WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): This week's Memphis City Council meeting quickly went off the rails when members delayed a vote on a citywide data center moratorium. With us again is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Good to be with you.
BLANK: So, Otis, to set this up, the problems with industrial-size data centers have become a flashpoint for many local governments as they try to regulate them. And on Tuesday, hundreds of Memphis residents came out to support a one-year moratorium on new ones while new regulations are being hashed out. We've seen the videos of what happened when the council put this vote on hold. There was shouting, and protests, and police had to break it up. It appears a moratorium is popular with residents. Why are some council members against it?
SANFORD: Some council members believe that a moratorium would be shooting ourselves in the financial foot because we would be losing revenue that would go to other places. That's one thing. Others say that we should be working feverishly to come up with the regulations and the guidelines for any new data centers and not be, sort of, hamstrung by a moratorium. I'm not sure I buy that, and I think the community needs to be listened to a little bit more about this moratorium.
BLANK: Right. Council member Jerri Green, who's also running for governor, said that other communities across the state have already passed moratoriums and that Memphis is way behind on regulating them. Why do you think the current council seems to be hedging here on some more definitive action? And can we have a moratorium while they hash out these new regulations or zoning issues?
SANFORD: Well, first of all, Jerri Green is absolutely right. A lot of communities, counties, more than a dozen, have put moratoriums in place. But there needs to be a pause while specific regulations are done. This should have been done long before now. But there is no reason why we cannot have a moratorium -- whether it's 6 months or 9 months -- as we have everybody come to the table and talk about what rules should be in place. That should be happening.
BLANK: Well, what do you predict for the Oct. 20th meeting when this issue comes up again?
SANFORD: I'm expecting that the moratorium will pass the next time. The community has already been heard on this, even though they the community didn't do it right. I think that the council is going to pass a moratorium.
BLANK: Well, let's talk for a minute about the fallout from the recent botched execution of Christa Pike. A week after the Department of Correction tried to kill her, she's apparently awake, but in critical condition in the hospital. What are politicians saying about the future of the death penalty in Tennessee?
SANFORD: Well, the governor, who's already has one and a half of his feet out the door, has put a pause on any executions until they look into what happened. Top members of the legislature are claiming that they want to look into it and investigate themselves, and with the idea if we can't do lethal injection, coming up with other alternatives, which we already have, because the electric chair is still a secondary alternative to lethal injection. And then you have the candidates for governor. Marsha Blackburn just came right out and blanketly said, "Let's bring back the electric chair," which I thought that was a knee-jerk, ill-prepared response. And of course, Jerri Green, the Democrat, says she's opposed to the death penalty completely. And there are people who agree with her on that. So, we have a smorgasbord of reaction to this. This is just a sad day for Tennessee, because this was sheer incompetence that led to what happened to Christa Pike.
BLANK: Well, finally, Otis, we need an update on the Memphis-Shelby County Schools takeover. Back in July, there was a ruling in Nashville that put the takeover on pause, but then this week the same judge said he never meant to imply that the state-appointed board couldn't start getting to work. And so they did get back to work. They had a meeting yesterday. So, where are we today with this takeover?
SANFORD: What this judge said was pretty atrocious to me. I mean, if you are saying now that you never meant to put a pause, why didn't you say that 2 months ago? I mean, that's ridiculous.
BLANK: So, it seems like we might be just in another holding pattern until all of this runs through the courts?
SANFORD: Yesterday, the school system filed a separate lawsuit, another lawsuit, this time in Shelby County Chancery Court, to do the same thing that they asked the other judge to do. She might put another pause on it. So, this is in such a state of flux. It is baffling in a lot of ways, but that's typical now of how we do things politically and governmentally, not just in Shelby County, but in the state of Tennessee also. This is a comedy of errors, although it's not funny.
