Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Lowery Says Wilkins Out, Jefferson "Sick"
Posted by John Branston on Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 2:57 PM
Mayor Myron Lowery has ended an agreement that paid lawyer Ricky Wilkins more than $2 million in three years.
Meanwhile, another Herenton loyalist, city attorney Elbert Jefferson, is hanging by a thread as he called in sick Tuesday, avoiding a scheduled meeting with Lowery.
Lowery made the announcements at a press conference in City Hall Tuesday afternoon. He said that Wilkins, whose firm represented the city in Beale Street litigation, made at least $35,000 a month under a contract signed by former Mayor Willie Herenton. Wilkins will be replaced by attorney Michael Fletcher and assistant city attorney Veronica Coleman-Davis, but Lowery said he fears the city has already spent more on legal fees than it will recover in the Beale Street lawsuit which has dragged on for years.
"Legal bills like this are outrageous," Lowery said.
Jefferson can't be fired without a vote of the Memphis City Council. Lowery apparently has the votes to do that, but he would not discuss Jefferson until he meets with him.
Jefferson first offered his resignation to Herenton, who declined to accept it. Then Lowery unsuccessfully tried to fire him. Lowery wants to know if Jefferson approved payment for any other employee's legal fees, and if so, who and how much.
In a similar vein, there is some disagreement over whether Wilkins resigned or not. Lowery says he did, Wilkins says he didn't. Either way, he is off the payroll.
Comments (9)
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And the Herenton Mafia is finally starting to unravel and the minions are squirming.
I don't know much about Lowrey, but I know he and Herenton hate each other and that's good enough for me.
This is only starting to get ugly. The endgame should be something special. Myron is draining the swamp, and when the water level drops, that's when you find out (as Warren Buffett likes to say) "who's been swimming without their shorts."
Call in French and ask him how that little girl happened to fall off that bridge.
Gimme a desk, computer and 6 months and I'll give the City a Finance Policy & Procedure Manual that will be so simple a monkey could understand it. Then use it to do the business at hand. Model it after the one at FedEx where I spent over a billion in 23 years building the Company's infrastructure. I was always audited and was always found "clean". If I can do it, anyone should be able to do it.........they just need a manual that spells it out. Oh, by the way........I'll do it for free....I'm retired and need something to do to stop the waste in City Hall.
Not to hurt your feelings db, but what you are describing sounds like efficiency and that is just quite simply not allowed in city government.
Put him on sick leave, or fire him for insubordination for not informing you of legal matters in a timely manner, then sue him for it. Then sue the council for stupidity and HAVE IT DISSOLVED, IT DOESN'T WORK. Have Jefferson account for every penny on everything he's billed the city for since his hire, $7k per job is a LOT OF MONEY TO STEAL! TOO bad CITY COUNCIL is TOO STUPID to SEE THAT!
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