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April 24, 2006 If you want a good example of what is interesting about the Herenton Administration, you need to go no further than the contract awards given to companies represented by close associates of the Mayor, Reginald French and Darrell K. Thomas. By the way, both are running for public office in the August 3, 2006 elections, French for the job of Sheriff and Thomas for the Charter Commission. While all these contracts and dealings may be perfectly legal, the taxpayers need to know the facts of the cases. These kinds of contracts need to be posted on the internet before they are bid, then publicly bid, bids opened in public and awards made to the best and lowest without fear or favor. The charter commission, with the proper people elected, could institute just such a provision insuring public integrity. It all started in the fall of 2000 when the City decided to outsource their computer and telecommunications services. This could involve as much as $70 million or more so naturally the friends of the Mayor got interested. There were three companies chosen from an initial field of 17 which were • ACS (Affiliated Computer Services, Dallas Texas) • EDS (Electronic Data Systems, Dallas, Texas) • SCT (Systems and Computer Technology, Malvern, Pa.) The length of the contract was estimated to be from 5 to 7 years by Roland McElrath, then Director of Division of Finance and Administration. The story twists and turns due to a number of factors. • SCB Computer Technology, a Germantown Company, had a $468,000 contract to help choose the outsourcing firm but was involved in various legal problems such as its own admission of overstating earnings and lawsuits alleging stockholders were defrauded. • A new evaluation committee was selected including McElrath, CAO Rick Masson (now chairman of the MLGW board and the Riverfront Development Board), City Councilman Tom Marshall and several other current and former employees of the Mayor. Click here to read all about this in a Memphis Flyer article In late 2000, just prior to the City awarding the IT outsourcing contract, Reginald French purchased Associated Softworks (ASW) from Ronald Jung for roughly $100,000 and Jung is now suing French claiming French funneled company money to start a new IT firm called Integrate Technologies. • The City awarded Systems and Computer Technology (SCT) an IT outsourcing contract for $41 million in November 2000, which would be purchased by ACS six months later. • Four months after the contract award to SCT, ASW was awarded a subcontract to the City through SCT. Since then Associated Softworks has been changed to Integrate Technologies. • Reginald French’s company (ASW) landed the subcontract only six months after he originally purchased the company, not bad for a former City employee with little computer training. • Integrate Technologies currently does “professional services” business with the City of Memphis through ACS. Professional service contracts under the city procurement policy is not required to be bid. Another interesting fact is that recently, ACS was awarded a lucrative ambulance billing contract with the City, however the Company is currently under investigation for bribery charges regarding a traffic camera system in Canada. Click here to read the traffic camera story. While there have been several figures thrown out as to how much the City is truly spending on this contract, Watchdog has discovered an article where Harvey Braswell, ACS’s president of government outsourcing stated the contract is worth about $16 million annually over a period of 7 years for a grand total of $112 million. That is $50 million more than the most liberal estimate by the City. This was shortly after ACS purchased SCT in mid 2001. Click here to read the article. Another close associate of the Mayor is Darrell K. Thomas. Thomas, who is running for the Charter Commission, was recently the beneficiary of several contracts with the MLGW and the MLGW associated Memphis Networx. Click here to read about the $1.4 million MLGW contract for Thomas,item 21. Click here to read about the $1.9 million MLGW contract for Thomas, item 22. Click here to read about Thomas and MLGW associated Networx and Nextel products. Click here to read about the Thomas contract worth $1 million with Shelby County, item 11. These associations and dealings raise lots of questions and the voting public and the taxpaying public should be very wary of all these interconnected relationships where friends of the Mayor get very lucrative contracts. Our advice is hold on to your wallets and purses.  March 21, 2006 My name is Joe Saino and I have been active in open records requests in Memphis and Shelby County. After filing a suit in Chancery Court in February of 2005 as a result of a refusal to open the records of the City of Memphis, I have been able to get many records that needed to be reported to the public. I have been regularly reporting the results of these open records requests on memphiswatchdog.org. In my opinion, nothing is more important in keeping politicians and governmental bodies honest than good ethics laws and open records laws. I hope that local and state governments will propose strong ethics laws that apply statewide and also apply to local governments such as Memphis and Shelby County. However politicians hate tough ethics standards and tough sunshine laws. Concerning open records laws I have some proposals based on real world experience that I think should be part of any ethics and open records proposals. a) Local government units and boards should be required to post on the internet the following basic information and be required to keep it up to date. These postings will cut down on the number of open records requests. • Names, job titles, salaries, benefits, job descriptions, pension information such as years of completed pension service. • All contracts and bidding results on those contracts should be posted and payments based on those contracts should be posted. This would include HCD and MHA contracts and personal service contracts. • Audits of governmental units and pension plans should be posted. • Personnel policies, pension rules and job postings should be posted. • Pilots granted should be posted and all active Pilots and dates that they end should be posted. • All studies and outside governmental recommendations should be posted. • All agendas, minutes and ordinances should be posted. b) The person requesting the information should have the option to get the information in an electronic form (on a disc or email) if the documents that are presented to be reviewed came from a computer. If the documents are not in an electronic form, then the cost of the copy should be the same as any office supply shop (currently 6 to 8 cents per copy for an 8-1/2 x 11 black single sided copy) and the governmental unit should not be able to set any price they choose. (They are currently charging 25 cents to 1.25 per copy). They currently refuse to furnish it in an electronic form even though it is obvious that the offered copies come from a computer printout. The disc cost, if offered, should be the raw cost of the disc and not include labor and research. (See a recent email from Brian Kuhn, the Shelby County Attorney to see their attitude concerning this subject). c) Email records are increasingly important and should be made available on a disc with the same cost provision as above. Rules should be set to prevent destruction of email. d) Police records are a problem in Memphis and Shelby County as the police department is very hostile to records requests and require a front end fee before they will do anything. They should be subject to the same rules as any other unit of government. e) The requested records should be provided in a timely manner and this should be made specific with a maximum of one month from the date of request. f) Penalties should be harsh for a refusal to provide the records if the refusal requires the person asking for the records to file suit. It is apparent today that newspapers and TV media do not have the resources to do the research necessary to turn up governmental waste and fraud and it is up to the citizens through strong open records laws to take up the slack and to prevent further Tennessee Waltz type incidents. Governments generally like to operate in darkness. Taxpaying citizens want sunshine and transparency. Click here to read emails back and forth in order to get public records from Shelby County Government and they are one of the best in this regard. March 17, 2006 There is a new hotel and parking garage going in between Beale Street and the FedEx Arena and guess who is in the middle of the deal. You guessed it, John Elkington. And the taxpayers and the City of Memphis still have not received one cent from Performa (Elkington’s company) and we still have not received one complete quarterly or annual report since the original contract (1982) or one cent in revenue from Beale Street. Also no copies of independent audits on Performa. Elkington obviously continues to prosper as shown by these contracts. We post below parts of two contracts covering the hotel and the garage. The hotel contract is between Performa Entertainment Real Estate Inc, a Tennessee corporation (“Performa”), Senate Hotel Partners Memphis, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Senate”), and the City of Memphis, Tennessee (the “City”. Beale Street Development Corporation (“Beale”) joins in this Sublease for the purposes set forth in the contract. The hotel is to be a Westin Hotel. The garage contract is between Performa Entertainment Real Estate, Inc, a Tennessee corporation (“Performa”), Lee’s Landing Garage, LLC, a Tennessee limited liability company (“Garage Owner”), and the City of Memphis, Tennessee (the “City”). We have on file the full contracts on these deals but to recap here are the essential parts. On the Hotel contract, Performa/Elkington will receive a brokerage commission as set forth in the contract in section 68 shown below. They get a cut of the monthly gross sales. On the garage contract Performa/Elkington will receive a Developer’s Fee that is contractual in nature exclusively between Performa/Elkington and the owner of the leasehold interest in the garage. Presumably Elkington will be a developer and co-owner of the garage. All of this flows from the 1982 sublease agreement between Beale Street Development Corporation and Elkington. Some deal for the taxpayers. Also shown below are two interesting documents uncovered by watchdog. One is an internal audit by the City’s internal auditor in 1992. It points out the many failings of BSDC. Nothing was done about these failings. The other document is a 1993 letter from a law firm to the Accounting Department of the City of Memphis and two accounting firms hired by the City of Memphis. Note the hand written memos on the covering letter to Ricky Wilkins. Also note that it includes a financial report dated 12/31/92 showing a profit of $235,000 but still no payment to the City. The only recent financial report we have seen shows a loss after nine months in 2005 after Elkington said that things were going very well on Beale Street. They are going well, for Elkington. Click here to see parts of the terms of the hotel agreement. Click here to see parts of the terms of the garage agreement. Click here to see the internal City of Memphis audit about beale street development corp. Click here to see the Ricky Wilkins letter and hand written notes about the beale street profit and how it will be used. March 1, 2006 Recently I was sent a copy of a memo from the Memphis Area Career Center Staff that was addressed to just about everybody including Harold Ford Jr., the