Just when it’s hard to imagine the Shelby County Democratic Party being more out-of-touch, it manages to do something else to top itself.
It’s hard not to conclude that the Republican sweep of Shelby County elected offices in the recent election is a reflection of the general disarray and ineffectiveness of our local Democratic Party. Without being too unkind, if it spent as much time working on how to win elections as it does working on internecine personality conflicts and fights over turf, it just might be the dominant political force that it should be in a county that is majority Democratic.
Instead, in the wake of the election day debacle, it shifted its focus at the recent steering committee meeting from what it did wrong to what else it can do wrong. At the meeting, the steering committee took the time to vote to oppose the proposal for a new government for Memphis and Shelby County, and to make matters worse, they based their decision on talking points rather than the impulse for better government.
Their conversation was brief, because like the man yelling into the cave, they tend to hear their own voices and think everyone agrees with them. Even veteran Memphis Flyer political reporter Jackson Baker was lulled to sleep, writing that “even the most naïve advocates of city/county consolidation are aware that sentiment for changeover in the part of Shelby County outside Memphis is minimal to non-existent. What is not so well known is that the outlook for a favorable vote in Memphis itself is is also dimming.” That this observation included not an iota of data or polling was striking.
Time Warp
On its best day, there is little argument that it is hard to win a campaign for a new government, because of the fear of change and fear by some people about losing a power base. That said, Memphians proved as recently as last year that they are not adverse to changing its charter in substantive ways and roughly 20 years ago, county voters changed county government to a new home rule government. And some of us are old enough to remember when county government was completely restructured in 1976 and city government in 1968.
More to the point, that we’re still not living in 1985 seems to escape pundits and politicos alike. Today, there are roughly 75,000 Democrats living outside Memphis, with many of them living in the path of Memphis annexation, which will inevitably take place unless we change the form of our government. The number of people living in the unincorporated area of the county essentially balances out the population inside the smaller towns where the mayors work daily to gin up emotions and fear. It also seems lost on many observers and politicians that Shelby County became a majority African-American county in the past few years. It’s a common error for people to listen to the most vociferous voices and assume that everyone outside Memphis is adamantly opposed to change and that support in Memphis is withering.
It also was not what was shown on polling done by a couple of candidates for county offices. As one said: “Memphians are significantly for changing government. They know it’s not working. Outside Memphis, there is a hard percentage against it and a hard percentage for it and they are the ones whose voices are the loudest. The two extremes drown out everyone else, but the overwhelming majority of people want to know more and are serious about considering the options.”
The news media report frequently – as if it’s somehow relevant – that consolidation was voted down the last time it was put up for a vote. That was almost 40 years ago, or as a young professional we know said: “They say it like it was yesterday. I wasn’t even alive the last time this was put on a ballot.”
It’s easy to get an impression to the contrary if you listen only to the town mayors and other opposition that the sky is falling and everyone they know agrees with them. Of course, these mayors and the knee-jerk opponents (many of whom still proudly point out that they haven’t read the new charter) are stuck in their default position, and the chances of the Charter Commission ever producing a document they would approve was as likely as Sarah Palin praising Barack Obama.
The Derby Mentality
And lost in the horse race mentality of the media and the personality politics of the politicos is the fact that the Charter Commission exceeded all expectations in producing a new charter that is clear and accessible, that has safeguards and ethics rules found in no existing charter here and that it produced a document that includes many things that the opponents said would never get done.
The Charter Commission set up safeguards to prevent costs from rising by passing a three-year tax freeze that would prevent the increases seen in other communities during the transition period (it was a strong message against business as usual, considering that the tax blip in other communities inevitably settled at a spot much lower than our tax rate). In addition, taxes cannot be raised more than 5% without approval of three-fourths of the new Council’s members.
There is countywide law enforcement so the only person stopping at the city limits is no longer the police as criminals go wherever they like, and prospects of a countywide Real Time Crime Center would be a real boon to crime-fighting in Shelby County. There will be a centralized 9-1-1 Center for Memphis and Shelby County, and we can only hope that the smaller towns will see the risks to life that are inherent in the present system and join in.
The Commission set up the strongest ethics laws in Tennessee and wrote them into the charter. They aren’t even in the present Memphis and Shelby County charters, and as a result, they can be changed by the legislative bodies to which they are applicable. The Commission set up neighborhood-centered legislative districts where a new Council member speaks for a contiguous area with lower numbers of constituents than now, people with similar needs and concerns. Best of all, in other cities, the change in districts and governance produced excitement that brought new faces into the process.
