Tuesday, October 06, 2009

CONSOLIDATION WATCH: Wharton proposes Charter Commission choices

The City of Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission have each adopted actions to create a “Charter Commission” to consider a Consolidation Charter (probably the “Metro” type of government consolidation).

The first step is for the County Mayor to appoint 10 members of the Charter Commission and then the Memphis City Mayor appoint 5 members to create a 15 member Charter Commission.

Shelby County Mayor AC Wharton has proposed the following members:

-Rufus Washington (representing unincorporated Shelby County)

-Chris Patterson (Germantown)

-J.W. Gibson (Shelby County Commissioner, but representing Memphis)

-Andrew Fowlkes (Representing Memphis)

-Julie Ellis (Representing Memphis)

-Lou Etta Burkins (Representing unincorporated Shelby County)

-Linda Kerley (Representing Collierville, former Collierville Mayor)

-Richard Hodges (Representing Millington, Mayor of Millington)

Bill Orgel (Representing Memphis)

Randolph Wallace
(Representing Memphis)

The Memphis City Mayor appoints five members of the Charter Commission.

Assuming the Memphis City Mayor appoints all Memphis residents, the Charter Commission would have ten members appointing Memphis and only five people who don’t live in Memphis, or represent Memphis in some way.

City personnel or a Lakeland resident intend to attend every meeting of the “Charter Commission”, take notes and write a summary of the Charter Commission meeting so Lakeland residents can be aware of what is going on. (Note that no representatives were appointed from Lakeland, Arlington or Bartlett.)

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