Tag: Robert Lipscomb

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Editorial Opinion

The Lipscomb Bombshell

Though Mayor A C Wharton insists that a whole matrix of development projects midwifed by the now former city Housing & Community Development Director Robert Lipscomb will go forward without “missing a beat,” the likelihood is that several of them, notably the controversial proposed Fairgrounds TDZ, could be in serious jeopardy.

And that may be just the beginning of the complications resulting from the surprise announcement by Wharton on Monday that Lipscomb had been relieved of his city duties. The mayor’s action came as a result of accusations by a Seattle man of as yet undisclosed sexual offenses committed against him by Lipscomb years ago, at a time when the accuser was a minor.

Technically, that was a suspension. Lipscomb has subsequently resigned from his city position, effective immediately, however, and termination of his parallel job as executive director of the Memphis Housing Authority seemed inevitable.

What gave the accusations unusual weight was the fact that Wharton had acted after dispatching a sizeable blue-ribbon delegation, headed by Police Director Toney Armstrong, to investigate the Seattle complaint.

Although rumors about Lipscomb’s sexual orientation had been rife in City Hall circles for years, the de facto city planning czar had benefited from today’s relaxed social climate about such matters and had hardly been so much as inconvenienced. Nor had his unmatched power to influence members of the Memphis City Council, stemming from his ability to swing city, state, and federal funding toward this or that district project.

All that is now presumably over with, as is Lipscomb’s concurrent clout in Nashville, where the state Building Commission has yet to rule on the Fairgrounds project, already under attack at home by advocates of preserving the Mid-South Coliseum and by others concerned about the project’s expense.

Ironically, given the astonishing rapidity of Lipscomb’s fall, no criminal action has yet been taken against Lipscomb, in Seattle or elsewhere; much less has he been found guilty of misdeeds, illegal or otherwise. Lipscomb has called the accusations against him false, though he acknowledges having sent the Seattle man “blackmail” money over the years.

Ominously for Lipscomb, however, a follow-up statement by Mayor Wharton referred to the receipt by his office of additional accusations of “inappropriate sexual advances” on Lipscomb’s part by “numerous individuals” — a reminder of the echo effect seen in the case of multiplying rape accusations against entertainer Bill Cosby.

Just as Lipscomb has yet to be judged, it is much too early to appraise the mayor’s precipitate action in relieving Lipscomb. Clearly, Wharton had to be mindful of the impact of a brewing scandal on his current reelection effort. But at this point only he, Armstrong, and a few others are in full possession of the facts of the Lipscomb case, and the mayor’s actions have to be taken at face value.

Difficult as it is to suspend judgment in the matters at hand, we the public have no reasonable alternative. It is not too early, however, to see that, wholly independent of what may or may not happen in the current election, an existing component of the order of things at City Hall has been shattered beyond recall.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Flyer Exclusive: Wharton Explains His Actions on the Lipscomb Matter

Mayor Wharton

The ongoing crisis involving former, now defrocked, city planning czar Robert Lipscomb seemed to come out of nowhere just as Mayor A C Wharton had entered the stretch drive of his current reelection campaign and on the brink, too, of action — locally, statewide, and elsewhere — affecting the future of the Fairgrounds TDZ project and other ongoing development projects.

In an effort to assess some of the fallout of the Lipscomb matter and to piece together just how this bombshell came to explode when it did, I talked to the Mayor in the aftermath of a breakfast reception for him at the Crescent Club on Wednesday morning

The following is a transcript of his answers to several questions I put to him and which he answered with an air of forthcomingness.

I asked what the.effect of Lipscomb’s abrupt fall from grace — a suspension followed by a firing — would be on the ongoing city projects:

Mayor: “Listen, it would be probably the height of arrogance to say ‘Aw, this won’t affect anything,’ Any time you change characters, the chemistry changes, but in terms of whether we get it done or not, I’m not concerned about that. As a matter of fact, we spent most of the day yesterday talking to experts. We just had a parade of people. You’d be surprised at the individuals from finance and real estate saying. “Hey, We’re going to pitch in. We’ll be there. Let’s get on the team. All this means too much to the city. Folks just coming out of the woodwork without having to call them, saying, we’re here for you. These are not people saying, ‘if you hire me, if you retain me, I’ll come in.’ So we’ll have the Whitehaven meeting as scheduled. We’ll have the conference on poverty tomorrow. So the world goes on. Indeed, it’s a loss. and I mean both on the personal side and the professional side.”

