only 15 years ago that A C Wharton used the identical phrase “One Memphis” as a campaign slogan in the 2009 special election that first landed Wharton in the mayor’s office to succeed the retiring Willie Herenton.
“There is absolutely nothing we cannot overcome if we work toward that goal as One Memphis,” Wharton would intone in his speeches, reinforcing the idea in an ad campaign that would sign off with the initials “A C” (familiar to his audiences then and later as the preferred shorthand for his uniquely accessible persona), followed by the words “One Memphis.”
It was Wharton’s way of distinguishing himself from the more volatile and divisive 16-year tenure of his predecessor.
No doubt Paul Young means something similarly comforting, coupling the two-word slogan with the phrase “Empowering Voices/Building Bridges” in a published logo announcing his forthcoming “One Memphis Tour,” which was to have its inaugural session at Whitehaven High School this week.
Another new venture by Young was embodied in his recent announcement of his intent to appoint someone to a newly created office, that of public safety director, which would have hierarchical dibs over that of police chief.
Overall, the idea was greeted with a positive public reaction, particularly in those circles where there is a desire to locate the duties of law enforcement within a larger, more holistic context of social reform.
That would seem to be Young’s purpose, though this is one of those cases where the devil (the angel, rather?) will be in the details.
Young, who has experienced some difficulty in getting off the mark, might have fared even better, reception-wise, had he been able to make the announcement of the new office in January, when his cabinet was first being assembled, and better still if he could have had the appointment in hand of some credibly credentialed appointee.
That might well have obviated the awkwardness and still unresolved discord which arose from his reappointment of C.J. Davis as police chief (as of now an interim position). Her continuation in office as a clear subordinate would have raised fewer hackles, if any at all, with the city council and with the general public.
Better late than never, even if the sequence seems a bit backwards.
• Gale Jones Carson, a longtime presence in the community as spokesperson for MLGW, was named last week as interim CEO of the local chapter of Urban League.
Carson’s successor as MLGW’S vice president of corporate communications, Ursula Madden Lund, meanwhile is having to wait for a reluctant city council to approve her $200,000 salary. The matter is up for discussion again next week.
• A proposed measure to provide lifetime healthcare benefits to veterans of at least two city council terms took an abrupt nosedive last week, being rejected on third reading virtually unanimously by the new city council after the previous council had approved it without a dissenting vote.
