vibinc

Over the course of the past several months I’ve been reading and thinking and reading and listening and thinking some more about stuff. I haven’t written much because, quite frankly, I haven’t had much to say and I’m growing more and more frustrated at not only the way things are but the manner in which people try to effect outcomes to change things.

Maybe it’s my personal transition from a solidly middle-class income to poor college student. Maybe it’s the culmination of many things, but I’ve come to a conclusion…a truism if you will, that goes something like this:

Nothing you want to happen to you happens overnight.

Now let’s think about this for a moment. What events happen suddenly, or seem to happen suddenly? Car wrecks, deaths in the family, job losses, terrorist attacks…the list goes on. Short of winning the lottery, there is nothing I can think of that happens suddenly that you would wish upon yourself.

The truth is, even most things that seem to happen suddenly don’t necessarily REALLY happen that suddenly. It’s a perception thing. So if neither the majority of good or bad things that happen to people, or groups of people, or situations, happen suddenly, then what the hell am I talking about?

Imagine this. You roll a marble on a hardwood floor. That marble will likely travel in one general direction until something affects its travel. If the floor is slightly unlevel, it will drift if one direction or the other gradually, gaining speed as momentum takes it left or right. If there is an obstruction, it will stop suddenly or bounce off the obstruction, and likely turn left or right, depending on the conditions of the momentum that was carrying it forward. Sometimes, due to momentum, obstruction or conditions of the hardwood floor, it will just stop.

If you take the example of the marble traveling across the floor as a metaphor for anything: your life, your causes, etc., etc., then you want to make sure that your roll your marble on the flattest, least obstructed hardwood floor you can find to ensure that; 1. You get where you want to go. And 2. You get there in the shortest time/distance possible. That, at the very least, would be the smart thing to do.

But people often aren’t always very smart, and instead of looking at the lay of the land and rolling their marble in a direction or towards a goal using the least obstructed path, most people just hurl the marble out there, in the same way they always have, relying on the hope, or emotionally driven belief that because the desired destination of their marble is right and pure and true, that their marble will defy the odds and get where they want it to go.

Rarely does this ever happen.

By the same token, rarely is the floor a wide-open, unobstructed, flat hardwood floor. More often than not, for the more complicated things in life, it’s a bumpy ever-changing maze filled with all kinds of obstructions and conflicts and things that you never imagined. And more often than not, full well knowing this condition exists; we roll our marbles out there emotionally, instead of rationally, expecting some guiding hand, or the supernatural force of our righteousness or the righteousness of our cause to carry us to our destination. And more often than not, we fail.

Think about it in terms of something just about everyone has tried to do at one point or another…weight loss. You can do a crash diet, you can do the fad diet of the week, you can buy an exercise video or ridiculous device off of an infomercial, and all sorts of other things to lose weight, but in the end, most of us don’t keep that weight off because we emotionally took some kind of short cut to our destination and never REALLY arrived at the place we were really trying to get to, just a place that looked an awful lot like it. Then, a month, or six months later, we’re right back where we were, in the first place, and we feel bad about ourselves or whatever, and we give up, or lash out at circumstance, or any other number of emotionally driven reactions that really don’t get us one damn inch closer to our goal.

So what’s the problem? The real problem is two-fold: First, we’ve taken an abbreviated path to our “goal”, whatever that goal is. Second, the goal we’ve chosen is a shortsighted, temporary goal that ignores the reality that we should be working toward a maintaining a healthy lifestyle, rather than some ridiculous and largely meaningless “weight target”.

The truth of the matter is that whether we’re talking about marbles or whatever, we have to recognize and focus ourselves on REAL goals rather than the shortcuts, and there is a process involved in getting to our REAL goal. That process, even though it’s tried and true, is more often than not, rejected by people because it’s too hard or inconvenient or whatever it is to them. Every time we reject that process we put ourselves further and further, deeper and deeper on an island of delusion that we have created for ourselves, grounded in the belief that if we just believe hard enough, the hard work it takes to actually get shit done will fade away and we’ll get what we want.

So when I look at people, regardless of education, ideology, or any other of the human conditions that we live in, who are doing things to get things done by doing them in the way THEY want to, as if to enforce their will on the rest of us, rather than respecting the process, a tried and true process, of getting shit done, and they’re frustrated, or emotional or whatever they are because if people would just listen to them the whole world would be a better place, I find myself wondering just what the fuck they expected?