Better Government
The Commission set up a strong economic development structure to eliminate the hurdles that prevent businesses from investing here and jobs from growing here. The Commission set up a process to eliminate tens of millions of dollars in duplication and waste, notably in the hundreds of duplicated management jobs. The Commission set up a centralized planning and neighborhood development function so that the new government is prepared to receive the larger amounts of federal and state formula-based funding to fight poverty and fund social and human services (the amount of formula-based funding will be based on 900,000 rather than 600,000 people).
The Commission set up a system that prevents someone appointed to fill an unexpired term by a legislative body from running for that office, making sure there is a level playing field for people running for mayor and Council. The Commission requires the mayor to prepare a five-year strategic plan so citizens know what the vision is for their government and for the mayor to make an annual report to the people.
The Commission’s new charter will prevent the millions of dollars that have been wasted while one agency of government sues another agency. There will be a General Counsel whose rulings would be binding on all agencies and officials of the new government. The Commission sets up an inspector general who will identify ways to cut costs and to eliminate fraud.
The new charter calls for the setting up of a performance-based personnel system that protects current pensions (as required by law). The Commission requires a public vote for any sale of MLG&W.
More Safeguards
Only the elected boards of the city and county systems can merge the schools, since they were elected by the public to manage the districts. More to the point, we’re stumped as to why some Memphis opponents of a new form of government are insistent that schools should be consolidated. After all, it’s Memphis City Schools that is ground zero for school reform in our part of the country and there is more than $100 million in grant and federal funds to power it along. We’re baffled as to why the city district should share this largesse with the county district, bu more to the point, we reject the unspoken stereotyping that lies behind the idea that the only way for a majority African-American school district to succeed is to combine with a majority Caucasian district (although contrary to conventional wisdom in Memphis, the county system is about 35% minority).
There’s more but you get the point. None of these details were discussed at the Democratic Party steering committee meeting. Instead, its conversation could only be described as obtuse, as they complained that the new government allows the other cities’ governments to remain intact.
It’s not that the new government allows the other governments to stay intact. It’s that every government – including Memphis – has the right of self-determination, meaning each government has the option to join in the process to create a new government. Memphis and Shelby County voted to be part of the process. The other towns declined, which was their right.
Old School Politics
It seems simple to us, but apparently, it’s more than some people can wrap their brain around. Here’s the best example we can come up with: We’d like landscaping in front of our office and so would our neighbor two doors down. We decide we’re going to do it and we tell the company located between us that it has to do it too. They say no, because we can’t make decisions for other independent operations who don’t want the landscaping.
Some of the Democratic Party’s most visible leaders can’t seem to understand this simple principle or they would rather whip up the same old “we versus they” rhetoric that brought them to defeat in the last election. The truth is that Memphis and Shelby County can no more order Bartlett what to do than it can order Dyersburg. More to the point, it’s the two billion-dollar behemoths – Memphis and Shelby County – that have the overlapping functions and duplicated operations where the savings are found, so this is all just so much old school politics from the Democratic Party.
It’s worth noting that at the time that the resolution creating the Charter Commission moved through city and county governments, both mayors and both chairs of the governments’ legislative bodies were African-American and Democrats. All of them recognized the obvious: the business model for both governments is broken and political power means nothing if it’s power over bankrupt, dysfunctional and inefficient governments.
Deck Hands on the Titanic
Here’s the seminal questions: What’s the Democratic Party’s ideas? If it doesn’t like this new charter and its potential to shake up things and change our community’s catastrophic current trajectory, what’s its idea for stopping the loss of three young professional a day and the loss of five middle class families a day, a trend that has continued for 10 years?
What’s its idea for stopping the average of $510,000 in income that moves out of Shelby County every day –and has done so for a decade? What’s its idea for stopping the average of 10 jobs a day that we lose – and have been losing for a decade?
Nibbling around the edges isn’t good enough. It is indeed the political equivalent of moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic. Unfortunately, our Democratic Party has a lot of people willing to do it.
and the problem with county taxpayers outside the sinking hulk not want to pay for the deck chairs to be reshuffled is
what, exactly?
“…interparty personality conflicts and fights over turf…”
Don’t you mean “intraparty”?
Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
I think the problem with those outside the sinking hulk not wanting to be more involved is the apparent notion that they somehow have less at stake. It would be like treading in the icy water around the Titanic and mocking those who are still on its decks as they argue over the arrangement of the lounges. Do those opposed to consolidation believe any effort- separate or consolidated- is futile?
I think the real question is do those for consolidation really believe that without it we are doomed.
I like many folks I know, want to know what Smart City Memphis, Smart City Consulting and/or you personally are being paid to spin the consolidation.
I understand you are a true believer and are passionate about Memphis but I think in the interest of transparency and fairness — sorely lacking in this campaign — you should disclose any monetary benefit you are receiving.
I’m kinda having a hardtime seeing the indignation here. Of course the Shelby County Democratic party would be opposed to THIS particular proposal of Consolidation.