Memphis City Council, the Mayor and everybody else they could think of. It was a very confusing complaint about the management of WIN/MACC. Confused? Me too. It took me awhile to figure out what WIN/MACC was. Workforce Investment Network/Memphis Area Career Center. I am just getting into this bureaucratic mess but I want to know what it costs and what are the results. It sounds like a typical scheme to create jobs for bureaucrats and cronies but lets give them the benefit of doubt. I will ask for the information in an open records request. In the meantime, look at the complaint shown below and if you can understand what is going on, you are better than I am. And what are we paying these people? • Isaac Garrett, Director Executive/WIN $91,729.04 • Alice Poston, Mgr-Career Ctr Systems/WIN 64,252.24 Listed right next to Mr. Garrett on the City of Memphis salary sheet we obtained earlier last year is Marie Milan, at $91,729.04. She is Director-Executive/YO (youth opportunity) Now we know where some of the workforce development specialists are working. YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK. Here is what their website says. It sounds like remedial services for stuff that should have been taught in our failed school system. The center was established as a result of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 passed by Congress. Previously, customers wanting services from programs such as Unemployment Insurance, Title1, Job Service, Veteran Services, Adult Basic Education, Vocational Rehab, Department of Human Services, and Title V had to seek those services from several providers at multiple locations. The Memphis Area Career Center integrates the resources and activities of these programs into a streamlined system. The Center is a way of reinventing government services so that employers and job seekers an get better, more comprehensive service in one place, without having to navigate a bureaucratic maze of programs and services. The purpose of MACC is to provide a comprehensive Career Center system that offers a variety of services to individuals and employers throughout the greater Memphis area and Fayette County. Customers who benefit are employers seeking employees and anyone interested in finding a job or upgrading to another job. Click here to see the complaint concerning deviant workplace behavior and work ethics of the executive director. Click here to go to the Memphis Area Career Center website and look at the board. Click here to see the bureaucratic plan to justify this activity. January 24, 2006 Here is another email from our financial guru commenting on the recent proclamation from Roland McElrath (the director of finance for Memphis) that he has a solution for our financial problems. Thanks,Bill, for this incisive analysis. There was a recent CA article headlined “City reveals plan to cut debt”. This shows how inept and incapable they are in addressing financial matters. The City should have been constantly monitoring their debt, and "swapping" it out as rates and conditions indicate. I have no idea why this was considered "newsworthy"??? It is, or should be, "business as usual" balance sheet management. This has absolutely nothing to do with "balancing the budget" and the budget deficits, excepting of course any (relatively minor) interest expense savings. The budget deficits are the result of the continuing mismanagement of the City's financial affairs which causes operating expenses to regularly exceed revenues. The only way to balance the budget is to increase revenues or reduce expenses. This "event" qualifies as neither. I notice the article touted a $521,000 "savings" to the city as a result of the refinancing. Although a relatively minor point, I doubt if that is the case ... maybe interest expense will be lower next year, BUT they also extended the life of the debt from six to nine years. Total interest for the bonds likely increased. I like the term "cash flow relief" .... just indicates a financial crisis, and a temporary deferral of principal payments. Again, has nothing to do with the recurring operating budget deficits. I have no idea why the City Council doesn't push hard for some answers to the many outstanding issues that memphiswatchdog.org has raised that would easily eliminate the deficit situation. (400 appointed, underpowered cronies in "make work" jobs; Linebarger contract; PILOT program; Elkington / Performa contract; etc, ... etc). The inaction is absolutely disgusting! Watchdog has provided the Mayor and the City Council with a "punchlist" on the website, on how to eliminate the budget problem ... and, they continue to sit around scratching their heads wondering what to do. WFF January 23, 2006 Recently I heard the Mayor present his state of the City speech at the Rotary Club. It excelled in platitudes and promises but this it what you have come to expect the year before an election. Remember 2002? What he did not touch on and no one asked in the two allowed questions were the following subjects. • The lunch was held in the Cannon Center, part of the new Convention Center which was supposed to cost $47 million and which ended up costing $106.5 million. $59.5 million down the drain. • Memphis Area Transportation Authority built the three trolley systems with $10.9 million in City money (plus federal and state money) and loses $3.4 million per year. $3.4 million down the drain. • Herenton gave his buddies at Linebarger law firm the contract to collect unpaid taxes at 20% commission when Bob Patterson offered to do it for 2%. $5 million down the drain. • Herenton and the City Council are currently building the Beale Street Landing Project which is completely unneeded and unwanted (except by downtown and beale street interests). The City portion of this is $19 million, down the drain. • The City Council with Herenton’s approval spent $6.5 million on the Whitehaven and Riverside golf courses and club houses (at the insistence of Tajuan Stout Mitchell and Edmund Ford) and now these two courses are closed and not likely to reopen. $6.5 million down the drain. • Herenton has 281 appointed positions more than is allowed by the City Charter but the City Council has approved this excess. 112 of these people make a total of $5 million per year and have 8 years or less of service. By laying them off, we could save the $5 million and keep them for getting on the January 2001 pension retirement program for elected and appointed positions, saving over time another $43 million. • The Herenton Administration has not collected 1 cent from John Elkington and Performa Entertainment (Beale Street Development Corporation) since 1982 and no satisfactory explanation or audits have been done and no required full quarterly and annual reports have been made public. Add another $10 to $20 million down the drain. We could go on and on with the failures of the Herenton Administration but I think you get the point. We desperately need a change starting with the Charter Commission in August of 2006 and voting the Mayor and the majority of the City Council out in October of 2007. Don’t believe the Mayor’s phony promises given just before elections.  THE PORK BARREL REVISITED
January 17, 2006 In view of the Mayor saying that the budget deficit of the last three years was an aberration, I decided to go out and look at two projects that the pork loving City Council and the City did in the last few years, the Whitehaven golf course and the Riverside golf course. I have reprinted below an earlier article posted on the park department portion of this website along with the pictures taken last Friday. Both of these courses are closed and not likely to reopen and we have $6 milliion dollars down the drain due to the City Council, the Mayor and particularly Tajuan Stout Mitchell and Edmund Ford. City Council Pork Barrel Since no city council seats are elected city-wide any more, each council member concerns himself/herself primarily with what is good for the district in which each is elected. It makes it easier for them to get re-elected. As a result, council members divvy up pork barrel projects for each one’s district with little regard to real city needs. Here are some recent examples of poor use of taxpayer money to benefit individual council members. • Whitehaven Golf Center $4 million for a golf course nobody will play plus $700,000 a year to maintain it. When the city council eliminated the Memphis Park Commission they said it was because the citizen-board disregarded the council priority list for park projects. One such project was the board’s refusal to rebuild the recently purchased Whitehaven Country Club property into a city golf course, as desired by council woman Tajuan Stout Mitchell. The board refused to do so because the $200,000 master plan for Memphis parks submitted by the park board (and approved earlier by the city council) called for that property to be turned into a multi-use, neighborhood park to replace McKellar Park, which had been sold to the airport authority. Outside experts who prepared the master plan recommended against any new city-owned golf facilities. The council approved the golf center in Ms. Mitchell’s district and allocated more than $4 million for a nine-hole golf course and community building. The parks division has included $700,000 in next year’s operating budget for maintenance and operation of the facility. After revenue from operations, this new center should place an additional half-million dollars a year burden on the city’s operating budget. When one former councilman was asked why it was approved, he answered, “Oh, we just had to give Tajuan her four million dollars.” • Riverside Golf Clubhouse $1.5 million for a “Taj Mahal” at a little-played golf facility After Mitchell got “her $4 million” for Whitehaven Golf Center, Councilman Edmund Ford then demanded a new clubhouse for Riverside Golf Course in his district, and the council, of course, approved. A new $1.5 million, 5,000-square-foot club house and snack bar will open soon at Riverside.That is more than twice the size of the clubhouse at the 18-hole golf course of the most expensive private country club in Memphis. Maintenance and operating costs, which already exceed revenue at Riverside, will now go up annually for taxpayers.    January 11, 2006 THIS MUST BE THE YEAR BEFORE AN ELECTION AS THE MAYOR IS PROMISING NO TAX INCREASE Yesterday I heard the Mayor present his state of the City speech at the Rotary Club. It excelled in platitudes and promises but this it what you have come to expect the year before an election. Remember 2002? What he did not touch on and no one asked in the two allowed questions were the following subjects. • The lunch was held in the Cannon Center, part of the new Convention Center which was supposed to cost $47 million and which ended up costing $106.5 million. $59.5 million down the drain. • Memphis Area Transportation Authority (MATA) built the three trolley systems with $10.9 million in City money (plus federal and state money) and loses $3.4 million per year. $3.4 million down the drain. • Herenton gave his buddies at Linebarger law firm the contract to collect unpaid taxes at 20% commission when Bob Patterson offered to do it for 2%. $5 million down the drain. • Herenton and the City Council are currently building the Beale Street Landing Project which is completely unneeded and unwanted (except by downtown and beale street interests). The City portion of this is $19 million, down the drain. • The City Council with Herenton’s approval spent $6.5 million on the Whitehaven and Riverside golf courses and club houses (at the insistence of Tajuan Stout Mitchell and Edmund Ford) and now these two courses are closed and not likely to reopen. $6.5 million down the drain. • Herenton has 281 appointed positions more than is allowed by the City Charter but the City Council has approved this excess. 