MSCS officials said the uptick in homelessness is likely the result of a lack of affordable housing, a longstanding problem in Memphis made worse by soaring inflation. (Karen Pulfer Focht for Chalkbeat)
Homelessness among Memphis-Shelby County Schools students has hit its highest level in at least four years, more than doubling from the same time last year.
New district data shows 1,504 students were identified as homeless as of Oct. 7, the end of the first quarter of the school year. That’s a nearly 180% increase from last fall, when the number of homeless students stood at 538.
And the problem is only getting worse, said Shawn Page, the district’s chief of academic operations and school support. So far this school year, Page said MSCS has identified and provided services to over 1,600 homeless students and their families — already topping the total number of homeless families the district supported all last school year.
“That is significant, and just shows the extreme need in our communities for homelessness services,” Page told the school board during Monday committee meetings.
Page estimates there are thousands more MSCS students experiencing housing insecurity whom the district has not been able to identify or support. The district largely relies on school counselors, social workers, and teachers to gather data on homeless students and support those families through individual schools, but sometimes, families can slip through the cracks.
The likely undercount is part of a nationwide pattern: A recent Center for Public Integrity analysis suggests 300,000 students entitled to essential rights reserved for homeless students were not identified by their school districts, which are required to help them. Some 2,400 districts did not report having even one homeless student, despite levels of economic hardship that make those figures improbable, according to the analysis, and many more are likely undercounting the number of homeless students they do identify.
In nearly half of states, tallies of student homelessness “bear no relationship with poverty, a sign of how inconsistent the identification of kids with unstable housing can be,” the report said.
MSCS officials said the uptick in homelessness is likely the result of a lack of affordable housing, a longstanding problem in Memphis made worse by rising inflation. Rents in Memphis, for example, have risen by nearly 30% since before the pandemic, according to the November 2022 Apartment List National Rent Report.
Last year’s 36% jump to 538 homeless students appeared to be a near return to pre-pandemic levels, after virtual learning limited the district’s ability to get an accurate count of students without stable housing. The district’s latest report suggests that administrators are still struggling with the count.
The district is working to help students and families experiencing housing insecurity, Page said, from providing transportation, school supplies, and uniforms, to offering tutoring in homeless shelters and hotels and ensuring immigrant families without housing get translation services. MSCS also refers families to other community organizations that provide temporary housing to families at risk of homelessness.
But many challenges remain as homelessness continues to skyrocket, Page said, including tracking families who have fluid housing situations and having enough resources to provide them with clothing and household supplies. Page said many of the community agencies the district works with are also overwhelmed.
Page called on the community to address the issue collectively, drawing a link between homelessness and the district’s rising chronic absenteeism.
“Every time a family has to change residence, they miss school, and that’s no fault of the family. That’s no fault of the child,” Page said. “We cannot criminalize poverty, and we cannot criminalize our families, because there’s a difference between missing school and legitimate reasons for not sending your child to school. Housing instability is a community problem that’s causing our children not to come to school.”
During Monday’s committee meetings, several MSCS board members said the new data aligns with what they’re hearing from families.
Board member Stephanie Love said that earlier in the day, a woman from her district called to tell her she’d become homeless after her landlord sold the house she’d been renting.
Board member Amber Huett-Garcia called the data a “gut punch,” and asked the community to cooperate with the district to battle homelessness.
“We don’t need to be overly political here to say that housing is a human right,” Huett-Garcia said. “Anything we can do, let’s get committed. If you’re listening and you think you can help, come step up.”
Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
The blue wave of 2018 was not unique to Shelby County; it crested virtually everywhere in the nation, but in that year’s Shelby County election, it became a tsunami, flooding out what had been an extended period of Republican dominance that began with the establishment of partisan elections in 1992. The fact that the GOP chose not even to compete this year for the position of sheriff was a concession to the party’s obviously reduced strength in a majority-Black, Democratic-leaning local population.
Statewide, Shelby County’s preeminence in Democratic affairs has historically been shared with Davidson County, site of the state capital of Nashville. As Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen pointed out at a recent Democratic rally, however, the party’s position in the capital has been somewhat undermined by the governing GOP’s ruthless gerrymandering in the 2022 session of the General Assembly. District lines were redrawn so as to reduce Nashville’s Democratic representation in the legislature and to virtually eliminate its ability to elect a Democratic congressman.
As was noted by Cohen, who is likely to end up being the sole surviving Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee, this development enlarges the status of the Memphis area as an anchor of the state’s fast-disappearing two-party system.
State and Federal It is no coincidence that the three candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor hail from the state’s two major metropolises. Jason Martin, who began running more than a year ago after charging incumbent GOP Governor Bill Lee with negligence during the Covid-19 epidemic, is from Nashville, while Carnita Atwater, a public health administrator, and JB Smiley, a city councilman, are both Memphians. The three Democrats agree on most issues, especially in their condemnation of Lee’s controversial school-voucher program, which targets only Memphis and Nashville.
Lee is unopposed in his own primary and — in spite of, or because of, his unrelentingly arch-conservative position on all issues save that of criminal justice reform — netted a favorability rating of 56 percent in the latest Vanderbilt University poll.
In little more than a decade’s time, the political complexion of Tennessee at large has gone from traditionally Democratic to defiantly Republican, and Lee will be heavily favored against whichever Democrat wins their primary.
Shelby County is served by two congressional districts — the 8th, which consists of a broad swath of rural West Tennessee, along with a strategic salient in affluent East Memphis, and the 9th, which, post-gerrymandering, extends from most of Memphis through Millington to a portion of Tipton County. Republican 8th District incumbent David Kustoff of Germantown should win easily in the GOP primary against challengers Danny Ray Bridger Jr. of Milan, Gary Dean Clouse of Somerville, and Bob Hendry of Collierville. Tim McDonald of Jackson and Lynette Williams of Collierville vie in the Democratic primary for the right to oppose Kustoff in November.
The aforementioned Cohen, a national as well as a local figure, who normally has only pro forma opposition, envisions a somewhat stouter test than usual. To be sure, his primary opponent, M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams, is but a perennial candidate, as — on the Republican side — are Charlotte Bergmann and the madcap pretender Leo AwGoWhat. But a third Republican, the odds-on favorite to win his primary, is Brown Dudley, a Memphis entrepreneur who has GOP establishment support and enough cash on hand to give Cohen at least a theoretical run for his money in November.
On the Democratic side, there are five contested races — one of the state Senate and four for the state House.
In Senate District 33, former State Rep. London Lamar, recently appointed to the seat by the County Commission, is heavily favored over two primary opponents — Marion LaTroy Alexandria-Williams Jr. and Rhonnie Brewer. Republican Frederick D. Tappan will be her Republican opponent in November.
In House District 84, longtime Democratic incumbent Joe Towns Jr. has a primary opponent, Brandon Price, but should win another term. Likewise, Democratic incumbent Jesse Chism is heavily favored over primary opponent Phyllis Parks in District 85.