Let’s throw out all the “reasonable” reasons to oppose consolidation and let’s be cynical for a moment.
The Proposed Metro government calls for non-partisan elections of officials. as such it’s not old time politics to be opposed to something that threatens your own survival but i dunno..kinda common logic.
Afterall “this current county election aside” numerically Dems inevitably will gain even more seats and offices as the population continues to shift. In fact were not the Republicans earlier this year, publicly stating that they regretted their choice to push for partisan elections in the first place and entertaining the idea of non partisan elections.
So taking that into account The Dems would kinda be stupid not to oppose consolidation as it is currently being presented. As they would be left working in the legislative races which are so gerrymandered that no Democrat nor Republican in the Legislature is ever in any real danger of losing.
Now I personally have some serious problems and mostly a lack of faith in the Metro Charter process as it was set up. So it’s no skin off of my nose, but to attack the SCDP in this way, when there are more legitimate avenues of criticism seems like a kinda misleading argument.
Political parties never support their own dismantling when they have the numbers….would you give up a good hand for nothing?
Also..with respect. I must take issue with your statement
“It’s worth noting that at the time that the resolution creating the Charter Commission moved through city and county governments, both mayors and both chairs of the governments’ legislative bodies were African-American and Democrats. All of them recognized the obvious: the business model for both governments is broken and political power means nothing if it’s power over bankrupt, dysfunctional and inefficient governments.”
In fact when the process was begun those who were opposed were chided as being unreasonable, because this was just a vote to have..”A CONVERSATION…to EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITIES” so to now turn around and use the creation of the process as proof of it’s support is kinda begging the question.
Also pointing out the race of the Mayors and Chairs of the council and Commission at the START of the process..again hailed as merely a CONVERSATION as proof that the end product is of benefit to Blacks or/and Democrats is also respectfully a tad disingenuous.
If you really wanted a mandate for change, we should have had an elected Charter Commission, the appointed process all virtually appointed by one person created a process that lacks legitimacy.
The problem is for Pro-consolidation forces is that you are forced into trying to turn two conversations into one. There is the first conversation which is..”DO WE WANT CONSOLIDATION?” and the second which is “IF WE DO,WHAT KIND OF NEW GOVERNMENT DO WE WANT?”
You can’t have an open an honest process about the second question if you steamroll debate about the first.
Sadly consolidation will fail, but not because of it’s detractors but because of a process that only wanted to include input on a back end. People see threw it, even those who would normally be supportive. Which is sad as there are alot of sincere supporters of the idea who are working very hard.
Interested observer: The people outside Memphis will inevitably pay if nothing changes. With people, jobs and income leaving, taxes can do nothing but continue to climb, and if they believe they can escape the consequences, they are delusional as well as self-destructive.
Brad: As we’ve pointed out before, there is no dismantling of the Democratic Party. The county is majority African-American and at the rate of growth, that percentage should be about 60% in a decade. It’s hardly the trend line for extinction.
And we’ve seen how well partisan elections worked for the party recently.
And just for the record, the creation of the Charter Commission and appointment of its members were overwhelming, overwhelmingly supported by the members of both legislative bodies. Mayor Wharton began his listening tour and said that as a result of what he heard, there was strong sentiment for looking at a better way to govern. Certain the vote of City Council and Board of Commissioners ratified that conclusion.
All the members of the Charter Commission were appointed by Mayor Wharton but they weren’t all chosen by him. In the interest of fairness, when he became city mayor, he chose from the names given to him by the City Council.
All of us who have labored with local government already have the answer to your first question. We cannot continue on the path we are treading. If you project the trend lines of the past 15 years into the future 15 years, we will be in a hole that we can never dig out of.
And we don’t know how the debate was steamrolled since it continued for more than a year to give everyone a chance to be heard and to speak and communicate with the Commission.
As for the input, you probably only thought it was on the backend because the news media only woke up a couple of months ago. There was input for four months on the front end, there were more than 50 public meetings, there were a number of public hearings, and there have been email and phone numbers for charter commissioners for nine months.
If you have any question that hasn’t been answered, it’s certainly not because you have contacted Commission Chair Julie Ellis. She’s answered every email from us within minute and each time thoroughly and completely and some of our suggestions were incorporated into the final document.
Tom,
To equate the continued existence of Democratic voters with the continued existence of a Democratic organization is misleading. The Shelby COUNTY Democratic Party is …besides in fighting primarily concerned with the election of Democratic candidates on a County level. Without County elections then the SCDP serves no purpose and is no longer anykind of consideration in the election of candidates. Now if you had a brand with a spot on the ballot…one would be a fool to give that up…and for what? In fact tactically it would be surrendering the advantage to Republicans and to Democrats in name only. Who would be able to hide behind the ” i’m non partisan label” just as Mayor Herenton did in his endorsements of Lamar Alexander. My point is that these types of situations are from a partisan point of view quite resonable. Afterall you don’t see the Tennessee Republican Party running around calling for statewide non partisan state level elections…of course not, they would be insane to do so.
