POSITIONS
GENERAL:
I bring to the Commission four years of experience as a County Commissioner tackling the major and minor problems of the county. I examine the merits of the issues in detail and with an open mind, using my 21 years of legal and government experience with an emphasis on analyzing and solving problems. Although as a progressive I believe that government has an important role to play in helping social problems, and a special duty to help the less fortunate, neither Democrats nor Republicans have any monopoly on truth. About 80% of what we do on the Commission is not partisan, but merely a question of what sort of government response (if any) is most effective and efficient.
Most important, I will always listen to you, the voters, for ideas on how to improve the county. Please use this website to contact me with such ideas. [Article Here].
SCHOOL MERGER:
I recently presented at a recent forum on this issue and the organizers prepared a very useful summary of the info which I think addresses most of the main issues. CLICK HERE to see the summary.
I am in FAVOR of school unification, and support the action of the Memphis City School Board in surrendering its charter. I am in favor of the right of Memphians to vote on the ultimate question without delay, and without having its vote diluted by inclusion of anyone other than Memphis voters in the vote.
For background on the policy and legal questions, please see this POWERPOINT.
Many questions regarding school unification have been raised:
A local official recently sent me a list of 17 questions on school merger compiled from various sources. I complied responses to them with appropriate citations. They can provide some useful background on the legal landscape. CLICK HERE to see that Q&A.
CONSOLIDATION:
The issue of consolidation of Memphis and Shelby County government has been with us a long time. Generally, I support the concept of consolidation. It has worked well in areas like Nashville, Louisville, and Indianapolis. While it may not cause significant savings, at least not until the long run, it will likely provide more efficient delivery of government services, eliminate duplication, and end double taxation of Memphians. Also, it will help with economic development. The Chamber of Commerce has often remarked that it is difficult to recruit out of state industry when we have to go through two sets of red tape (county and city).
Of course, much depends on exactly what the currently meeting Charter Commission comes up with in terms of a proposed Metro charter. I won't know whether I support that until I see it. If it adopts one by August, all Shelby County voters will be able to vote it up or down in a referendum this November. Complicating matters is the state law requirement that, to be adopted, consolidation requires a majority of voters inside Memphis proper PLUS a majority of all voters outside Memphis. Based on my knowledge of voting rights law, I think this might violate federal law. [Click here for a guest editorial I wrote on this issue with former Judge D'Armey Bailey].
CRIMINAL JUSTICE:
We must use county resources to better fight crime in Memphis. We can bring more sheriff deputies into Memphis by reviving and expanding the joint county-city "Metro Unit" patrols or similar task forces. I have been working with Sheriff Luttrell, Mayor Wharton, and City Councilman Collins on this issue. Crime doesn't respect city-county boundaries, and neither should law enforcement.
We should fully fund and support Operation Safe Community, the 14-strategy program of both crime prevention and tougher enforcement developed jointly by the D.A., MPD, Sheriff’s Dept., County and City Administrations, and other stakeholders. As Commissioner, I have voted to fund these priorities, supporting pay raises and opposing layoffs of deputies; increasing funding for pretrial "diversion" programs; and increasing the number of prosecutors so we can employ "vertical prosecution" (where the same prosecutor handles a case from investigation through trial, sentencing, and appeal). Additionally, I have supported D.A. Gibbons’ and Mayor Wharton’s efforts to increase criminal penalties for illegal gun possession, and supported a pay increase for sheriff’s deputies. In addition, I have worked long and hard and with some success on personally mediating various disputes between the sheriff deputies’ union and the Sheriff.
We should also use Domestic Violence and Drug Courts, which have worked well both here and in other jurisdictions. As Commissioner, I have consistently voted to support increased funding for the Drug Court; worked successfully to create a dedicated Domestic Violence Court; and have appointed a qualified judge to fill that court.
We need to improve re-entry services for released offenders so that they can reintegrate into society and avoid returning to the criminal lifestyle. As Commissioner, I have supported and fully funded Mayor Wharton’s efforts to strengthen re-entry programs.
