Press
Release
Wharton draws fire for
Head Start veto
Commissioner criticizes action killing contract
By Alex Doniach,
Commercial Appeal
September 25, 2007
Tempers flared Monday between Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton and County
Commissioner Mike Ritz in the debate involving Shelby County Head Start.
Ritz grilled Wharton about his decision two weeks ago to veto a contract
that would have moved 460 kids in the county's early childhood program to
Porter-Leath Children's Center, which had pledged to donate $5 million to
build new buildings.
The contract was approved by commissioners a month ago and was reached in a
compromise brokered by Wharton's administration after it became clear
commissioners could not agree on an earlier contract to move 1,120 kids.
Speaking to the commission for the first time since the veto, Wharton said
he never supported the compromise that his staff brokered. "This is the
danger when we try to write a contract on the floor of the commission here,"
he said.
He said he remained silent during the discussion that day because there were
so many people involved and so many understandings about what the compromise
meant.
"I was just resolved then I was not going to have any part of it, that I
would veto it," Wharton said. Particularly if it turned out that the
essential premise, the capital dollars promised by Porter-Leath, were to
fall through, he said.
It turned out, following the compromise, that Porter-Leath's donors were not
willing to provide the $5 million because the center would be handling too
few kids to make a significant change in the program.
So Wharton vetoed the deal.
But Ritz called Wharton's hands-off reasoning "incredibly disturbing" and
said Wharton was involved in the compromise more than he let on.
"I don't think it's fair for the mayor to look like he doesn't support this
compromise when in fact we wouldn't have been looking at it but for the
staff of the county administration," he said. "For him to get a free pass is
unfair."
Ritz said the compromise was in the works for weeks prior. And after the
vote, Ritz said Wharton tapped him on the shoulder and thanked him for
voting for it.
The usually unflappable Wharton responded in a raised and tense tone. "I'm
not going to say anything (about) how I am offended," he said. "I've been
around courtrooms a long time and I've had much worse than that,
Commissioner Ritz."
Wharton reiterated that he'd learned of the compromise the day of the vote,
and that he did thank Ritz because he was glad they'd settled the issue.
"I do take exception to this allegation that we were marketing and pushing
the compromise that ended up being the subject of the vote," he said.
But the back and forth between Ritz and Wharton did not change the position
of commissioners, who, like in an earlier committee vote, supported
Wharton's veto 10-2. Commissioners George Flinn and Ritz voted in favor of
the override. David Lillard recused himself because his law firm does
business with Porter-Leath.
Of the tense discussion, Wharton said after the debate that he takes it in
stride.
"The good thing about it is the fervor with which both sides debated," he
said, with a chuckle. "And I would much prefer it to be debating on children
then some of the other things we vote on."