In House District 86, Barbara Cooper, still going strong in her 90s, has the most formidable opponent in quite a while in Will Richardson, who basically talks up his presumably fresher legs. Democrat Torrey Harris, a first-termer in a reconfigured district, is favored over challenger Barbara Farmer-Tolbert in District 91.
Meanwhile, Democrats Toniko Harris and Houston Wolf vie for the right to oppose District 97 GOP incumbent John Gillespie in November.
On the Republican side, the only contested legislative race is the House District 99 primary between incumbent Tom Leatherwood and challenger Lee Mills. This is a grudge match of sorts, the third contest for the seat, in one way or another, between Leatherwood and Mills, who was notified early this year by state Elections Coordinator Mark Goins that, according to census maps, his house was in the outlying portion of a subdivision split between Shelby and Fayette counties. Chancellor Jim Kyle ruled that Mills and his wife, County Commissioner Amber Mills, could stay on the ballot in Shelby County because they paid their property taxes there.
Mayor Lee Harris
County General Election Shelby County Mayor: Strictly speaking, the major countywide seat up for grabs is that for Shelby County mayor. But the race between Democratic incumbent Lee Harris and Republican challenger Worth Morgan has somehow managed to stay on the back burner, public attention-wise. This is despite the fact that both candidates have had access to, and employed, ample budgets. (During any election season, a drive down Walnut Grove will tell you who the big spenders are, and Morgan’s yard signs are much in evidence there this year.)
City Councilman Worth Morgan
City Councilman Morgan has inveighed against what he says has been Harris’ failure or negligence on matters of public safety, public accessibility, and public affairs in general. “We Deserve Better,” he says, citing, among other things, the initial snafus in the county’s distribution of Covid vaccines, but his advertising has focused on a dubious claim that the mayor has somehow “defunded the police.” Upon examination, the charge — dependent on a highly creative reading of county budget numbers — founders, and Sheriff Floyd Bonner, whose department would seem to be the county equivalent of “the police,” has made no such contention. With regard to truth in advertising, the public deserves better.
For his part, Harris has emphasized a series of governmental initiatives he has pursued, in areas ranging from criminal justice, most notably his Second Chance program for youthful offenders, to gun safety to storm damage to mental health and more, including even the creation of a citizen pipeline on reactions to the war in Ukraine.
On the strength of relative party strengths alone, Harris would seem to have the advantage. There are those who see Morgan’s race as a matter of introducing himself to the public for such future-tense purposes as may occur.
DA Amy Weirich
District Attorney General: Unmistakably, this is the contest which is regarded as the marquee race on the ballot and the one on which both major parties have dug in their heels. Unlike the four-year terms mandated for other countywide offices discussed in this section, the term of a DA runs for a full eight years. Though incumbent DA Amy Weirich carries the Republican Party label (and its residual hopes for the party’s relevance in county government), she is not especially partisan in demeanor and, in fact, has been critical of pro-gun legislation by the General Assembly’s GOP super-majority.
Steve Mulroy
But she is definitely to the right on matters of criminal justice, on the “Law and Order” side of the equation, or, as she puts it, on the side of the victims of crime. Her Democratic opponent, University of Memphis law professor and former County Commissioner Steve Mulroy, is an exponent of various criminal-justice reforms and contends that Weirich’s positions are rigid and overly harsh, counterproductively so. Between the two positions, and inclusive of them, is a whole universe of useful options to be considered, but the contest has so far smacked more of the legal courtroom’s adversary process than it has of Socratic dialogue.
Mulroy cites various chastisements conferred on Weirich by judicial tribunals as indication of an overzealous prosecutorial zeal. He pronounces her the “worst” DA in Tennessee both in that regard and by virtue of a steady upsurge in violent crime locally during her tenure. She alleges a general laxity in Mulroy’s concern for victims — notably in a highly contentious TV commercial that misleadingly suggests he is a “Defund the Police” advocate motivated by a desire to turn criminals loose.
The two have real differences. Mulroy is for bail reform and post-conviction reviews; Weirich is for “truth-in-sentencing.” On the matter of enforcing the state’s new anti-abortion law, which prescribes criminal penalties, both are circumspect, though Mulroy states directly that prosecuting offenders of the statute would be a “low priority” for him and Weirich insists that the issue is at this point hypothetical. In the event, it is doubtful that either would be prone to pursue such a prosecution. (The law allows for the intervention of a special prosecutor appointed by the state.)
Mulroy has made an issue of what he says is serious racial disparity in the current DA’s office, especially in the prosecutorial ranks, while Weirich maintains she is actively recruiting to improve the balance.
None of the other countywide races have quite the impact or ideological import of the two discussed above, though the principals in them and their respective parties take the potential outcome quite seriously.
Assessor: Melvin Burgess, the Democratic incumbent, has been aggressive both in executing his duties and in pursuing his campaign — enough so to be heavily favored over Republican nominee Steve Cross, who is a veteran of several county offices, including prior service in the Assessor’s Office.
County Trustee: Incumbent Democrat Regina Morrison Newman has accumulated 10 years of service in a partial appointed term and a full elected one. She also has served as president of the West Tennessee Trustees Association, collected some $20 million in back taxes, and initiated several customer-friendly new services as the county’s de facto tax collector. Her Republican opponent is Steve Basar, a former county commissioner who claims endorsements from all of Shelby County’s suburban mayors. Both candidates have worked hard at fundraising; Newman has the advantage of incumbency and whatever blue edge remains.
Bonner supporters Dwayne Thompson (D) and John Gillespie (R) (Photo: Jackson Baker)
Sheriff: As indicated, incumbent Sheriff Floyd Bonner, a Democrat, has no Republican opponent but is opposed by two Independent candidates, Keisha Scott and Donald Taylor, both sheriff’s deputies. Bonner should win big.
Danny and Soheila Kail, husband-wife candidate team (Photo: Jackson Baker)
Circuit Court Clerk: Democrat Jamita Swearengen, who has served recently as City Council chair, is opposed by Republican nominee Soheila Kail, a veteran of county service.
Criminal Court Clerk: Incumbent Democrat Heidi Kuhn has campaigned hard and can boast more than her share of awards during her term of service; she is opposed by Republican Paul Houston, a veteran of service with the Shelby County Correctional Center.
Probate Court Clerk: Democrat Eddie Jones, coming off eight years on the County Commission, during which he served as chair for a year, is opposed by Republican Dewayne Jackson.
County Clerk: Democrat Wanda Halbert handily won her party’s primary in May and can probably turn the trick again, despite a delay in getting out new state automobile plates. She is opposed by Republican Jeff Jacobs and Independent Harold Smith.
Register of Deeds: Democrat Willie Brooks, term-limited on the Shelby County Commission, leaves that body as its chair and is favored over Republican Bryan Edmiston and Independent George “Dempsey” Summers, a frequent candidate.
