The Consolidation Gambit

resh off the plane from Venice, where he and his family had been relaxing for a few days after his semi-official junket to France, Switzerland, and Italy, Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout wasted little time getting right back into the annexation/incorporation fray he had left behind some two weeks back.

Still getting his internal clock readjusted to Central Daylight Time, U.S.A., Rout did his best to play catch-up with Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, who is fast emerging as a philosophical, jurisdictional, demographic, and -- mayhap -- political rival in the affairs of Shelby County.

Speaking to the same Shelby County Commission which had given the first hearing two weeks ago to Herenton's "Formula for Fairness," Rout pronounced judgment: He welcomed the Memphis chief executive's proposal as a "beginning" but said it was "neither a formula nor is it fair." Rout pointed instead to his recently appointed 17-member Commission on Alternative Futures, which he said could offer recommendations for an alternative arrangement in Shelby County "within 120 to 150 days."

In more ways than one, it was as if Rout -- whose remarks included an extended refutation of Herenton's conclusions and figures -- hadn't left the battlefield at all. Even some supporters noted that he seemed to have picked up exactly where things left off two weeks ago. "I didn't hear anything new," conceded Commissioner Mark Norris, who added pointedly, "A number of the members of this legislative body, on both sides of the aisle, are anxious to move forward with some new initiatives."

One of those initiatives -- a call Monday for consolidated city/county government from outgoing Commissioner Pete Sisson -- was a bit of a surprise but perhaps shouldn't have been, since in his announcement some months back that he wouldn't seek reelection next year, the veteran political figure paid homage to the consolidation idea as a governmental model that still interested him. Sisson -- who once served on the old Memphis City Commission -- has a district that embraces areas in both Memphis and suburban Shelby County.

Almost as soon as Rout's presentation -- with its emphasis on recommendations from Rout's newly appointed commission -- had concluded Monday, Sisson answered the county mayor's call for questions by wondering out loud: Was there a possibility of converting that body into a joint city/county charter commission, with the aim of getting a governmental reorganization proposal on next year's election ballot?

And Sisson left no doubt what he thought that newly reorganized government should be like: "One mayor, one legislative body," with "all services" collected under a single umbrella. Sisson said he had already asked County Attorney Donnie Wilson to advise him of the mechanisms whereby a new consolidated government could be approved -- and perhaps elected -- by August 1998, at the end of next year's election cycle.

Rout's immediate response was to Sisson's suggestion that his Commission on Alternative Futures be expanded to include additional cityside representatives. He had already asked Mayor Herenton if he wanted to name some members to that commission, but got "no reply," Rout said.

As for what he called the "hue and cry" over consolidation, Rout noted that the subject had last received serious local attention more than a generation ago and repeated in substance what he had already said about consolidation in a lengthy paper released by his office after he had begun his European trip last week. That document -- a condensed version of which was published in The Commercial Appeal -- pooh-poohed the idea as secondary in importance to the concept of governmental revenue-sharing.

"That may be because since World War II, consolidation efforts have met with little success. In that time, there have been only 20 successful consolidations -- none of them in a community as large as Memphis and Shelby County -- and 100 other votes to consolidate have failed," the document released last week had said in part. (Left unsaid was the fact that one successful post-war consolidation -- uniting Nashville with surrounding Davidson County -- took place in a community that has since grown to be the size of Memphis and Shelby County.)

Later, after making some informal remarks to reporters in the conference room adjoining his offices in the county administrative building, Rout would soften his reaction to Sisson's proposal. "I don't have any real objection to consolidation. It would be fine with me if the people choose to approve it," he said.

Reaction from other quarters indicated that consolidation, as an idea worth talking about, might end up on the shelf but that its shelf-life could be enduring. "I knew it [Sisson's proposal] was coming, but I think it's outmoded," said Norris, who nevertheless offered to "listen to the argument."

Approaches to consolidation ranged across the organizational landscape, Norris noted -- all the way from the tightly integrated Metro government of Nashville/Davidson County to looser confederations like that of "UniGov," a federation of local governments in the Indianapolis area. Some concept might well work in Shelby County, said Norris, who added, "The idea of regionalization, with the county government as the organizing force, was the only thing I heard in Herenton's S.O.S. that I could relate to."

Norris, who recently stepped down as chairman of the county commission, noted that he had taken the lead in researching various "regionalization" formats and hoped to have a regional land-use proposal ready by January.

Meanwhile, Norris added, "As both Julian Bolton and Buck Wellford said, we have a responsibility to do our job. There is no disposition to defer a decision to anyone." The reference to two colleagues who often disagree philosophically and the implied rebuttal of Rout's "Alternative Futures" commission as an organ of change were both pointed.

Noting that residents of five of the proposed suburban New Towns were scheduled to vote on December 9th, Norris said, "Like it or not, there will be referenda, and people need information." He added, "I think we need to be making provisions for new players."

Like Norris, Wellford underscored the need for reaching some consensus before December 9th and, somewhat more enthusiastically than his Republican colleague, professed an openness to the consolidation idea. "[Sisson's] statement was bold, and I do favor consolidation, but the political realities might make it difficult to get a consensus. If the incorporations go forward, people have to consider consolidation as a more realistic alternative."

As he had in Monday's county commission meeting, Wellford would heartily endorse Herenton's proposals, in the "Formula for Fairness," to freeze school district lines and to offer a moratorium on further annexations by the City of Memphis. (Rout also had seemed to welcome these proposals as a basis for further discussion.)

