Monday, June 15, 2009
Commission Candidate Roland Makes Anti-Consolidation a Major Theme (W/Videos)
Posted by Jackson Baker on Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 1:06 AM
Terry Roland, the Millington grocer and conservative Republican who came within a few votes in late 2005 of winning a special election in a predominantly black state Senate District, is a candidate again — this time for District 4, Position 3 on the Shelby County Commission.
Roland, the beneficiary of a Saturday afternoon fundraiser picnic at the Arlington home of current Republican commissioner Joyce Avery, is campaigning actively for the job, hoping to sew up GOP support so as to have minimal or no opposition for the position in 2010. He isn’t worried about whatever Democrat will run against him in the overwhelmingly Republican district.
In fact, he’d just as soon have as his opponent Matt Kuhn, the Democrat who won a controversial interim appointment to the seat from the commission’s majority Democrats back in February after the former Republican incumbent, David Lillard, left for Nashville to become state treasurer.
Discoursing to a group of supporters as they all sat in lawn chairs, Roland said, “Matt’s a nice guy, but he’s trying to climb a ladder, and I don’t think he can vote the way the people of that district want him to vote. I asked him was he keeping my seat warm. He said he wasn’t going to run. But I hope he does run. I’ve welcomed him to. We need some real, honest dialogue.”
Roland spent much of his conversational time making the case against city/county consolidation and clearly intends to make opposition to it a major theme of his election campaign. “If we consolidate, not only are the people going to leave, but the businesses will be right behind them. They’ll be following their taillights,” he tells his audience. He mentions Covington to the north, Oakland to the east, and DeSoto County to the south as the principal beneficiaries of consolidation.
“It’s good for the Tipton County Chamber of Commerce,” he says. “If we consolidate, we’ll end up like East St. Louis or Detroit, because the people will be gone.” He offers a glimmer of hope. Since several plants have shut down in Tipton County, officials there will have to raise property taxes to pay for overdue improvements in infrastructure. “Now is the time for us to make our move, and lower ours” as a means of coaxing self-exiled Shelby Countians back onto home turf.
More obiter dicta from Roland on Saturday:
· On Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton’s current “listening tour” of the county to advocate consolidation: “It’s supposed to be his listening tour, but it's us listening to him. He doesn’t want to listen to us.”
· On Wharton’s original plan to balance the county budget by laying off county employees: “He has 188 county attorneys, all of them drawing money. Instead of cutting two or three hundred people trying to feed a family, why doesn’t he cut them?”
· On the recent vote on the commission for an anti-discrimination resolution, spoken for by former commissioner Walter Bailey and based on an ordinance originally sponsored by Commissioner Steve Mulroy: “Walter Bailey was the very best at what he did. He got up there talking about anti-discrimination. But I told him, 'You got to be the biggest hypocrite I’ve ever seen in my life. You’re the same Walter Bailey that got on the Mike Fleming Show and said I didn’t deserve to be senator in District 29 because I was white! “
· On Mulroy’s motives: “He knows it’s getting close to election time. The problem I have with anybody doing that is putting their fellow man and their community at risk. You get people mad at each other, which could really be avoided, a battle that doesn’t need to be fought. We could make this a better world if we didn’t have people on both sides of the aisle stirring up trouble”
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Mr Roland is correct about consolidation. (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7782…)
List of Current Issues with Consolidation:
1. No Plan
2. No Savings cited
3. No Efficiencies cited
4. Courts / Judges will interfere with representation numbers
5. No tangible improvements in services
6. Current problems of crime, schools,and corruption cannot be solved with a bigger (metro) government.
7. Any hope of a new governmental model will be dashed by current stakeholders
8. "Reinvent Government" is simply fools gold. Government red tape can be cut today without consolidation.
After reading this article, I'm wishing Matt would run, too. Roland may well represent the views of that district, but it would not be good for the rest of the county.
I want to follow up on what Tom said. I agree that current stakeholders will fight like hell to keep things as they are, but it has to be fought any way. We need to blow the whole damn thing up and start over, with a complete new model, with smaller districts and more of them.
The idea that the rest of the county can isolate itself from the problems of Memphis is ridiculous on its face. Our probloems are the County's, and the region's problems, and the idea that "oh, we'll just move out here where it's safe and avoid them" is killing the whole region, not just Memphis. If you really believe that, head for Nashville or Little Rock, because the problems are only going to get worse until we solve them TOGETHER.
LWC,
Have you considered running for a seat on either the council or commission?
You make sense!
The true antidote for the region is to turn Memphis into a magnet that attracts people to a great city. Fix the issues that weaken the magnet, and strengthen those areas that attract. Consolidation is not the answer since we (city dwellers) haven't made the hard choices and performed the difficult work to be the a magnet city. In the end, the county voters aren't going for consolidation, and it takes two to seal the deal on consolidation.
(manning the GOP sleeper cell in midtown - Tom)
That is very true Tom. The major problem with consolidation is all of the power-brokers. We need to clean house, city and county, and start over. Sadly I don't believe this will ever happen, which is a shame. Of course this is what is keeping all of the red tape in place as it is. There is hope with the fresh faced Memphis city council, but just how far will they go against King Willie?