112 of these people make a total of $5 million per year and have 8 years or less of service. By laying them off we could save the $5 million and keep them for getting on the January 2001 pension retirement program for elected and appointed officials, saving over time another $43 million. • The Herenton Administration has not collected 1 cent from John Elkington and Performa Entertainment (Beale Street Development Corporation) since 1982 and no satisfactory explanation or audits have been done and no required full quarterly and annual reports have been made public. Add another $10 to $20 million loss as a guess since they will not pursue this lease. We could go on and on with the failures of the Herenton Administration but I think you get the point. We desperately need a change starting with the Charter Commission in August of 2006 and voting the Mayor and the majority of the City Council out in October of 2007. Don’t believe these phony promises given just before elections. December 13, 2005 MAYOR'S CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER SUED FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT In a startling development, memphiswatchdog has been furnished public documents that show that Robert Lipscomb, Mayor Herenton’s selection for his chief financial officer to bail the Mayor out of his worsening financial situation and head of the Memphis Housing Authority, has been sued in Federal Court for sex discrimination and harassment, oppression and retaliation charges to the tune of $2 million dollars. We have provided below the complaint and the time line of the various filings. We make no judgment as to the validity of the charges, but this is something that the public needs to know and to consider along with all the other ethical failings of the Herenton administration. It is something to consider who would pay if the plaintiff was successful in his suit. Would the taxpayers of Memphis be responsible for this charge and its consequences? Click here to read the complaint against Robert Lipscomb and the Memphis Housing Authority. Click here to read the time line document of the suit against Robert Lipscomb and the Memphis Housing Authority. November 7, 2005 The story of Ricky Wilkins get more bizarre and the irresponsibility of our political leadership become more apparent as we get more information due to open records requests. We just received a correction letter from Sara Hall, the City Attorney, as shown below. In the letter she states that Ricky Wilkins, a close political associate of Mayor Herenton and a favorite lawyer used by the City, has received over $1 million dollars to represent the City and the County concerning the law suit about the Cook Convention Center. In addition to this, Less, Getz and Lipman, another Herenton favorite law firm, received at least $390,000 from September 1, 2004 to October 2005 in the Cook Convention Center matter. At the end of this the City and County agreed to pay Clark Construction over $10 million to settle. What a deal. Click here to see how much it pays to know and help support Mayor Herenton and what it is costing you in taxes. October 25, 2005 We keep harping on why the City has received not one cent from Beale Street and John Elkington since 1982 when the lease was signed. Where are the quarterly and annual reports and where is the $265,000 City authorized audit that the Mayor does not think we should see? Here is what we know to date. Two open records requests have been filed, one by Mr. Will Gotten to Sara Hall, the City Attorney, and one by memphiswatchdog.org to Mr. John Elkington. Mr. Gotten has heard from Ms. Hall that some of the reports were in the hands of an attorney, Ricky Wilkins and he was out of town. Mr. Saino first heard from Mr. Elkington that he filed all the reports required with the City and that I was free to come down to his office and see the reports even though he said that he was not subject to the open records law. I took him up on his invitation to visit and he said that he needed a few days to get the information from his accountant. Within a few days I got a letter from his attorney which is shown in an attached pdf file. There can be no doubt that since Beale has received millions of public dollars, that they are subject to the open records law. Also the City is dragging its feet on responding to Mr. Gotten’s requests. The question is WHY? What are they hiding? Here is a sample of past statements from articles in the Commercial Appeal concerning Beale Street and Elkington and Keltner (now Performa Entertainment Real Estate, Inc.). In a 1985 article in the CA, it was reported that some restaurants and shops in the Beale Street Historic District have been unable to repay loans from a special fund set up with public money. Six businesses have received loans totaling $490,000. A seventh loan for $150,000 has been approved for a company that isn’t sure yet what kind of business it will have on Beale Street or who will operate it. The loan fund is administered by the Tennessee Valley Center for Minority Economic Development which got $1 million in deferral money. Also in a 1985 article it was reported that the $12 million Phase I development is nearing completion. In 1986 John Willingham said that he will open a World’s Champion Bar-B-Que restaurant on Beale Street. Willingham is now a county commissioner. In a 1988 article in the CA, here are some of the financial dealings that were listed. Leader Federal sued the company for defaulting on a $75,000 promissory note. It has been paid off. Citibank was seeking $369,000 it claims was unpaid on a $1.35 million loan. The suit was still pending at the time of the article. The Department of Housing and Urban Development helped Elkington get a $2.89 million loan in 1986 for development of Hidden Woods, a 98-acre tract on Covington Pike. Advertising executive John Malmo sued for $81,642 filing in 1986. A countersuit was filed. And there were many other actions at that time. In March of 1992, Herenton hired Ricky Wilkins, attorney Charles Newman and two accounting firms to review Beale Street operations and suggest strategies for its future. In October of 1994 Herenton said that he had no audit to share after the City spent $276,123.00 dollars and 2-1/2 years on audits. Herenton said he was satisfied that nothing was amiss financially. Relations are said to be cordial on both sides now, and Elkington says he informs the mayor directly about the Beale Street plans and operation. In a 1993 Ca article, the following was stated. “Elkington’s company, Beale Street Management, has a 52 year contract to manage the city owned district and lease space to tenants. The management company is entitled to 10.5% of the gross rental income, 5% leasing commission, a fee to administer the common area maintenance and a portion of the parking revenue. According to the 1992 budget submitted by the management company to the city, those fees amounted to $113,606. After 19 years, Beale Street manager John Elkington is ready to pay the city its share of profits from clubs, shops and restaurants in the popular downtown entertainment district. The amount for 2001 could reach $400,000, Elkington said, based on the $240,000 collected so far this year. Despite the long wait for income from Beale Street, city officials have let Elkington hold onto the dough for six months while matters remain unsettled with the third party owed money - the Beale Street Development Corp. On Wednesday, General Services deputy director Darrell Eldred said he will be instructing Elkington by letter to put money into an escrow account, where it will wait until BSDC's future is clear. "Funds he has identified as the excess profits from the street will be transferred to that account pending our resolution of the Beale Street Development leadership dispute," Eldred said. Private developer John Elkington, who sublet the management rights from Beale Street Development Corp., keeps the profits once he pays expenses connected to his company's management of the district. Last year, the profits totaled $131,486. We demand that the missing reports and the withheld audit be made public and we demand that the City collect the money due the taxpayers of the City of Memphis. Click here to see Will Gotten's open records request to the City concerning Beale Street information. Click here to see the letter from Elkington's lawyer in response to an open records request. October 13, 2005 As you pick up your morning paper or possibly you heard it on the news last night, Janet Hooks has resigned from the City Council and is taking the position of Director of Multicultural and Religious Affairs. Talk about a useless high paid job, this is the posterboy of jobs that goes throughout the Herenton administration. Narquenta Sims used to have this job and we have not heard where she is now going. The Mayor raised this job substantially last year and it is currently paying $74,263 annually. To this you can add 40 to 50 percent benefits. Please note that Ms. Sims, since she is in an appointed position, can retire based on the current salary under the January 2001 pension resolution and so can Ms. Hooks if she serves a year in the slot. This is what you current City Council voted for and it is costing millions, millions that we do not have. Ms. Hooks can be long remembered for her saying in City Council meetings that we do not have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem. This is further evidence that we need to replace the Mayor and the majority of the City Council before we can bring any semblance of fiscal discipline to this City. Also read below a recent article written by Carol Chumney. Click here to see what Carol Chumney has to say about the fiscal incompetence of the Herenton administration. October 17, 2005 Recently in an open records request to the City Attorney we asked for the following information. I want to inspect the documents and records that show the amount of payments from 1992 to the present time from the City of Memphis for legal services or for other services to Mr. Ricky Wilkins and Mr. Robert Spence. This would include but not necessarily be limited to the Lottery, the Convention Center, MLGW bonds or FedEx bonds and other matters. The answer gives great encouragement to struggling young lawyers. The partial answer I received is Spence received $310,912.44 from 4/1/04 to 7/1/05. Ricky Wilkins received $472,703.03 from 9/16/03 to 8/31/05. They are still compiling what was paid to the law firm of Burch, Porter when he worked there. In addition to this, look at what he got on the convention center dispute. Here is a portion of a letter from Sara Hall, the City Attorney. “Beginning July 1, 2004, the City and County entered into a flat monthly legal fee arrangement as to defense of the City in the Cook Convention Center litigation and all payments were made to Less, Getz & Lipman. Under this arrangement, Ricky Wilkins received $30,000 monthly from the flat amount paid to Less, Getz & Lipman for his representation of the City and County in this case.” Do the math. $30,000/month times 12 months equals $360,000/year. What a deal. Mr. Spence was the former City Attorney. Let us not forget that Spence, in his capacity as city attorney, signed off on the FedExForum deal, non-compete clause and all. Wilkins has close ties to the Mayor as his former campaign manager. We have earlier reported on Allan Wade, the attorney for the City Council and his additional private practice. They are all doing very well at the tax payer’s expense. Click here to see what legal services are costing the tax payers and who gets the benefits. Also