Say it ain’t so, Joe.
Reports from inside the Shelby County Administration Building are that Interim Mayor Joe Ford is pulling the plug on the functional consolidation of Memphis and Shelby County Fire Departments.
To compound that mistake, it’s also said that Mayor Ford is throwing a monkey wrench in the two-years of work to functionally consolidate city and county law enforcement.
In the mayor-of-the-month club that characterized Shelby County Government for the last half of 2009 (with more mayors in four months than in the previous 34 years), Mayor Ford emerged as interim mayor with exactly nine months to serve.
An Interim Motto
We think that the motto for interim mayors – whether in City Hall or the County Building – should be primum non nocere.
First, do no harm.
All in all, we think Interim Memphis Mayor Myron Lowery adhered to this principle admirably. From the beginning, he set a careful agenda, he set out to return respect to the city mayor’s office and he pledged to set a strong foundation for the new mayor’s administration, whether he would be at the helm of it or not.
At this point, Mayor Ford seemed to embody the antithesis of this approach. He’s got a scatter-shot set of priorities, a covey of task forces tripping over each other and confusing messages about what’s important to him.
Here’s the thing: Mayor Ford is a good guy. He is polite, thoughtful, appreciative and wants to do well. We say “amen” to his emphasis on saving The Med from bankruptcy or cutting back services.
Defining Success
If he could do that alone in the next nine months, we’d judge him as a total success. If he could do that and reduce the budget, we’d hoist him on our shoulders and parade him through downtown.
But so far, the interim mayor seems unfocused, which is an occupational hazard for someone in the mayor’s office where so much is coming at him and so much needs to be done. Regardless of that, it would be helpful if he could clarify his objectives and set narrow goals that can be reasonable accomplished in nine months.
It would also be helpful if he wouldn’t undo things that have been in the works for years, including the long overdue functional consolidation of some city-county services that need to be more efficient, more economical and most of all, seamless.
At this point, we’re told that he hasn’t fully explained a clear reason why he’s inclined to discard two years of law enforcement discussions and the latest negotiations about fire protection that began slightly more than three years ago.
Agreements
Under the law enforcement proposal by Shelby County Commissioner Mike Carpenter that jump started the discussion about law enforcement, a five-member Public Safety Commission would guide a functional consolidation of the two entities. The plan, which would ultimately require a change in the county charter, would give leaders a chance to reverse or opt out of consolidation agreements if things weren’t going well. It is much more delicate to complete than the fire departments’ merging, and in the end, it’s essential that well-respected Sheriff Mark Luttrell is supportive of the final course of action.
Meanwhile, the interlocal agreement for the fire departments was finalized, and Mayor A C Wharton – as county mayor – signed it, but as usual, then-Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton did the opposite of what he had said he would do. He refused to sign it.
We suspect that Mayor Wharton expected to consummate the agreement once he switched sides of Civic Center Plaza, and most county observers thought that Mayor Ford had given indications that he would move ahead with it as well.
At this point, both initiatives are at a standstill (although of course a new county mayor September 1 could resuscitate them), spawning all kinds of political theories for the Courthouse crowd to ponder.
Theories
There are two dominant ones. There’s the one that Mayor Ford is honing his “county” credentials as a Bartlett resident who is appealing to the town mayors’ concerns about all things consolidated. This theory is fueled by his scheduling of visits to several coffee klatches in the towns in the coming days.
But one aide to a town mayor put it succinctly: “If Ford found the cure for cancer, the (town) mayors wouldn’t stand with him at a press conference.” In other words, the notion that he seriously thinks he can find support in the county’s small cities will be short-lived.
The second theory – less plausible to us – is that he thinks that Memphians are getting the worst end of the deal when it comes to these two agreements. That’s pretty hard to argue since the Memphis mayor himself has no similar reservations.
Regardless of the theory or the theorists, one thing everybody thinks is that Mayor Ford will declare as a Democratic candidate for county mayor. He’ll have to decide soon, because the qualifying deadline for the primary for county mayor is only a few weeks away – February 18.
That remains to be seen, but it’s hard to see why a nine-month mayor would need 15 task forces to examine issues unless he’s hoping to stay longer than originally intended.