We need to work to increase the number of bilingual officers and bilingual 911 operators to better serve our area’s growing Latino population. I have repeatedly conveyed this and related concerns of the Latino community to the Sheriff’s Department. I have also conveyed to the Sheriff the need to communicate to the Latino community that local law enforcement does not enforce our nation’s immigration laws, so that all members of the Latino community can feel comfortable reporting crimes and serving as witnesses.
We need to fight privatization of our jails and prisons. Reputable studies have shown that privatization lowers the quality of jail services without saving money in the long run.. Privatization destroys good jobs and increases guard turnover. This in turn leads to more escapes, less humane conditions for the prisoners, and costly lawsuits. As Commissioner, I have voted consistently against all attempts to open the door to jail privatization, working with the Mid South Peace and Justice Center and local labor groups.
We need to spend the same kinds of resources on fighting crack in the city as we do on fighting crystal meth. The crack trade can devastate inner city neighborhoods and make them unlivable for law-abiding people.
We need to work to encourage community-based crime prevention efforts---neighborhood watches, domestic violence shelters, youth programs, etc.
While tougher law enforcement is a priority, it's also important to make sure that criminal defendants get adequate representation. That's why I've taken on many pro bono legal cases to right wrongs for defendants who can't afford to pay a lawyer. Some but not all of these cases involve my opposition to the death penalty. In one case, I helped obtain the first clemency of a Death Row inmate in Tennessee in 40 years (click here for details).
HEALTH CARE:
Fully fund the Med. We must keep this vital public service open. I recently voted to increase the County’s contribution to the Med by $10 million, and will work to find ways this budget season to make that increase permanent. I support the current effort in Nashville, also supported by the Tennessee Hospital Association, to impose a fee on private hospitals, with the proceeds to support charity hospitals like the Med. Although the current proposal is a one-time fee for one year, I think it should be extended indefinitely.
I will work to ensure that failing city schools get adequate funding. These schools have suffered from years of deferred maintenance, have a greater number of special needs students, and have special security needs. As a fellow teacher, I understand the challenges they face. At the same time, I will try to hold school administrators accountable for spending. Rather than rubber-stamping every school spending decision, we must ensure that money is spent only on true priorities.
I support single-source funding for city and county school systems. Last year and this year, I met for over eight months as part of a Joint Task Force consisting of representatives of Memphis City Schools, Shelby County Schools, City Council, County Commission, and local members of the state legislature. This was the consensus plan which arose from those sessions. It is designed to deal with the crisis triggered by the Memphis City Council’s precipitous decision to “zero out” all of its previous $90 million annual contribution to Memphis City Schools.
Under this plan, some (not necessarily all) of the City of Memphis’ contribution to the Memphis City Schools would be taken over by the county. Funding would follow the students, ignoring distinctions between city school kids and county school kids, but more dollars would flow for special needs students. The county would “ramp up” funding over a three-year period while the city “ramped down,” with all City savings to go toward reducing taxes in the City of Memphis.
EMERGENCY SERVICES:
As our new Commission took office, we heard about high-profile cases in which county ambulances took too long-over 30 minutes in some cases-to respond to dire emergencies. As Mayor Wharton worked on devising a solution, I headed up a special Subcommittee on Emergency Response, which held hearings on the matter. We issued a report making a number of recommendations (Click here to access the County website) which either have been implemented or are in the process of being implemented. Among them:
(1) following Mayor Wharton’s recommendation, a new "performance-based" contract doubling the number of ambulances and tying payment to response time and other tangible results;
(2) filling a needed gap in emergency medical technicians (EMTs) with a new program to recruit volunteer part-time emergency medical technicians;
(3) increasing the availability of defibrillators and CPR-trained employees in county buildings and throughout the county.
The new ambulance contract has had proven results. Response times in both urban and rural areas have been substantially decreased.
More recently, I have co-chaired Mayor Ford’s Task Force on 911 Services. Our signal accomplishment to date has been obtaining consensus among all emergency response agencies in the county on a new 911 Dispatch Center which will house under one roof the 911 response services of Shelby County Sheriff, Shelby County Fire, Memphis Police Department, and Memphis Fire Department. Over time it is expected to house other similar agencies as well. This will improve coordination among these agencies and help us reduce response time.