The overwhelming support among the Council and Commission for the Consolidation process WAS not overwhelming support for Consolidation. I was there when the votes were cast and supporters fell over themselves over and over again in downplaying the vote as simply..”We are just opening the doors to a CONVERSATION…that’s all”.
You say that…
“All the members of the Charter Commission were appointed by Mayor Wharton but they weren’t all chosen by him. In the interest of fairness, when he became city mayor, he chose from the names given to him by the City Council.”
Yes..like I said one person CHOOSE all of them. It was a long list but the City Mayor and County mayor in the process were the same man.
You also said that….
“All of us who have labored with local government already have the answer to your first question. We cannot continue on the path we are treading. If you project the trend lines of the past 15 years into the future 15 years, we will be in a hole that we can never dig out of.”
I’m sorry but “those who have labored with local government” are not the ones who get to answer the question..the voters do..and they will because of this kind of presuption.
An elected Charter commission would have settled this as the election of a strong pro-consolidation commission would have indicated a pro-consolidation electorate, and an anti consolidation board would have disbanded and we would be done with this by now. Either way a process that would have some legitamacy in the community. I’m sorry but this will fail, and name calling and insults to the opposition do not help the pro-consolidation cause.
Last thing…
A few points…
-“There is countywide law enforcement so the only person stopping at the city limits is no longer the police as criminals go wherever they like…”
With respect…This is kinda an exaduration isn’t it Tom?
-“The Commission’s new charter will prevent the millions of dollars that have been wasted while one agency of government sues another agency.”
This matter was already settled by County voters in 2008 charter amendments.Claiming it as something new is misleading
-” The Commission requires a public vote for any sale of MLG&W.”
This matter was also already settled by Memphis voters in the 2008 Charter Amendment process….claiming it as something new is misleading
-“The Commission requires the mayor to prepare a five-year strategic plan so citizens know what the vision is for their government and for the mayor to make an annual report to the people.”
In fairness….what does this even mean besides being a feel good piece. combined with the State of the City address?
I give you the last word…I’m not here to “bust your balls” but things like this makes people have reservations about motives.
SCM: Brief clarification re my colleague Jackson Baker. Jack and Bill Dries are probably the best street reporters in Memphis. They are out there every day, talking to people who are also “out there.” All of is in the news biz sometimes make broad statements without evidence to support them, but Jackson’s judgment is informed. And there is not much polling data that I know of to cite re consolidation. How such a poll would be done on such a complex issue I don’t know.
John Branston
Doomed might be a bit strong of a word but I, as a supporter of consolidation, believe that we have passed a point both socially and economically where small, well planned course corrections can alter our community’s trajectory to the degree that we can begin to compete with what were once peer communities. This appears to be the best option for the type of major change that has the potential to make up for at least some lost momentum.
SCM, you have to realize that the “official” Democratic Party are composed primarily of political lightweights and have little power as shown by the election results on August 5.
They may oppose consolidation but it will have very little impact at the polls.
Brad: Sounds like we’re destined to disagree on this. The big question is what do we do to turn this place around. Take the trend lines from the past 15 years and project them 15 years in the future, and we will be Cleveland or Flint. Fighting for crumbs off the table is the same old behavior that got us into this mess. We need to fundamentally change the future and reposition our city and a new government does that.
If our party can’t win elections without partisan primaries, it doesn’t deserve to be called a party. As long as we cannot get our act together, we ask for debacles like the recent one.
Mayor Wharton did appoint everyone as mayor, but he did not select everyone. The Council selected everyone on the city side. And the majority of the Council and Commissioners at the time supported consolidation, despite what they said publicly.
We think you’re getting caught up in semantic games. The people who have labored with government (and suffered from it) are the voters. We have a geography of poverty that has deepened over the past 15 years, we have an obsession with low-wage, low-skill jobs that enrich the usual suspects, and we have subsdized the abandonment of the city thrown sprawl. No one pays more dearly for the poor choices, disincentive, etc., than those of us who labor with government to make it better, particularly those like you who speak for those that have no voice.
With all due respect, you are wrong about many of your points. Agencies are still suing agencies every day. Remember Shelby County Juvenile Court and Shelby County Board of Commissioners. City of Memphis sues Shelby County. We are spending millions on these lawsuits, and every dollar that is wasted on lawsuits and duplication is a dollar that can’t be spent on the problems of our people.
