The Memphis City Council Chair's Election Recap for October 4, 2019 (Updated)

My Fellow Memphians, Good afternoon and Happy Friday!

 

Just like the uniqueness of our city, the zany nature of Memphis election season is always exciting.  It can get crazy and sometimes overheated.

This special time of year mirrors and reflects the authentic passion, grittiness, messiness, optimism, and never say die ethos that embodies our beloved Memphis.  A city on the rise and roaring confidently into the future.

As Memphians we should all admire the passionate folks that love the city enough that they are willing to risk their time, money, name, and reputation to run for public office and to work to advance their vision of a better city.  I thank everyone who had the guts and courage to get off the sidelines and into the arena.  Municipal politics is not for the faint of heart and those in the arena serving must have thick skin, a big heart, and sometimes sharp elbows.

While this election was a hot one, it’s my prayer that today, like the weather outside, we can all cool down, take a collective deep breath, and come back together to forge and advance a positive optimistic agenda for Memphis.

Congratulations to Mayor Strickland on his resounding victory that validates the direction of Memphis and our common agenda.  I think being the Mayor of a major American City must be one of the hardest jobs on the planet.  The Mayor executes his duties with grace, compassion, smarts, and a servant’s heart.  It has been an honor and pleasure to serve as Chairman in 2016 and 2019 and work with the Mayor, his team, our Council, and all of the stakeholders in Memphis working hard for the city we all love.

A hallmark of our governing philosophy over the last four years has been teamwork between Council Members – and also between the City Council and Mayor’s team.  I will give my all over the next two and half months to inject this spirit of teamwork and collaboration into the new Council and Administration dynamic.  I firmly believe we accomplish more for the common good with teamwork as a cornerstone of our governing philosophy.  Not always easy with fourteen smart and independent leaders!

Congratulations go out to our Council members-elect, Jeff Warren, Chase Carlisle, J.B. Smiley, and Edmund Ford, Sr. 

I also want to congratulate all of my colleagues and returning members, Frank Colvett, Jr., Jamita Swearengen, Patrice Robinson, Worth Morgan, Martavius Jones, Ford Canale Jr., and Cheyenne Johnson.

Congratulations also go out to my colleagues Berlin Boyd and Sherman Greer as well as Rhonda Logan and Michalyn Easter-Thomas who will be in run offs on November 14.

I am very excited about this group of folks that have been elected and will lead Memphis over the next four years.

At the Council office on the 5^th floor at Memphis City Hall, Vice Chairwoman Robinson, our fabulous staff, and I are already hard at work on a crisp transition plan for the new Council members that were elected last night so that they can hit the ground running and be set up for success as they take office in January of 2020.  Being a City Council member is akin to being a board member of a $700 million services business – the learning curve is steep. 

Congratulations as well to my good friend, Council Chairman Emeritus, Myron Lowery, who won election as City Court Clerk and also the following City Judges, Theresa Jones, Tarik Sugarmon, and Jayne Chandler.

Memphis voters also ratified that public safety is their number one priority for Memphis by voting to increase the sales tax to do whatever is necessary to recruit and retain first responders.  While we have different strategies on how to keep Memphians safe and do the best by our first responders, keeping Memphians safe has been, and I hope will continue to be the number one priority for the Council and the Mayor.  We are all indebted and forever grateful to these lion-hearted warriors that are on the front lines every day, risking their lives for Memphis and her people.  It is our sacred duty to make sure they are fairly compensated in a sustainable way.  We are all in this together.

To close, I wanted to share these words I love from Theodore Roosevelt, The Man in the Arena.  These words often times keep me going during the highs and lows of service through public office.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

I ask you today to get into the arena in any way that you can to serve your fellow Memphian.  And if you are in the arena, stay there.  Keep sweating, swinging, fighting, loving, daring, bringing your soul, feeling the high highs, learning from the low lows, succeeding, failing, struggling, recovering, receiving and giving grace along the way.

Thanks for calling Memphis home, have a wonderful weekend, and I will see you around town and hopefully in the arena.  Let’s keep being the City that’s known for Changing The World.

 

All my best,

Kemp Conrad

Chairman

Memphis City Council