Mayor Herenton's lucrative relationship with a Canadian would-be casino company and an Ohio consultant demands answers.
The bottom line is that Sungold Gaming International gave Herenton both a board membership and , risk free, stock options potentially worth $700,000. That's a lot of money. We think the reason Sungold wanted the mayor aboard was for respectability, window-dressing, and possible political influence in Tennessee or other places. But we would like to hear the mayor's side of the story.
The link between Herenton and Sungold is Robert L. Green, an adjunct professor at Case Western University in Cleveland and an old Herenton friend. Green has been the recipient of at least two city contracts since introducing Herenton to Sungold.
Those relationships demand full disclosure. Instead, Herenton has refused to answer questions and last week tried to intimidate a Flyer reporter who asked him about Green and Sungold. Wrapping himself in virtue, the mayor said he would only take questions about last week's conference on urban problems that Green helped organize.
What skills does Green provide that cannot be provided by the mayor's own staff or by professionals at the University of Memphis? And what is the origin of the whole Green-Herenton-Sungold relationship?
Unfortunately, City Attorney Monice Hagler seems to interpret her job as representing the interests of Willie Herenton rather than the citizens of Memphis and the City Charter. That is one more reason why the press, public, and City Council should demand answers, not evasion, from Mayor Herenton.
Beyond that, Herenton should sever his ties to Sungold and give his windfall profits to the city Treasury. Far-fetched, you say? All right, does anyone think for one minute that Herenton would have been asked to be on that board if he were not mayor? Or that mayors Loeb, Chandler, Hackett, Morris, or Rout could possibly have gotten away with this?
It's becoming increasingly clear that Mayor Herenton thinks he can do pretty much what he wants to without political risk so long as the alternative is Harold Ford. A potentially great mayor, unfortunately, is acting like a greedy, secretive, and imperial autocrat.
We have made no secret of the reservations we harbor regarding the Houston Oilers' temporary relocation in Memphis. All along, our primary focus has been this: The leadership of this city has an obligation to insure that no short-term deal with the Oilers is detrimental to the University of Memphis football program.
It's bad enough that the Oilers want us to pay their travel expenses to and from Nashville. It's bad enough that they care so little about Memphis that they won't even stay overnight here. But the heart of the problem is the simple fact that Bud Adams' nomadic team gets a sweetheart deal -- including all parking, concessions, skybox, and ticket revenue, while our hometown team, the Liberty Bowl's primary tenant since it was built in 1964, gets none of that.
How ironic that we seem willing to subsidize Nashville's NFL team, at the same time as state government has found it necessary to cut more than $4 million from the University of Memphis operating budget. Fiscal constraints didn't stop state government from putting $80 million into the construction of a Nashville stadium for the Oilers.
When will we wake up? Our civic leadership has once again displayed its willingness to do anything, however foolish, to "get" a professional football team. We've learned nothing from the past; evidently, whenever the NFL calls, however temporarily, common sense and dignity still go by the boards.