WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): This week, Memphis Mayor Paul Young delivered his State of the City address and Memphis-Shelby County schools named a new superintendent. Why didn't these messages go as planned? With us again is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Thank you for having me back.
BLANK: So, usually in this annual speech the mayor pats the administration on the back. He lays out some plans for the future. But this year there were a lot of interruptions from the audience. Some would call it heckling. What was this all about?
SANFORD: This was first and foremost about the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents in the city rounding up immigrants, especially those who don't have criminal records. People are really upset about that and they wanted to make sure that the mayor knew that at the State of the City address.
BLANK: Well, Mayor Young's supporters would probably say that his hands are tied when it comes to the federal agencies here with the Memphis Safe Task Force. When an audience member mentioned ICE-- or shouted out ICE -- the mayor's response was, "We love our immigrant community." And then he asked for applause, but he left it at that. How would you describe his political positioning on this task force issue?
SANFORD: Well, I think -- and I've said this before -- he has parsed his words too finely. It is true that his hands are tied. The options are very limited for Paul Young here, but I think where he could have helped himself, at least some, is he could have addressed this head-on at the beginning of his State of the City address and not use the guise of "well, we're moving ahead and we're moving forward and I'm going to be talking about the time when the immigration people are not here." Well, they're here now and that's an issue for a lot of people, even beyond the protesters at the event the other night.
BLANK: So, let's look ahead and talk about some of his achievements and what he plans for the future. Major crimes are down quite a bit. Mayor Young talked about reversing population decline, which we've had for a long time. He's promising 10,000 new homes in the city's core. He wants more density, more tax revenue. He says Memphis is rising. Are we on the upswing right now?
SANFORD: Well, it depends on the category that you want to use as a barometer for that, Chris. Crime is down, he should be touting that. And if people believe sincerely that crime is down, it'll help with some of those other issues. I'm not sure that it's going to deal that much with the density that he's talking about. But he is a housing guy in a lot of respects, that's some of his background. And if he can work on increasing affordable housing in the city, that would be great.
BLANK: Well, so this week, the Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board made Roderick Richmond the full-time superintendent. And we might have been talking about that today, except that last week on WKNO's Behind the Headlines, two lawmakers who are pushing for a state takeover of the district laid out what we can expect to happen when their law passes. Both Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor essentially said that any decisions now being made either by the school board or the new superintendent are "immaterial." Their group of political appointees would have complete control of the district and could even hire a new superintendent. Short term, Otis, what does this mean for the school board and administrators?
SANFORD: Well, it means that the school board and the school administration are in limbo right now, Chris, because I do believe that the legislature, led by Rep. White and Sen.Taylor, are going to push forward on this and it's going to pass. We could be headed for another lawsuit if this happens, but we'll have just have to wait and see on that.
BLANK: State Republicans are alleging that there has been so much disorganization, financial mismanagement, underachievement that a group of highly skilled managers, business professionals chosen by the governor will be more effective than a bunch of concerned citizens who ran for the school board. Is this a compelling argument?
SANFORD: Well, it's not a compelling argument for me because we don't know who this group of appointees will be. I mean, there could be some very fine people with a lot of experience and know-how in management, but it also could be the governor's cronies.
BLANK: But do you think there is, kind of, this growing number of people -- and maybe we haven't really heard from them as loudly as the people who are against this -- who do think there needs to be a top-down reorganization of Memphis-Shelby County schools?
SANFORD: Well yeah, but a lot of that has been fueled by what happened a year ago when the school board fired Marie Feagins. We'll wait and see what this audit brings out. I think the Republican lawmakers who heard a preliminary report about it the other day are leaking out the worst of what they find. And it can't be lost on me that there were no Democrats in the room when the preliminary report was discussed. So we'll wait and see what that audit holds, but I'm still dubious about a state takeover at this point.