check out the sweet deal Robert Lipscomb is getting in his dual jobs. October 4, 2005 There was a recent editorial in the Commercial Appeal (September 20, 2005) which asked questions about the proposed light rail system which has been proposed by the Herenton Administration and the current City Council. The 2006 Capital Improvement Budget has $280 million dollars between 2007 and 2010 already listed for the light rail system. Whether a light rail system is right for Memphis and Shelby County is something that needs to be discussed in light of the high gas prices that the USA is currently experiencing and is likely to continue in the future. But there can be little doubt that a light rail system between the airport and downtown Memphis makes no sense at all. A light rail system between Germantown and/or Collierville and downtown might or might not make sense. But no one could make a reasonable case for a system between the airport and downtown except the downtown interests who own property there. I would make a guess that 80% or more of the people going to and from the airport do not come to or from downtown. And then there is the question of the cost of running and maintaining the system after it is installed and we have gotten all those Federal and State dollars that the City Council loves to tout. Well just look at the MATA trolley system which cost the City over $10 million dollars (and an overall cost of $104.5 million dollars) and is currently losing $3.5 million dollars each year. It is time we take the Herenton Administration and the current City Council to task and make them see the light of day and where their CIP projects are leading this financially strapped City. Joseph N. Saino September 27, 2005 We received a call from the City Attorney last Thursday and we appreciate the call. The City Attorney is honest and competent and is following the law to the best of her ability. She has been courteous and prompt in reply to our open records requests. She called to inform memphiswatchdog about the new revision to the Linebarger contract for the collection of delinquent taxes. We initially got a copy of the Linebarger contract and published it. We published the fact that the City of Memphis paid or owed Linebarger $5.5 million dollars in commissions (19% to 20% of the money collected) whereas Bob Patterson, the County Trustee, was willing to do the job for 2% or about $500,000 on the same amount collected. Then Ms. Hall, the City Attorney, renegotiated the contract and got Linebarger to kick back $1.5 million and make some other concessions. She tried to explain to us that is was a win/win situation. Frankly I listened politely but we were not convinced. She said that it is still possible that Mr. Patterson may be given the contract in the future. But then we went on to question her about the Beale Street Development Contract and the supposedly missing quarterly and annual reports. As you may remember her words in item 4 to Mr. Will Gotten’s open records request were as follows. 4. Question. All annual, semi-annual or quarterly accountings of gross funds received and/or expenses deducted, which is determinative of the rent the city has received or is currently receiving for the rental of the demised property. Answer: Since the City has not received any funds, there are no accountings of funds received. We assumed that that answer meant that they had not received any quarterly or annual reports. WRONG!! The City has received some, if not all of the reports, and she is checking to see if they have all of them and also the Audit that the Mayor has withheld and will provide them ASAP. But that still begs the question of why the City has not received any money and have all of these reports been audited by an independent auditor. The biggest failing of the Herenton administration is the lack of oversight and independent auditing of the millions of dollars flowing through their sticky hands. There are still many answers to come. September 22, 2005 Pilots and Exempt Property in Memphis Mayor Herenton has come up with yet another financial plan to save Memphis. He has brought in some of his financial wizards, Robert Lipscomb from Housing and Community Development and Roland McElrath from the Memphis Housing Authority. Mr. Lipscomb heads a department that somehow put Councilman Ricky Peete's Grandmother at the head of a very crowded H.A.R.P. program and is building her a new house at the taxpayers expense. Mr. McElrath retired from the City finance department under the January 2001 pension resolution and went to the Memphis School System where he participated in the infamous SchoolTran contract and then left there after several years and went to the Memphis Housing Authority. Now the Mayor has come up with a familiar basket of solutions, one of which is to establish committees to review the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) program. Well we have plenty of information on this program and we will show you below everything you need to know about this outrageous and unfair program. What it amounts to is this. The homeowners pay and almost everyone else gets a pass. We have done extensive investigations and we show below the facts on this program. We list below four spreadsheets. The first one is from the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasurer, State Board of Equalization of the State of Tennessee. The report is called IDB/H&ED Report, 2004 Summary. This shows the PILOTS for each county in Tennessee for 2004. What it shows for Shelby is that we gave away in 2004 $54.5 millions dollars in PILOTS in Memphis and Shelby County. Nashville and Davidson County gave away $675,000 dollars. When you look at the list you will see who is getting the benefit of this largess. Maybe some of it is justified but not this huge giveaway to the well connected and the powerful who back the current local politicians. We have also posted information from 2003 supplied by Bob Patterson, the Shelby County Trustee. One shows the Shelby County PILOTS listed alphabetically and the other shows the same information listed from those receiving the highest tax exemption to those receiving lesser amounts. This only shows the tax payments and taxes not paid for Shelby County. If the property is in the City of Memphis, then there are similar but somewhat smaller figures based on the City property tax rate. Then finally we have posted all the exempt properties for 2003. These pay zero taxes and there are over 15000 pieces totaling $3.5 billion dollars in appraised value. We need to consider why Shelby County is giving away over $54 million dollars each year in tax money we desperately need whereas Nashville and Davidson County gives away less than $1 million. Click here to see the 2004 Memphis and Shelby County tax giveaways under the PILOT program. Click here to see the 2003 Shelby County PILOT giveaways from top recipients to bottom. Click here to see the 2003 Shelby County PILOT giveaways listed alphabetically. Click here to see the over 15000 tax exempt(zero taxes)properties in Memphis and Shelby County. September 19, 2005 Recently an outstanding Memphis citizen sent an open records request to Ms. Sara Hall, the City Attorney, asking for information about Beale Street Development Corporation. His name is Will Gotten and he is a retired lawyer. Here is his request. From: William Gotten >To: >Subject: Beale Street Development Corp. >Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 10:52:28 -0500 > >Dear Mr. Jefferson: In November, 1982, the City of Memphis entered into a >lease of Beale Street property to Beale Street Development Corp. (BSDC), a >non-profit corporation, which then, with the approval and knowledge of the >City, subleased to Elkington & Keltner and its successor in interest, >Performa, Inc. The lease and sublease provide that rental payments are to >be made to the city based on rental income received from the demised >property during its term. > >As a taxpayer and citizen of Memphis, I would like to inspect the municipal >documents, records, letters and communications, both written and in >electronic form, that contain information relevant to the following >subjects: > > >1. The amount of money that the City of Memphis has received each year as >rent of the demised property directly from BSDC since 1982 to the present >date. > >2. Any written agreements that provide for payment of rent for the demised >premises to be made directly to the City of Memphis by an entity or person >other than BSDC. > >3. The amount of money that the City of Memphis has received or is receiving >currently by an entity or person other than BSDC, since the inception of >such payments to the present date. > >4. All annual, semi-annual or quarterly accountings of gross funds received >and/or expenses deducted, which is determinative of the rent the city has >received or is currently receiving for the rental of the demised property. > > >Please provide promptly a date, time and place for the inspection of >documents and personnel for making copies if desired. The reasonable cost >of such copies will be paid at that time in accordance with City of Memphis >policy concerning furnishing copies of city documents. > >Thanking you for your cooperation, I remain > >Sincerely yours, > > > >William M. Gotten After almost three months and repeated requests for an answer he finally sent a communication saying that he was filing suit to obtain the information. The next day he got a call and an answer. Here is the answer from Ms. Hall. VIA E-MAIL AND U.S. MAIL September 14, 2005 Mr. William Gotten 6426 Kirby Oaks Drive Memphis, TN 38119 Re: Open Records Request Dear Mr. Gotten: I am writing in response to your August 31, 2005 letter to me and as a follow-up to our telephone conversation this morning. As I stated at the outset of my call, I called you this morning to personally apologize for the amount of time it has taken to answer your open records request. Also, during that telephone conversation, I gave you the answers to the questions you asked in your open records request and stated that I would follow-up with a letter to you, which I am doing now. Your inquiries and the City's preliminary responses are as follows: 1. The amount of money that the City of Memphis has received each year as rent of the demised property directly from BSDC since 1982 to the present date. Answer: I have checked with the General Services and Finance Divisions and have been advised that the City has not received rent from BSDC since 1982 to the present date. 2. Any written agreements that provide for payment of rent for the demised premises to be made directly to the City of Memphis by an entity or person other than BSDC. Answer: I have checked with the General Services and Finance Divisions and have been advised that there are no written agreements that provide for the payment of rent to be made directly to the City of Memphis by an entity or person other than BSDC -- that is, other than the documents that we have already produced to you which include the lease between the City and BSDC and the sublease between BSDC and Elkington and Keltner Properties. In as much as you indicated that you already had these documents in your possession, I have requested a check in the amount of $8.25 be made payable to you as reimbursement for those copy costs. 