I asked if the new people freshly appointed to fill Lipscomb’s day-to-day jobs were temporary or permanent replacements.

Mayor: “That is yet to be answered. Right now we’re going day to day. We’re working on two tracks. The day-to-day business has to go on. We can’t miss a beat there. We can’t miss a contract. We can’t miss a bid date We have to do that. At the time same time we’re operating on another track, of 30 days to 60 days to 90 days. We’re operating on both tracks.”

The Mayor was asked to explain what appeared to be an unusual suddenness to his actions involving Lipscomb.

Mayor: “I had no allegation at any time prior to that. I guess knowing what I know as an attorney, having handled employment cases, having taught employment law for 25 years at Ole Miss, it never occurred to me, not even in the slightest, to pursue any other course. We had an allegation, and the allegation came directly to me. It hit me right in the face. I couldn’t say, ‘What did you say?’ It hit me. I mean, a lot of the time a president of a company will say, ‘Well, there was something I heard,’ but it hadn’t got to me yet. It hit me right between the eyes like a two-by-four.”

But, in the absence of investigation or legal action, given that the man was a stranger calling from Seattle with an allegation, why act at all, the Mayor was asked. Would he, for example, have acted similarly if somebody telephoned an accusation from, say, Boston, about so-and-so (an employee with a pure-as-rain reputation)?


Mayor: “Uh, I failed to include a critical detail. The report came in, it got to me on Thursday. I had talked to Director Armstrong. I didn’t want to communicate over the telephone, so we have a way of communicating by saying, ‘I need some face time.’ And he said, ‘Well, Mayor, we’re at the radio station, Clear Channel, tomorrow morning. Let’s find a place where we can talk.’  So we found a secure place, sat down. I said, ‘Now, Toney, this is a police matter. This man is alleging a crime. How do we handle it?’ I said, ‘Do I call him back?’ He said, ‘Mayor, you’ve got to call him back.’ And I said, ‘Good,’ and he said, ‘But you can’t do it by yourself. I’ll come by your office and we’ll call him together.’

“We picked up the phone and called him. I turned to someone who’s a professional. He said, ‘Mayor, we gotta go;. We’ve got to check this out.’ So it wasn’t A C wanting…here’s a man who’s a top law enforcement officer who says, ‘This is about a crime that occurred in Memphis, Tennessee.’ I had reached the same conclusion, but, again, I’m not a trained investigator, and when he listened to it, and it was a lengthy conversation…. and actually, while we were talking, I think Toney was checking out some things. And, uh, he said, ‘Mayor, we’ve got to go.’ So, anyhow, this was not A C Wharton Expert,’ but when you’re talking to a law enforcement official…”

A meaningful pause here, which was filled by my question as to what the individual in Seattle was threatening to do.

Mayor: “Keep in mind the report reached me by telephone Thursday evening [August 21]. I then talked to Director Armstrong that Friday….The report that went to the telephone desk did contain some fairly specific information. I will not get into what he wanted. That’s part of the investigation. But, even had he not wanted anything done, I had a legal responsibility to check him out. Now, I will talk as a lawyer. The liability that the city could have been exposed to, if, after I had received that information, something else happened, even if it was two days later, imagine the consequences of that! And you don’t have to be a lawyer: If you look at Penn State, everybody to this day is probably saying, ‘Why didn’t we check that out? Why didn’t we check that out?’
“And the Catholic Church, their dioceses all around had this huge judgments, and I’m sure people are saying, you know, it seems kind of weird that we didn’t check that out. I’m not going to be in that situation. And that’s where we were.”