Time for Better Government
It would seem that the tough budgetary straits in both city and county governments would have them looking aggressively for ways to eliminate duplication and increase efficiency (understanding that only “real” merger does it best). After all, functional consolidation merges staff, but never eliminates the conflicting visions, directions and policies that plague government because these joint agencies still answer to both city and county administrations.
In evaluating Louisville’s successful city-county merger in 2000, the Brookings Institution praised the merger for accomplishing four things:
1) Accountability – the ultimate responsibility is clear to taxpayers
2) Efficiencies produced by economies of scale – functions by each government could be provided at less cost through shared equipment, personnel, and purchasing
3) Eliminated duplicative services
4) Economic development – a single focus is an incentive for economic growth
Starting Over
We hope Mayor Ford changes his mind about the law enforcement and fire department talks. However, even if he does, it’s worth remembering that functional consolidation is a step in the right direction, but it’s only a step.
The real destination is the merger of city-county governments and creation of a totally new government.
It’s hard to argue with Mayor Wharton when he says that part of our problem here is that “we have two governments doing the job of one.” Hopefully, with some courage and a renewed sense that we’re all in this together, we’ll have a chance to usher in this new era later this year.
Smart City,
You are correct. Mayor Ford has ATTEMPTED to stop fire merger, but I will be briging a final draft to the Commission and Council soon. I have led the negotiations for the last 90 days as a part of the Wharton transition. The agreement is solid, defensible and I believe will prevail with or without the help of Mayor Ford.
Mike Carpenter
County Commissioner
Commissioner Carpenter:
That’s good news about fire protection. And thanks for so often being the catalyst to look in new ways at these kinds of issues.
Waaal then, just click your white sock wearing heels togetha 3 times and make it happen!
when you gon’ let the great unwashed masses know xactly how much we be saving by doing this? How many fire stations we gon’ close? how many chiefs we gon’ retire?
How bout the salary and personnel issues between the two systems? MFD personnel make more don’ they?
If the SCFD is completely enterprise funded by fire fees collected from the coverage area-will those fees go up, down or away in your feel good shotgun marriage?
Interested Observer,
Sarcasm is easy when you don’t put your name on your post. To your questions, all that info will be forthcoming. NO increase in fire fees is required. Merger will save some long term but quality, effective service delivery and improved 911 dispatch are the primary rationale for merger.
Commissioner:
Thanks for making that point. People are quick to want to know how much will be saved (and there are savings to be had in all of these mergers), but chief among the benefits is the value of seamless services.
The county fire department is a long way from the days when it jokingly said its motto was “same day service,” but a merger with Memphis could standardize professionalism and give them more opportunities for advancement.
Funny, if cities like Nashville, Louisville, Indianapolis, Denver, Jacksonville can figure out to merge services, surely we can. Too often, we give ourselves excuses for why we can’t do something and throw up questions that do nothing so much as block progress.
TJ, just a minor point… county primary election is on 4 May 2010 and the county general election is on 5 August 2010. The 18 February date is the qualifying deadline for county elections. voteshelby.org You might have caused Mr Ford a heart attack in moving the date.
Thanks, Tom. My mind said qualifying deadline. My fingers said primary.
Underlying this post is, of course, SCM’s desire for the governments of Memphis and Shelby County to merge. SCM continues to cite “Nashville, Louisville, Indianapolis, Denver, and Jacksonville” as examples of successfully consolidated governments. Yet, seeing that SCM is such a proponent of “creative class” theories (those made prominent by Prof. Florida), SCM should acknowledge at least once in a while that three out of the five cited cities rank at or near the bottom of Prof. Florida’s “creativity index”.
The cities at the top are Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Raleigh-Durham, Portland, and Minneapolis. Only one of those has a consolidated city-county government.
SCM advocates emulating those cities (see previous blog site for post after post doing so), yet never mentions that those cities function successfully without consolidated government. Whether by consequence or coincidence, the cities deemed attractive to the creative class are–overwhelmingly–independent.
Racist.
Anonymous:
Well, first of all, San Francisco and Boston ARE consolidated.
Portland has a regional overlay government that brings regional solutions to its area through a specially elected structure, Minneapolis has a tax sharing agreement with surrounding counties and cities, Austin and Raleigh are the definition of a city with the core assets for success – a state capital and a major research university.
More to the point, 100 cities are now exploring the merger of city-county governments as the archaic nature of a structure set up when ox teams roamed the mud roads in England is just out of touch for a technological age that demands more efficiencies and productivity.