Tarik Sugarmon handing out lollipops. (Photo: Jackson Baker)
Juvenile Court Judge: Strictly speaking, this position sorts out with the judicial races indicated below. Like them, it carries an eight-year term and is elected on a nonpartisan basis. There are four candidates — William “Ray” Glasgow, Dan Michael, Dee Shawn Peoples, and Tarik B. Sugarmon — but almost all the attention has been focused on Michael and Sugarmon, who dueled for the judgeship eight years ago, with current incumbent Michael coming out ahead.
Two dormant matters have figured in the contest. Sugarmon wants to revive a proposal to create a second juvenile judgeship, while Michael, who opposes the idea, notes that he presides over 12 magistrate referees and says that any such expansion should be multifold. At issue, too, is whether the U.S. Department of Justice should revive a suspended process and return to monitor Juvenile Court for alleged racial inequities. Sugarmon says yes; Michael was one of the county officials who, on a claim of sufficient improvements, successfully petitioned for a halt in the monitoring process.
Judicial Races Inflating the ballot to more than usual proportions in this election is the presence on it of all of the county’s elective judgeships, each of them carrying an eight-year term. The sitting judges and candidates vying for these positions on the bench are enjoined from political rhetoric per se. They may not proclaim their positions on issues likely to come before them, and, aside from affirming their own presumably superior credentials, they are not to attack or otherwise indict their opponents on the ballot.
Given the existence of such strictures and the sheer number of judicial positions to be chosen, it would be folly to expect the majority of lay voters to be properly prepared to make fully informed judgments on those who would judge them. Those members of the electorate best able to do so are members of the legal profession who encounter these candidates on a daily, familiar basis.
Accordingly, here, as a guide to voters at large, are the results of the Memphis Bar Association Judicial Qualification Poll for 2022. Only contested and retention races were polled, and 1,199 active Shelby County attorneys participated in the survey and expressed their preferences. Here they are, with “No Opinion” being an alternative choice in each race.
Demonstrators in front of Mulroy’s and Lee Harris’ headquarters. (Photo: Jackson Baker)
Circuit Court, Division II: Carlos Bibbs, 484; No Opinion, 308; Carol Chumney, 234; Kenneth Margolis, 173.
Circuit Court, Division VI: Stuart Breakstone, 605; Cedric Wooten, 310; No Opinion, 284.
Circuit Court, Division VII: Mary Wagner, 898; No opinion, 172; Paul Robinson Jr., 129.
Circuit Court, Division VIII: Robert Weiss, 779; Damita Dandridge, 190; No Opinion, 171; Larry Parrish, 59.
Chancellor, Part I: Gadson William Perry, 798; No Opinion, 215; Melanie Taylor Jefferson, 186.
Chancellor, Part III: JoeDae “Joe” Jenkins, 867; No Opinion, 259; Richard Parks, 73.
Probate Court Judge, Division II: Karen Webster, 465; No Opinion, 368; Joe Townsend, 366.
Criminal Court Judge, Division I: Paula Skahan, 868; No Opinion, 265, Michael Floyd, 66.
Criminal Court Judge, Division II: No Opinion, 417; Joe Ozment, 284; Jennifer Fitzgerald, 190; Gregory Carman,137; Samuel D. Winnig, 105; Amy G. Mayne, 66.
Criminal Court Judge, Division III: No Opinion, 465; Michael R. McCusker, 461; James Jones, 273.
Criminal Court Judge, Division V: Christopher J. Lareau, 513; No Opinion, 422; Carlyn Addison, 264.
Criminal Court Judge, Division VI: No Opinion, 375; David L. Pool, 366; Reginald Henderson, 270; Ross Sampson, 188.
Criminal Court Judge, Division VII: Lee V. Coffee, 741; No Opinion, 327; Kenya Brooks, 131.
Criminal Court Judge, Division VIII: Chris Craft, 841; No Opinion, 193; Sanjeev Memula, 165.
Criminal Court Judge, Division IX: Mark Ward, 888, No Opinion, 217; A. Melissa Boyd, 94.
General Sessions Civil Court Judge Division 1: Lynn Cobb, 688; No Opinion, 238; Lawrence A. Pivnick, 183; Victoria Gillard, 90.
General Sessions Civil Court Judge, Division 3: Danielle Mitchell Sims, 373; No Opinion, 354; Lincoln Hodges, 232; William “Bill” Larsha Jr., 138; Lisa N. Stanley, 102.
General Sessions Civil Court Judge, Division 4: Deborah Means Henderson, 783; No Opinion, 316; Eran E. Julian, 100.
General Sessions Civil Court Judge, Division 5: Betty Thomas Moore, 736; No Opinion, 300; Varonica R. Cooper, 163.
General Sessions Civil Court Judge, Division 6: Lonnie Thompson, 750; No Opinion, 309; Kim Gilmore Sims, 140.
General Sessions Criminal Court Judge, Division 7: Bill Anderson, 453; No Opinion, 334; Handel R. Durham Jr., 302.
The outcome in a majority of the 13 Shelby County Commission seats was established in the May primaries. The occupants of the remaining five seats remain to be determined in the August 4th election. For all practical purposes, what is at stake is how large the Democratic majority on that body will be when it convenes its new term in September. The two GOP incumbents here are expected to win. A Democratic victory in the three other contested races, considered likely, would result in a 9 to 4 Democratic majority. County Commission Races District 1: Republican incumbent Amber Mills faces Democrat Donna McDonald-Martin.
District 4: Republican incumbent Brandon Morrison vs. Democratic challenger Britney Chauncey.
District 5: Democrat Shante Avant and Republican Todd Payne tangle for an open seat.
District 7: Henri Brooks, Democrat, vs. Shirelle-Dakota Brown, Independent.
District 13: Incumbent Democrat Michael Whaley faces Republican Ed Apple.
Early Voting Hours and Locations Early voting for the August 4th election begins on Friday, July 15th, at the following locations. The Shelby County Election Commission location will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. that day. All others will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. All locations will be open on Saturday, July 16th, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will be closed on Sunday, July 17th. From Monday, July 18th, to Friday, July 23rd, all locations will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., except for the Election Commission, whose hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The same schedule will be kept the week of July 25th through July 29th. On Saturday, July 23rd, all locations will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Saturday, July 30th, the final day of early voting, all locations will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Abundant Grace Fellowship Church, 1574 E. Shelby Dr., Memphis 38116
Anointed Temple of Praise, 3939 Riverdale Rd., Memphis 38115
Arlington Safe Room, 11842 Otto Ln., Arlington 38002
Baker Community Center, 7942 Church Rd., Millington 38053
Berclair Church of Christ, 4536 Summer Ave., Memphis 38122
Briarwood Church, 1900 N. Germantown Pkwy., Memphis 38106
Christian Life Church Memphis, 9375 Davies Plantation Rd., Bartlett 38133
Collierville Church of Christ, 575 Shelton Dr., Collierville 38017
Compassion Church, 3505 S. Houston Levee Rd., Germantown 38139
Dave Wells Community Center, 915 Chelsea Ave., Memphis 38107
Glenview Community Center, 1141 S. Barksdale St., Memphis 38114
Greater Lewis St. Baptist Church, 152 E. Parkway N., Memphis 38104
Greater Middle Baptist Church, 4892 Knight Arnold Rd., Memphis 38118
Harmony Church, 6740 Elmo Rd., Bartlett 38135
Mississippi Blvd. Church – Family Life Center, 70 N. Bellevue Blvd., Memphis 38104
The campaign of Democratic D.A. candidate Steve Mulroy has released a poll showing that their man leads incumbent Republican Amy Weirich by 50 percent of those polled for him, compared to 38 percent for Weirich, with 12 percent undecided.