We just have a fundamentally different perspective of what’s wrong with this city and how dramatically is the need for change. We have no margin for error, and so much today is headed in an erroneous direction. City and county governments are broken, and no one pays for that but us. And no one can change things but us.
As I say, we have to agree to disagree on this.
John Branston:
We said nothing to suggest that Jackson isn’t out on the street doing his jo and doing it well. As for Bill Dries, we’ve bragged about him several time on this blog and consider him required reading for anybody that really wants to know what’s going on in Memphis. We’re only suggesting that listening to politicos and thinking that they represent the pulse of the community on this issue is risky. And surely, Jackson saw polling conducted by candidates during the recent election on this issue. What we saw showed that the majority of people have not made up their mind and they want more information – and that goes even for people in the municipalities. And, just for the record, we’ve never seen you make a broad statement that you couldn’t back up, and the same goes for Jackson. We just think that wasn’t the case with this one.
Tom, it’s quite true that the votes are not in until the votes are in, but my observation (which includes, besides “street” stuff, a knowledge of what other observers — like colleague John Branston — have concluded) tells me that the way is steep out there in the county for Metro advocates.
Sharon Goldsworthy has launched a major blitz against the Charter, and she’s supported, it would seem, by all her fellow suburban mayors. Given that all the winners in the recent county election (when asked, and most were asked, repeatedly) took an anti-consolidation position, it’s hard to see where political support for the proposition is going to come from in outer Shelby.
As for the street out thataway (which is often a road, boulevard, or drive), the unsolicited default position you get is overwhelmingly anti. I’m aware that polling has been done suggesting that the proposition is favored by a 70-30 margin in the city, the SCDP’s steering committee vote notwithstanding. But the leakers of that information have been strangely silent about the equivalent figures in the county. I can guess why.
It is what it is, Tom. I’m open-minded. As the messenger, I can’t fully say what it’s in the package until it’s opened, but I can surely tell if it’s bigger — or smaller — than a breadbox.
JB,
From the feedback and feel you’ve gotten on the issue in the ‘burbs, do you think the opinion is based on a well informed public or is it a blind backlash to anything that includes the word “consolidation”?
The reason I ask is the “pro-consolidation” group could actually mount a campaign based on blind apprehension, but an informed opinion would represent a lost cause.
Reading SCM’s post, I found myself sympathizing with criticisms of the SCDP’s performance of late. I frankly (and unpopularly with Democrats) believe the Republican win was a direct result of a lack of air conditioned vans and 105 HI temperatures. The shit has hit the SCDP fan and they oughta clean it up even as they battle the diabolical Diebold beast.
I kept sympathizing with SCM’s rightful disdain for the SCDP’s BS reason for opposing the Charter as there are a dozen or more serious reasons to do so.
SCM lost me when they got to pimpin’ the Charter as the panacea for this problem. Quite the contrary, the districting and “non-partisan” proposals put the power in the hands of money, if not a Party, and push the People to the side despite the demographics.
Brad Watkins, you said just about everything I had to say at that point and I very much appreciate your taking time doing it. I love you.
John and Jackson, I blame you in NO WAY for any lack of coverage there was early on. I believe that was the intention of the public relations/social engineering approach taken by the pushers from the get go. If this Charter were to legitimately belong to the people of Shelby County, the process should have been town hall and court recorded from the start and, speaking of starts, the Charter Commission should have been elected.
I think a question that should be asked is even with a fully engaged public, could we really expect enough people to come to the table with an open mind to resolve the issues inherent in our current form of government.
That is a good question, Urbanut. That’s why I’d want them elected.
Jackson:
Here’s what made us sit up and take notice over our way. You said “even the most naïve advocates of city/county consolidation are aware that sentiment for changeover in the part of Shelby County outside Memphis is minimal to non-existent. What is not so well known is that the outlook for a favorable vote in Memphis itself is is also dimming.” We commented because you made such a positive statement that support is nonexistent outside Memphis, and that is is dimming inside Memphis (although the poll you cite said 70-30 for).
No one that supports a better government around here would argue that the climb isn’t steep (especially with “county” voters essentially having veto power over what the majority probably wants), particularly with the experienced demagoguery perfected by Mayor Goldsworthy. We were just surprised that you were so dire without any hard data.
Again, we live in a different time. There are as many people outside of the towns living in unincorporated Shelby County as in the towns, so we don’t think the mayors are the divining rod on this issue. The choice for a very large number of people outside Memphis is whether they would rather vote for a consolidated government or get annexed. It will be interesting to see what they choose.
We’ve seen polling by candidates for countywide races that show that the majority of people outside Memphis want to know more and that a significant number are weighing this carefully. In fact, we quoted one of those polls in this post.