If you’ve read this blog at all, you know that we were a late adherent to consolidation, but it became clear to us that the trajectory of this city is headed in the wrong direction, and we have to do something to shake up our community. We know of nothing else whose ramifications can be as profound.
Finally, you’ve misread us if you think we’ve been talking on this blog about the creative class or about Richard Florida’s theories. We base our opinions on our own research on talent in our Young and Restless reports, and we never refer to them as the creative class.
And, hate to bring you down, but we’ll continue to write about merging city and county government a lot this year.
Doing nothing and expecting different results is the definition, oh, well, you know.
Creole:
If you care to expand on that epithet, we’d be glad to listen. It’s easy to toss around incendiary words to keep from having an honest discussion. But we’d like to know what you found racist.
Quite defensive. My goodness.
We didn’t feel defensive at all. Nothing to defend from, but we wanted to be clear about our position since you were seeming to want to know.
And SCM — Whether you use the phrase “creative class” or not and whether you cite Prof. Florida or not, the impetus for your advocacy is clear. I don’t recall reading this blog or anything like it in Memphis prior to the publication of Prof. Flordia’s book.
You have nothing to be defensive about. Openness, honesty, and discussion are good things. Heck, disagreement is even a good thing sometimes. Don’t be so quick with the sarcasm and implications.
He didn’t want to know anything. He just wanted to bitch. He needs to get out of the way and let the rest of us do something. And it was easier to say something smart than to say that he was mistaken about his facts.
Who was mistaken about facts? Me?
I wrote that of the top cities in the Creativity Index, only one has a consolidated government — that being San Francisco. And I am correct about that. SCM cites Boston, but that’s not accurate; county government in general has been abolished in Massachusetts, and county functions are run by state government. SCM then listed how other cities are involved in city-county or regional governance. That’s fine, but it’s not consolidated government. Heck, Memphis is involved in some joint city-county ventures (most notably, planning) and regional bodies (Delta Regional Authority comes to mind).
As far as “doing something”, go ahead and do it. My position is this: Consolidated government will not move Memphis ahead. Lack of consolidated government is not the reason Memphis is behind; Memphis’ failure to elect decent public servants is. Consolidate all you want, but the underlying problems remain. Consolidation will not fix schools or roads or unemployment. Take a look at one of the cities SCM cited earlier — Louisville. In Louisville, the school system is in shambles, and potholes are being repaired by Kentucky Fried Chicken in exchange for “branding” rights.
Maybe consolidation is a good thing. Maybe. But the advocates of consolidation really need to come up with a better selling point.
Anonymous 3:05 and 3:20, assuming you are the same person:
We started writing this blog in 2005. Rise of the Creative Class was printed in 2002. Richard was one of the first guests on our radio program and we worked with him on the Memphis Manifesto Summit. But our approaches diverged, and we concentrated on college-educated 25-34 year-olds because of their seminal influence on city success and we applied it in seven major cities.
Someone else mentioned mistakes with facts, so we’ll not respond to that. We don’t want to get in the weeds, but Boston was consolidated in 1821 before changes by the state legislature, we believe.
The other cities have used other strategies to accomplish similar goals to consolidation, and some of the ones you mentioned are now among the 100 cities looking at the potential of merging city-county government. Memphis has nothing like the regional planning governance and shared funding like Portland or the tax sharing in Minneapolis. If we did, maybe we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all.
To your point, a main reason we favor consolidation is that it will open up the process to new people. That has been the case in every city that has done it – new faces enter the process and with smaller districts, more people can afford campaigns again.
Business people say that the image of Memphis and the duplicate governmental structures discourage jobs growth and create bureaucratic, two-headed processes that result in companies looking elsewhere for expansion opportunities. We take them at their word.
Perhaps, consolidation could fix the roads by making sure we no longer subsidize sprawl or build highways without any cohensive plan for development. And every dollar wasted on duplication is a dollar that can’t be spent in the classroom or on roads, so it’s just hard to see an upside in keeping a structure that is so much at the heart of our problems here. We just think that it’s time to do something different, dramatically different.
Good discussion. Thanks.
Another merger thread? OK. Out of what pool of money will this contract for the Memphis Fire Department be paid? Unincorporated fire fees I hope. Otherwise, it’s gonna be a lawsuit.