ADULT BUSINESSES:
I respect the constitutional right of adult businesses to operate in Shelby County, and believe it inappropriate for the County Commission to legislate based on its moral disapproval of such businesses. However, after reviewing the empirical evidence, I was persuaded that such businesses cause what the courts refer to as "secondary effects"---increases in crime and decreases in property values---which justify reasonable regulations. That's why I voted for the county's tough new Sexually Oriented Business (SOB) ordinance. The ordinance isn't perfect, as I explained in this guest editorial in the Memphis Flyer [Click here for article], but for the most part it strikes the right balance.
In my view, however, the county SOB ordinance didn't address the important problem of SOBs being allowed to operate in residential zones and near churches and schools. SOBs should have a right to exist, but in industrial areas away from where our children sleep, school, and worship. Some SOBs do so only because they were "grandfathered in." For that reason, I sponsored land use regulations which make clear that if SOBs get their license suspended or revoked under the new ordinance, they lose the benefit of the "grandfather clause" and must move to an industrial zone. The regulation also addresses the common scenario where once an SOB gets shut down, the owner simply deeds it over to another SOB operator, who reopens it under a new name a month later. The regulations I sponsored specify that if an SOB loses its license, no one can operate an SOB at that site any longer. See this Commercial Appeal article [Click here for article].
LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS:
As Chair of the Legislative Affairs Committee, I sponsored a resolution urging the state legislature to pass a tough new law cracking down on the theft of copper and other scrap metals. Such theft has become rampant locally in recent years, causing serious harm to the building industry and local CDCs, and hurting urban revitalization efforts. I gathered input from both sides, including industry leaders like Ron Belz and Marshall Gordon as well as representatives of local junk dealers and homeless advocates, and crafted a resolution which got all such stakeholders' support and which passed unanimously.
This is just one example among many of innovative and important state legislative efforts I have supported in my role as Chair of the Legislative Affairs Committee.
DEVELOPMENT/LAND USE:
I will pursue a "smart growth" strategy for new development. We should use the best thinking in schools of urban planning to design developments which enhance the quality of life. Development should center on the individual, not the automobile. Ample room should be made for pedestrians and bicyclists, and designs which encourage community rather than isolation so neighbors can look out for each and make their neighborhoods more than just the place where they sleep. To do this, we need to look at what has worked in other communities.
"Smart growth" means planned growth, but not "no growth." Just before I took office, the county had imposed a moratorium on new development in the “Memphis Reserve” areas to the east of Memphis. I found this moratorium ultimately counterproductive, because it sent new development, with the jobs and revenue that comes with it, across the county line to competing areas. It was also limited in its effectiveness, since the County Commission had no control over developments approved in suburban cities.
As development continues, we’ll need to devise ways to pay for needed infrastructure: roads, sewers, water lines, and, most importantly, new schools. To the extent possible, we should direct new development to areas that already have this infrastructure in place. I’ll keep an open mind on these matters, working with Mayor Wharton and the rest of the Commission to strike the right balance.
Most of all, we need to adopt a regional approach to development issues. The County should not be competing with local municipalities to attract development or shift development costs. The entire region should work cooperatively according to a comprehensive plan for growth across the entire region. [See Jerome Wright, “Growing Pains,” Memphis Commercial-Appeal, March 12, 2006.] City-county consolidation can help with this. (See “Consolidation,” below)
Finally, we need to reduce the rate of eastward flight out from the City by making the city a more livable place. We do this in part by lowering crime (see “Criminal Justice”) and in part by encouraging investment and renewal in the inner city (see “Inner City Revitalization”).
ETHICS:
At the very beginning of my first term, I played a leading role in drafting and passing a tough new Ethics Ordinancewhich requires disclosure of financial interests connected to persons or businesses doing business before the county; limits gifts received by such persons or businesses; creates an independent Ethics Board to hear complaints of unethical conduct and render unbiased judgments; and to register and regulate the activities of professional lobbyists. I played a key role in drafting the text of the ordinance, finding compromise language which bridged differences between Commissioners concerned about allowing frivolous ethics charges to be used as political weapons, and Commissioners who wanted to avoid any possibility of loopholes.