Wharton would not comment on persistent rumors over the years, familiar to media people and City Hall employees alike, that Lipscomb pursued a gay lifestyle, but he was firm that, prior to the fateful conversation of Thursday, August 21, he had no information regarding any improper behavior on Lipscomb’s part.

“Absolutely not,” the Mayor said. And no knowledge of what has since surfaced as a complaint filed against Lipscomb in 2010 by the individual now living in Seattle?

“Absolutely not,” the Mayor repeated.

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News News Blog

Sammons: Lipscomb Allegations ‘Sickening,’ City to Offer Free Counseling

CREDIT: Toby Sells

Toby Sells

Memphis Chief Administrative Officer Jack Sammons talks to the media Wednesday morning.

Memphis officials will soon offer counseling and free assistance for any victims that come forward alleging any sexual misconduct by former city employee Robert Lipscomb.

Lipscomb resigned his post as director of the Memphis office of Housing and Community Development on Monday following an allegation of statutory rape from a minor male beginning in 2003. Lipscomb was suspended with pay from his post as director of the Memphis Housing Authority by its board Wednesday morning.

Since the original allegation surfaced Sunday night, eight more victims have come forward, according to the latest figures from Memphis Chief Administrative Officer, Jack Sammons. He said Wednesday morning that the city would announce later this week that it would provide free therapy and counseling “for victims that have been in any activity as alleged by” the original complainant.

After Sunday’s revelation regarding the sexual allegations against Lipscomb, Sammons said other possible victims have been calling the mayor’s office directly.

“I don’t care how many times you listen to one of those, it is…I mean it sends chills down you,” Sammons said.
“Listen, I’m a dad of a young male. The first call I had like that absolutely unnerved me.”

He said many of the callers’ stories are consistent with the original complaint against Lipscomb. But, he said, many of the callers get angry and hang up before they can be transferred to CrimeStoppers. Sammons said the mayor’s office is trying the best they can to remove itself from that part of the investigation and pushing all similar calls to CrimeStoppers.

“I’m not an investigator; I’m not the police director but we’re trying to be sensitive to these victims,” Sammons said, noting one reason the mayor’s office will offer free help to possible victims.

That the MPD investigated the original complaint in 2010 made headlines Tuesday. The male accusing Lipscomb told The Commercial Appeal that the MPD swept his complaint under the rug. When asked about that Wednesday, Sammons said, “I don’t think so at all.”

He said he read much of the email traffic from that time period about the case. MPD made several attempts to locate the male but could not. They located his aunt, who pointed them to the Union Mission, where the male was known to stay.

“The young man was homeless,” Sammons said. “We have a lot of homeless people in this community and it’s not like there’s a directory of them that we can contact.”

With that, Sammons said the investigation hit a roadblock, even though MPD made a “diligent effort to find him.” That is, until about two weeks ago.

“He called in; it was like a cold call into (Memphis Mayor A C Wharton’s) office,” Sammons said. “We take these kinds of things very seriously.”

Sammons said the male now has a job in Seattle and has been getting counseling, which is one of the reasons he came forward with the allegations against Lipscomb.

Wharton and MPD director Toney Armstrong talked to the male by phone on Friday, Aug. 21. He was unavailable by phone for the next three days so Wharton sent Armstrong and two sex crimes investigators to Seattle. They interviewed the male on Wednesday, Aug 26.

Late Sunday evening, Wharton sent a statement to the media that he had relived Lipscomb of his duties without pay. Late Monday evening, Lipscomb resigned from the post.

“As a government official and as a father, this is sickening to me,” Sammons said of the allegations against Lipscomb. “The thought of having someone who engages in this type of behavior against young, defenseless people is abhorrent to my core. I’m going to work night and day to make sure the youth in this community are protected against predators like this.”

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News News Blog

MHA Chair Defends Lipscomb Pay: Allegations ‘Horrendous’ But ‘He Has Not Been Convicted’

Robert Lipscomb was suspended with pay Wednesday morning from his job as the director of the Memphis Housing Authority [MHA].

