Press
Officials Mount Fight Against
Charter Amendments
BILL DRIES |
MemphisDailyNews.com
October 27, 2008
Several countywide elected officials are mounting an effort to defeat the
two Shelby County charter amendments on the Nov. 4 ballot. The effort has
drawn a formal complaint from Shelby County Board of Commissioners member
Mike Ritz.
Red-lettered campaign signs that misspell the word amendment as “ammendment”
began sprouting outside polling places across the county as the early voting
period opened earlier this month.
Ritz filed a written complaint with Shelby County District Attorney General
Bill Gibbons last week about the signs and organized phone calls, or “phone
banking,” in opposition to the charter amendments. He’s not alleging the
campaign is happening on county time. He argues there has to be some kind of
campaign finance disclosure filed.
The complaint alleges Circuit Court Clerk Jimmy Moore is among those backing
the campaign. Ritz said he turned up Moore’s name after he “did some
checking around.”
When asked if he was involved, Moore told The Daily News, “I sure am.” He
also said Juvenile Court Clerk Steve Stamson was part of the effort.
“Somebody donated the signs anyway. A bunch of people are against it. A lot
of people are involved. We’re going to put some more out this time,” Moore
said. “It’s crazy that he’s complaining.”
Ritz said Moore and other county officials campaigned against the same
provisions in the August elections. One set of charter amendments passed and
the other, including some of the same provisions on the November ballot, was
narrowly defeated by voters.
“I think in the August election, it was a bunch of countywide officials. I
don’t believe the sheriff or the mayor were involved,” Ritz told The Daily
News. “The same folks are working to defeat a lot of the charter amendments,
city and county, right now.”
For more on all city and county charter amendments, see the Oct. 15-21
edition of The Memphis News at www.thememphisnews.com.
Jennifer Donnals, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said
Gibbons has received and read Ritz’s complaint. Assistant District Attorney
Bill Bright, chief prosecutor of the white-collar crime unit, is reviewing
the allegation at Gibbons’ request, Donnals told The Daily News.
“No organization has filed financial reports concerning this political
activity,” Ritz wrote Gibbons.
Ritz is basing his claim on state law that says any Tennessee voter can file
a sworn complaint alleging “that a person has failed to file a statement
required by law.”
Moore said he doesn’t believe there is a filing requirement.
“He’s for it and we’re against it,” Moore said of Ritz. “I can’t see that
he’s got any right to send any letter to Gibbons. We didn’t do anything
wrong. We didn’t know that we did, if we did.”
The county charter amendments would impose term limits of two consecutive
four-year terms on those elected to five countywide offices – sheriff,
trustee, clerk, register and assessor. It also would ban salary petitions
seeking more staffing or pay raises by those elected officials from being
filed in court as they are now. The sheriff would retain a modified salary
petition option that would go to arbitration instead of to a court of law.
The salary petition changes represent a move to less autonomy for the five
offices.
Neither Moore’s nor Stamson’s office would be affected if the charter
amendments pass.
“It could be that they felt that the term limits, if passed, might creep
over to some changes in the state law in their area,” Ritz said. “It could
be that the limitations on salary petitions … it could be they didn’t want
to lose that.”
Ritz filed the complaint the same week County Commissioner Steve Mulroy
called the head of the local Democratic Party Keith Norman to task for a
party ballot that urges citizens to vote no on all referenda – city and
county – on the Nov. 4 ballot. The ballot also includes Democratic nominees
on the November ballot topped by Democratic presidential candidate Barack
Obama.
The referenda recommendation on the ballot was made without approval of the
local party’s executive committee.
A copy of the ballot, once posted on the party’s Web site
(www.shelbydem.org), was removed after Mulroy complained that the ballot was
“misleading.”
Memphis City Council Chairman Myron Lowery, who was also chairman of the
Memphis Charter Commission, which proposed six of the eight city charter
amendments, said he was “disappointed” and “not pleased.”
“Somebody should be here right now,” he said of Norman’s absence from an
Oct. 20 press conference.
Norman and Mulroy patched up their differences over the ballot at week’s end
with Mulroy paying several hundred dollars to have the ballots reprinted and
Norman saying the referenda recommendation was an error that was not
intentional.
Mulroy is a vocal proponent of the city of Memphis charter amendment that
would allow for instant runoff voting in district City Council and city
school board races.
Signs up at early voting sites urge citizens to vote “yes on 5,” which
refers to the number of the city charter amendment. But those signs list a
Web address and who is paying for the signs. The “ammendment” signs give no
indication of who paid for them.