Here’s the pledge on government ethics I’ve taken. [Click Here]
COUNTY FINANCES:
Reducing the county’s debt has to be our number-one priority. Working with Mayor Wharton, I have supported the county’s Long-Term Debt Reduction Plan. During my first term as Commissioner, the County’s total debt actually fell for the first time in over a decade. We have reduced the county’s debt by over $200 million. However, we still have a long way to go, and we need to continue the Debt Reduction Plan. Part of this involves setting aside funds for capital construction projects so that as much of our construction as possible is done on a “pay as you go” basis. Part of this involves slowing down construction of new schools. The joint county-school systems “Needs Assessment Committee” is a good structural way to keep a close eye on school construction.
Of course, we need to do even more. However, we CANNOT reduce debt by:
However, we CANNOT do this by:
- raising property taxes, which are already too high;
- selling off Shelby Farms (or any portion of it); or
- privatizing our jails. Studies of privatization show that it does not save money in the long run, though it does increase escape rates, make prisoner conditions less humane, trigger costly lawsuits, and eliminate good jobs.
Just before I started as a Commissioner, we had a private accounting firm do a study of county government. It made numerous recommendations for cutting costs and improving efficiency without reducing county services. These recommendations have not yet been fully implemented. We should not consider any significant property tax increase until these cost-cutting recommendations have been implemented.
I will keep an open mind on alternative revenue proposals and work with the new County Mayor and the rest of the Commission to find the right balance, but only after all available cost-cutting measure have been implemented.
As chair of the Legislative Affairs Committee, I led the charge to have the Commission work with our state legislators to implement a seniors property tax freeze which ensured that needy seniors would never see any raise in property taxes.
At the same time, we can’t short shrift the County Health Department. The City of Memphis’ sudden decision to stop funding the health department, like its precipitous decision to stop funding Memphis City Schools, was shortsighted and has caused problems for Shelby County.
Finally, there is some further good news. In April 2010 the Trustee's Office reported that we are bringing in substantially more tax revenue than projected, because appeals from property reappraisals are going more favorably for the county than anticipated. It is likely that the overage will exceed $30 million. This will help us increase efforts for the Med and other needed services without needing to raise taxes.
LIBERTYLAND:
Long before I thought of running for office, I led a grass-roots effort to save the Libertyland amusement park.
http://www.memphisflyer.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A12359 The Save Libertyland! organization saw it as an affordable place for families with children to go for recreation, a source of over 500 summer jobs for inner-city teens, and a part of Memphis' unique cultural and historical legacy. We held several rallies and innumerable press conferences; got over 1000 signatures on our on-line petition; went door to door in the Cooper-Young area to secure hundreds of petition signatures; and lobbied the City Council, City Administration, and the MidSouth Fair.
One highlight was the summer 2006 Libertyfest rally, where I performed with the "Zippin Pippins" rock band the song "Meet Me Down At Libertyland," a rock anthem I co-wrote for the occasion. [For a photo, click here; to hear the song, CLICK HERE to listen to Steve and the "Zippin Pippins" sing "Meet Me Down At Libertyland"]
Public support was overwhelming; to this day, people stop me on the street to thank me for my efforts, and more people recognize me from my Libertyland work than from being a County Commissioner. We brought in two different private amusement park companies which were interested in taking over the amusement park without any public subsidy and were convinced it could be run at a profit.
In late 2006, we arranged for the City to sign a letter of intent with one of the companies to reopen the park. The company would invest $5 million, hire locally, and seek no tax incentives. CLICK HERE for a guest editorial that I wrote for the commercial appeal titled "LIBERTYLAND DEAL A CHRISTMAS BARGAIN" Unfortunately, the City Administration changed its mind in early 2007, thinking (incorrectly) that the park would interfere with its plans for a new football stadium.
However, Save Libertyland! did save the historic Grand Carousel, a 95-year old prize and one of the last few "Dentzel" carousels in working condition. Our efforts caused the City to assert its ownership interest in the Carousel and prevent it from being auctioned off in pieces by the MidSouth Fair. The Carousel has now been dismantled and stored, and plans are under way to reassemble it nearby at the Children’s Museum of Memphis, using private funds.