Blueprint Polling, which conducted the poll from May 26th to May 30th, conducted a random survey of 350 registered voters in Shelby County.
A press release from Blueprint says the firm contacted people on both landlines and via cellphones, and “weighted the sample by age, race, and gender based on previous August general election turnouts.” The margin of error was estimated as plus or minus 5.24 percent.
Noting that a previous poll with 26 percent undecided showed the same 12-point margin for Mulroy, Blueprint says the results suggest “that Steve Mulroy has ample room to grow into his Democratic base, especially with women voters — who are four times more likely to be undecided and are more likely to lean Democratic.
“Republicans are decided: only 4 percent say they are unsure about their vote. Democrats are more likely to be undecided, suggesting more potential to widen the lead. Weirich would have to capture all the undecideds, plus bring back at least some Mulroy supporters, in order to win.”
In an accompanying press release, the Mulroy campaign says it has attracted significant national attention. “A recent Huffington Post article highlighted DA Weirich’s inability to reduce crime in Shelby County. The article referenced Steve Mulroy as being ‘for a shift in Memphis’ criminal justice system and supports reform efforts …’ The article also noted Memphis’ record-breaking homicide years while the majority Black residents have been ‘… hurt by her ruthless approach.’”
The campaign also notes that singer/songwriter John Legend, citing the Mulroy-Weirich contest, has tweeted to some 13.8 million followers that “District Attorney elections are crucial to improving our legal system” and that Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck has also weighed in on the race, saying that “Shelby County deserves a change. …”
Weirich responded to the Mulroy press release with this statement: “It sounds like Professor Mulroy is having trouble raising money and is cooking up bogus poll numbers to try and get donations. When your entire platform is built around freeing criminals from jail, it’s hard to raise money beyond the radical out-of-town Defund the Police activists.”
The practice of deception — perhaps one should say, the “art” of deception — is an ingrained aspect of how politics is practiced in Shelby County. Over the years, and even quite recently, much attention has been lavished in this space on the phenomenon of “bogus ballots” — glossy printed sheets bearing the likenesses and names of various candidates “endorsed” by shell companies purporting to be high-minded civic organizations.
In reality, the “endorsees” on such ballots have paid, sometimes dearly, to have themselves so advertised.
Sometimes the operators of these for-profit shell companies have clothed their enterprises with names suggestive of established political parties — like the “Greater Memphis Democratic Club.”
As a result of legal action brought by the actual Shelby County Democratic Party, special Judge William Acree has put the ballot vendors on injunction to cease and desist such deceptions on pain of criminal prosecution.
It remains to be seen if a similar fate will befall whoever it was that recently texted out several copies of an “endorsement” list of candidates under the auspices of “Republicans of Shelby County.” Recipients of the text will discover, after clicking on a provided link, that they are looking at a polished-appearing document listing preferred candidates for the judicial and governmental positions on the forthcoming August county election ballot. Another link leads to a page on the website of the Tennessee Secretary of State containing instructions on how to find one’s legal polling place.
In something of a disclaimer, the document includes a brief section saying “Who Are We? Republicans of Shelby County is a group of indviduals [sic] that give you the information on candidates that judge / vote conservatively.”
Elsewhere the document features several artistic variations on the elephant iconography of the actual Republican Party, and the link provided in the initial text lists the sponsoring organization’s website as republicanpartyofshelbycounty.com.
Apprised of the document, Cary Vaughn, current chairman of the actual Shelby County Republican Party, pronounced it a “rogue effort” and “bogus.” Vaughn said the party has decided on a list of its actual endorsees, which it intends to distribute widely later this month.
As for the “endorsees” on the “Republicans of Shelby County” list, most of them appear reasonable for a GOP endorsee list. The one exception is in the list of endorsees for countywide office. Everybody on it is the official nominee of the Republican Party, except for assessor candidate Melvin Burgess, who is the Democratic nominee for that position.
Asked about his inclusion on such a list, Burgess said he had no knowledge of the sponsoring organization or the list or how his name got there.
The person most likely to be affected by the list, of course, is Steve Cross, the official Republican nominee for the post and Burgess’ opponent. As Vaughn had previously, Cross described both the “Republicans of Shelby County” and its alleged list of endorsees as “bogus.”
Bogus it undoubtedly is, and the aforesaid art of deception is well evidenced in a note attached to the text copy received by the Flyer. The note read, “Judges recommended include Stewart [sic] Breakstone and Joe Ozment who marched in the pride parade. Wow!” This disingenuous bit — regarding the purported participation in Pride Week activities, along with numerous other public figures, of judicial candidates Stuart Breakstone and Joe Ozment — can be regarded as a misdirection of sorts, intended to obscure the question of legitimacy of the list and the sender.
For the record, the sender of the text is represented solely by a phone number: (901) 860-5640. Good luck trying to get an answer on that line.
Lee and Amber Mills’ residence on Shane Hollow Drive in Arlington (Photo: Jackson Baker)
Back in 2015 Tom Leatherwood, as Shelby County register, signed and thereby authenticated the deed of Lee and Amber Mills for a brand-new house at the Shelby County address of 12903 Shane Hollow Drive in Arlington.
In 2022, Lee Mills, an airline pilot and a former chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, is hoping to unseat Leatherwood in a race for the District 99 state House of Representatives seat.
It would be Mills’ third effort to defeat Leatherwood for the seat, beginning with a decision in 2018 by the county GOP steering committee to designate Leatherwood as the party nominee rather than Mills after the death of the long-term holder of the seat, Ron Lollar. Mills then made an unsuccessful run against the then-incumbent Leatherwood in the 2020 Republican primary.
County line map showing the Mills’ residence in Fayette County (Photo: Courtesy Lee Mills)
But the third time may not, even potentially, be the charm for Mills if a ruling by the state election coordinator, Mark Goins, is sustained in the courts. In a letter to Mills on April 18th, Goins informed Mills that his residence was in Fayette County, not Shelby, and quoted from Article II, Section 9 of the state constitution: “No person shall be a Representative unless he shall be a citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years, and shall have been a citizen of this state for three years, and a resident in the county he represents one year, immediately preceding the election.” (Note: Italics added for emphasis.)
The determination, said Goins, had been made by Doug Himes, an attorney who had worked on the 2020 House redistricting legislation, using census guidelines. And Goins included with the letter a map clearly showing the Mills residence and most of the subdivision that contains it to be in Fayette County.
