Thursday, July 9, 2009
No Election Set: Failure to Approve Council Minutes Tied Commission’s Hands, Says Giannini
Posted by Jackson Baker on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 7:45 PM
Boyd explained that he believed the council would have put itself in a legally vulnerable situation if if had approved the minutes without a formal letter from Mayor Willie Herenton declaring his tenure to be at an end as of July 30. “We would just have had more chaos,” opined Boyd, who said he preferred to wait until the council received incontrovertible proof of the mayor’s intentions in the form of such a letter.
But Election Commission chairman Bill Giannini, who, after a brief five-minute meeting of the commission at its Shelby Farms office, informed the media that the commission was powerless to call a special election, confirmed that official minutes confirming a 7-6 vote by the council had been all the commission needed to set election dates on Tuesday.
On the question of possible litigation by Herenton or others challenging the election dates in lieu of a formal letter of the sort Boyd mentioned, Giannini said, “We don’t concern ourselves with the legal aspects. That’s beyond our purview. We would have set an election date.” Without an approved set of miniutes of the council’s Tuesday night action, “our hands were tied,” said Giannini.
Under normal circumstances, the council approves the minutes of a given meeting at the commencement of the next one, normally two weeks later.
Boyd, a participant in Tuesday night’s debate on the side of those who favored councilman Jim Strickland’s resolution in favor of “same-night minutes” approval, said he thought going ahead with same-night approval without an ironclad letter from Herenton would have given the mayor control over the outcome and an excuse to delay events even further.
Strickland, who authored the declaration of vacancy resolution and voted with five others for Reid Hedgepeth's resolution calling for same-night minutes, disagreed. “I wanted us to move to a position of certainty. Instead we allowed the situation to remain uncertain.”
Boyd said he would be in favor of a special meeting of the council to expedite the election process as soon as the council received the mayor’s letter. “[Chairman] Myrion Lowery’s out of town right now, but, as soon as he gets back, we should take it up with him.”
Comments (14)
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giannini is absolutely correct, as is brian. the council's vote tuesday was an exercise in futility.
jackson, let me ask you something: are you and john branston and the CA and most television media so tired of herenton that you will continue to WINK at the apparent improprieties involved in the council's vote tuesday?
are you so tired of herenton that you won't even raise the question of why 4 councilmen who have an obvious conflict of interest would not recuse themselves from the vote?
are you so tired of herenton that your journalistic ethics won't kick in to the point where you'll point out the ethical implications? in that 7-vote majority who passed that empty resolution tuesday you had the following: 2 declared candidates for mayor (lowery and strickland); 1 "thinking about it" candidate for mayor (kemp conrad); and a member of the so-called "mayoral transition team" (bill boyd). that's 4 votes who made that baseless decision. DO YOUR JOURNALISTIC ETHICS NOT REQUIRE YOU TO AT LEAST POINT OUT THE APPARENT ETHICAL QUANDRY???
Thank you.
KENNETH TWIGG WHALUM, JR.
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Kenneth, where have you been? Every media outlet has pointed out the same things you've justed posted. In fact most folks know the players involved have vested interests in the outcome, those who voted for and against the resolution. This is all political gamesmanship, not an ethical issue. The mayor said on tv that he's leaving at the end of the month, and we take him at his word, and move forward.
hi tom! i've been around, thanks for asking.
neither the CA, nor the Flyer, nor most television media have reported on the "apparent improprieties involved in the council's vote tuesday", and i haven't seen any of them "point out the ethical implications".
yes, it's definitely "political gamesmanship" AND it's definitely an "ethical issue".
thanks again!
KENNETH TWIGG WHALUM, JR.
Kenneth, Good luck with your campaign. BTW, I do like your stance against consolidation.
well, "38103", by my count we've had - what, a dozen or so? - elected officials go to prison over the last few years, and none were "preacher politicians".
hmm...
Thank you.
KENNETH TWIGG WHALUM, JR.
Well now that we all officially know Mr. Whalum (I'm sure completed unbiased) position, I'd like to point to the fact that every vote of any council is politically motivated, which is why its called politics. But I love that you would call the ethics card now, and not when other members of the city council, and within the mayors office itself, have engaged in such morally degrading and ethically questionable acts.
I choose to take the stance that a step, or even an attempted step, forward is a step in the right direction, and we should look at what a person can do to help this city, instead of nit picking each city council vote.
Oh great! Another God appointee running for mayor.
Is anyone taking notes? This has potential to be an all time best selling political/comedy novel!
ah, the anonymous potshots again :-)
"holly", what's an "ethics card" and in what game does it apply?
"mad", who's the "God appointee"? I certainly never claimed that distinction.
Tom, thanks so much for giving your name! Trust me, I'll ALWAYS give mine :-)
KENNETH TWIGG WHALUM, JR.
Whalum. Make your living off of old ladie's tithes if you want. Ethical my .................
Ok Mr. Whalum, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and listen to your platform/ideas/plan to get the city of Memphis back on its feet and headed in the right direction. I will say that you have quite the hill to climb because as I see it, and I'm sure a few others will also, you have been involved with the politicos in power for too long and therefore not "untainted" as some may put it. I also worry about you stamping your religious beliefs on aspects of our sectarian city government. But good luck to you and I am waiting to hear those plans!
My identity is open to those who would inquire in a non-open forum, for personal privacy and protections reason only, and not to hide my positions behind an anonymous posting.
And I seriously doubt that you are truly "in the dark" as to the hands that you are attempting to play in this political game that we are calling this special election.
I would like to concure with Mr. Mad_Merc though that once you propose a legitimate plan for change, I will be all ears.
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