Thanks for commenting and for decades of laboring in the vineyard to keep us up-to-date on the political carnival that is Memphis.
Scott:
I don’t see how the new charter puts the government in anybody’s hands but the people. In Louisville, 85% of the Council were newcomers to politics, and they were attracted to more affordable races, the excitement of getting involved with a new government, and an opportunity to effect change.
And to repeat, there were about 40 public meetings on the charter, and I even thought I saw you at one. This paranoia about who’s in power doesn’t mean a damn to the average citizen of Memphis who’s been helped by neither party.
I’m a lifelong Democrat, but I’m hard-pressed to point to the vast improvements that have resulted from Democratic majorities here. It’s time for a little anarchy and it should start inside the Democratic Party.
As for pimping the charter, it’s hard for us to look clear-eyed at statistics in other cities when we are working there and making conclusions on their future and then come back home and lie about our own. The trend lines here – if we have 15 more years like the last – put us as the Southern Cleveland (if we’re lucky, it could be worse).
To see people struggling over who’s in charge while the boat is sinking isn’t comical any more. It’s disastrous, and our kids will tell us as they move away.
PS: We were just saying to each other that we love this discussion. Thanks, everyone.
Yes, Tom, I have been at a few meetings as was minimum due diligence on my part (and all I could make due to the not so friendly to working folk times they were held at).
By your own figures Louisville has a councilperson for each 21,432 residents, and Nashville has one for each 14,548 residents. THAT sounds like it would encourage more first-timers and neighborhood activists to run. Our proposed charter does not.
I’m not talking about the appointed Charter Commission meeting, I’m talking about PUBLIC meeting–the now old fashioned kind where folks are actually solicited for input and that input is recorded in public documents. The closest we came to that was the last little run of meetings where folks were told what had already been decided and made to wait until the power point show was over before being heard about any concerns with the already done deal.
Again, I agree that there needs to be a major revamping of the Democratic Party and I’m always for a little anarchy.
I fully understand the need for consolidation and support it. However, this proposal is wrong on many fronts and I’d rather get busy working on a proper document from scratch than be stuck with a failing one for 12 or more years.
Sorry about the bad syntax, I’m trying to get last minute approvals for a water slide at the Rock n Romp at the Shell tomorrow and a bit scattered.
Scott: We weren’t slamming you. You’re always one of the dependable ones that get to the meetings and make a difference.
Our proposed charter reduced the numbers in each district enough that it will open some doors, and we’re hoping over time, we move more toward the Louisville model.
I understand about the public meetings. I think the best input is as the document is being written, and as we said, every email we sent to Julie Ellis came back quickly and many of our suggestions were included. I think sometimes, at least in this case, it’s simpler than people thought to have impact.
The older I get, the more I am convinced that we were right in the Sixties. We should have blown it all up and started over. I guess that’s my modest reason for favoring consolidation. We’ve got to do something.
As for syntax – if you don’t correct ours, we won’t correct yours. 🙂
Scott:
Come to think of it, we’ve wanted someone to write about the Rock and Romp for us. Are you up for it?
Scott-
While I too would have much preferred a charter that focused on neighborhood representation and did far more to ensure that the new government would not be the default employment safe haven, I am also of the opinion that we are simply running out of time to make the major changes that are necessary. That always comes across as overdramatic and nowhere less than when I type it. However, seeing as the region was largely bypassed by the last “wave of prosperity” and Memphis watched as its peer regions blossomed I feel- and I know feelings are the exact wrong thing to call on during this process- that this city and region cannot afford to pass up the next wave of growth. In that case I would rather adopt a charter that at least recognizes the issue. Do something while we can and while it will have an impact. I’m not sure if the public is able or willing to go through the process again from scratch and I’m not sure there will be time. As in time before the pace of economic development begins to pick back up and businesses are once again beginning to be created and expand or time before too much of the local talent and monetary pool has evaporated. The recession has been the perfect opportunity, perhaps one of the only benefits of the recession. The pace of the race has slowed, but this city and region have been even slower to straighten house while the opportunity is available.
I know there are many that role their eyes when the comparison between Memphis and some rust-belt city is made, but we need to realize that those cities also came to a point where there really was no turning back and the resources and talent that could have affected the change were in numbers that were too small accomplish the task.
Thanks for the offer, Tom, but I really think Stacey Greenberg would be the best person to write for Rock n Romp–it is her baby.
Tom, for the record, the 70-30 poll was something I heard about after comenting on the Democratic vote. It would seem to mitigate my sense of “dimming” support for the Charter inside the city.
But you can see for yourself in some of the comments from others here that there is a city constituency — an informed one, even — that is disaffected. Perhaps increasingly so.
And, btw, what ARe you poll results for the outer county?
