By Eleanor Boudreau
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-943832.mp3
Memphis, TN – The Shelby County Election Commission held a special meeting yesterday to discuss submitting the question of surrendering the Memphis City Schools' charter to city voters; and they held off because of a letter they received just hours before the meeting.
The letter came from the State Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins and it said that the Memphis City Council must approve the city school board's surrender of its charter before a referendum can be put to voters.
"We will not set an election date until the city council passes a resolution," said election commission Chairman Bill Giannini.
Now, Giannini says he doesn't see how there could possibly be a February referendum. That's because council day in Memphis was the day before the election commission received the letter from Goins. The next scheduled council meeting is just under two weeks away, but it's unclear if the council will ever vote on this matter.
The city council's lawyer and the city lawyer read the law differently than Goins. They say nothing is required by the council in order to get a referendum to Memphis voters.
But the city council can't compel the election commission to do anything, at least not all by itself.
"They have to go to court," Giannini said.
City council member Shea Flinn crashed the election commission meeting; and brought a petition asking the commission to put the referendum to voters. The petition had 25 signatures which Flinn and Memphis City Schools Board Member Tomeka Hart claim should be another way to get the city schools charter surrender on the ballot.
Flinn said it is not a question of if the citizens of Memphis vote, "It's a question when."
But--on school consolidation--when the citizens of Memphis vote is just as important as if. This whole brouhaha started because it looked likely that Shelby County Schools would get a special district dispensation from the state. If the county schools get that dispensation it will ensure that they are permanently separate from Memphis City Schools. It's the checkmate move to school consolidation.
So now, proponents of school merger have lost valuable time.
The state legislature gathers Tuesday, January 11th ; and a special school district dispensation for Shelby County could be passed by February.