Hallelujah
The proposal to put consolidation on an upcoming ballot and letting the people vote on it are in the works. I think the voters have become more educated in recent years and are ready to bring this issue to past. I don't care who initiated this as long as they did. The atmosphere is ripe for something like this to happen. I say strike while the iron is hot. A large part of this measures success depends on who is trying to make it happen. People feel comfortable with the leaders we have in office right now.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/aug/18/city-county-merger-commission-might-start-work-nov/
posted by Common at
7:04 PM
> 
11 Comments:
Common-
I think there needs to be a list of likely benefits before allocating energy, resources, and political & business capital to this cause (formation of a charter commission). The "listening tour" aka campaign stops by Wharton and Malone did not provide such a list. I guess I'll play along with the Kabuki theatre. Count me against the formation of such a charter commission.
Tom,
The maximum expenditure for the commision is $50,000. That's not much to explore saving millions. This issue didn't just come up yesterday. So we have heard many of the issues already.If you don't know the pros and cons of consolidation.That's exactly why we need a commission,
Common,
There's a good discussion concerning this on http://westtennessee.blogspot.com/2009/08/county-commissioner-mike-carpenters.html. I haven't heard a serious politico trump the case for "saving millions" from consolidation, the savings are just not there. Mike Carpenter lists 3 selling points in the above link. Also, no one is selling consolidation on the back of combining the two school systems, the biggest poison pill of them all.
There's also a growing consensus that if the business community doesn't fully back this, it is a much tougher battle to form a metro government. There's a real possiblity that this may not get off the ground. We'll see.
Clearly, there needs to be a list of likely benefits before allocating energy, resources, and political & business capital to this cause.
County Commissioner Mike Carpenter's Reply on the issue of Metro Consolidation.
My thanks to County Commissioner Mike Carpenter for sharing his thoughts about this process. Commission Carpenter has shown himself to be a open and accessible elected official, and I appreciate him adding these thoughts to the discussion.
Subject: Metro Govt
Brad,
Read your post and wanted to respond to you directly. You are welcome to post this response or keep it between us.
You have some valid points about the inherent dangers of an appointed versus elected charter commission. When asked my opinion, I urged Mayor Wharton to go the route of appointed. For clarification, I am sure he asked others their opinion as well.
My reasoning is that even as important as this issue is, an election for charter commission members would be extremely low turnout. The chances of a diverse group of individuals would be lessened in my view and I don't just mean racially diverse, but from various walks of life and segments of our community. Secondly, in theory, a county-wide election could net more anti-merger folks or even a disproportionate number of suburban Shelby county residents. I believe the odds for the most representative group are better with appointed.
To their credit, Mayor Wharton and Commissioner Malone asked for recommendations from Commissioners. I submitted six names that included liberals, conservatives, business people and activists, city dwellers and suburbanites. Besides diversity, my criteria was "good thinkers" -- not necessarily people who agree with me, but people who can think creatively and see what impact their decisions will have beyond the here and now. There is no guarantee any of my recommendations will make the list, but I will judge the "slate" on the same criteria I used to recommend.
To answer a couple of your questions, Mayor Wharton can appoint his 10 from anywhere in Shelby County. They don't have to be only city or county residents or in any particular proportion. Based on the fact that 10 of 13 Commissioners represent majority City districts, I am comfortable he won't bring a slate that is weighted too much toward suburban Shelby County. On the other hand, too much weight for Memphis will doom passage in the County. Also, the Commission may reject any or all appointments at which point the mayor would bring a new nominee(s) to the Commission. Yes, there is the possibility of some wheeling and dealing on some nominees, but not all. Ultimately, if the charter commission does a bad job the voters have the final say. Also, under the resolution the maximum expenditure for the charter commission is $50,000 versus the cost of a special election countywide.
Those are my thoughts. Let me know if you need any clarification or other information. Thanks for all you do.
Mike Carpenter
Tom,
I posted the link you provided to explain what I'm about to say. The post only reiterates what I've already said. You sound like someone who lives in the county who doesn't want to pay more taxes. It appears you aren't really open to serious discussion. Just because Mike Carpenter didn't say it in his reply, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Just for example before he died Guy Bates the County Trustee projected at least a $3 mmillion savings by consolidating city and county services in his department alone.
Common - Is this how you treat one of your most loyal readers ? :)
It's funny how people can read and look at the same thing and come up with a totally different view.
BTW - just google my name, and you'll find that I live in midtown. But, you probably already knew that. :)
Tom,
Please forgive me, no harm meant. I look forward to our discussions. I found out where you lived after I had already posted. It's just that I've been pushing for this issue so long. I get offended sometimes prematurely when it appears someone is disputing my position based on what they have heard someone else say.
Based on Mike Carpenter's letter seems like he supports the idea. Do you see something different?
Memphis City Council committee backs consolidation panel
By Daniel Connolly (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Originally published 03:29 p.m., September 15, 2009
Updated 03:29 p.m., September 15, 2009
A City Council committee voted this afternoon to create a charter commission to explore combining the Memphis and Shelby County governments. The Shelby County Commission has already passed a similar motion.
The measure won’t be final until it goes before the full city council in two weeks.
Many details are unclear – as it stands now, county Mayor A C Wharton might be in a position to name all the members of a special commission that would make a plan for consolidation.
Here’s why: Under the proposal, the county mayor would nominate 10 people to the special commission. The city mayor would nominate five.
A C Wharton is a frontrunner in the Oct. 15 special election to replace longtime mayor Willie Herenton, and councilman Kemp Conrad raised the possibility that he might appoint 10 people as county mayor and the final five as city mayor.
Chairman Harold Collins said he has personal assurances that Wharton wouldn’t do this.
But it’s still unclear how the process would work.
It had appeared that Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery, the city council chairman who took office upon Herenton’s departure, would make the nominations for the city side.
But the complications started today when councilwoman Barbara Swearengen Ware strongly objected to the concept of allowing him to make the appointments.
“I don’t want an interim mayor appointing folk for the metro government,” she said. “At least it needs to be somebody in a permanent position.”
So the council passed an amendment that requires city council members to vote on the nominees in the days immediately after the election – when Wharton might have already won.
Now matter who is appointed to the special commission, the proposal they put forward would have to win approval from voters in the city limits as well as the sections of Shelby County outside the city.
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