3. The amount of money that the City of Memphis has received or is receiving currently by an entity or person other than BSDC, since the inception of such payments to the present date. Answer: I have checked with the General Services and Finance Divisions and have been advised that the City has not received rent or other money related to these agreements or premises from any entity or person other than BSDC. 4. All annual, semi-annual or quarterly accountings of gross funds received and/or expenses deducted, which is determinative of the rent the city has received or is currently receiving for the rental of the demised property. Answer: Since the City has not received any funds, there are no accountings of funds received. Mr. William Gotten September 14, 2005 Page 2 Again, I apologize for the delay in responding to your request. As you are probably aware, the City has been involved in lengthy litigation with a number of parties over the operation of Beale Street for a number of years. Also, there have been various City officials assigned the responsibility of overseeing activities on Beale Street over the years, many of whom are no longer employed by the City. I appreciate your understanding. Sincerely, Sara L. Hall City Attorney xc: Keith McGee, Chief Administrative Officer A little history is necessary here. We have attached below the two leases in question, the lease between the City of Memphis and Beale Street Development Corporation (BSDC) and the lease between Beale Street Development Corporation and Elkington and Keltner Properties, Inc. (lessee) and its successor in interest, Performa, Inc. Both leases are dated November 29th, 1982. The lease between the City and BSDC is signed by interim Mayor Wallace Madewell who succeeded Mayor Wyatt Chandler when he resigned. In that year the FBI and the IRS investigated BSDC records and BSDC signed a 32 year lease with the City and contracted with Elkington and Keltner Properties to co-develop and manage the properties. (Later Elkington and Keltner renamed Beale Street Management as Performa Entertainment Real Estate Inc.) In 1994 an option was signed to extend the contract to 2034. In March of 1992 Mayor Herenton ordered an investigation of BSDC and Elkington’s Company. In October of 1994 Herenton said that he had no audit to share after the City spent $276,123.00 dollars and 2-1/2 years on audits. In a Commercial Appeal article dated October 25, 2001 there was the following quote by Elkington.[Elkington said he wrote city officials in May, and again in the months since, about his readiness to transfer funds. "I've been repaid now. I'm happy," Elkington said. Elkington, chief executive officer of Performa Entertainment Real Estate, the district's management company, said he was finished repaying Performa for money loaned to the district's operation during lean, early years.] The real point here is shown in item #4 of Sara Hall’s answer to Mr. Gotten. 4. All annual, semi-annual or quarterly accountings of gross funds received and/or expenses deducted, which is determinative of the rent the city has received or is currently receiving for the rental of the demised property. Answer: Since the City has not received any funds, there are no accountings of funds received. In the BSDC/Elkington and Keltner Properties, Inc. lease, Section 5 it says “Lessee shall furnish Lessor and the City quarterly reports in writing, not later than the 15th day of each following quarter, showing the amount of Gross Rental, as hereinafter defined, from the premises during the preceding quarter. Lessee further agrees that it will submit to the Lessor and the City within one hundred and twenty (120) days after the expiration of each full lease year a complete statement certified by Lessee or an independent CPA if the Mayor so requires in writing, showing in reasonable detail the amount of Gross Rental Income from the premises during said period. Therefore there should be 92 quarterly reports and 23 annual reports. But Ms. Hall says that there are no reports and zero funds received by the City. As a citizen of the City of Memphis and a taxpayer, I demand an investigation of this situation and call on the Mayor, the City Council and the FBI and the IRS (as was done in 1982)to immediately investigate this situation and audit the books and determine how much money is owed to the City from Beale Street. Federal, State and City money has been invested in Beale Street and taxpayers need an explanation. Click here to see the City of Memphis/Beale Street Development Corporation lease. Click here to see the Beale Street Development Corporation/Elkington lease. September 13, 2005 Recently Mayor Herenton said that he no longer had faith in his finance team. Well he has good reason for this lack of faith. He previously had Joseph Lee as his financial guru who left the City with a multi million dollar short fall. As a reward for this incompetence the Mayor sent him to the MLGW, the financial jewel of the City. Now after a tax increase which the Mayor said would solve our problems until the next election in 2007, the Mayor has again announced an embarrassing $10.3 million dollar shortfall. So what does he do, he announces the appointment of Robert Lipscomb and Roland McElrath as his new financial team. What is the record of these two wizards. Robert Lipscomb has run his own fiefdom at the Housing and Community Development Department and the Memphis Housing Authority spending millions of taxpayers dollars without any oversight and involving such suspicious actions as building a house for the grandmother of Councilman Ricky Peete who somehow moved to the first of a crowded list of applicants. And then there is the much traveled Roland McElrath who retired on a short term pension from the City under the infamous January 2001 pension resolution and then went to the Memphis School System where he was involved in the School Trans contract which is shown below. The internal audit found that John Britt left the board out of the loop when he increased SchoolTrans Inc.'s contract by $4.5 million in September 2002.” We investigated and got a copy of the Internal Audit Report mentioned above. Here are some of the pertinent facts. • In 2001-02 Memphis City Schools (MCS) began using SchoolTrans for medically fragile students because Laidlaw did not have air conditioned buses. • In July 2002, Mr. Roland McElrath (remember him, he resigned from the City and took a job with the MCS and also took with him a $32,000 immediate pension under the January 2001 pension resolution) negotiated a two year contract with School Trans along with Mr. John Britt of MCS. All buses by SchoolTrans were to be air conditioned and were to have basic medical staff in transit. Ten exceptional children were assigned to six buses at a contract amount of $652,428. • 34 days after the original contract was signed, Mr. Britt signed Addendum #2 which was written by Mr. Michael Jones of SchoolTrans and signed by both him and Mr. Britt but was not brought before the board as was previously agreed. This addendum specified that SchoolTrans had been directed to transport additional Specialized Exceptional Students increasing the minimum July 1, 2002 agreement by 15 additional buses. In addition, as also requested by MCS, SchoolTrans will be responsible for hiring nursing staff for all students requiring nursing at no more than $42.50 per hour (2 hour minimum) per bus per day. The terms of Addendum 2 would increase the benchmark amount of the original contract by $4,569,539. • Finding #1- Clearly, Addendum #2 required Board approval but it did not get its approval. Addendum #2 was invalid. • Finding #2- In February 2003, SchoolTrans was operating nine bus routes and carrying 21 students. On 2-16-03 SchoolTrans began invoicing the District for 21 buses and 21 CNA’s (Certified Nursing Assistants) per the agreement set forth in Addendum #2 which was never brought before the School board for approval. During an interview with Mr. Jones on 12-8-04, he was asked why MCS was being charged for routes not being operated. He stated SchoolTrans was contracted by buses, not routes. Mr. Jones contended that Addendum #2 gave SchoolTrans the authority to make buses available. He stated that SchoolTrans always billed by the benchmark number of the contract which he maintains was increases to 21 by Addendum #2. • According to the Audit, MCS should request $529,703 from SchoolTrans for buses charged but not actually operated and for all CNAs charges but not supplied since February 2003. • The cost per child was $207 a day in 2002-03. In 2004 the cost has dropped to $115 per day. And this is the team that is going to straighten out our city finances. Fat chance. Click here to go to a website to get a comprehensive timeline on Mayor Herenton's past financial decisions and his lies about the city's financial condition. August 29, 2005 On Friday, August 27, 2005 Bob Patterson, the Shelby County Trustee, presented information that every Memphis and Shelby County resident should be aware of and be concerned about. It shows what is on the Shelby County credit card (read how much bonded debt we have). The figures should frighten every resident and make the voters of Shelby County want to change their political leadership in the City of Memphis and Shelby County. Elections of County Officials are next year (2006) and City Officials are the year after (2007). The figures shown below show that the bonded indebtedness of Shelby County is $3.1 billion dollars (not million but billion). Put on top of this that the bonded indebtedness of the City of Memphis is over $1 billion and growing. You, as a taxpayer, have a debt that you are legally responsible for of over $4 billion dollars. The bonded debt of the state of Tennessee is $1.2 billion dollars. Yes, Memphis and Shelby County has four times more debt than the state of Tennessee. What should we do? Vote most of these people out of office and replace them with smart and experienced business people who know how to run a business efficiently. Cut spending and particularly cut unnecessary capital improvement projects such as the light rail system and the riverfront development projects of the City of Memphis, cut PILOTS and tax abatements and lay off unnecessary public employees. Click here to see what your owe due to the spending habits of local City and County elected officials. August 24, 2005 Yesterday I got the definitive information on the contract between the City of Memphis and the Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson LLP contract to collect delinquent taxes for the City of Memphis. From April 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005 LGBS collected $29.2 million dollars and has been paid or is owed $5.58 million dollars, 19% of the collection. Keep in mind that Bob Patterson, the Shelby County Trustee, offered to collect these delinquent taxes for 2% or $586,000 dollars. Therefore, the City just blew $5 million dollars just when they announced that they were $10.3 million dollars short on the 2006 budget. This just after they raised taxes and told us everything was fine. What is going on here? Are they incompetent, stupid or is it another example of who you know is more important than the interests of the taxpayer. Gwen Hewitt, works in the Memphis Office of LGBS in Suite 2250 at #1 Commerce Square and she previously worked in Bob Patterson’s office and left and worked for the City under Sara Hall, the City Attorney, and then went to work for LGBS. I have attached a copy of the LGBS contract for your review and also a copy of the payment report from the City to LGBS. Click here to see where your tax money went instead of paying for cutting the grass and picking up the garbage. Click here to the contract that was hand delivered to Joe Lee before he left to do similar things to the MLGW. August 8, 2005 Here is an executive summary of the 1/2 million dollar study done by Marlin Mosby for the County Government. According to Mr. James Huntzicker "I don't believe there are any additional copies still available, but you could review a copy in our offices. If you would like to do this, please give Paula Lewis a call to schedule an