As he waited for Mayor Willie Herenton to arrive at the final session of the
city council’s annual retreat earlier this year, Councilman Jack Sammons likened
the mayor’s leadership style to lobbing a grenade into
the room and closing the door.
Usually, the result is a lot of headlines and
hard feelings, but the big idea (consolidation, surrender
the city charter, appointed school board, sell MLGW,
the Formula for Fairness, raise suburban sewer fees,
etc.) goes away.
But Sammons thinks Herenton’s push for
school-system consolidation could be different. Despite
a spotty turnout of other invited public officials
at Tuesday’s Herenton presentation at City Hall,
school reform isn’t going away.
“For the first time in my career down here,
education has become an issue that people want to
talk about at cocktail parties,” said Sammons, who
has been in and out of public office for nearly 20 years.
“I hope Mayor Herenton maintains the level of
intensity this time.”
Others see the same old Herenton.
“He could pick up some allies if he
would practice a little bit of diplomacy,” said
Memphis Board of Education member Michael Hooks
Jr., one of several elected officials who found
conflicts or other reasons that kept them from attending what was supposed to be an
intergovernmental session.
Herenton was in grenade mode at Monday night’s school board meeting, delivering a letter
via finance director Joseph Lee that warned of a
possible $7.2 million cut in school funding. Board member Hubon Sandridge suggested the
mayor “has lost his mind.” Colleague Lee Brown was
“appalled,” while Wanda Halbert said she wasn’t
going to a meeting “with somebody who calls
us names on the TV.” Even Superintendent
Johnnie B. Watson said it was “devastating” to get the
letter without so much as a courtesy call from the
mayor, his old boss.
Well, too bad. School board members,
politicians, suburban mayors, and superintendents are so
yesterday. You could almost hear Herenton chuckling
that they had proven his point that they’re a bunch of
petty turf-protectors. The latest Herenton strategy
goes straight to “the people,” calling for a referendum
on abolishing the city school board and merging the
system with the county.
To get there, however, he’ll need a
favorable opinion from the state attorney general and
approval from at least one elected body,
preferably the city council in Herenton’s mind. If he can
get over those hurdles, Herenton thinks he can win
a referendum. Only city of Memphis residents would get to vote. Turnout would be higher than a
school board election because everyone would get
excited over the prospect of a property tax cut at the
expense of county residents outside the city. The
suburbanites can bawl all they want about how
bigger isn’t better. In the Herenton plan, they’re stuck
with it. The all-white county school board goes
away, and the new nine-member board is stacked 6-3
in favor of the city.
Audacious? Maybe. But Herenton has come a long, long way from 1991 when he was first
elected with exactly two prominent white people —
attorney Richard Fields and liberal minister Harry Moore — at his side. Now he has solid white
support and more black support than the Ford,
Hooks, or Bailey clans.
He beat Dick Hackett. He outlasted Jim Rout.
And he can rightly and righteously note that city
government doesn’t have any scandals. He beat various
Fords. He beat professional Herenton nag Pete Sisson.
He brought Mike Tyson to town and made it work. He rebuffed minority contractors on the arena and made their
protest look foolish. He backed Republican Lamar Alexander
over Democrat Bob Clement and stood on his victory platform
with him. He made an in-your-face presentation on schools to A
C Wharton and others at the New Year’s prayer breakfast.
Consolidation won’t solve the problems of public
education. Two systems aren’t wasteful or embarrassing. Half-empty
city schools are wasteful. Unaudited bus routes and free-lunch
programs are wasteful. Overpriced school buildings are
wasteful. School-security directors with gun problems and principals
who cheat on standardized tests and daily newspapers that
create “legends” like Gerry House and Dr. Lirah Sabir are
embarrassing. A unified system won’t fix any of that.
There will be political casualties, with or without a
referendum. Some of them are former Herenton allies and
colleagues. Watson is retiring at the end of the year.
His financial assistant, Roland McElrath, is already
gone. Two of the most controversial school board
members, Chairman Carl Johnson and Sara Lewis, go back
decades with Herenton.
In his own office, spokeswoman Gale
Jones Carson, chair of the Shelby County
Democratic Party, faces a likely challenge to her leadership
at the April convention from a Ford-backed
candidate, probably state Rep. Lois DeBerry or state
Rep. Kathryn Bowers.
“If they can put me out, it’s a slap at the mayor,”
said Carson.
Maybe. But it will take more than a slap to
knock down this mayor.