Lee Mills protests that he and his wife have paid county property taxes on the Shane Hollow dwelling since 2015 and that the premise of a Shelby County address has been accepted as valid in several other civil transactions. He cites Tennessee Code Annotated 5-2-116, a provision of which declares that in “circumstances where a dispute arises concerning the location of a county line for purposes other than property taxation … the state board of equalization shall not have the authority to locate a county line so that property that has been assessed for property taxation purposes in one (1) county for five (5) years or more is located in a different county.”
The Shelby County Election Commission has asked for a declaratory judgment on the matter, which is scheduled for resolution in Chancery Court and has been assigned to Chancellor Jim Kyle. Lee Mills vows that an adverse decision will be appealed.
Meanwhile, a related circumstance is that of Mills’ wife Amber Mills, who has represented District 1 on the Shelby Commission since her election in 2018 and has been certified as a candidate for re-election by the Election Commission. Amber Mills was the only candidate listed on the Republican primary ballot this week.
At this writing, no legal challenge has been made to the validity of Commissioner Mills’ presence on the ballot, and, if she is subsequently certified by the Election Commission as the winner of this week’s primary, that fact will undoubtedly loom large in legal proceedings involving her husband’s case.
County Commission candidate Quran Folsom affixes one of her campaign signs to a gathering row of others outside the Agricenter early-voting location. (Photo: Jackson Baker)
All but one of the key contested races on the May 3rd county primary ballot are in the Democratic primary. The one exception is a grudge match in which four sitting GOP commissioners are backing newcomer Jordan Carpenter in District 4 (Germantown, East Memphis) against Republican Commissioner Brandon Morrison, whose sin was to cooperate too often with the majority Democrats on the commission.
The main race, in one sense, is between incumbent Democratic County Mayor Lee Harris and challenger Ken Moody, a veteran of city service in two city administrations. Harris hasn’t fully turned on the jets yet, but his backing is both more influential and more bountiful financially than that of Moody.
City Councilman Worth Morgan, a Republican, awaits the winner in August.
There is no sheriff’s race to speak of, since incumbent Democrat Floyd Bonner, unopposed in his own primary, has no Republican opponent — a fact attesting either to the Democrats’ demographic edge countywide or to the GOP’s genuine support for Bonner’s law enforcement policies.
Unquestionably the year’s most intensely competitive race, down the line in August and perhaps on May 3rd as well, is that for district attorney general. Three able Democratic lawyers — Steve Mulroy, Janika White, and Linda Harris — are competing in their primary, with Mulroy, something of an icon in civil liberties and voting-rights circles and the owner of impressive endorsements, presumably in the lead for the right to challenge incumbent Amy Weirich in August. The August race may involve more campaign spending — arguably up to or more than a million dollars — than any other local race.
A tight race is brewing in the Democratic primary for juvenile court clerk, with County Commissioner and community organizer Reginald Milton leading in endorsements and cash receipts in a field including local TV veteran Janeen Fullilove-Gordon, former school board member Stephanie Gatewood, and Marcus Mitchell, a major with the Memphis Police Department. Republican Rob White awaits in August.
Once upon a time, Cordova was a white-flight preserve. It is now fully diversified ethnically, with demographics that lean Democratic, and is to be represented on the County Commission by the newly shaped District 5. Three Democrats are vying in the primary.
If experience and sheer know-how count for anything, Quran Folsom should do quite well on election day. As chief administrator for the past several years, she is aware of all commission programs and protocols. And she’s raised a fair amount of money. The question is, does she have enough of a known public persona and political network to get her vote out?
The network question applies also to Reginald French, who has a lengthy pedigree of involvements with local government, most of it in the past and much of it with the late Herenton city administration, where French, a key figure, knew the ropes and incurred some rope burns, as well.
Shante Avant, from her recent school board work, is known to a constituency; the problem is that her constituency belongs to a South Memphis district, not the Cordova area which she now seeks to represent.
After a recent forum, all three candidates did well enough, addressing mainly residential matters and questions of public safety, to draw plaudits from the event emcee, local Democrat Jeff Etheridge, who expressed the wish that other ballot spots were filled by as many qualified candidates as there were.
The winner will face Republican Todd Payne in August.
Do as I say/Do as I do/do-si-do! Commission candidate Erika Sugarmon (second from left) takes her supporters through some line dancing in preparation for the May 3rd primary. (Photo: Jackson Baker)
• More Commission Races: Well-known Frayser-Raleigh activist Charlie Caswell seems to have an edge over prominent young Democrat Alexander Boulton in the Democratic primary race for commission District 6.
There are five Democratic candidates competing in District 7, including activist Kathy Temple, who has support from progressives; former Commissioner Henri Brooks, who is attempting a comeback; and Althea Greene, who has name recognition as a school board member. Also running are Cartavius Black and Orrden Williams.
Incumbent Edmund Ford Jr. is in good shape to hold off opponents Sam Echols and Sean Harris in District 9.
An interesting three-way in the Democratic primary in District 10 has Kathy Kirk Johnson of the public defender’s office and a well-known local political family competing with mega-activist Britney Thornton, who heads a nonprofit group in Orange Mound, and Teri Dockery, an activist in the Cherokee neighborhood.
Another three-way in District 11 features activist Candice Jones, the early leader by virtue of diligent campaigning; school board member Miska Clay Bibbs; and the Rev. Eric Winston, a repeat candidate for the commission who has support from educators.
In District 12, a battle royal of sorts is on between retired educator James Bacchus; the Rev. Reginald Boyce, senior pastor at Riverside Missionary Baptist Church; educator and voting-rights activist Erika Sugarmon; and David Walker.
Democratic incumbent Mickell Lowery is unopposed in the District 8 primary, as is Michael Whaley in District 13. The Democrats have one challenger each — Donna McDonald-Martin in District 1 and Britney Chauncey in District 4 — both heavily Republican outer-county suburban districts whereto Republican candidates should win handily in August.
• Other Contested Democratic Primary Races: Assessor Melvin Burgess is comfortably ahead of challenger Roderic Blount.
Incumbent Criminal Court Clerk Heidi Kuhn is running hard against a repeat opponent, Carla Stotts, and Maerne Bernard.
Circuit Court Clerk Temiika Gipson has a tough race with City Council Chair Jamita Swearengen, who has abundant name recognition and support.
Gipson’s daughter, first-timer Arriell Gipson, is hoping to get traction from an aggressive social media campaign against the heavily favored incumbent County Clerk Wanda Halbert, with William Stovall and Mondell Williams also running.
Incumbent Probate Court Clerk Bill Morrison is dealing with two sturdy challengers, outgoing County Commissioner Eddie Jones and William Chism of a well-known local family.
Incumbent Register of Deeds Shelandra Ford has a serious challenge from current County Commission Chair Willie Brooks and a late-breaking one from Wanda Logan Faulkner, who alleges “deed fraud” as an issue without much elaboration.
Sunny Eaton, the director of Nashville’s CRU (Courtesy: MICAH)
On March 10th, the Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH) hosted a virtual town hall meeting to discuss the need for a conviction review unit (CRU) in Shelby County. A CRU “is charged with identifying and investigating past convictions for credible claims of actual innocence” according to the Nashville District Attorney’s Office, which currently houses the only CRU in Tennessee.