Some discussion followed the part of the deal that would give Lipscomb pay during his suspension. But only one member of the MHA board, William Stemmler, voted to suspend Lipscomb without pay.

Lipscomb MHA salary is about $136,000, paid largely through federal funds. 

MHA board chairman Ian Randolph said after the meeting that the decision to continue to pay him came down to the will of the board.

“They decided they felt better paying Robert (Lipscomb),” he said. “These, at present, are allegations. They are horrendous but he has not been convicted as of today.”

Randolph said the MHA board of commissioners is now in the process of its own disciplinary process regarding Lipscomb. The outcome of that process will be likely known during another specially called meeting of the MHA board on September 16.

The board also approved to appoint Maura Black Sullivan, now the city’s deputy chief administrative officer, as MHA’s interim director. 

Black Sullivan said she is proud of MHA’s work and will strive MHA make Memphis “that shining city on the hill that we all dream it will be.”

Black Sullivan said she can start her new job immediately on a full-time basis. Memphis Chief Administrative Officer Jack Sammons said Memphis Mayor A C Wharton’s office recommended Black Sullivan to the post and that she continue to be paid her current salary. Black Sullivan’s pay in 2014 was $117, 032.50, according to city records.

Before the board took any votes Wednesday, MHA chairman Ian Randolph, made a brief statement.

“Over the years MHA has risen to a high-performing status and has been upheld as a model agency throughout the country,” Randolph said. “Our employees have worked hard with our private partners to change the face of public housing as we know it in this city. This board’s goal is to maintain our high level of performance and delivery to our customers. We are making every effort to ensure our agency and its projects continue to move forward.”

MHA also voted Wednesday to allow the city of Memphis to conduct a full financial audit of its books. Chairman Randolph said MHA is also conducting its own audit “to make sure our funds were not misappropriated.” 

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News News Blog

Lipscomb Update: Wharton Taps New Leaders for HCD, MHA

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton appointed an interim director of the office of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to replace former director Robert Lipscomb, who resigned Monday on a sex crime allegation. Wharton also recommended an interim executive director for Lipscomb’s the position at the Memphis Housing Authority (MHA).

Wharton appointed HCD deputy director Debbie Singleton to lead up that organization. He has recommended Maura Black Sullivan, the city’s deputy Chief Administrative Officer, to temporarily lead MHA.

“Recognizing the significant role HCD and MHA play in the growth and development of our City, a smooth transition is imperative,” Wharton said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “For this reason, I am appointing deputy director Singleton to be interim lead of HCD, and I have asked the MHA board to appoint Mrs. Sullivan interim executive director until new directors are appointed to lead each organization.”

Singleton has been at HCD for 20 years. She’s worked on projects ranging from Peabody Place, Sears Crosstown, the redevelopment of the Pyramid, the Fairgrounds redevelopment, the Overton Square parking garage, and AutoZone Park.

Sullivan is a longtime member of Wharton’s executive team. Before that she was deputy director of Planning and Development for Memphis and Shelby County, an assistant superintendent of Planning and Student Services for Shelby County Schools, a special assistant for the Congressman Harold E. Ford Jr, and as a family court mediator for the Shelby County Juvenile Court.

Sullivan’s position will be voted on by the MHA during their meeting tomorrow morning. 

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News News Blog

Lipscomb’s House Searched, New Details Emerge

The Memphis Police Department (MPD) investigated Sunday’s statuary rape charge against Robert Lipscomb, the former director of the city’s office of Housing and Community Development (HCD), back in 2010.

An affidavit filed Monday for a warrant to search Lipscomb’s home said the case was assigned to an MPD investigator in February 2010, after Lipscomb’s first alleged contact with the minor in May 2003.

That affidavit gives the full history of the allegation against Lipscomb that has sent shockwaves through the community and led to nine new allegations against Lipscomb, his resignation from the city and the board of Lemoyne-Owen College, and the possible suspension of his job at the Memphis Housing Authority.

The affidavit is the statement of Sgt. James Taylor, who is assigned the MPD’s Internet Crime Against Children task force and its Human Trafficking Unit. In the affidavit, Taylor said that in 2010 a male walked into MPD’s South Main station and said he wished to file a complaint against a city employee and told officers there that he had been sexually assaulted by Lipscomb.

