Mayor Pro Tem
Councilman Myron Lowery owes a debt of gratitude to Mayor Herenton for his early Christmas gift. Without him stepping down, Lowery would have never had the chance to be Mayor of Memphis. I think at age 62 a super district council seat was the plateau of his local political career. The down side to this is now he feels compelled to rum in the special election. He won't win but he could affect who does. I agree with Mayor Herenton's earlier assesment that no one on the council was qualified to run this city. But a taste of power is a dangerous thing. Hopefully the interim Mayor will have the character to step aside if his spoiler role becomes evident in this race.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/videos/detail/herenton-delays-resignation/
posted by Common at
8:23 PM
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8 Comments:
I like him as interim Mayor so far. Don't let these bullies boss you around and throw you off your game. Make good use of your 90 days and don' worry about pandering. Most people are already comitted. I hope he'll handle his business because he won't get back in office after this.
Myron Lowery's bluntness, turbulence and success make him a difficult read
By Marc Perrusquia (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Sunday, July 5, 2009
It's not easy sorting out the many faces of Myron Lowery, the dynamic and complicated incoming interim mayor of Memphis.
Soft spoken and even-keeled, he's matured over five terms on the City Council into a leader often turned to when disputes arise.
Lowery will lead Memphis as interim mayor until a special election to fill the term of Willie Herenton.
Lowery lost bids for City Council in the 1980s before winning his first of five terms in 1991.
City Council chairman Myron Lowery, who will become mayor pro tem July 10, has already begun making a mark on the city administration even before Mayor Willie Herenton steps down.
One might get an entirely different impression reading his lengthy legal record, however.
Married three times, divorced twice, he's filed discrimination suits against two employers -- winning settlements from both. Once, during a heated child custody battle 27 years ago, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault.
Lowery acknowledges he got off to a bit of a rocky start as an adult. Yet stability -- he's been married for 23 years to the same woman, educator Mary Lowery -- has become a hallmark.
Still, Lowery's fiery side emerges from time to time as it did during his recent push to reform local government with a revised code of ethics for city employees as well as a new term-limits ordinance approved last fall.
Lowery says there'll be even more reform when he takes charge of City Hall on Friday, replacing retiring Mayor Willie Herenton.
He vows he won't pull any punches.
"I am intense. I fight for that which I believe in,'' said Lowery, 62, who grew up in a hard-scrabble public housing project in Columbus, Ohio, and rose to a career in broadcast journalism before entering politics.
"Yes, I am mild-mannered and meek. But if you hit me on the wrong button, I will react the way I see best fits the situation.''
Already, that intense style is sending ripples through City Hall. As Lowery talked last week of coming personnel and structural changes, along with improving access to public records, several longtime Herenton aides were jumping ship.
Under the City Charter, Lowery will serve as mayor pro tem for 90 days until a special election is held. Lowery is among a passel of candidates who plan to compete in the special election to finish Herenton's term, which expires at the end of 2011.
As evidence of his dedication to reform, Lowery points to his recent work as chairman of the Memphis Charter Commission that approved several referendum initiatives ratified by voters last fall. Among changes, the mayor and councilmen are now limited to serving two consecutive four-year terms, and officials indicted for malfeasance are to be suspended.
Lowery told a reporter last week that the Charter Commission was paying $15,000 a month to attorney Rickey Wilkins, a Herenton ally -- something Lowery considered wasteful. So when Lowery became chairman of the commission, he limited Wilkins to a maximum of $5,000 a month, requiring the lawyer to submit supporting bills.
Cont.
"These are things that I can do (as mayor). And I'm not afraid to do them,'' Lowery said.
Lowery said he learned what he knows about integrity and hard work in Columbus, where he grew up the eldest of four sons to a single mother living in Poindexter Village, an aging public housing project southeast of the Ohio State University campus. Lowery's mother scraped by cleaning houses and collecting welfare subsidies. Lowery had a newspaper route, which allowed him to save some money and dream of bigger things.
After high school, the United Negro College Fund recommended a school, LeMoyne-Owen College in distant Memphis.
"Oh my Lord,'' Lowery recalls reacting. "That's near Mississippi.''
But encouraged by two pork chop sandwiches his grandmother made for him, he hopped on a Greyhound and enrolled in the fall of 1964. Four years later he had a bachelor's degree in sociology and left for New York University where he earned a master's in urban education. Entering the National Teachers Corps, he taught social studies for three years at John S. Roberts Junior High in New York's Spanish Harlem.