appointment. Thank you. Jim Huntzicker Director Division of Administration & Finance" I plan to do this but I read through the executive report and on page 3 it is evident that more revenues will be needed over and above what is currently being collected. Mosby promised a savings of $385 million over 5 years whereas he has only promised a $50 million savings for the City. I do not think the City is more efficient than the county. Makes you wonder why more savings are not available from the City. Click here to see the Marlin Mosby PFM executive summary that cost the County $500,000. August 22, 2005 I have figured out part of the reason why we depend almost entirely on residential property taxes in Shelby County. One good reason is the Shelby County Health, Education and Housing Facility Board. This board and a similar one for the City of Memphis can grant tax freezes to apartments in return for a promise to have some of the apartments available for low income residents. But is this in fact what happens? What is a fact is that millions of dollars in tax money has stopped flowing in to the City and County. Here are some examples. Trezevant Manor/Allen Morgan Health Center, 177 N. Highland. They pay zero taxes. St. Peter Manor, 108 N. Auburndale. In 2004 they paid $6,792 in taxes. Eastwood Apartments, 3007 Getwell. Sponsored by the CME Church. They pay zero taxes Raleigh Forest Apartments, 4183 Troost. Sponsored by the CME Church.They paid $35.15 taxes Sherwood Apartment, 3647 Rhodes. Sponsored by the CME Church. In 1995 they paid $22,908 to the County. In 1996 they paid $11,046 to the county. Thereafter they paid nothing. The Corners Apartments, 4150 Winchester. Sponsored by the CME Church. In 1996 they paid $30,616 to the County. Thereafter they paid nothing. Spring Creek Apartments, 2046 and 2020 Winchester. Sponsored by Cornerstone Housing Corporation. In 1996 they paid $12,700 to the County. Thereafter they paid nothing. Raleigh Woods Apartments, 4168 The Plac. Sponsored by the Foundation for Social Resources. In 2004 they paid $41.21 to the County. Cameron at Kirby Parkway Apartments, 3119 Kirby Parkway. Sponsored by the Cornerstone Housing Corporation. In 1996 they paid $106,479 to the County. Thereafter they paid nothing. Stonegate Apartments, 2791 Coleman. Sponsored by the Cornerstone Housing Corporation. In 1996 they paid $60,404 to the County. In 1997 they paid $31,739 to the County. Thereafter they paid nothing. Kirby Pines Estates, 3535 Kirby. Sponsored by Psalms, Inc. Currently appraised at $28,350,600.Currently paying $23,530 to the County. Countryside North Apartments, 6920 Reese Road. In 1998 they paid $61,692 to the County. Thereafter they paid nothing. Knightway Apartments, 4365, 4449, 4505, 4252 Knight Arnold. Sponsored by the CME Church. In 1998 they paid $59, 874 to the County. Thereafter they paid nothing. Charter Oaks Apartments, 4585 VAndergreen. Sponsored by the CME Church was acquired in 1998 and is subject to a PILOT. Parcel is currently appraised at $1,642,000 which would result in current Memphis taxes of $18,193 and County taxes of $23,251. Because the PILOT is based upon 50% of the actual 1997 taxes, Memphis will receive an annual PILOT of $7989 and Shelby County will receive $7939. Danville Apartments, 4427 Knight Arnold Road. Sponsored by the CME Church. In 1997 they paid $28,622 to the County. Thereafter they paid nothing. Lexington Apartments, 1654 Harbert. Sponsored by the CME Church. In 1997 they paid $5523 to the County. Thereafter they paid nothing. Hedgerow Apartments, 6905 Shelby. Currently appraised at $6.89 million. They would currently be paying Memphis taxes of $76,375 and County taxes of $97,606. Because the PILOT is based upon 50% of the actual 1998 taxes (prior to annexation by Memphis, they will be paying County taxes of $38,876. August 16, 2005 Do you know what these acronyms represent? HCD, MHA, DPA, HARP, MHR, VHR, CHDO, BFF, RFL, ML, 108, SCG, RBC, HCV, RISE, SCIF, SHAPE, HOPE VI!!! The above acronyms are used by the Housing and Community Development Department of the City of Memphis and the Memphis Housing Authority. In short they represent your tax money (lots of it) being spent with little oversight and with little understanding of what they do. We are starting to investigate this whole area and will report to you on the results. We have already reported to you on the home that Ricky Peete’s grandmother is having built for her under the HARP program. Also 108 loans were used in the building of Peabody Place Development downtown. There is a lot of money being spread around but is it going where it is supposed to go and is it being accounted for? Click here to see some of the hcd/mha programs that you are paying for! August 12, 2005 Take a look at this interesting story of how a parking garage and office space for the Grizzlies got built with Federal and State taxpayer money under the guise of a Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) intermodal transfer facility. And on top of that, the Grizzlies ended up with the profits on the parking facility. Two investigations are going on to try to figure out who was responsible for this scam. Click here to go to channel 24 website to see information on the FedEx parking facility scam that you paid for. July 28, 2005 Memphis is world famous for barbequed pork. We have an event called the World Championship Barbeque Cooking Contest during our Memphis in May festival. But we also are the home of a lot of political pork and I recently got the facts on another championship piece of pork called the downtown rail system or trolley. I judged this to be first place based on the criteria of spending a lot of taxpayer money (over 100 million) with the least return, 1/2 million, and with a continuing stomachache of 4 million annual operating cost. Through an open records request I got the following facts about the investment in the three trolley systems (Main Street, Riverfront and Madison) and the continuing operating costs for these systems. • Main Street 34.9 Million City Portion 4 Million • Riverfront 9.4 Million City Portion 0.9 Million • Madison 60.0 Million City Portion 6 Million • Total City Investment in the three trolley systems 10.9 Million • Total Investment in the three trolley systems 104.5 Million • Yearly Operating Costs Paid by the City 3.9 Million • Yearly Revenue from the trolleys systems Not shown on financial statements but reported by MATA to be $553,136 for 2005. The problem here is that the City is unable or unwilling to turn down Federal and State Money and does not seem to care about the continuing annual operating costs as long as they get the Federal and State bucks. Barbara Swearengen Holt, a City Council member, said that if we turned down this federal money, we would probably never get any more. Well, with a deal like the one above, I would turn it down every time. But Ms. Holt is not alone, as the great majority of our current city council voted for this bad idea and has refused to cut out the even worse idea of the coming light rail system (it is currently in our CIP budget) which will make this one look like peanuts. Politicians don’t seem to care about bonded indebtedness as they will be long gone by the time the debt payments come due. How much more Federal and State largess can we stand? Below you can click on the City of Memphis 2006 CIP budget and see that the City intends to spend $280 million dollars through 2010 for the regional rail plan to run a light rail system from downtown to the airport. $70 million of this is City of Memphis GO bonds. There is no information on how much it will cost to run the system and what the projected P&L will be. This is another stupid idea in the name of getting Federal and State dollars. Click here to see what the Mayor and City Council have planned for you to spend on the light rail system. July 11, 2005 We have been reporting for some time about the great salaries and benefits of City, County and MLGW employees. We have already published a preliminary salary and benefit comparison spreadsheet and this week we will publish the final sheet with all information filled in. We have given all political entities a chance to review and correct the information. The recent news reports about car allowances are not a surprise but it is typical of the way the City Council picks on one item and ignores the real problem which is the lush overall compensation and benefits that City employees enjoy as compared to the rest of the world (aka taypayers)that pays for these benefits. Another point that has been overlooked is that this car allowance as well as the salary is used to figure the pensions. Yes, I said car allowances are used to figure the pensions. I do not agree with the car allowance. What they are saying is that this is salary but they just called it a car allowance. If these people are worth $$$,$$$ as a salary plus a car allowance, then they should be paid the total as a salary. I think the best way to reimburse for car usage is to pay them by the mile and it would be up to them to keep the records and turn in their bills. Incidental car usage for top executive should be out of their pocket at their own expense. Managers and other people who are required to be out in the field a lot should be reimbursed on a mileage basis. Precipitous actions usually have unanticipated consequences. Here, if they take away the car allowances, we may have good experienced people with good technical skills (especially at the MLGW) retire and be replaced by inexperienced political cronies of the Mayor and Joe Lee. This will be because their pensions will be reduced if the car allowances are taken away thereby reducing their pensions. What needs to be done is to reduce the overall salary and benefit structure to make it more like the real world in Memphis, hire a few top notch people (and pay them appropriately) and let them manage this huge enterprise like a business, firing those that are incompetent and rewarding those who do a measurably great job. You could make a great start by laying off most of those appointed people who could qualify for the January 2001 pension retirement plan. July 25, 2005 There was an article in the Sunday, July 24th 2005, issue of the CA with the heading “Retirees get sweet deal on insurance, government jobs pay off in premiums”. This article pointed out things that we have been talking about on this website for some time, the fact that local government jobs are great jobs with better salaries and benefits than are normally available in the local private sector jobs. The article pointed out many problems ahead and mentioned a new government accounting requirement that will soon require governments to report their long term obligations associated with post employment benefits. The reason for the problem seems obvious as does the solution. Local governments generally allow retirement after 25 years regardless of age. This allows people to retire at age 50 to 55 and then start receiving their health care benefits with most of the premium cost paid by taxpayers. This should be changed to require those not eligible for medicare to pay a much higher percentage of this premium, if not all of it, to encourage them to not retire early and work on to a medicare eligible age like the general taxpaying public. This will keep experienced people working and hold down the numbers in the retiree population. This early retirement benefit is generally only available in the public employment sector and should be changed to make the public employee benefits more like the taxpaying private sector. July 21, 2005 In today’s Commercial Appeal (July 21, 2005) there is an article concerning the granting of yet more PILOTS (tax freezes) to companies promising all sorts of