I don't understand this sudden love affair with city attorney Elbert Jefferson. Why would he now be fighting for a job that he already tried to resign from a couple of months ago? This guy is just buying time because he is going to have to go in the end anyway. Like it or not, Myron Lowery is the mayor of Memphis for the next three months. He has the power to roll some heads and he's come out smoking.At first I was stomped by this whole thing. Why would the mayor refuse Jefferson's resignation when he submitted it earlier? Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Any severance package he would have offered would have been construed as favoritism. He served at the pleasure of the mayor. Now that Lowery holds that job his service no longer pleasures the mayor. Everyone that had enough time with the city to get a pension has already left.. Elbert Jefferson stayed because he had nothing to lose.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/aug/03/embattled-city-atty-elbert-jefferson-still-city-ha/
This sounds silly for this guy to stay.
ReplyDeleteIt's silly if he is doing it based on principle alone. He shouldn't want to stay where he isn't wanted in a position that serves at the pleasure of the mayor. But from perspective of pay it makes perfect sense. This guy is making probably $12,000 a month or more. Even though that's not all he was probably making under the table.He gets that much just in salary. Don't forget the perks that goes along with the job. Even for a Lawyer that's not chump change.
ReplyDeleteHe should be able to make 2 or 3 times as much in private practice. Unless, there's something else....
ReplyDeleteLowery needs council OK to fire city attorney, judge rules
ReplyDeleteBy Amos Maki (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery has to get approval from the Memphis City Council if he wants to fire City Atty. Elbert Jefferson, according to Shelby County Chancery Court Judge Walter Evans.
Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal
City Atty. Elbert Jefferson (left) and Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery meet after Chancellor Walter Evans' ruling Wednesday.
Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal
City attorney Elbert Jefferson is suing Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery as a private citizen, arguing that the interim mayor overstepped his bounds.
Evans’ ruling after a nearly four-hour hearing Wednesday afternoon was somewhat anticlimactic, since both sides in the case had already agreed that Lowery needed the council’s OK.
The judge, citing state law, also ruled that Lowery could not suspend Jefferson without a serious infraction or incident.
After the hearing, Lowery would not say if he would present Jefferson’s termination to the council at its Aug. 18 meeting. On Tuesday, Lowery delayed his nomination of former federal prosecutor Veronica Coleman-Davis to replace Jefferson just minutes before the council was set to vote on it.
“I’m not making any decision (Wednesday) without giving it some thought,” Lowery said.
On Friday, his first day as interim mayor, Lowery fired Jefferson. Shortly after he was sworn in, Lowery had a member of the police security squad at City Hall escort him out. Jefferson petitioned Evans on Saturday to grant a stay of the order until Wednesday’s hearing.
Jefferson is suing Lowery as a private citizen, arguing that the interim mayor overstepped his bounds. In addition to staying on the job, Jefferson is asking for damages and fees from Lowery.
Lowery testified that he believed he had the power as mayor to fire a division director first, then seek City Council approval after.
“What comes first, the chicken or the egg?” Lowery asked. “Would I go to the council before talking to Mr. Jefferson? I think not.”
During his testimony, Jefferson, who is also the city’s chief ethics officer, said he was involved in an ethics investigation of Lowery, but would not elaborate on the details.
“That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Lowery said.
If the council decides to leave Jefferson in the job, Lowery must then consider what to do next.
“I don’t have any plans at this moment to suspend Mr. Jefferson,” Lowery said.
Attorney Ricky Wilkins, who currently represents the city in court disputes over the control of Beale Street, is representing Jefferson, and said Jefferson can stay on the job until a council vote.
“The easy solution is to let the council vote on the matter, up or down,” said Wilkins.
Memphis pays former mayor Herenton's legal bills
ReplyDeleteLawyer rushes $55K through for defense in federal probe
By Amos Maki (Contact) and Marc Perrusquia (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Friday, September 4, 2009
Days before former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton left office, a top aide decided taxpayers should cover $55,000 in legal bills Herenton ran up fighting a federal grand jury investigation.
Now, the FBI also is questioning the decision of that aide, City Atty. Elbert Jefferson.
"What I told the agent is we've paid invoices for lawyers who don't have a contract for as long as I've been here," said Jefferson.
"I absolutely am not paying for the criminal defense of Willie Herenton.".
Jefferson rushed the payment to Herenton's lawyer, Robert Spence, a former city attorney now in private practice, as the mayor's 17-year tenure wound down this summer.
A grand jury has been exploring corruption allegations against Herenton for more than a year.
