Memphis City Council Sucks

Friday night, I caught the 9 pm channel 30 news. In general channel 24/30 news is a parade of the freak stories of human and animal suffering. Friday night’s show wasn’t much different, but there was a very good story about the city budget and the authority of the state. It seems the city council, against the advice of Carol Chumney, apparently the only sane council member, decided to send the $21 million in deficit city budget to the state for approval. Chumney warned the council that this action would not be wise. The state could take over the finances of the city. Just think how much those republican crackers in middle and east Tennessee would relish the opportunity to ride into Memphis and cleanup the “corrupt and mismanaged” city. The same city which just so happens to be predominantly black and a Democratic bastion preventing the state from going overwhelmingly red. Now I don’t have much faith in the kindness of republicans. They’re salivating just thinking about the possibilities. I also don’t have a whole lot of faith in the sympathy of fellow Tennessee Democrats outside of Shelby County. The Tennessee Democratic Party has put up with the dysfunction of the Shelby County Democratic Party for quite a long time now. After Tennessee Waltz, which was predominantly Shelby County Democrats, the Ophelia Ford election and subsequent Richard Fields fiasco, how many friends in this state’s government and Democratic Party does Memphis have?

But what could the state taking over the city’s finances mean. How about firing 200 of those 300 political appointments Mayor Herenton has made over the years? What about having an independent audit done and all the city council members’ pet projects getting a spot light shined on them? Imagine the system of political patronage used to maintain the status quo in this city being shattered?

How will the city council explain the state coming in, raising taxes, cutting services, and firing people without the people of Memphis being able to say anything? To show how much faith investors have in our fair city, our bond rating has been dropped and we face the possibility of a class-action lawsuit. How much will that raise the cost of FedEx Forum? I guess all you can say about the city council is, aside from Carol Chumney, it is full of incompetent (corrupt?) morons who seem unconcerned with the serious problems facing this city.