The event featured keynote speakers Sunny Eaton, the director of Nashville’s CRU, and William Arnold Jr., a Black man wrongfully convicted in 2013 who now uses his platform to advocate for criminal justice reform. Arnold spent nearly seven years incarcerated before the Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction in 2020. The Nashville District Attorney’s office subsequently informed the judge presiding over Arnold’s case that it would be dismissed.
Janiece Lee, Vice President at MICAH, discussed how the implementation of a CRU in Shelby County would assist in holding the justice system accountable in terms of both previous rulings and future cases.
“In almost every field, there’s some kind of checks and balances,” Lee said. “Not only does [a CRU] help to ensure justice by looking backwards, but, by determining the things that happened to result in a wrongful conviction, [a CRU] can help prosecutors correct themselves in the future.”
William Arnold Jr. was a keynote speaker at the event. (Courtesy: MICAH)
Lee spoke on the role of the prosecutor as a professional who advocates for truth.
“I think we often forget that the prosecutor’s job is to seek justice and to seek truth,” Lee said. “A guilty verdict or a guilty plea does not mean we are done. If justice and truth means overturning a wrongful conviction or dismissing charges, then that is the responsibility of the prosecutor’s office.”
Lee mentioned that Shelby County incarcerates at a higher rate than any other county in Tennessee; she argues that this fact renders a Shelby County CRU a necessary resource.
“We incarcerate at a higher rate than any other county,” Lee said. “We should be a county that believes this is necessary. When your [District Attorney’s] office touches so many cases, mistakes are going to happen.”
MICAH has additional committees devoted to social justice. Ernie Hillard, Chair of the Race & Class Equity in the Justice System Task Force at MICAH, works, in part, to improve the lives of recently incarcerated citizens and was involved with the organization of the event.
“With the help of our legislators we have been able to put forward some legislation to pursue expungement of felony records,” Hillard said. “The current system often keeps them from getting employment; we would like to make [expungement] automatic when they complete their sentencing.”
During the town hall, Eaton emphasized that conviction review units are not important but critical to the ethical functioning of the judicial system, as they serve as essential mechanisms for self-accountability. Furthermore, Eaton noted that CRUs should be stationed with a District Attorney’s office for the facilitation of internal review.
Arnold, who was wrongfully incarcerated for nearly seven years of his life, described the CRU as a way to balance out the judicial system and to prevent the unlawful incarceration of both people of color and people of lower economic status.
After both keynote speakers presented, a Q&A followed in which Eaton and Arnold fielded questions posed by attendees. The event concluded with a call to action, which outlined how citizens can work toward making the vision of a Shelby County CRU a reality.
Among the avenues suggested was raising awareness by discussing the need for a CRU within their respective circles and communities. More importantly, citizens are encouraged to vote and support local politicians who are in favor of establishing a Shelby County CRU. Current Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich has expressed opposition to the creation of a CRU within her office.
Lee described the ultimate goal of any CRU as one aimed to restore the dignity of wrongfully convicted persons.
“We cannot make it right in a wrongful conviction,” Lee said. “But we can do everything we can to give [a wrongfully incarcerated person] their name back, their dignity back, their reputation back. And we cannot delay it.”
Brent Taylor exiting the SCEC (Credit: Jackson Baker)
One looks for potential shifts in political direction. One case where that is sure to happen is with state Senate District 31, whose seat-holder up to now has been Brian Kelsey, the erstwhile “Stunt Baby of Germantown,” who evolved from a prankster as minority member of the last Democratic-dominated House to a saboteur of the state constitution as a GOP senator in a supermajority Republican General Assembly, sponsoring an endless series of hyper-partisan constitutional amendments.
Though an engaging sort personally, Kelsey has been a take-no-prisoners type as a legislator, and his easy way with the machinations of the GOP’s extremist fringe was no doubt useful to him in a cutting-edge career that now, alas, has left him bleeding on the battlefield — indicted for campaign-finance violations and compelled to drop out of his re-election race while he prepares a legal defense.
Kelsey’s would-be successors in the Republican primary are wholly different types — all Republican regulars but all more at home in a bipartisan environment. That is certainly the case with Brent Taylor, who recently resigned as chairman of the Shelby County Election Commission and seeks state service as a way of crowning a career that has included significant stints on the Memphis City Council and Shelby County Commission.
Taylor, who once had an uncanny resemblance to the TV character Pee-wee Herman, has matured into a statesmanlike presence who had stabilizing roles as an elective politician and on the Election Commission. So far, Taylor, who recently sold off an extensive funeral-home business, is the only Republican who has actually filed for the Senate position. And he is said to have the support of U.S. senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.
Paul Boyd, who served two terms as Probate Court clerk after winning election to that office in the Republican sweep year of 2010, has toiled dependably in the GOP’s ranks for decades and, as an African American, brings a bit of outreach to a party that, to mince no words, needs it.
Naser Fazlullah, an engaging and near-omnipresent figure among local Republicans, is a native of Bangladesh who has been in charge of the party’s outreach efforts overall. Well-liked and uncontroversial, he is likely to end up instead on the ballot for GOP state committeeman.
And there is Brandon Toney, a political newcomer without much of an established pedigree in GOP ranks.
Four years ago, Democrat Gabby Salinas came close to ousting Kelsey in a much-watched race. During her successful run for the Shelby County Democratic chairmanship last year, Salinas more or less committed to not being a candidate for elective office this year. But Ruby Powell-Dennis, who was a strong runner-up to Salinas in the 2020 Democratic primary for the House District 97 seat, has basically been running hard for the District 31 Senate seat for some time and must be reckoned with in a district with purplish tendencies.
Blue Oval City, the planned automotive assembly plant operated by Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation, supercharged local imaginations. Jobs, business, and money — sure — but this project could allow West Tennessee to be a rugged, “built-Ford-tough” cowboy from the past and Captain Planet for the future at the same time.
The project proves Ford Motor Co. is dead serious about that marriage of ideas. The 1,500-acre campus will cost $5.6 billion to build, the biggest manufacturing investment in the company’s history. The planned megacampus in Haywood County is the first Ford will build “in more than a generation.”
This bold pivot to electric vehicles was a hard-to-miss shift in the wind. It’s a massive bet that customers still want the mythical, American self-reliance projected by its iconic F-150 truck — but they also want it without the gas-guzzling, planet-choking, tailpipe fog of most cars made in the last 100 years.
The moment was bold enough that Ford CEO Bill Ford told reporters, “We’re on the cusp of a revolution,” one that would help “build a better future for America.” It doesn’t stop at trucks.
“The all-new megacampus just outside of Memphis, called Blue Oval City, aspires to have 100 percent renewable energy, zero waste to landfill, and reusing every drop of water, to ensure our planet is in it for the long haul,” Ford Motor Co. tweeted at the time.