Lowery was prepared for a long career in education when a twist of fate brought him back to Memphis. In 1971, Dr. Hollis Price, the former president at LeMoyne who was working as urban affairs director for WMC-TV Channel 5, called Lowery and asked if he'd like to change careers. Lowery studied broadcasting that summer through a diversity program at Columbia University and that fall returned to Memphis as WMC's first full-time African-American reporter.
Two years later he became weekend anchor and in 1976 began producing "Minority Report,'' an urban issues program on which he interviewed celebrities such as author Alex Haley, entertainers Eartha Kitt, Prince, Rick James and the Jackson 5, as well as numbers of local newsmakers.
Despite his success, Lowery sued the station in 1981 alleging he was paid less than white employees and that he was bypassed for promotions.
In 1987, U.S. District Judge Odell Horton called WMC's actions "reprehensible,'' and awarded Lowery $274,120. WMC planned to appeal but then settled to terms that included improved affirmative action programs at Channel 5 and 13 other radio and TV stations owned by then-parent company Scripps Howard Broadcasting.
The six-year case included a public trial in which colleagues testified that Lowery didn't measure up and tended to stray from news department rules. Still, Lowery has no regrets.
"That settlement was beneficial to this entire community,'' Lowery said, holding a law book that cites the case as a legal precedent. "They're reading about me in law schools all over the country. It's a classic case about how not to discriminate in broadcast journalism.''
After WMC, Lowery went into private business and worked for a time as press secretary for then-Congressman Harold Ford Sr. before landing at FedEx Corp., where he rose to manager of corporate relations and eventually filed another discrimination suit.
cont.
Lowery sued FedEx in federal court in 2002 alleging he was wrongly denied promotions, among other things. The suit was settled in 2007 to undisclosed terms. FedEx spokesman Jim McCluskey said last week he couldn't discuss terms but said Lowery "voluntarily resigned'' in September 2007.
Lowery, too, declined to discuss terms of the settlement but said he still believes he was right and harbors no resentment of FedEx.
"FedEx is a wonderful company ... I don't have anything negative to say about FedEx,'' he said.
Lowery's taste for a good fight is documented in thick divorce files that show how his first two marriages ended amid bitter charges in 1977 and 1980. Battling for custody of a son, he appealed a local judge's ruling and, amid the bitter dispute, pleaded guilty in 1982 to misdemeanor assault and battery.
"People know me in my calm demeanor as a councilman,'' Lowery said two years ago, reliving the incident. "Had that not been a child custody case, it would have never come up. She (his ex-wife) filed charges to gain leverage.''
Lowery lost a couple bids for City Council in the 1980s then won election to his first of five terms in 1991, the same year Herenton broke the race barrier to become the city's first elected black mayor.
Former council colleague Brent Taylor said last week that Lowery definitely fought for what he thought was right, recalling Lowery's early opposition to public financing of FedExForum and his long battle to bring red-light cameras to Memphis.
"He was never afraid to take a position that was unpopular with his constituents,'' Taylor said. "I always thought he voted his conscience.''
Former Circuit Court Judge George Brown was less impressed, praising Lowery's public service, yet questioning his leadership. "I haven't seen him demonstrate it,'' said Brown, who served as chairman of the Charter Commission before losing the post to Lowery.
For all his reform-mindedness, Lowery bristled when a reporter asked last week why he hadn't publicly reported rental income on a soybean field he co-owns in the countryside in Millington. Records show he and some partners purchased the 50-acre tract for $50,000 in 1973. It's currently appraised at $206,300 by the county assessor.
Public officials are required to annually disclose the source of any income in excess of $1,000 to the Tennessee Ethics Commission, but Lowery said his share of rental income from the farm is less than that.
Records he let a reporter review but not photocopy show he's been collecting $2,250 a year for several years. But he said after taxes the profit over eight years was just $506, and his share was a fourth of that.
An attorney for the Ethics Commission couldn't resolve a reporter's questions last week, but Lowery said he's confident he wasn't required to disclose the income.
"If I'm wrong, I'm wrong,'' he said.
-- Marc Perrusquia: 529-2545
Myron Lewis Lowery
Age: 62
Family: Married, with three grown children.
Title: Chairman, Memphis City Council.
Education: Bachelor's in sociology, LeMoyne-Owen College; master's in urban education, New York University; master's in science education, University of Tennessee.
Accomplishments and awards: Inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame for community service, 2003. Spoke to the Democratic National Convention, 1996. Member of the Democratic National Committee, the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, LeMoyne's board of trustees and board of National League of Cities.
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