WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): The firing of Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent, Marie Feagins started a legal backlash that is still ongoing. With us to talk about that and some other issues is Memphis political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Thank you for having me.
BLANK: Otis, a judge is preparing a ruling right now based on whether or not the school board violated open records laws. But that ruling could result in the possible reinstatement of Marie Feagins. Does anyone think this could be a good outcome?
SANFORD: Well, some people do. The question is: is that practical? And that's what the hearing was all about the other day. You never know what a judge is going to do, and I'm not going to even try to speculate as to what he's going to do.
BLANK: Sometimes local governments make controversial decisions, but this one really annoyed both state and county lawmakers. At the moment, the county commission is proposing what amounts to a hard reboot of the whole school board. They want to put all nine seats up for election next year, which would put them on the same cycle as most of county government. There would also be term limits. What are some of the arguments for and against this proposal?
SANFORD: The arguments for it would be to put the school board on the same cycle as other county races which actually would, in theory, increase the turnout for the school board races. We had a woeful turnout the last time they were on the ballot, just last year. And so this is a way, I think, to increase that turnout. Also, from the standpoint of those in favor of this, they are trying to make some of these school board members accountable, because it was such a low turnout. And maybe we elected people that probably should not have gotten elected. So, there's a redo there. The argument against it, though, is that you are short-changing people who campaigned for a four-year term and spent probably a lot of money campaigning, and now they have to do it all over again in two years. That's an argument against it.
BLANK: Two state lawmakers, both Republicans, Mark White and Brent Taylor, still say that they're pushing for a state takeover of of the school district. Could these changes by the commission change their mind on that?
SANFORD: I doubt it. They're looking at the here and now and the here and now is telling them that from their point of view, we have a terrible school board that, you know, can't get its act together, and the state has to step in. Because even if there is a change in the election of school board members, it wouldn't happen until August of next year. And so the legislature goes back in January -- I think there still may be an appetite for that depending on what that audit says of the school board.
BLANK: Well, switching briefly to a national story. As a journalist, you are a big proponent of open records.
SANFORD: Huge proponent of open records.
BLANK: Well, the Trump Administration this past week, as you know, released a a trove of documents related to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. here in Memphis. There were a lot of objections to the release of these documents, including from the King family. Was this about transparency, or politics?
SANFORD: In this case, it was squarely about politics, Chris. The Trump Administration, and Donald Trump specifically, is trying to change the conversation from his own troubles with the Jeffrey Epstein matter. Now, you can make an argument that if we're talking only about records that go directly to the assassination of Dr. King in 1968, you could make an argument that maybe if there's anything in there that sheds more light on that, we should do it. But if we're just talking about a bunch of records based on the surveillance and the hounding that Dr. King endured for many, many years prior to his assassination, I don't think that serves any purpose at all.
BLANK: Well, finally, to end on transparency, it was a surprise, I think, to everybody, when on the eve of sentencing the Memphis Police officers involved in the death of Tyre Nichols, Judge Mark Norris recused himself. And the reason for that recusal is under seal. And the Daily Memphian is now suing the court for access to that information. They say this is in the public interest to know why the judge recused. Do you agree with that?
SANFORD: I more than 100% agree to that. This may be one of the more significant things that the Daily Memphian has done since it's been in existence. The public absolutely has a right to know why Judge Mark Norris -- and I've known him for many years -- why he had to recuse himself after the trial. He's already conducted the trial. We're talking about the most significant high-profile murder case, really, in the city in decades and we don't know why this is happening. Kudos to the Daily Memphian and I hope the public finds out something on this sooner rather than later.