good things that they are going to do for Memphis. The biggest was for Jabil Circuit Inc.’s distribution facility in Southeast Memphis at 4880 Tuggle Road. The new jobs will pay a median annual salary of $21,340. The tax freeze will save the company 1.6 million dollars over six years. The other, American Coaster, will save the company $150,571 over seven years and will pay a median annual salary of $28,080. Have you wondered what is the average salary of City employees including benefits? According to the latest City of Memphis operating budget, it is designated as personal services and is $63,152.00 average for 5794 employees including fringe benefits. Benefits, over and above salary for the City generally run from 40 to 50 percent of salary. You can be sure that the two companies listed above do not pay benefits worth 40 to 50 percent. The contrast here is typical of private sector workers and taxpayers and public sector workers and politicians. July 18, 2005 I have finished my salary and benefit comparison spreadsheet and have given the City, The County, the MLGW and the two school systems a chance to review and correct any errors. I think it can be useful in trimming back some of the costs of government. Basically these are great jobs compared to private sector jobs. The real problem with the City is that it is run as a patronage job factory and not as a business. I think it could be run much more efficiently with the top jobs being filled with real professionals and with the Mayor’s job filled with someone who cares more about the taxpayers than he does about his supporters, his cronies and his business contributors. For the future, I think the pension system should be changed for future employees from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan and more restraints should be put on PILOTS and other tax giveaways which mainly benefit the Mayor’s contributors. Another key problem is oversight or lack thereof. There is currently very little oversight on how and for what money is spent, particularly at HCD and MHA and when there is an audit it is generally done by someone who knows the outcome the Mayor wants in advance. Looking at the spreadsheet, the following are areas that could be looked at. Some MLGW salaries are too high but those jobs requiring high technical skills may be are worth it. If you start filling the MLGW with City Hall patronage types, they will certainly be too high. But then lookout, when the lights go out and no one knows how to turn them back on. The health care costs seem somewhat high compared to private companies considering the huge numbers in the groups. Vacations (5 to 6 weeks) are 1 to 2 weeks longer than private companies. Sick days for the City and County (30 days) should be cut back to 12 days like the others. Car allowances should be discontinued as they are really salary. If they are required to get and keep great employees, then they should be rolled into salary. All the various life and disability insurance benefits should be reviewed to see what they are actually costing and who is selling these policies. And finally, the appointed people, over and above what is authorized by the Charter, should be laid off. This, of course, does not touch the CIP budget items which desperately need to be removed before the bankruptcy notice is posted at City Hall and at the County. What can you, the taxpayer, do about the situation? You have the power to replace the Mayor and the City Council in October 2007. Replace them with people who care about this City and who want this City to return to its former beauty and safety. Look carefully at what they say and compare it with their public record. Most taxpayers want low taxes, good safe schools, their garbage picked up, the public parks cut and maintained, the public roads repaired and the parkways planted with flowers and the grass cut and the criminals taken off the streets. They do not care about trolleys, light rail dreams, basketball forums that few can afford or grandiose riverfront fantasies. Throw out the long serving, self serving politicians and replace them with good people who want what you want. Click here to see what great jobs these public service jobs are. July 15, 2005 Yesterday I sent a email to Carol Chumney and received a reply as shown below. What ever happened to the City Council investigating MLGW Bond deal where the Mayor forced use of certain lawyers/finance people? I think Tom Marshall was to “lead”. Can you provide an update? Joe Saino They closed it down last fall without getting the answers to many of the questions. Here's a copy of my letter to Tom Marshall sent prior to the decision by his Committee to again shut the investigation down. Carol Chumney See below her letter to Mr. Tom Marshall. Click here to see Carol Chumney's letter to Tom Marshall asking questions about the Herentons, father and son. June 29, 2005 Remember Mr. Roland McElrath. He is one of the many people who retired in March of 2001 with 12 years of service due to the stupid January 2001 pension resolution allowing elected and appointed officials to retire after 12 years regardless of age. Remember that 11 of the 13 current City Council members voted for that resolution. Well Mr. McElrath went to work for the City of Memphis School System as the finance and administration director at $116,000 per year plus the $33,110 pension mentioned above. At the City of Memphis School system he helped negotiate the infamous SchoolTrans contract shown on this website. On Today’s News and Mail read the article entitled “The Incredible Story of the SchoolTrans Contract”. Well Mr. McElrath is no longer with the Memphis School System but he landed on his feet again as the new Chief Financial Officer for the Memphis Housing Authority. We have written the following open records letter to the MHA asking about Mr. McElrath and other matters at the MHA and the HCD. When we get the answers we will publish them. June 27, 2005 Mr. Robert Lipscomb Memphis Housing Authority 700 Adams Avenue Memphis, Tennessee 38105 Dear Mr. Lipscomb, As a taxpayer of the City of Memphis I would like to inspect the municipal documents, records, letters and communications, both written and in electronic form, that contain information relevant to the following subjects. 1) Specifically I want to inspect the documents, records and communications that contain the names, job titles, salaries and car allowances of all the regular and appointed employees of the Memphis Housing Authority. Also I want to inspect the documents and records that show the years of creditable service towards retirement of the above employees. 2) Also I want to inspect the documents, records and communications that show the situation concerning Mr. Roland McElrath, who I understand is employed by the MHA as Chief Financial Officer/Deputy Executive of MHA. I want to inspect the records and documents that show if he is continuing to receive his pension under the January 2001 pension resolution while he is working at the MHA. I assume his salary will be shown in item 1, but if not, then I want this information. Also I want to know what his years of creditable service are at this point in his new employment and if he is entitled to a City of Memphis pension or some other pension system. Did his receipt of the January 2001 pension cancel his years of creditable service and is he starting out at zero in this new job? Did his time at the Memphis School System count on this new job? 3) I want to inspect the documents and records that show the source of revenues for the Memphis Housing Authority and the Division of Housing and Community Development for the fiscal years 2003, 2004 and 2005. Also I want to inspect the documents and records that show the projects for those years and how the money was spent and what contractors and individuals received the benefits of these expenditures. I trust that you will inform promptly whatever department and personnel are necessary to prepare these documents for my inspection. In accordance with your policy concerning copies and cost of copies, I may want copies of some or all of the documents. Since I assume also that the documents containing the information requested should be available readily on a computer, I should like to inspect the documents on July 5, 2005 at a time on that date which is convenient. If you need additional information or have questions about this request, I am available during working hours at 754-0699. Sincerely yours, Joe Saino 6560 Kirby Forest Cove Memphis, Tennessee 38119 June 27, 2005 Many people have emailed information to us on this website about situations in their City, County, MLGW, Memphis School System, County School System, HCD, MHA, IDB and other public jobs. They had information about things that should be investigated, things that were not fair in their employment situation such as promotions and job discrimination and things that were illegal. We have tried to investigate these situations through various means and verify the information. In many cases we have been successful and have published the information on the website. Now people have asked us to provide a way to communicate this type of information without revealing their names. We prefer to know who we are dealing with and we can assure everyone that we will hold the source of the information in absolute confidence. However people are afraid of losing their jobs if their names become public and we understand that fear. Certain organizations are paranoid about covering up what they do and will retaliate against a whistle blower if they know who it is. Therefore we have been asked to provide a way for you to send us information so that the sender’s identity is not known to us. This can be done in two ways. 1) From your personal computer or a public library computer go to our website (www.memphiswatchdog.org) and go to the CONTACT US button and then to the E-MAIL FORM. On this form you only need to fill in the first name, last name, city, state, zip and e-mail slots. None of this information needs to be your actual information in order for the email to come through to us. So if you want to conceal your real name, address and email address just fill in false ones. Do not use your work computer as the bosses might be checking. Then put your information in the comment section of the email form and send it. However we would like for you to use the same name each time so we can tell if it is from the same person more than once. If we need to get more information from you we will post a message to you on the website under E-Mail answers. Check this message board from time to time to see if we need a further communication. Also you can give us your private cell phone number and we can call after working hours. 