But if nothing changes, and without help from other programs, the all-electric F-150 Lightnings that roll off the line here first will be ready for antique Tennessee license plates by the time that plant is powered entirely by renewable energy. Blue Oval City sits squarely in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) service area, and that power provider says it won’t be carbon-neutral until 2050, about 25 years after the Ford plant is expected to open.
If TVA’s power mix remains the same, that cutting-edge factory — and those Earth-saving trucks — will be charged with a mix heavy with nuclear power, coal, and natural gas. Only 14 percent of TVA’s power-generation portfolio is renewable, including hydroelectric (11 percent), wind and solar (3 percent), and some energy-efficiency programs (1 percent). But TVA says their Green Invest turnkey solar program “can help businesses like Ford achieve their sustainability goals using 100 percent renewable energy.” TVA says it leads its Southeastern peers with a generation portfolio that is already 63 percent carbon-free.
Throughout the Tennessee River Valley, major corporations, big Tennessee companies, cities, counties, and more have publicly stated environmental goals. They all want to reduce waste and reduce their carbon footprints, meaning they want less reliance on fossil fuels and more on renewables, like wind and solar.
TVA knows this, according to internal documents, and considers it a threat to its bottom line, one it means to fix. If this sounds off, U.S. House members thought so, too, enough to launch an investigation into TVA’s business practices on renewables.
Joined at the Hip on Climate Change Memphis and Shelby County’s climate goals around renewable energy will depend much on TVA, and some say that could be problematic.
Greenhouse gas emissions from energy accounted for nearly half (46 percent) of all of the Memphis area’s total emissions, according to the latest environmental inventory taken back in 2016 for the Memphis Area Climate Action Plan adopted in 2019. Energy emissions include those in buildings: houses, apartments, stores, salons, banks, museums, restaurants, warehouses, factories, and more. The rest were emissions from two other major categories: transportation (52 percent) and waste (like landfills and wastewater treatment) at 12 percent.
The climate plan — approved by the Memphis City Council, the Shelby County Commission, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris — commits these governments to developing renewable energy generation at key facilities (like solar panels on government buildings) and/or buying renewables through energy certificates, green tariff products, and participating in community shared solar projects.
But those are details. The plan and, therefore, everyone who approved it, agreed on one thing: “grid decarbonization — or increasing the carbon-free energy sources in our electric supply — has the greatest impact on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in our community.” They all agreed, too, that there was little they could do about it.
“As noted in the discussion of community-wide education targets, a large portion of these 2020 reductions are expected as a result of actions outside local control,” reads the plan, “for example, TVA’s planned increase in carbon-free energy sources in their energy portfolio.”
To see just how closely the city’s goals are dependent on TVA, consider their timelines to carbon-free energy. The Memphis Area Climate Action Plan calls for the electric grid to be 80 percent carbon-free by 2035. So do TVA’s plans. (Even though President Joe Biden’s climate goals want totally carbon-free energy by 2035.) Memphis-area leaders want a completely carbon-free electric grid by 2050. So does TVA.
A mix of solar and wind projects helped the TVA to reduce carbon emissions by 63 percent from 2005 to 2020. But solar leads the way in the Southeast, and TVA says it’ll be mainly solar projects that will aid it in its future reductions.
But environmental watchdog groups claim TVA has thrown up roadblocks to solar projects, especially for homeowners and business owners, to protect its finances. The reasons are complicated, but one thing is clear to Maggie Shober, research director with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE).
“TVA is behind,” Shober said on solar energy. “TVA is behind the Southeast, and the Southeast is behind the rest of the country.”
However, TVA says it is now building the “energy system of the future,” which aspires to net-zero emissions by 2050 and to add 10,000 megawatts of solar.
Where Do We Stand? When it comes to solar, Tennessee (with about 390 megawatts of solar capacity) ranks third to last in the Southeast, ahead of only Mississippi (362 megawatts) and Alabama (319 megawatts). Florida leads the region with 7,765 megawatts of solar capacity, followed by North Carolina (7,460 megawatts) and Georgia (3,444 megawatts). All of this is according to late-2021 figures from the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Among power providers in the Southeast with more than 500,000 customers, TVA ranks 10th of 13 on solar watts per customer, according to SACE’s annual “Solar in the Southeast” report. The Southeast average of watts per customer is 423 watts. TVA provides 105 solar watts per customer, according to the report. The highest is North Carolina’s Duke Energy with 1,952 solar watts per customer. The lowest is Tampa, Florida’s Seminole Electric Co-Op, providing only 45 solar watts per customer.
Among TVA’s biggest Tennessee customers, Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) ranks second for solar watts per customer. MLGW offers 66 solar watts per customer, only slightly behind Nashville Electric Service, offering 67 solar watts per customer. These figures fall below the Southeast average of 423 solar watts per customer and the TVA average of 90 watts per customer hour.
So, Tennessee ranks near the bottom on solar. TVA ranks near the bottom on solar. And MLGW ranks below TVA’s average for access to solar power.
“TVA will be quadrupling solar capacity by 2024, yet continues to trail the other large utility systems in the Southeast,” reads the SACE report. “By 2024, SACE projects TVA to reach the 2020 region average.”
Winds Don’t Blow In 2010, Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners answered a call from the U.S. Department of Energy for a new project to modernize the country’s electric transmission structure, increase domestic energy sources, support new jobs, and do it all without taxpayer money. Clean Line proposed a $2.5 billion, 700-mile-long transmission line from Oklahoma to end at a connector near Millington.
If the deal was done, 3,500 megawatts of clean wind power from Oklahoma and Texas would have pumped through Memphis and into the TVA service area and beyond starting in 2020. But it wasn’t. So, it’s not. And TVA was the deal-breaker.
The connector project alone was valued at $259 million. It had broad support here from government, civic, and business groups. It was even supported by the Memphis and Shelby County Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) with $23.3 million in tax breaks, which the group said would yield $37.1 million in benefits back to the community.
Then-Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Maryville) opposed the project, claiming the power was unreliable and that, over decades, it would increase TVA rates. Then-Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland (R-Millington) fired back at Alexander, a fellow Republican, claiming the project would be a financial boon for the area and that Alexander “put his own agenda ahead of what’s best for West Tennessee.”
For TVA, though, the clean-energy deal got down to economics. After nearly seven years of study — with the company spending money to move the project forward — TVA said it didn’t really need any extra power, no matter the source.
Bill Johnson, TVA president at the time, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2017, “We’re looking at a power demand in the future that is flat, or declining slightly, so we don’t anticipate needing major additions to power generation for a decade or more.”
While TVA said the move did not make financial sense at the time, it welcomed Clean Line to come back with a new proposal. They did not. The company withdrew its proposal at the end of 2017 and sold the land for the project to NextEra Energy, the world’s largest utility company, to divert more wind power to the Southwest.
Environmentalists blasted TVA’s “thanks, but no thanks” on the wind-energy project. Others, like Alexander, celebrated it as a solid example of financial stewardship. Either way, it remains TVA’s highest-profile example of saying “thanks, but no thanks” to renewables, especially ones it does not own.
