Act for our veterans, and more - Chairman Boyd's Council Recap for September 19th, 2017

Good evening, Memphis,

Surprise, surprise: it was another action-packed day at City Hall for your City Council. I’ll do my best to capture it all below, but the full picture, as always, is here.

 

Doing Right by Those Who Serve: More than 35,000 veterans of the United States Armed Forces live in the City of Memphis, and another 15,000 live in the rest of Shelby County. Many of those veterans are displaced or are experiencing homelessness, and all need targeted healthcare and social services from the VA and other community organizations.

The City of Memphis is working to find a site for a new Tennessee State Veterans’ Home in Memphis, and we need your help! The White House and Congress have only budgeted just under 20% of what America needs to fulfill all the Priority 1 requests for such veterans’ homes. You can sign a petition to see that changed, here. Please take just a few minutes of your day to get us to 100,000 signatures and help your neighbors who have served this country.

 

Setting the record straight: Today the Council voted to reconsider our actions of September 5^th and return a resolution remitting Beale Street Bucks dollar to the Downtown Memphis Commission. I think that was the right decision to protect the integrity of this institution. I also announced my intent to end my contract with the Beale Street Merchants Association to avoid the appearance of impropriety—I apologize again for bringing any such negative attention on this body and my fellow Councilmembers. I maintain—as Counselor Wade made clear—that this was not a conflict of interest. Nonetheless, I’ve heard what you’ve had to say over the last 10 days, and I believe this will be the best way to move forward, all things considered.

 

Have your heard of the good work 901Bloc is doing? Innovate Memphis Director Justin Entzminger, joined by three of the team’s interventionists, discussed 901Bloc’s mission to “meet our at-risk young men and women unconditionally, where they are, and learn about what they need to change behavior and pursue a non-violent life”.  So far this year, Part One Violent Crimes are up in Memphis 5.7%. 901Bloc is combating that trend through pilot projects in targeted areas, including Frayser (consistent with the City trend still), South Memphis (down in 2016 and not increasing in 2017), Orange Mound (decreases in both 2016 and 2017), and Mt. Moriah (down 30% so far this year!). Another pilot area is being added in Westwood.

 

Guiding the Liberty Bowl into the Future: Spectra has done little to expand the Liberty Bowl's appeal to events outside the City of Memphis. Combining that lack of vision and national results with events from the past three weeks, in which elevators failed and concession stands ran out of water bottles in 90 degree heat during a nationally-televised game against a ranked opponent, this Council has serious concerns about the City's contract with this organization. What are they doing that the City couldn't manage internally through its Park Division?

 

Other Highlights:

• Don’t forget to apply for MLK50 grants for your organization’s service projects between now and April of 2018. The application deadline is September 30th.
• Speaking of deadlines, the next day--October 1st--is the final date to come forward with a claim to grants provided for surviving 1968 City Sanitation workers who participated in the strike.
• This Council amended the budget and allocated the funds to move forward with the public right-of-way improvements necessary to connect the VECA Greenline. Thanks to Councilman Conrad and neighborhood stakeholders for your leadership in finally bringing this to fruition.
• Be like Councilman Edmund Ford, Jr. and sign up today for Jobs4TN!
• The Council voted 9-0-2 to urge the University of Memphis and the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center to opt out of the state's contract to outsource management of these facilities. This is properly a matter of local control by these two entities, and this attempt at cost-cutting will harm Memphians who both work there and utilize their services. We join the nearly 75 state legislators in questioning this contract state-wide.

 

And finally, a *Correction* and update on funding for the Convention Center upgrades and the Bicentennial Gateway projects in the Pinch District. Last week, largely on account of a mistake in my Recap, the media reported our approval of a combined $21.5 million in “bridge loans” to kick off these two projects. In reality, at the last minute, these two items were held downstairs instead of approved, as seemed likely during committee earlier in the day. I apologize for the confusion (and good catch, Michelle). Today, the Council voted to hold the Convention Center funding two more weeks to demand full transparency from the administration on the use of the funds and the project timeline. The Bicentennial Gateway funds were approved in full.

 

Thanks, as always, for making Memphis your home.

Sincerely,

BB