We have also saved the famed Zippin Pippin rollercoaster, an 85-year-old classic, the second-oldest working wooden rollercoaster, and the favorite ride of Elvis Presley (who rode it in his last public appearance before his death). Since 2007, the Tennessee nonprofit corp. Save Libertyland! , Inc. has owned the Zippin Pippin and has offered it free of charge to the City if it will preserve it. In August 2007, I sponsored a resolution expressing the county's support for these efforts, granting the Memphis Heritage organization $15,000 for a feasibility study, and pledging to match any City contributions toward preserving the Pippin (up to $100,000). I also successfully sought $10,000 in state grant money to fund the feasibility study. Completed in early 2009, the feasibility study acknowledged that the Pippin would have to be moved from its current location, but outlined several suitable locations for the rides.
During this period, I got the Pippin listed on the National Historic Register. [Click here for article]. This helped in our efforts to raise awareness and generate national interests. We then worked at length with former Mayor Dick Hackett, current Director of the Children's Museum of Memphis, and various members of the Herenton and Wharton Administrations on plans to rebuild a version of the Pippin over at the Children's Museum, near the restored Grand Carousel.
Unfortunately, we could not get the Wharton Administration interested enough in the Children’s Museum idea to act any time soon. In the meantime, the Administration gave us a Christmas Eve 2009 deadline for demolition of the Pippin if we didn’t remove it from City property. Asserting our legal rights while negotiating in good faith with the City, we worked out an agreement whereby the City would carefully dismantle the Pippin and wrap and stack the salvageable parts for storage and preservation, in the hopes that it could be rebuilt. Thanks goes to former City Councilman Tom Marshall, the architect overseeing Fairgrounds demolition, who was cooperative on this front.
And then, a crucial eleventh-hour development. In January 2010, I made contact with the Mayor of Green Bay, Wisconsin, which owns the city-run amusement park Bay Beach. I gave Mayor Jim Schmitt a tour of Memphis and the Pippin, and we then negotiated the sale of the Pippin so that Green Bay can rebuild it up in Wisconsin for use at Bay Beach. While not as good as keeping the Pippin in Memphis, the Green Bay deal will keep the Pippin legacy alive, and give it a good home in a great, affordable, family-friendly city amusement park (like Libertyland was), so that families and children can enjoy it for another 87 years. The deal was signed and made official on March 18, 2010. [Click here for the article]
Working hard on all this for years were original Save Libertyland members Denise Parkinson, Misty White, Mike McCarthy, John Dulaney, Foster Bunday, and myself. McCarthy is a local independent filmmaker working on a documentary depicting the Save Libertyland” story. [See: guerillamonsterfilms.com and DestroyMemphis.com] Working almost from the beginning were devoted helpers like David Upton, as well as friends who’ve worked for years like Tom Foster, Heidi Knockenhauer, Nicole Perugini, and Sarah Stramel, along with many many other devoted citizens.
Many of these folks were present at the 11/1/10 dedication of the historic marker for Libertyland and the Pippin, paid for with some of the proceeds from the Pippin's sale to Green Bay. [CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO] Located on East Parkway near Young, by the old entrance to Libertyland, the marker has text about Libertyland on one side and text about the Pippin on the other. It stands as testimony to the efforts of all those who worked so hard to preserve Libertyland, the Pippin, and the Carousel, and who, by my count, got two out of three, and made a memorable try for the third.
![[CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO]](./images/HistMarker.jpg){kind=link}
Remember Libertyland, Inc.
Jimmy Ogle, President
John Dulaney, Treasurer
Heidi Knockenhauer, Secretary
For more general information about grass-roots efforts on overall Fairgrounds Redevelopment, check out http://www.livefrommemphis.com/midtownsquare, the web site of the local grass-roots group Midtown Square, which is an offshoot of the original Save Libertyland organization.
RUNOFF VOTING:
NONDISCRIMINATION:
To increase voter turnout, save on election costs, and make election results more representative of the majority, I have been for some time advocating that Memphis adopt "Instant Runoff Voting." Click here for my position on this issue. Last summer, I achieved some preliminary success.