A Rate-Making Rubik’s Cube While the Clean Line dismissal was a high-dollar, high-profile deal conducted largely in public, some say TVA is still blocking renewables, especially solar, in a smaller, more complicated way. But it’s a way that directly affects and involves its customers.
In 2018, TVA approved a “grid access fee.” With it, TVA charges MLGW the fee to use its electricity grid and 7,000 miles of transmission lines. If demand for TVA’s power will stay the same or go down in the future, as former TVA CEO Johnson said in 2017, then that means fewer dollars for TVA as expenses rise. Fixed fees, like the grid access charge, ensure a steadier stream of dollars, instead of the up-and-down whims of market demand.
The Sierra Club explained grid access fees this way: “TVA’s board of directors today approved a mandatory fixed fee that will force customers to pay more on their electric bill before they even flip a switch.”
MLGW spokeswoman Stacey Greenberg said the utility, TVA’s largest customer, paid $59.1 million in grid access fees in the 2021 fiscal year. When asked if those fees were passed on to MLGW customers, Greenberg said, “As stated in the response to the first question, the change was a revenue neutral change at the system level and MLGW did not change the fixed or variable portions of any retail rates.” After press time, Greenberg clarified that the fees are passed on to MLGW customers. She said the average residential customer pays about $6.24 each year for the grid access fee.
So, what does this have to do with solar? These fees will remain the same no matter how much solar you sell back to the grid. Solar advocates say these fees undercut savings on electric bills and, therefore, cut the amount of clean, renewable solar power that businesses and homeowners will install on their buildings.
But in 2018, TVA said solar projects for specific sites were not fair and that its current energy prices “over-incentivize consumer installation of [distributed energy sources like solar] leading to uneconomic results for the people of the Valley as a whole.”
“Over the next decade, forecasted load is expected to be flat or declining, resulting in little need for new energy sources,” according to a 2018 TVA report. “At the same time, consumer interest in renewable energy continues to rise. The imbalance created by uneconomic [on-site solar projects] investment means that costs are shifted to consumers throughout the Valley who cannot afford [on-site solar projects] or otherwise choose not to invest in [on-site solar projects].”
But it came to light that dissing these solar projects was about more than economic justice for TVA. A Freedom of Information Act request by SACE found an internal TVA PowerPoint presentation. It claimed that distributed energy resources (like solar panels on homes or businesses) present “a threat to our business model.”
“Essentially all ‘normal’ large commercial customers would benefit economically from some amount of on-site solar installations,” reads the PowerPoint published by SACE.
The presentation then listed several major corporations with renewable energy goals, companies like McDonald’s, Walmart, Amazon, Cargill, FedEx, Google, Unilever, Hilton, and more. TVA identified its customers with renewable goals. If they met their goals on renewables, the utility projected losses of up to $500 million. If they passed the grid access fees, “the number of economic [solar] installations decrease by [about] 40 percent.”
It wasn’t until January 2022 that all of it caught the attention of members of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Four ranking Democrats on the committee issued a letter to TVA president and CEO Jeff Lyash that month. They sought an explanation of TVA’s rate changes and whether they “were intended to interfere with the deployment of distributed energy resources.” The group also wanted “an explanation for TVA’s comparative underinvestment in solar and wind generation.”
“TVA has also interfered with the adoption of renewable energy by its commercial and residential customers,” reads the letter. “TVA has also permitted local power companies to impose new fees on distributed solar generation in order to lessen the potential decrease in TVA load that may occur through the adoption of [behind the meter] generation.”
In a February 22nd letter to the House committee, TVA said, “The 2018 rate change that included the grid access charge (GAC) better reflects the wholesale cost of energy and recognizes the value of the grid’s reliability and associated costs. The primary objectives of the 2018 rate change were to continue to improve the alignment of wholesale rates with their underlying costs to serve and to facilitate measured, managed changes in LPCs’ [local power company’s] retail rate structures.”
TVA says it will achieve its clean-energy goals, especially the 10,000 megawatts of added solar, in a way that will not “put the financial burden on other consumers while maintaining our 100 percent reliable delivery of electricity to Memphis and Shelby County.”
“Reliable electricity is extremely important, not only for homes and businesses in our region but also for attracting jobs and industry,” TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said in a statement last week. “While other regions like Texas had blackouts and failing power grids in the last two February storms, TVA’s delivery of power to Memphis remained intact. And we’re doing all this while holding wholesale power rates steady for a third year in a row, with a commitment in our strategic plan to maintain rates for the next decade.”
Power and Water Another way TVA could block renewables, according to an ongoing lawsuit, is through the length of TVA’s new contracts. These 20-year contracts replace previous seven-year contracts, enough for plaintiffs in the suit to call them “never-ending.” The plaintiffs — Protect Our Aquifer (POA), Alabama Center for Sustainable Energy, and Appalachian Voices — say these long-term contracts lock customers in and lock out other providers who may be less reliant on fossil fuels than TVA.
“There are growing calls in the Tennessee Valley for cheaper, cleaner, and renewable power options — but the Tennessee Valley Authority is able to ignore these demands through the use of its long-term agreement program,” said Southern Environmental Law Center Tennessee Office director Amanda Garcia. “These contracts automatically renew each year and require 20-years notice to terminate, making it practically impossible for local power companies to leave TVA. By locking its customers into these never-ending contracts, TVA is able to bankroll new fossil fuel plants and slow-walk its transition to clean energy solutions — like solar and wind power, energy efficiency, and battery storage technology — that are effective, affordable, and available right now.”
As for the public’s interest, POA executive director Sarah Houston said TVA’s new natural-gas-power Allen Combined Cycle Plant is a threat to the sustainability of the Memphis area’s drinking water. That plant used 653 million gallons of water in 2020, according to a report in The Commercial Appeal, to cool its turbines.
That water comes from the Memphis Sand Aquifer, albeit delivered from the Davis and Allen well fields a few miles from the gas plant. While the pumping is not directly next to the toxic coal ash pits, Scott Banbury, conservation program coordinator and lobbyist with the Tennessee Sierra Club, said drawing water there could still bring toxic elements into the aquifer. In general, though, Houston said, “with renewables, you have a lot less local water use and water impact compared to frack-gas plants and coal plants.”
In August 2021, United States District Judge Thomas Parker dismissed TVA’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
“The LTP was developed in collaboration with local power companies, and 146 of them have voluntarily signed the contract implementing it,” TVA said in a statement. “TVA disagrees with the allegations and will appropriately reply through the court.”
Big Decision All of this comes in the backdrop of MLGW’s historic decision on whether or not to break with TVA and find another power provider. In its search, MLGW makes it clear it wants more solar power, too.
MLGW’s request for proposals says it’s looking for someone to install 1,000 megawatts of solar power, divided equally between two facilities in North Memphis and South Memphis.
As MLGW’s search goes on, the path to more renewable energy for Memphians is still unclear, but with a commitment to more solar power, the sun may still shine on a more renewable, less fossil-fuel-dependent future.