Here’s how the affidavit relays the events:

“(Redacted) stated in May 2003, he was walking to his home on Britton from a school track meet and was approached by Robert Lipscomb, who was driving a Lexus SUV, black in color. (Redacted) stated Lipscomb offered him a ride home. (Redacted) stated after getting in the vehicle, Lipscomb told him he needed to make a quick stop before going home. (Redacted) stated that Lipscomb parked his SUV on a side street and then Lipscomb grabbed him by the back of his neck and pushed his head into his (crotch) area and forced him to perform oral sex. (Redacted) stated after the sex was completed, Lipscomb gave him $60 cash and told him to call him. (Redacted) stated he got out of the SUV and left.

“(Redacted) stated after this incident, he never told anyone what happened and his family moved to south Memphis in the area of Third and Crump. (Redacted) stated after he moved, Lipscomb began contacting him and sending him money every other day via Western Union receipts. (Redacted) advised Lipscomb had bailed him out of jail on one occasion and repeatedly told him to keep his mouth shut about the sexual encounter they had together. (Redacted) advised he told Lipscomb to leave him alone or he would contact the police.”

The affidavit states that a sex crimes investigator could not locate the male accuser. But a family member said that he often slept at the Union Mission. That, according to the affidavit, was the end of MPD’s investigation in 2010.

In August, the male accuser again contacted MPD. Two officers traveled to Everett, Washington, to follow up on the complaint from 2010. In that interview, the male accuser repeated the same facts he reported in 2010 and added that he had performed oral sex on Lipscomb more than a dozen times.

MPD interviewed Lipscomb on Sunday, and he said that he knew the male from working in the community. He said that his last contact with the male accuser was in February 2015 via email.

All of that led Sgt. Taylor to believe Lipscomb’s home did contain evidence in the case and was the reason the search warrant was issued.

The Monday search of Lipscomb’s home yielded a Dell desktop computer, a black iPad mini, folders, documents, and an Olympus camcorder.  

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News News Blog

Robert Lipscomb Relieved of Duty Following Sexual Complaint

Robert Lipscomb, the director of Housing and Community Development, has been relieved of duties following a criminal complaint “of a sexual nature,” according to a statement issued from Memphis Mayor A C Wharton’s office at about 11 p.m. Sunday.

Here’s Wharton’s statement in full:  

On Friday, August 21, 2015, Mayor A C Wharton, Jr. and [Memphis Police Department] Director Toney Armstrong spoke by phone to an adult male who made a criminal complaint of a sexual nature against City of Memphis Housing and Community Development Director Robert Lipscomb. This complaint was criminal in nature based on the fact that the individual in question claimed to have been a minor at the time of his alleged sexual encounters with Dir. Lipscomb.

Mayor Wharton immediately ordered Director Armstrong and a team of his top investigators to travel to Seattle, Washington to meet and interview the complainant; this interview took place within days of this individual’s conversation with the mayor and the police director.

Based on this criminal complaint, Mayor Wharton has relieved director Lipscomb of duty pending the results of a full investigation.

“These allegations are extremely disturbing.” Wharton said, “To ensure that we leave no stone unturned, in addition to referring this matter to the District Attorney General’s Office, we will also seek legal counsel as to if any other state or federal agencies should be involved in this investigation.”

This story will be updated as more details become available.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Happy Ending for the Fairgrounds?