Wellford went so far as to contend that if suburban residents voting in the incorporation referenda in December were fully informed about those freeze proposals, they would vote against creating new municipalities, as currently enabled under the eased incorporation requirements of Chapter 98, the legislation guided through the 1997 General Assembly by Lt. Gov. John Wilder of Somerville.

Whatever the results of that voting, however, Wellford was optimistic about long-term consolidation. "If we can freeze school lines and find a unitary funding source for schools, that should provide the basis for full consolidation of government," he said. Wellford urged that Herenton consider expanding the annexation-moratorium beyond its current five-year scope. "It ought to be 10 or 15 years if we really want to reassure people in the suburbs," he said.

Would such a long-term commitment be binding upon future city administrations? Wellford was asked. "Perhaps they need to formalize such a proposition within a city charter amendment. Or maybe there needs to be a judicial consent decree," he suggested.

In any case, Wellford said carefully, Herenton is "entitled" to have a fuller response to his "Formula for Fairness" proposal that was evident on Tuesday.

The Memphis mayor's response to Rout's remarks Tuesday was considerably less contentious than has characterized the sometimes vitriolic dialogue between the two chief executives of late.

In a prepared statement released late Monday by press secretary Carey Hoffman, Herenton said, "I am encouraged that Mayor Rout is willing to discuss the Formula for Fairness. It provides an equitable solution to what is now an unfair tax system. This is not a city-vs-county issue: It is about the fair and equitable treatment of all Shelby County taxpayers, 70 percent of which are Memphians." He asked that "the elected leaders of this community to come together as quickly as possible" to consider his proposal and other remedies.

(Herenton, a longtime proponent of city/county consolidation, expressed satisfaction late Monday that the idea had entered the debate on the county side of things. "I'm always encouraged when consolidation seems to be picking up support," Hoffman quoted the mayor as saying.)

Rout's essential rejection of the Herenton formula on Monday contained a point-by-point rebuttal of the Memphis mayor's argument -- by way of suggesting a lowering of city property taxes and a raising of those in suburban Shelby County -- that city taxpayers were in essence subsidizing services for county residents.

It was the other way around, said Rout. "The Herenton proposal is based on a selective interpretation of a few financial numbers in an effort to support a predetermined conclusion," he said, supplying figures of his own demonstrating that, for example, Memphis came out ahead of the county at large in the mix of taxes and services -- to the tune of some $34.4 million.

Moreover, Rout argued, Mayor Herenton's proposals left out of the accounting any reference to sales-tax revenues or federal grants -- both of which favored the city disproportionately.

Rout indicated -- obliquely during his remarks to the county commission and more directly in private -- that the city administration's current moratorium on completing sewer connections in the suburbs, imposed two months ago as a response to suburban incorporation efforts, was hurting industrial development. "This very day," he told reporters during his conference-room session with them, a "major company" had expressed concern about the freeze. (Reebok was later identified by a source as the probable company mentioned by Rout.)

It was learned this week that a number of local businessmen, together with principals in the Chamber of Commerce, will be making a concerted effort to get Mayors Herenton and Rout together in an effort to resolve their differences -- differences which at this point have led Mayor Herenton to suggest he might oppose Rout for reelection next year.

Performing a tit-for-tat in the crossing of jurisdictional boundaries, meanwhile, Rout made preparations to address this week's meeting of the Memphis City Council.

* Wellford acknowledged Monday that he might be counted among swing voters on the commission on matters relating to Mayor Herenton's "Formula for Fairness" proposal in particular and to the suburban incorporation issue in general.

Noting that Memphis has procrastinated for almost a decade in its efforts to annex the Hickory Hill area, Wellford said he was open-minded toward that area's incorporation as the city of Nonconnah but was less well-disposed toward the creation of other New Towns.

Again, with the exception of Nonconnah (which happens, perhaps not coincidentally, to lie within Wellford's district), Wellford said he was "not convinced" that the extension of infrastructure to the New Towns should be approved, as Rout pleaded Monday, by the county commission.

"I'd even want to be very sure that we're obligated by state law to provide fire and police services," Wellford said. The commissioner acknowledged that it was likely forces in the Shelby County Republican establishment were trying, as rumored, to recruit an opponent for him in next year's GOP primary, but he professed to be unconcerned.

* Gale Jones Carson, the only declared candidate for the Shelby County Democratic chairmanship so far, picked up two new endorsements Saturday during a "unity" meeting sponsored by the Shelby County Democratic Women at Willie Mitchell's Club on Beale.

State Senator Steve Cohen and Pat Spence, president of the Democratic Women, both offered Carson their support. Meanwhile, school-board member TaJuan Stout-Mitchell was said to be asking around for support as a possible Ford-faction candidate. Attorney and former chairman David Cocke may have dropped out of the running, and word is the Ford camp has selected a mystery candidate to present to Saturday's countywide Democratic convention at East High School.

* Former Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell, who took his new "God Save America" campaign Monday night to neighboring Olive Branch, where he held a rally at Broadway Baptist Church, later condemned Vice President Al Gore's recent defense of the coming-out episode on the ABC-TV program Ellen.

"It's what I would expect of somebody who could go to a Buddhist temple and raise money and pretend he didn't know he was doing it. It proves he's morally compatible with his boss, Bill Clinton," Falwell said.