As far as the benifits of a merger (and the whole concept of urban planning), I still think you are fighting the last war from the last century. In the future people will respread out to pre industrial revolution norms. I can design a part in my study and it pops out of a machine in Louisiana. I can do that here or in a cabin in the sierras.
The Future of Ideas: the Fate of the Commons in a Connected World by Lawrence Lessing
Very depressing and an end result of stifling innovation and can be easily extrapolated to concepts of government.
An Army of Davids by Glenn Reynolds
Very inspiring and good example of the future where smaller is better and with new tech (not old tech) will get even better and better. This future can put the Memphis area (due to natural assets) on the forefront of the greatest change in the way people interact with the world since the industrial revolution. This revolution will happen either here or somewhere else. What would wreck this for the Memphis area is – central planning and a one size fits all government. And no a healthy central city will not be necessary.
As always, enjoy your blog.
“If Ford found the cure for cancer, the (town) mayors wouldn’t stand with him at a press conference.”
Similarly, if consolidating Memphis and Shelby County would cure cancer, the voters in the municipalities outside of Memphis wouldn’t vote for it.
Deconsolidation would be an improvement and would stand a much better chance of gaining voter approval.
“And every dollar wasted on duplication is a dollar that can’t be spent in the classroom. . . .”
Really? Are you suggesting that increased classroom spending will “fix” the Memphis City Schools? We just haven;t thrown enough money at it?
otherwise, I am missing your point.
anti socialist
Everyone knows that consolidation will never happen. The municipalities don’t support it. The state doesn’t support it. I also suspect that the residents of memphis don’t want it.
Memphis would be better served improving Memphis. That is hard work. It’s easier to look at the people and say see the pretty sparkly light known as consolidation. Pay no attention to our failures, all your problems will be solved by consolidation. You are getting sleepy very very sleepy. Bang tax increase! Sleepy very very sleepy C O N S O L I D A T I O N.
hector-
It’s amusing to see all the energy devoted towards gaining support for consolidation. It makes me think of the “do no harm” mantra that SCM mentioned in this post. I suppose it’s a good thing if they’re spinning their wheels about something that has no prayer of being accomplished.
antisocialist: You only know what you know. Stay tuned.
Hectorspector: There is no tax increase as a result of merging governments. Don’t believe the propaganda, which you seem to be hearing and taking in. State law deals with that, and that’s not what’s happened in other cities that have merged. Also, keep in mind that a large part of the area outside Memphis is in the unincorporated area, and I’d sure vote for consolidation before I was annexed. And if nothing is done, Memphis will simply continue to annex until the little towns will be little islands surrounding by the city they are so scared of.
PS: Guys, we’re in favor of the concept. We don’t know if we’ll be for the proposed charter or against it once it comes out. There’s nothing to take a position on now, although you wouldn’t know listening to some folks who peddle fear and division.
And if you are so sure it can’t pass, what are you so worried about? Let the discussion continue, let’s see what the proposed charter says, and then all of us will decide then if vote for or against it.
antisocialist: And the do no harm mantra certain fits merging the governments. And there’s laws allowing for a new government be created. All the research we’ve seen (think David Rusk in particular) tell us that deconsolidation would balkanize even more an already divided community. Of course if it were legal in the first place.
Hectorrejector: “As far as the benifits of a merger (and the whole concept of urban planning), I still think you are fighting the last war from the last century. In the future people will respread out to pre industrial revolution norms. I can design a part in my study and it pops out of a machine in Louisiana. I can do that here or in a cabin in the sierras.”
I don’t care where you live, but I don’t want to subsidize your lifestyle. And in case you haven’t read about it, population is concentrating around cities and metro areas, not to any norm from early last century. Your whole assumption is wrong, but if you want to get to Louisiana, we’ll chip in.
And what the hell are you talking about the state won’t support it. The state doesn’t have a thing to do with it.
memphis urban planning?
where? who?
when did that start?
gee whiz, can I go to a charette meeting and draw a lite rail line to somewhere?
how ’bout more planter boxes? yeah! that’ll slow foreclosures!
and no more nasty whitebread subdivisions allowed anywhere!
all new housing should be built on Buehler lots in North Memphis!
let’s see, anything else?
anybody??