WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (HOST): Early voting for the upcoming election continues through the end of October. And while a lot of attention is on the presidential race, Memphis voters also have five different ordinances on the ballot. And if you don't know what they are, you may want to bring your reading glasses. There's a lot of legalese to decipher. To help us with that is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back!
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris, thank you for having me back.
BLANK: Well, the more controversial referendums are related to guns and the reason for the controversy is that if enacted they would conflict with state law. So Otis, let's start with these three. Maybe you can tell us why they came about and what's the conflict? The first one -- pretty easy -- should there be gun permits in the City of Memphis?
SANFORD: How they came about is that the city council has been concerned, and rightfully so, about violence in the city. And so they are trying to do whatever they can to at least try to address it or let the public know they care about it. The legislature over the last decade or more has loosened gun laws in the state of Tennessee, especially around permits. We don't have to have a permit to carry a gun anymore and the city council just decided that: let's seek a referendum just getting really the temperature of Memphis voters about whether there should be a requirement in Shelby County, at least, for a permit in order to carry a gun. That's where that one came from.
BLANK: Well, the second and third ordinances are long, but similar. One bans open carry of assault weapons in the city. The third is the longest, but basically it lets judges, take guns away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others. It's that red flag law. You know, these seem like those common sense laws that people have been asking the legislature for since the Covenant School shooting. What happens if we pass these laws here but they are in conflict with state law? What happens when they're not in sync?
SANFORD: Well actually, nothing happens really. The city council Chairman J.B. Smiley, I think, has said it best. If the voters pass these laws, they will just be trigger laws, Chris, so that in the future if the legislature decides that, no, we have gone to far and we need to stop expanding gun rights -- we need to give local governments the ability to have some kind of gun legislation -- if that ever happens (and I doubt if it happens in my lifetime) then these will go into effect. It's a symbolic vote by the City of Memphis voters to say that we care about the proliferation of guns in our city.
BLANK: Well, the two ordinances that could actually have an impact on local voters: one would change the city charter to give the city council the power to determine salaries for the mayor the people he hires, but also for city council members themselves. Why is this referendum important?
SANFORD: I think it's the most controversial of the other non-gun referendums. I think it's an issue because this will give the city council the power to set its own salary during the term that the city council is in office. Any time the city council has dealt with salaries, especially their own, it applied to after the next council election. But this one does not say that. There are a lot of people who are opposed to it. I won't be surprised if it fails
BLANK: Well, finally, the last one kind of came out of the last mayoral election. You'll remember a few of our favorite candidates didn't appear to be living in Memphis when they started their campaigns. This would put a two-year residency requirement on running for mayor. Will this be popular with voters?
SANFORD: I think this one will [pass] because there was a lot of confusion in 2023 about who was living in Memphis, how long they had lived in Memphis. And, of course, we had two leading candidates who had not lived in Memphis all that long. So, I do think the voters will support this. There's another part of it though, Chris, that says that anybody running for mayor has to be at least 18 years old. Now, that's lowering the age from what it used to be.
BLANK: Well, based on what we know of Memphis voters, which which of these referendum do you think will be passing on on Election Day?
SANFORD: I do think the residency will pass with some ease. I do think that the issue around setting salaries has a tougher haul here.
BLANK: And the gun laws? It's symbolic anyway, may as well do what?
SANFORD: Yeah, it's symbolic anyway. It won't matter. There will be some people who will say, well, what's the big deal? But I do think they will pass. Because there is enough concern in this community about proliferation of guns. And again, it's a trigger law. The same as what the legislature did with abortion. So this is the same thing. If it takes 50 years for the pendulum to change and we get some people in the legislature who say we've gone too far with guns, then that trigger law, in the form of these referendums in Memphis, will become law then. I see nothing wrong with that. I voted for them, and so we'll see what happens.