2) Another way is the old faithful snail mail method. You can write an anonymous letter to Webmaster, P. O. Box 172301, Memphis, Tn 38187 and we will get your message. If you have a private P.O. box, let us know and we can respond if necessary or if you have a private cell phone number that you will share with us, we can call after working hours. The honest hardworking people who work for the various government entities deserve good honest government but they are not always getting it. We need to expose those that are not fulfilling the highest ethical standards. You can help in that effort. June 11, 2005 Recently I published on this website a copy of page ISF-2 from the 2006 City of Memphis operating budget titled HEALTH INSURANCE. I pointed out that the FY 2004 actual total operating expense was listed as $31,598,000. The 2006 Proposed Total Operating Expense was listed as $83,144,000, an increase of 163%. I asked what was going on. No one on the City Council or the Administration knew and what is worse, no one seemed to care. I went to the library and did some research and came up with the following figures. Operating Budget FY 2001 Total Oper Expense FY 1999 Actual $37,279,172 Operating Budget FY 2002 Total Oper Expense FY 2000 Actual 34,618,642 Operating Budget FY 2004 Total Oper Expense FY 2002 Actual 50,071,716 Operating Budget FY 2005 Total Oper Expense FY 2003 Actual 65,781,221 Operating Budget FY 2006 Total Oper Expense FY 2004 Actual 31,598,000 Operating Budget FY 2006 Total Oper Expense FY 2006 Proposed $83,144,000 Who is keeping these books? Mickey Mouse. We have a real problem here and their only answer is to raise taxes. We need to clean house. June 8, 2006 PROPERTY TAX INCREASE I went to the extended City Council meeting yesterday and it was not pretty. The Mayor recommended a 54 cent increase but we ended up with a 27 cents increase. The base rate of 3.2304 was first reduced to 3.16 (only a 2.8% decrease whereas the assessment increase since the reassessment was 11.5%. Apparently the law allows the current rate to be reduced less than the assessment increase due to possible future appeals for appraisal reductions). The 3.16 rate was then increased by 27 cents to 3.43, a 6.1% increase. If you include the the full 11.5% assessment increase, the true increase in property taxes was 18.2%. The Council vote was 7 to 6 which was interesting. Voting for the increase were Ford, Jones, Holt, Hooks, Lowery, Mitchell, Peete and Jones. Voting against it were Chumney, Sammons, Brown, Marshall, McCormick and Taylor. The entertainment was furnished by the Trio of Mayor Herenton singing with Janet Hooks and Tajuan Stout Mitchell singing their favorite song, WE AINT GOT NO SPENDING PROBLEM, WE GOT A REVENUE PROBLEM. The words go as follows. We need more tax money So we can buy more honey Our task is to make more city jobs And shut our ears to taxpayer sobs So get your checkbooks out quick Write out a check and don’t be sick We’ve been here for ever and a day And expect the voters to keep it that way.  June 6, 2005 AN EXPLANATION OF THE REAL FACTS ABOUT THE 2005 REASSESSMENT AND THE PROPOSED PROPERTY TAX RATE INCREASE All Memphis and Shelby County taxpayers need to know the facts and the politicians do not want you to know what the facts are. Here are the new 2005 appraisal and assessment values for Memphis and Shelby County and also the 2004 values. Memphis 2000/2004 Appraisal $30,376,550,800 Assessment $9,209,184,475 Memphis 2005 Appraisal 34,027,872,400 Assessment 10,271,295,285 Percentage increase 11.5% Shelby Cty 2000/04 Appraisal $49,186,097,700 Assessment $14,275,258,065 Shelby Cty 2005 Appraisal 55,847,323,500 Assessment 16,186,834,175 Percentage increase 13.39% State law requires the City and the County to reduce the current tax rate by the percentage of increase in the assessed values shown above so that the tax pot does not increase due to the increase in assessment due mainly to inflation over the 4 year period from the previous reassessment. Therefore the City tax rate should be reduced from $3.2304 to about $2.90. The county tax rate should be reduced from $4.04 to $3.56. Mayor Herenton has proposed a 54 cent tax increase which I assume would be over the reduced rate required by State law. However politicians like to hide the ball and confuse the tax payers so we have to be clear about whether the increase is over the mandated reduced rate or not. If it is then this is an 18.6% increase. If it is on top of the 11.5% increase in assessed values, then it is a 30.1% increase. The same reasoning applies to the County. Keeping the politicians honest is a tough job as we all know.  BUDGET CUTS? TAKE A LOOK AT THE HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT
If the Mayor is looking for some place to cut, why not try the Human Resources Department. Look at the salaries and job descriptions of the top brass in this department and decide if we need all these appointed people. Director, Lorene Essex Salary $112,335.86 Pension Date 7/26/04 The Human Resources Division incorporates all of the Service Centers that address employee relations and employment functions. The Division manages the City's policies and procedures, healthcare and pension, employee assistance program, employment, employee development/ training, compensation, testing, recruitment, labor relations/eeo, and employee activities. Administration - Dr. M. Suzanne Ratliff, Deputy Director Salary $99,714.42 Pension Date 1/15/90 Mission: To provide the City of Memphis government with effective and efficient human resources services which focus on customers' needs and support achievement of the City's strategic goals. Benefits - Pearl Gibson, Benefits Officer Salary $97,602.70 Pension Date 8/10/98 Mission: To provide and administer responsive and cost-effective benefit programs that meet the needs of employees, retirees, and their dependents within City government. Compensation/Records Administration - Eric Sabatini, Manager Apparently Not an Appointed Official, Salary $77,735.58. Mission: To develop and administer effective salary/compensation and human resource data management programs which support the City's recruiting, retention, and quality efforts Employee Special Services - Rochelle Williams, HR Project Coordinator Salary $65,917.80 Pension Date 9/12/94 Mission: To develop and administer programs that promote employee mental and physcial health, encourage education and professional development and provide individual recognition. Employment - Gwen Willingham, Manager Salary $77,735.58 Pension Date 1/8/85 Mission: To post/advertise and certify qualified applicants for vacancies, while providing an appropriate level of consistency throughout City government in compliance with all federal and state requirements, and to maintain centralized records. Labor Relations - Jaye Mosby-Wharwood, Manager Salary $83,430.36 Pension Date 10/21/02 Mission: To provide consultation, advice and administrative services that support and promote the City's labor relations and equal employment opportunity philosophy and policies. Berlinda Williams, Manager Salary $77,735.58 Pension Date 12/20/99 Mission: To create an organizational culture which demonstrates an ongoing practice of total quality and professional development that consistently meets or exceeds customer expectations by being focused, efficient and responsive. Testing and Recruitment - Arthur Vaught, Manager Salary $77,735.58 Pension Date 7/1/01 Mission: To develop and minister valid and unbiased testing processes for Fire, Police and other operational Divisions; and to nationally recruit quality candidates for employment with the City of Memphis. SUGGESTIONS FOR BUDGET CUTS  Suggestions for budget reductions to balance the Memphis City budget. First look at the history of Mayor Herenton’s budgets from 1992 when he was first elected to 2005. His operating budget has gone up 96% whereas the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has gone up 34%. This is more than 2-3/4 times the CPI. The property tax income to the city during this period went up 90%. Still he says he is running a deficit. He is proposing laying off temporary workers and closing museums. Well here are some suggestions. • The City Charter allows 102 appointed officials. The Mayor has 400. Lay off the 298 extra illegal appointed officials saving their salaries and benefits and getting rid of them before they become eligible to retire under the January 2001 pension resolution allowing elected and appointed officials to retire after 12 years regardless of age. • Take a serious look at the benefits of City employees. The Mayor justifies his large increases in salaries for his minions by saying that he needs to keep them equal to the private sector. Well I worked in the private sector for 40 years and I can tell you that the private sector does not have benefits that come close to those available to City employees. Look at some of them. • 5 weeks paid vacations, 30 paid sick days, 11 paid holidays. That equals 13 weeks 1 day, one quarter of the year. • A great health plan where the City pays 70% of the premium and which continues after retirement regardless of age. • Life Insurance in an amount equal to 2 times annual compensation and premiums paid by the City. • A great defined benefit pension paying 72.5% of final salary with regular raises for inflation. No one in the private sector has defined benefit plans anymore. • An $800/month auto allowance for Directors and $400/month for deputy directors. Auto allowance should be for actual expenses incurred which does not include driving to and from work. These are only some suggestions that would really make a difference. The ones suggested by the Mayor do not seriously attack the real problems affecting City government.  Mayor Herenton Wins Tax Superbowl Again For Memphis
Yeah!!! GO, Fight, WIN!! Memphis Taxpayers are WIMPS....Yeah!!! Memphis wins the 2005 Tennessee Tax Bowl with the highest Property Tax Rate in Tennessee. Memphis competed with 402 other city and county tax jurisdictions to win this great "honor" for another year!! Memphis taxpayers are crying tears of pain!! OUCH!!! The property tax rate in Nashville is $4.58. The property tax rate in Memphis is currently $7.27. The mayor has proposed an increase of from 45 to 52 cents. February 21, 2006 I thought that the MLGW policies were bad before Max Williams left but I ascribed that to Joe Lee and his penchant for secrecy. What would you expect from someone who came with his training obtained from City Hall. However, Odell Horton Jr. is now personally taking a hand in the obstruction of the public’s right to know about the company that all of the taxpayers and ratepayers own. I show below an open records request that I sent on December 21, 2005 to the MLGW. On item 3, I asked for the records and documents that shows all legal and other fees paid by MLGW in the case of the TVA electric bonds. The documents should show to whom the fees were paid and the dates of the payments and for what services. His answer lists I payment of $24,961,21. Also with the one sheet shown, I received a letter from Mr. Horton saying that was all that was paid. I guess I did not word my request exactly right and he took the opportunity to not tell the full story. However look at the answers obtained by City Councilman E. C. Jones from the MLGW to a very similar request, $8.244 million dollars. I suppose Mr. Horton would contend that the money was not paid directly from the MLGW but as a fee from the bonds. However in a letter dated July 24, 2002, the Memphis Light Gas and Water Division agreed to pay a fee of $7.5 million to J.P. Morgan and more to other participants. Mr. Horton takes every opportunity to tell less than the whole story. Included in the file is a number of interesting letters detailing how the Mayor worked to get a percentage of the pie for his buddies. Read and prepare to vote Willie out of office in 2007. Click here to see my open record request and the answer that was not a forthcoming answer. Click here to see who got the bacon on the mlgw 1.5 billion dollar electric bond issue. | FIRE AND POLICE NEWS | PARK SERVICES | CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE | PUBLIC WORKS | ENGINEERING DIVISION | FINANCE DIVISION | SALARY & BENEFITS | APPOINTED CITY EMPLOYEES | MEMPHIS SCHOOL SYSTEM | RIVERFRONT DEVELOPMENT CORP | INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT BOARD | HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT | MEMPHIS SHELBY COUNTY AIRPORT AUTHORITY | | Return Home | TODAYS NEWS AND MAIL | MEMPHIS CITY GOVERMMENT NEWS | MEMPHIS CITY COUNCIL NEWS | MLG&W NEWS | SHELBY COUNTY GOVERNMENT | MONEY MATTERS | CONTACT US | FAQ Page | |
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