Rebuild Government may be a great group of people with positive motives and goals, but it also seems to be a very well-financed astroturfing campaign. In my opinion, the approach being taken by Rebuild Government and Smart City has raised more questions than it answers.
Since we’re purportedly talking about consolidating government in the name of fiscal efficiency, I think we should be seeing a lot of hard numbers and clear facts. Instead we’re being bombarded by emotional hyperbole — won’t somebody think of the children? — and aggressive soundbites.
Rebuild Government’s mantra seems to be: “Doing nothing is not an option.” The problem is, doing nothing is always an option, even if it’s the worst option. Don’t put a gun to my head and expect me to lockstep. This approach assumes people are too dumb to understand a logical argument for consolidation.
Smart City suggests above that the best way to improve our dysfunctional system is to blow it up and start over. Sure! That’s a great idea! Anarchy is fun! You could raise a small army of tea-partiers to help you with that.
But I think most people actually prefer a stable and predictable system of government. You can call this “fear of change” or whatever but it’s still a valid point of view. If you want to convince people that a new system will be better, you have to answer the big questions.
For example, I’m currently represented by five elected officials: four City Councilors and one County Commissioner. Under the proposed new charter that number is reduced to four. How exactly does this translate into a “greater neighborhood voice” for me?
The few hard numbers offered on Rebuild Government’s website suggest that merging the HR, IT, and legal departments of Memphis and Shelby County would save a lot of money — up to $38 million, if we assume that the combined needs of Memphis-Shelby are roughly equal to the needs of Nashville-Davidson.
Metro Nashville-Davidson has a population of 626,000 and covers 526 square miles, while Shelby County (including Memphis) has 900,000+ people and covers 784 square miles. Is it reasonable to draw direct comparisons here? Wouldn’t our needs be substantially larger than those of Metro Nashville?
Meanwhile, any change to our public school systems is verboten despite the elephantine drain on our fiscal resources when compared to our HR, IT, and legal budgets. Our schools have a combined yearly budget of more than $1.2 billion. How much money could we hypothetically save by merging those systems? Why are we not allowed to talk about this?
If the proposed charter will indeed create a shiny new metro government that gives equal representation to everyone in Shelby County, why can’t we trust that government with our schools? Smart City clumsily deflects the school question by implying those who ask it must be racist.
There’s another big question that nobody seems to be talking about: How many government workers are likely to lose their jobs if we consolidate Memphis and Shelby County under the currently proposed charter? Rebuild Government says that merging duplicative systems will save money by reducing the number of people needed to run the new system.
Rebuild Government also says that our community must become “the FedEx of governments” and promotes “right sizing” as a magic bullet. I want to see a breakdown of the projected savings for Shelby County taxpayers vs. the projected loss of jobs/income for government-employed Shelby County taxpayers (and resulting loss of tax revenue). Where are these numbers?
For all we know, consolidation could result in a larger government workforce. Metro Nashville-Davidson has 20,000 government employees. The City of Memphis employs about 7,000 people and Shelby County employs about 6,000 people. Our combined system would have to add 7,000 new workers in order to match Nashville’s current system.
So why is cutting government jobs being touted as the best way to improve our community’s quality of life? Maybe we should add more jobs and bring our city services into line with cities like Nashville. Government workers are taxpayers too.
Finally, someone asked this already but I don’t see an answer — is Smart City being paid to promote this issue? It’s fine if you are, but that should be disclosed.
Naomi:
We’ve been blogging about consolidation for five and a half years, and we’d welcome a check after all that time. The first blog post that we wrote on it was in 2005, so we’d like to think we were ahead of the wave and helped to put it back on the agenda here. We’ve said often in the past that we can argue either side of this issue, but we finally came down on the side of needing dramatic change because there are no indicators that show that our city is going in the right direction. In our work, we do a lot of measurements and comparisons between cities, and Memphis is consistently in the bottom rungs of cities and we are moving down.
We have to do something dramatic to reposition Memphis, to jump start its economy, and to get a government that works. Ours are neither streamlined nor are they addressing the problems that matter most to our future – poverty, workforce development, etc. When you compare where we are and our trend lines to other cities, we are headed to becoming Cleveland or worse, Flint.
Government is not a jobs program. It is about delivering the best services at the wisest cost to people who need them, particularly safety net services. We have added layers of management and bureaucracy that do nothing so much as take money away from direct services. And if we do nothing, there’s a vicious cycle of lost talent, middle-income families, and workers that only drive up taxes more without any commensurate improvement in services.
We agree with you about a stable and predictable form of government, but if you think we have one now, we certain have to agree to disagree. We have about as much in common with tea partiers as you do with Sarah Palin, so we resent that suggestion. They want to destroy government as we know it. We want to create the government we deserve but even more, we want to create the government that gets real about our problems and is more equipped to solve them.