MM, look at Strickland and Collins (and now Boyd). How long has it been since ANY Councilor came up with their OWN budget?
Tom makes good points in his follow-up, but how do we do this?
What Roland doesn't get is that he's going to have a big government in his future whether he likes it or not - Memphis. It will grow 50 per cent larger, county government will shrink to irrelevancy, and then let's see how much influence he has over it.
Let's have the conversation instead of immediately seeking political advantage from it.
We're never going to attract talent to Memphis without dramatically changing things. That begins by getting the basics right, and it begins by abolishing City Hall and starting over with a new countywide government.
And of course, there's no plan. That's what a Charter Commission does, and I think most of us would like to hear what they coudl come up with. We may vote against it but at least let's talk about it. Roland acts like we shouldn't even have the conversation.
As for functional consolidation, we've had it for 30 years and the current mess is the result, it makes a strong case for starting over with more accountability and transparency. We can't change the trajectory of Memphis until we have the courage to do something bold and innovative.
People like Roland have this logic: I hate Memphis, Memphis is corrupt, City Hall is inefficient, city governnment is broken. My answer: leave everything like it is. Apparently, he's content for all of us to go down together.
Here's the thing that interests me. In Louisville, the new merged government ushered in a whole new group of candidates. Because districts were smaller and more compact, average people can afford to run and they turned out in force, transforming the government there.
Now, that's a talent strategy we can all support.
PS: In the interest of full disclosure, I posted the last comment but there was some snafu that kept my name from being listed.
Tom Jones
This all still begs the same question, why is Memphis government so dysfunctional? Our city's record on crime, corruption, schools, city services is horrible. How in the world are we going to convince county voters to consolidate and form a metro government with us? The courage to do something bold and innovative lies within the borders of the 240 loop, already. Just ask yourself, what would a metro government do to reverse the current trend in Memphis.
Tom:
Memphis government is dysfunctional because of many reasons, but fundamental to this discussion is that its business models are totally broken. We can't fix it without starting over and imbedding technology throughout the new government.
Our city's government is bad on the issues that you mention, but if you project the trend line out 20 years, we are in disaster unless we do something bold. A totally new government is just that, and if voters outside Memphis will listen to the reasoning and the options - a big Memphis government or a new government - I think they'll decide on the side of something totally new and different.
A metro government would reverse trends on the rises in taxes, it will produce a unified attack on crime, it will produce new faces in legislative office, it will create new districts whose representatives talk for people with shared interests and needs (not something like the county commission that stretches from Hein Park to Cordova), it will simplify the process to recruit businesses, just to mention a few.
I grew up in Collierville and didn't learn until I was 15 years old that damn and consolidation were two different words, and with that background, I am convinced this is the answer for the municipalities.
Otherwise, they will be defined with a massive Memphis government whose decisions they will have no voice in and whose actions will swamp them.
What the towns haven't understood YET is that there is no such thing as things staying as they are. No decision is a decision in favor of City of Memphis government, law enforcement by Memphis Police Department on their borders, etc.
Memphis voters have the ability to reverse the trend line today. But, have decided by the ballot box not to.
I am a Memphis Socialite who attended the fundraiser at Commissioner Joyce Avery home.I was impressed with Terry Roland,and I think our County should listen to him.The Shelby County Republican Party elected me to the Primary Board and I am proud at twenty three to represent my generation.The youth is my focus and I want to uplift my generation.I ran for State Representative in 2008 and I think young memphians should pay more attention to local politics.I began working in politics in 2003 while I attended Cordova High School and I kept a school tradition active.I will continue to keep the community updated on my future success.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Pegues
Nick, are you serious? Memphis Socialite? I think it's great that you are interested in being involved at a young age, but you really should do some research on your own rather than listening to Roland.
Every time Jackson writes about Roland he mentions him coming within a few votes of winning the special election. For full disclosure this should read, '...Roland, who by dumb luck came within a few votes of winning a special election and was soundly beaten in the next election with only 30% of the vote, ...' Saying it any other way gives Roland a sense of credibility that he just should not have. Think Joe the Plumber.
I wonder what it was that Roland had to consider how to say for so long, so he wouldn't "get himself in trouble." I can only imagine what he was struggling so hard to self-edit in his head. He says we'll end up like East St Louis or Detroit, "because the people will be gone." What about this could he possibly need to edit himself on?
Roland thinks we should not even talk about consolidation, we should lower our taxes so we're a better bargain than Tipton County, and that an anti-discrimination resolution is just stirring up trouble (and putting your fellow man and community at risk??). Is that really what we've come to? GOP, come on...if this is your best vision for the future of Shelby County, based on everything we know about the success of cities, we're in trouble.
Memphis socialite? Isn't that an oxymoron? Anyway, you would think that after the last presidential election, the GOP would seriously re-think their core platform and adjust. I was once a tried and true Repub, but the party has drifted aimlessly in to the clutches of ultra-right wing fanaticals and remained stuck there. Roland is just another fear mongering, Limbaugh quoter saying what he thinks the anti-Memphis, white flight crowd wants to hear instead of working on what needs to be done to make this place better. With the departure of King Willie, the first step on the road to recovery has been taken, it is up to us (the voters) to take the next one.
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