It is no secret that adherents of preserving the Mid-South Coliseum nursed grave doubts about the integrity of the process, when the city engaged with a team of consultants to conduct public hearings on the future of the

Fairgrounds, after which the independent Urban Land Institute would pass on its recommendations. The administration of Mayor A C Wharton, and specifically Robert Lipscomb, the city’s director of housing and community development and its de facto planning czar, had seemed fully committed to a vision of the future Fairgrounds area that included the demolition of the vintage structure. The Tourism Development Zone proposal favored by Lipscomb proposed a basic start from scratch on much of the Fairgrounds acreage, leaving in place the newish Kroc Center, a renovated Liberty Bowl, and the Shelby County Schools administrative facility in the complex that was once Fairview Middle School. The plan envisioned a youth sports complex, a new multi-purpose athletic facility at the site of the now dormant Coliseum, along with retail facilities and a hotel. Though the Coliseum was in disrepair and needed serious renovation to be used for any kind of contemporary purpose, the real problem with the building was that its use as a performance arena for sports and concerts clashed with the terms of the non-compete clause between the city and FedExForum. That contract was the price of attracting the Grizzlies to Memphis.

But the Coliseum has deep connections to the hearts of Memphians and Mid-Southerners. Elvis, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and — perhaps most memorable of all — some truly legendary performers of the ‘rassling arts performed there. Memphis’ preservationist community joined legions of fans in wanting to see the building restored, perhaps as a wrestling museum. A variety of demonstrations made the point, and the ULI-conducted public meetings were a necessary response to the demand. The droves of citizens who turned out overwhelmingly backed the idea of preserving the Coliseum, but they also made other useful suggestions, most of them, as it turned out, consistent with the root premises of the proposed TDZ.

The ULI folks listened, and they submitted recommendations to the city that made a compelling case for the Coliseum transformed into an open-air structure, seating a maximum of 5,000 persons, and able to compete with other nearby arenas (Snowden Grove in Mississippi, for example) for mid-range concerts. Other recommendations were for a water park and a conservancy, whose managerial reach would extend beyond the Fairgrounds proper to Tobey Park on the north side of Central Avenue.

The ULI report made for a proposition that was probably more realistic than such features of the original TDZ proposal as the imagined hotel and large-scale big-box retailers, which were arguably too dependent on a philosophy of build-it-and-they-will-come.

In any case, the ULI’s recommendations seem to have gone down well with people on both sides of the previous conflict line — those who wanted a whole new shuffle on the Fairgrounds property and those who wanted to maintain a bit more tradition.

Lipscomb says he and his team are reviewing the feasibility of a revamped TDZ proposal in line with the ULI recommendations. We hope that he sees in them the ingredients for a happy ending in which everybody can go home satisfied.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (May 28, 2015) …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Kevin Lipe’s post, “How the World Ends: Game 6, Warriors 108, Grizzlies 95” …

As a Warrior fan (since 1965) I would like to say that the Grizzlies are a classy, hard-nosed team with classy fans. They gave the Dubs all they wanted, that is for sure. Also, I will say that I enjoyed reading your columns during this series and I wish you all the best!

GHN

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s editor’s letter, “The Big Empties” …

Yes, positive things are happening downtown and in Midtown. But rather than the obligatory references to Jack Belz and Henry Turley, I would like to see the grass-roots organizations, most notably Memphis Heritage, get credit for the endless amount of energy they have expended in making all of this a reality.

The Belz family certainly jump-started downtown’s rebirth when they purchased and restored the Peabody, but, as a founding member of the Chickasaw Bluffs Conservancy, all I remember of Henry Turley is he and Mayor Herenton fighting us tooth-and-nail for 10 years to prevent the Bluffwalk from being built on the site where Turley’s million-dollar homes overlooked the river.

Research all the restoration projects listed in that article and you will find Memphis Heritage and other activist groups heavily involved in all, including the battle at Overton Square. Good article, and easy to mention the household names, but there are foot soldiers out there working on these issues every day.

Gordon Alexander

The comment regarding the work of MHA director Robert Lipscomb — especially concerning public housing redevelopment — deserves closer examination. As a graduate student in city planning at the University of Memphis, we have examined both the city’s treatment of public housing and its strategy of using huge sums of public money to finance big-ticket development projects in our studies. 

In regards to public housing: While this system has assuredly had many problems in Memphis and throughout the country, affordable housing is a critical need for the most vulnerable of our population. As one example of the importance of public housing, low-income single mothers often use subsidized housing as a stepping stone to a better life as they are able to save more money and/or get additional training that leads to better employment opportunities. 