The process exists for a reason, and that reason is to protect and respect all of us from the small few of us who would, if we could, unilaterally enforce our will upon the whole of us, because “ if people would just listen to them the whole world would be a better place”, which, I think, is a pretty good definition of fascism, because we all know that as long as it’s OUR will, it’s fine, but if it’s SOMEONE ELSE’S will, it’s not necessarily fine, and that process is not immediate, but a long and winding and a huge pain in the ass, because if it wasn’t, it would actually suck worse for all of us because it would seem like an immediate change, and as I said at the beginning of this screed;

Nothing you want to happen to you happens overnight.

Got it?

See, you can keep doing what you’ve been doing and keep getting what you’ve always got. You can bitch and moan to friends and colleagues, and get nowhere. If you’re a little more industrious, you can go to your favorite locally owned craft store, and build a sandwich board, and bitch and moan publicly on a street corner and get labeled one of those “bitchers and moaners”. If you’re really creative and not a total dick, you can organize yourself into a group of like-minded people forming a “bitch and moan” club that takes comfort in the familiarity of its favorite brand of bitchiness and moaniness, but ultimately gets nothing done. Or, if you KNOW WHAT YOU REALLY WANT, you can educate yourself about the issues and the process, insert yourself into that process, focus your attention on the path most likely to get you where you want to be, and slowly, and patiently build consensus around this idea until it gradually and deliberately becomes the change you wanted in the first place.

This means you don’t just hurl your marble forward and pray you don’t run into any obstacles, but you deliberately direct your marble through the maze of the process an inch at a time, knowing that the path will take you both forward and backwards, left and right, all the while grounding yourself in that ultimate goal. By doing this, keeping your perspective, and most of all, exercising patience, you WILL get to that goal eventually, despite the setbacks, obstacles, trials and tribulations that come with anything in this world that is worth a damn.

You’ve got to stay focused, and that’s hard. You’ve got to be patient, and that’s hard. But most of all, you’ve got to control your marble, and that’s, by far, the hardest part of all of it. If you do, you’ll get the thing you wanted, and if you’re really good, you’ll want something more, because the perspective you gain from the journey will make you better, and in the end, that’s ultimately what it’s all about.

All the talk and media coverage surrounding what the Mayor will or won’t do, and why he’s doing it is designed to sell papers more than inform. This thing has turned into something that more resembles a TMZ report than anything else, which is unfortunate because there is a real substantive story here, if only the media would allow it to emerge.

Since we first learned of the Mayor’s retirement/resignation I’ve written about 4 posts. Almost all of these have dealt with process, or procedural flaws in one argument or another.

Surely the members in the majority understand that their decision to declare the office of Mayor vacant as of July 30th based on a verbal commitment made to the media is a shaky legal proposition at best. Surely the members in the majority knew that as soon as the minutes were approved the Mayor would make a move to challenge their authority, and more importantly, their shaky legal position. It was evident that this would happen from the beginning, and regardless of whether members in the majority of the Council “believe” the Mayor will retire/resign or not, they have been told, over and over again by legal council that they “can” do this, but that the consequences are unknown.

We can talk about a lot of supposed “reasons” the Mayor is doing what he’s doing. Lord knows I’ve played armchair psychologist for this thing for several weeks. But I don’t really think that’s necessary. You can call the Mayor’s methods what you want, I’ll go with unconventional, but in the face of a new “process” for Mayoral succession that was voted in last November, there is no legal “precedent” to fill the holes in the Charter, or support the position of the City Council. Herenton, as Mayor of the city, is duty bound to make sure executive authority is not usurped by the City Council. The Mayor has to make sure what’s happening now doesn’t become a legal precedent that will haunt future Mayors.

For those of you non-lawyerly types out there (and some of you who are lawyers but didn’t see this coming)

Precedent: noun |ˈpresid(ə)nt| – a previous case or legal decision that may be or ( binding precedent) must be followed in subsequent similar cases :

The “precedent” that the Mayor must fight is that a vacancy can be declared by the Council without the benefit of a formal and valid resignation/retirement letter.

I would suggest that the opposing parties (the Mayor and the majority of the Council) are at an impasse. The Mayor has publicly announced his intention to retire, but has not formally informed the Council (he rescinded all resignation/retirement letters before they were approved making them null and void), nor has that formal announcement been approved by the Council (because they were rescinded). What the Council approved is the legal equivalent of hearsay.

Perhaps the Mayor has communicated individually to Council members his intention to retire on date certain X, but until that communication is made directly, in writing to the body, and not rescinded before the body can act, the council is building a case on a shakier foundation than the Pyramid.

So, by voting to declare the office vacant, with little guidance from the charter on what constitutes vacancy, or the process for declaring such a vacancy, the Council has started down the path of creating a legal precedent that, if unchallenged, could weaken the office of Mayor for decades.