Those legal bills, obtained by The Commercial Appeal, show Spence was bracing for possible bribery, extortion and mail fraud charges. At the center of the investigation is a $91,000 payment Herenton received in connection with a city-backed Downtown redevelopment project.
Now, federal investigators also are exploring Jefferson's decision to let the city pay Spence's bills.
Jefferson said Thursday an FBI agent questioned him this week about his expedited payment to Spence. A check request signed by Jefferson was stamped "RUSH'' and Spence's bill was paid June 28, twelve days before Herenton originally planned to leave office.
Spence's bills make repeated references to aspects of the grand jury probe and even reference a possible counter allegation of prosecutorial misconduct against the government.
And Spence said his arrangement to provide legal representation was with Herenton, not the city. The attorney, who charged Herenton $210 an hour, declined to say whether he thought it was appropriate for the city to pay his bills, saying that wasn't his call.
Nonetheless, Jefferson, a Herenton appointee who also serves as the city's chief ethics officer, maintained that the fees paid to Spence were for general legal advice to Herenton -- and not a criminal defense. Jefferson said his office couldn't render that advice because he and his office were involved in an ethics investigation of Herenton that the former mayor requested.
"I have an ongoing ethics investigation of the mayor related to some of the same issues the FBI is looking into. We were providing him legal advice through a separate person because this office had a conflict."
News of the payment comes amid an already contentious debate about last-minute expenditures by Herenton.
An ongoing lawsuit filed in Chancery Court by attorney Ronald Krelstein alleges the Herenton administration acted illegally when it paid $425,000 in legal bills incurred by former Light, Gas and Water president Joseph Lee.
City Atty. Elbert Jefferson to be out sick till after mayoral election
ReplyDeleteBy Amos Maki (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Originally published 02:41 p.m., September 28, 2009
Updated 02:41 p.m., September 28, 2009
Embattled City Atty. Elbert Jefferson hasn’t been seen at City Hall for weeks.
Now it appears that Jefferson’s respite from city work will continue for a few more weeks. Today he turned in a request for sick leave until Oct. 19, four days after a special election to pick a new mayor of Memphis.
Jefferson, 45, is a diabetic. Assistant City Atty. Veronica Coleman-Davis, who Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery wanted to replace Jefferson, is running the legal department for now. Jefferson sent his notice to City Hall by fax, and it was accompanied by a letter from his doctor.
“He’s out even when he’s in,” said an exasperated Jack Sammons, chief operating officer for the city.
“At the end of the day we’ve got a $1 billion corporation to run and Mr. Jefferson has become a distraction,” said Sammons. “I regret that he’s ill, but we’re moving forward with the people’s business.”
Meanwhile, Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons is investigating Jefferson, already the target of federal investigators and a grand jury, for possible misconduct charges that could lead to his ouster.
At issue is Jefferson's authorization of $55,000 in city funds to pay a private attorney who represented former Mayor Willie Herenton while he was under investigation by a federal grand jury. The prosecutor’s staff has interviewed several city officials and has requested "a number of records and documents" from the City Attorney's Office.
Jefferson has said the payment to Spence was related to an ethics investigation Herenton had asked him to conduct. But city officials say they can find no record to back up Jefferson's claim that he has been conducting an ethics investigation of Herenton at the former mayor's request.
Jefferson never told Lowery that the FBI interviewed him about the payments to Spence.
Lowery had been trying to fire Jefferson since his first day as mayor -- even before the payment questions -- and only a court order kept Jefferson on the job. But in a 7-4 vote two weeks ago, City Council members declined to fire Jefferson.
During that council meeting, Jefferson reviewed Spence’s legal bills again and identified at least $7,362 worth of questionable items from the $55,000 payment.
"As a result of the review, it is my opinion that I inadvertently authorized payment on certain items and ask that those payments be reimbursed to the city. ... We ask that reimbursement be made expeditiously as possible to bring this matter to a close," said Jefferson in a letter to Herenton.
Jefferson, a Herenton appointee, has been embroiled in controversy for months and has been a lightning rod for criticism almost since he was appointed in 2007.
Just before Herenton left office, Jefferson approved the $55,000 payment to Spence to cover Herenton’s legal bills and over $400,000 in payments to Spence to cover the legal bills of former Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division chief Joseph Lee III. Lowery is now seeking to recover some of the money paid for Lee’s 2007 defense against corruption charges, which the government later dropped.
Jefferson, who oversees legal action against tax deadbeats, has been sued by the city six times since 1997 for delinquent taxes.
He earns $125,135 annually as city attorney.
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