When bundled with needed social support systems, HOPE VI (now Choice Neighborhoods) can work, but these safety nets are often absent in the aftermath of relocation. In the worst cases, relocated tenants end up homeless when they cannot keep up with utility bills that were formerly subsidized in public housing. The new mixed-income communities offer minimal affordable housing units, thereby essentially facilitating gentrification. 

In regards to big-ticket development projects that have been the calling card under the Lipscomb’s direction, it is hardly time to declare victory in the use of this strategy. Before we hand him his gold watch, I think a balanced examination of Lipscomb’s record is needed.

Travis Allen

About the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act …

Imagine you are out for a hike with your dog and he gets caught in a steel-jawed leg trap that someone set out on our public lands. Or your children are exploring the woods and they come across a trap. That will be very possible if a bill now moving through Congress becomes law.

The bill, known as the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act (S. 405), is anything but sporting. Already, the majority of our public lands are open to hunting, so there is no shortage of access for hunters. But this bill would, for the first time, expand the federal definition of “hunting” to include trapping, and that would open all U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands to hunting and trapping. Steel traps, basically landmines for wildlife, introduce another risk to your child or pet. Traps are notoriously cruel and barbaric, with animals struggling in pain for hours or days before death. The American Veterinary Medical Association reports that up to 67 percent of animals caught in leg traps are not the intended target and that many “mistakenly” caught and then released do not recover.

This legislation is unnecessary and unfair. Senator Lamar Alexander is an important vote on this bill. Please contact him and let him know that you oppose trapping on public land.

Cindy Marx-Sanders

Categories
News The Fly-By

Big Moves Ahead for Memphis Police Department Facilities

CREDIT: Toby Sells

Some big moves are planned for the Memphis Police Department (MPD) headquarters at 201 Poplar and for the department’s South Main precinct.

The MPD wants to move its headquarters from the Shelby County Criminal Justice Complex to the former Donnelly J. Hill State Office Building on Civic Center Plaza. The state vacated the building last year, and its offices are now housed down Main Street at One Commerce Square.

Toby Sells

Donnelly J. Hill State Office Building

Robert Lipscomb, the city’s director of Housing and Community Development (HCD), wants the city to buy the building from the state for $1.5 million. The goal is to relocate MPD headquarters and a few other city offices from spaces leased around the city into the 12-story office building.

“If we’re going to fight crime, we need to show the public that we’re serious about fighting crime,” Lipscomb said. “We want to give the police department a visible presence, and I think this building does that.”

The MPD’s rent at 201 Poplar is $85,000 per month, according to MPD Director Toney Armstrong. All told, rent and other expenses there cost the city about $1.4 million per year. Vacating 201 Poplar would save the MPD about 75 percent of that rent cost.

Some city council members were skeptical of the deal and not in favor of raising the city’s debt in the current budget year.

Lipscomb said HCD would also move into the former state office building as well as the Memphis Housing Authority, human resources, legal, and a few other departments. Lipscomb discussed his plans with the Memphis City Council last week, but the project is not yet ready for a formal council vote, he said.

But Lipscomb said a more pressing matter was the move of the MPD’s South Main precinct from Central Station to the Memphis Area Transit Authority’s North End Terminal at 444 North Main.

The move was precipitated by the planned, $55 million redevelopment of Central Station into a hotel, restaurant, and apartments. The council approved the $1.3 million reallocation of funds in this year’s budget to begin the planning and design phase, which is expected to be completed by September.

The price tag drew fire from councilmember Berlin Boyd. After being told that the move was necessary, Boyd chided administration officials for asking for the emergency funds.

“No offense, but with everything [from the administration], there’s a sense of urgency,” Boyd said. “We can find money to do certain things, but when it comes to helping people, we can’t do that.”

Armstrong explained that the move would allow him to have the entirety of his downtown precinct “under one roof” and that the department didn’t ask to move.

“One of the things we have to understand here is we’ve been asked to relocate; we’ve been asked to vacate the premises,” Armstrong said. “So, it’s more than necessary that we move.”