As for schools, how does combining our school district with Shelby County help our district? More to the point, we elected school board members and the school district did not ask to be included as did city and county governments.
As for Nashville, when we do the comparisons here at least, we take into account that we are 50% larger and even then, it’s more high-performing. The great debate today in the South is whether Nashville or Charlotte is the South’s second great city to Atlanta. There was a time when we were in that conversation but it is long over and long gone.
Charters like the one we support (and Julie Ellis is a dear and personal friend, by the way) are by their nature documents that are the product of give and take. We can all find things in the charter we’d like to improve (we can) or we’d prefer were a different way, but we’re left with the reality that we’ve got to do something. Most people know that Memphis is headed in the wrong direction, and they also know that our governments are big parts of the problem. Maybe we’re just more panicky than you are, but we’ve seen cities that die (and work in some) and there is a point where the hole is so deep, you can’t get out of it. We’re doing our best to dig and dig.
As for economic growth, if we consolidate, we become the 11th largest city in the U.S. and that puts us on a lot of lists for investments and media coverage at a time when it’s clear that our national image is weak at best.
Doing nothing is as you say an option. God knows, we’ve become masters at it around here, and it’s gotten us where we are today, on the brink. We are passionate about a lot of issues affecting our city, and as usual, it’s passion that drives our opinions and our points of view. We appreciate the similar passion that you bring to the civic work that you see as instrumental and seminal to the future of our city. That is the sole reason that we are so passionate about this issue. It is seminal to the future of Memphis at a time when that future is in question.
Naomi: Please check your numbers about Nashville employees. I think you’re comparing apples and oranges. Maybe that 20,000 number there includes schools. The Memphis/SCo number doesn’t. Anyway, the 20,000 metro govt jobs in Nashville isn’t right, according to Nashville Chamber of Commerce.
Jack, that was my point — it seems we are comparing apples and oranges in many ways. But I got the 20,000 number from Nashville’s website: http://www.nashville.gov/finance/management_and_budget/performance2007/pri_employees.htm
I don’t know if that includes schools or not. You made me wonder how many people are employed by our two school systems. It totals about 20,000. All other City and County workers add up to 13,000.
So, taxpayers are supposed to cheer the idea of firing an unknown number of the 13,000 non-school employees but the 20,000 school employees are none of our business. And we’re racist if we ask questions about it. Loose lips sink ships?
Smart City, thanks for the response but you have not answered my specific questions.
I don’t need to be convinced that our current system of government is dysfunctional. I understand and sympathize with the *subjective* arguments for consolidation.
My problem is that I also want to understand the *objective* arguments: numbers, facts, real information. What would our new government look like when you’re done retooling it? It bothers me that nobody seems able or willing to provide that info.
I didn’t compare you to tea-partiers, by the way. I said they would be happy to help you “blow up” the system. I’m sure you would have a very different plan for the replacement system — and again, that’s what I want to know more about.
>>>we were right in the Sixties. We should have blown it all up and started over.
>>>We have about as much in common with tea partiers as you do with Sarah Palin, so we resent that suggestion. They want to destroy government as we know it.
It’s so hard to keep up.
Typically the numbers do NOT INCLUDE schools.
Naomi wrote:
“Rebuild Government’s mantra seems to be: “Doing nothing is not an option.” The problem is, doing nothing is always an option, even if it’s the worst option. Don’t put a gun to my head and expect me to lockstep. This approach assumes people are too dumb to understand a logical argument for consolidation.”
Great point!
SCM wrote:
“Doing nothing is as you say an option. God knows, we’ve become masters at it around here, and it’s gotten us where we are today, on the brink. We are passionate about a lot of issues affecting our city, and as usual, it’s passion that drives our opinions and our points of view. We appreciate the similar passion that you bring to the civic work that you see as instrumental and seminal to the future of our city. That is the sole reason that we are so passionate about this issue. It is seminal to the future of Memphis at a time when that future is in question.”
You have to use reliable statistics, you have to come up with an intelligent set of reasons why it’s the right thing to do and the numbers have to be provably accurate and support it. Doesn’t matter how you feel about it.
Your feelings won’t pay the bill.
Running an argument based solely on emotional push without facts is a bad idea these days, people are not too dumb to understand a logical argument pro consolidation.
HOWEVER,
In the atmosphere of a crooked election system HERE, you can spin anything as long as money is behind it, use no numbers, and get your way and no one can say anything if it took votes to get the result when the election commission is not accountable. “You can’t prove anything” is the TV mantra of crooks from the common criminal to the biggest wig in the pyramid scheme and it seems to have it’s variations here.
Instead of fixing these problems, we become even more cannibalistic.
Pathetic.