We can argue whether a weaker Mayor is a good thing or not, that’s not the point. The charter establishes the office of Mayor, just like it does the City Council, assigning duties and responsibilities to both. Because Mayoral resignations/retirements happen so infrequently, and any past precedent in the wake of the Charter Amendments are tenuous at best, the entire process is untested and past precedents are questionable. Further, there is NO precedent ANYWHERE that I’m aware of, that allows the City Council to vacate the Mayor’s office without notice or benefit of a document expressing executive intent to vacate (the only exception here would be death). If the City Council’s majority position stands, the office of Mayor could be vacated based on what amounts to rumor and innuendo.

Folks, this isn’t the Italian Parliament! We don’t just dissolve the government at the drop of a hat because we’re bored. There has to be just cause backed up by documentation. At this point I would submit that the Council has neither.

In case it’s not clear, I find myself siding with the minority of the Council on this question, though not for the reasons that many in the minority have arrived at their position. Like LWC I believe that the Collins resolution, which would have held the approval of the minutes on the Strickland resolution to declare a vacancy until 5pm on July 30th, would have, at least, given the Mayor the opportunity to leave office in a manner consistent with his position and prerogative.

Once the Mayor was officially off City payroll, as Atty. Wade said at the last City Council meeting, there would be no question as to whether he was still Mayor or not, the Council could act in a way that wouldn’t potentially establish any precedent that might be harmful in the long-term, or be up to a legal challenge in the future. Further, had the Collins resolution passed, the approval of the minutes on July 30th, despite the likely absence of Councilman Hedgepeth (who said he could not attend) may have been unanimous, uniting the Council and perhaps healing some fissures that have arisen through this process. Apparently, the majority wasn’t willing to take that chance.

So, here we are. The Council has approved the minutes of the Strickland resolution and in doing so, declared a vacancy, potentially establishing a precedent in city process that is well outside of the intent of the Charter. At this point, I want this question to go to court so it can be cleared up and settled in a rational way, rather than what’s going on right now. So far, all we’ve seen are opinions (which are like a certain body part that everyone has), I think it may be time for a decision, and that can ONLY come from a court. It’s unfortunate that a lot of money will be spent on this, but it is what it is. There’s no turning back now.

At the end of the day we have to look to the former members of the Charter Commission, two of whom are current City Council members, and ask why they removed provisions from the old Charter that defined resignation/retirement and death as a vacancy, but did not maintain these, or further define a process to follow. Hindsight is 20/20, but these individuals were tasked with foresight. In that task, they seem to have failed, and the city will suffer the consequences of that failure.

Yesterday, flying high on a series of events that have turned the possibility of a change in leadership at the City Mayor’s office for the first time since I left college into a possible reality, there was more political coverage, opinion, and conjecture floating around since I moved here over 5 years ago. Honestly, it was a welcome change.

In the wake of all this, I made a list of things I wanted to write about today. Instead, I spent the majority of the day suffering from the effects of a sugar binge that seemed like a good idea at 2am. Haagen-Daaz and Carmel Corn at 2am is a bad idea, no matter how much sugar you think you can consume.

Anyway, in light of the events of the past couple of days, I thought I would go through some of the coverage of City Government, starting with the City Council meeting on Tuesday that fanned the media firestorm.

First I’ll start with my coverage of the Council meeting Tuesday. Several TV stations have played the more explosive parts of the meeting, but in order to really get a sense of the climate, you have to listen to the whole thing. It all started with Councilman Strickland’s motion to suspend the rules. Now I understand that not everyone is familiar with parliamentary procedure. Thankfully, Wikipedia has a good definition:

A motion to suspend the rules, in parliamentary procedure, is used to allow a deliberative assembly to do something that it could not normally do without violating special rules of order, rules contained in the parliamentary authority, the standing rules of the assembly,[1] or rules of order contained in the bylaws.[2] (Source)

Basically, this was a successful attempt to add Strickland’s resolution accepting the resignation to the agenda.

What happened from there was 45 minutes of impassioned debate (large audio file) not about suspending the rules, but the merits of the issue that would be brought if the rules were suspended.

From that point, only 30 minutes were required to pass the resolution and vote on same night minutes.

Again, for those not familiar with parliamentary procedure, had the Council approved the minutes that same night, the resolution would have a binding effect in its current form. Because they did not, there is an opportunity to amend the resolution should there be any need. Ultimately, this is a good thing, as I noted yesterday.

After I published my post about the proceedings, a flurry of interviews with the Mayor started coming online. It started with Memphis Daily News reporter Andy Meek’s report that the Mayor was packing boxes in his office.

Then there was this interview by Fox 13 (direct link).