I recently led the charge for election reform by presenting Instant Runoff Voting to the Memphis City Charter Commission, which unanimously voted to place it on the November 2008 ballot. Click here for the Charter Commissions Website. I then led the local campaign to educate voters about IRV and get the IRV referendum passed as an amendment to the City Charter. I fought to get the word out through public appearances, radio and TV interviews, and personal distribution of IRV pamphlets at polling locations, among many other things. www.yesonfive.org Despite ill-considered opposition from the local GOP and the Commercial Appeal, and despite a misleading local Democratic Party endorsement ballot erroneously urging voters to reject all referenda (not the party's position), my efforts were ultimately successful. The measure passed with 71% of the vote (see www.shelbyvote.com for the results). This puts Memphis on the map as part of a growing national election reform movement (Click here for an article regarding IRV via The Huffington Post).
I was honored to recently receive an award by FairVote, a national nonprofit election reform and voting rights organization, for my advocacy of instant runoff voting. (Click here for an article from the Memphis Flyer); or
(Click here for the press release detailing the same); or
(Click here for the official University of Memphis press release). I have repeatedly been invited to speak at national conferences on voting rights and election reform (click here for article).
IRV is getting attention on the national level as well. I did an interview with Larry Bradley fromwww.TheCenterStrikesBack.com for his weekly EZine. (Click here for the interview).
Steve was given the 2009 Democracy Innovator Award in Washington, DC. by the national election reform organization Fairvote. At the conference, he was asked to give his "elevator speech" on Instant Runoff Voting.(CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO).
In the spring and summer of 2009 I took on a related issue of discrimination, for a class which is often discriminated against but which had absolutely no legal protection anywhere in Tennessee. I worked with the Tennessee Equality Project, a local gay rights group, to pass an ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and transgender status. Click HERE for media coverage. The topic was a controversial one, but one which I strongly believed in, so I held my ground. While some criticized the measure, even more people, gay and straight, black and white, clergy of both races, turned out in support. Click HERE for video of the Unity Rally prior to the vote. Click HERE for coverage of the rally.
Ultimately, a compromise Resolution passed which banned all forms of discrimination, and Commissioners made comments on the record to ensure that it was clear that it would protect the GLBT community. Click here for media coverage. While I was disappointed that we had to settle for “watered-down” language, I was also pleased that, for the first time ever in Tennessee, a government body made clear that it would not allow discrimination against the GLBT community. Click here for my op-ed article on the effect of the resolution. This addresses a real problem in Shelby County. Click here for more media coverage.
There are too many blighted neighborhoods in our city, breeding grounds for crime and drug use. We need to facilitate private development of these areas by making it easier for those wishing to build, renovate, or invest in the inner city to get loans.
That’s why I was pleased to sponsor an item approving a $12 million investment in the inner city, including about $7 million in stimulus funds, which converted 140 vacant, weed-filled lots into 125 new affordable energy-efficient rental homes as part of the county’s "homestead" program. That’s also why I am working with the County Real Estate and County Trustee offices to revamp our procedures make it easier for smaller developers to get title insurance, a crucial prerequisite for participation in the homestead program. This effort is leading both to reformed internal procedures, more aggressive advertising of the homestead program, and proposed legislation. We need to make it easier, not harder, for private developers to take these tax delinquent lots in the inner city and turn them into new homes.
Inner-city revitalization also means doing all we can to clean up these vacant lots. That’s why I was proud to sponsor a new county ordinance cracking down on the illegal dumping of tires, a problem which has reached epidemic levels in the inner city in recent years. [Click here for newspaper story.] The ordinance would use the "stick" of requiring tire dealers and haulers to register, keep track of where used tires are going in records we can check, destroy tires which can’t be safely reused, and pay tire haulers only after they’ve produced proof that they have indeed taken them to the county recycling center (instead of dumping them in lots in the middle of the night). Violations will trigger a fine of $50 per tire. The ordinance also uses the "carrot" of a Tire Redemption Program, in which citizens who pick up tires and turn them into the recycling center will get a bounty of one dollar per tire.
Click here for an Article regarding Cash for Tires program in the Memphis Flyer