Since this interview hit the internet, there’s been more and more and more, heating up the speculation and causing one commentator to say I told ya so. I think it’s all, as Councilwoman Swearengen-Ware said multiple times yesterday, “premature”.

There’s this one nagging thing that’s been banging around in my head that goes back to this whole parliamentary procedure thing that I’ve been talking about throughout this post. As the CA reported on the same day he announced his retirement, the Mayor’s pension was approved by the Pension Board. Something that wasn’t reported is the process. Just like the City Council, the Pension Board must approve the minutes of their last meeting for those actions to have any impact. Since the Pension board did not approve the minutes on the same night that the pension was set, any pension arrangement is still up in the air. When is the Pension Board set to approve the minutes? July 30, the same day that Mayor Herenton says he will vacate the office. Coincidence? Maybe, but I’d be willing to bet that the Mayor saw a potential point of weakness in vacating before the minutes were approved, and wanted to shore up that position.

So maybe he will retire on July 30. We won’t really know until July 30.

Between now and then we still have another City Council meeting. At that meeting, assuming the majority holds for another 12 days, they will approve the minutes of the meeting, making the Strickland resolution binding. If the Mayor doesn’t present the Council with another letter of retirement/resignation we’ll have a resolution that is, at best, on shaky legal grounds as noted by Atty. Wade at the Council meeting. Not that I think that will be an issue, but it could…especially if the Pension Board does something that puts Mayor Herenton’s pension in limbo.

There are some other things that, admittedly, are less critical, but still interesting about the whole series of events. I personally find it interesting that the Mayor changed his date of resignation/retirement on July 6th. Also I find it interesting that the language used since the 6th seems more closely tied to “retirement” rather that “resignation”. Could it be that the bizarre resignation of Gov. Sarah Palin on July 3rd, combined with the issue of the Pension Board, gave the Mayor pause, and led him to make this clarification in language as well as the change of date? After all the pundits in America called her resignation a “political disaster”, perhaps the Mayor chose to do something that seemed less like a non-quitting quitter, ala retirement as he begins his run for the 9th Congressional seat. Ok, I’ll take off my tinfoil hat now.

What’s most interesting, aside for all the “will he/won’t he” back and forth, is that underlying all this is a campaign for an office that is still yet to be announced as vacant, that is fully underway. Here is the “candidate’s forum” from earlier today as reported by the CA.

For those of you just following the Cliff’s Notes, the Election Commission declined a bid to start the process for a Special election today. Why? From the article:

…there will be no preparations for a special election until there is a clear mandate from the City Council, adding that he doesn’t want to spend any taxpayer money on the process until then.

The Election Commission, rightly, recognizes the shaky legal ground the Memphis City Council is on, and doesn’t want to play. I can’t say as I blame them.

But there’s more! A group has filed a lawsuit challenging the separation of powers that the Mayoral Succession charter amendment that passed last November with some 85% of the vote.

I wrote about this after Atty. Wade’s opinion was released. Unfortunately, this is just an opinion, in order for it to be anything more there has to be some case law to back it up, which there isn’t. The Charter Amendment we voted in last November hasn’t been around long enough to be litigated, so this will be it’s maiden voyage in the courts, should the lawsuit actually be brought.

If this seems chaotic to you, take a moment; walk around the block a couple of times, play fetch with the dog, maybe enjoy a good cigar and a fine single malt scotch. In any case, chill. This is all part of the process. Process is the thing that brings order to chaos.

The Courts are there to decide if the pending litigation has any merit. Since this is a new Charter Amendment, and the circumstances surrounding the situation are heatedly emotional and have little or no legal framework to stand upon, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with getting a decision to settle it. In fact, it’s a better outcome because in the future, we won’t have these problems. That doesn’t mean I agree with the legal position put forward by, really anyone in the process, that just means that by litigating it we can find out what reality is, and move forward from there.

Yes it’s gonna cost us money, and money is tight. There isn’t anything about a succession battle that isn’t going to cost money. In the end, I think the courts will side with Atty. Wade’s opinion on the resignation and succession issues, and we’ll move on. Admittedly, I’m not a lawyer. I’m a guy with an opinion and we know what else everyone with one of those has. But from my time of being a goob reading all the stuff that no one wants to read and listening to all the stuff no one wants to listen to, I think this will turn out just fine. We’ll get it decision and we’ll go from there.

Remember, the law is your friend, and process is the thing that got us out of the caves. You can get emotional if you want to…God knows I have, but in the end what will you have? Let the system work through our unintended consequences and let’s move on from there. At least, in the end, we’ll know where we stand so we can come up with an action from a position of understanding, rather than a position of emotion.