On #RecallKemp

Kemp Conrad
Kemp Conrad
Last week the Commercial Appeal reported on an effort to recall City Council Chairman, Kemp Conrad.

The announcement of the petition, which can be found here, lists some of the dismissive things Chairman Conrad has said about activists seeking to protect the Greensward in Overton Park.

As a general statement, I’m supportive o citizen led efforts to make change in our city, no matter how large or small. Unfortunately, this effort may not be the best use of people’s time, when time is of the essence.

It’ll all be over in 2 years

As the CA article notes, any effort to recall a sitting City Council member can’t be brought until two years into their term, which would be 2018. By the time the recall petition came to a vote in November of 2018, not only will the issue most likely have been decided: either by mediation or Council action, but Conrad’s term will be nearly over (13 months and change remaining).

Since Conrad is term limited, he won’t be a part of the Council when a new group is sworn in on January 1st of 2020.

While I understand people’s anger with Conrad’s words, tone and sentiment, going after him in this way is a waste of time. A recall effort at this point is a flight of fancy and won’t really solve anything since there’s still a chance that he wouldn’t actually be removed from office by a vote.

Remember, they tried this in Wisconsin with Scott Walker, and he came out of the experience stronger than ever.

Get to 7

As someone who routinely bugs the shit out of me, City Council Attorney Alan Wade, likes to say, “7 votes carries the day”.

So if you’re going to do politics…do it. Get 7 votes against Conrad’s ordinance.

That may sound hard, but its a helluva lot easier than trying to recall him when this whole thing is irrelevant.

Chances are there are 7 votes to get on the Council, but you have to be smart about it. Anger isn’t persuasive for most people. Anger leads to a hardening of the attitudes.

So Rule #1: Don’t be a dick.

Rule #2: Don’t threaten or get heated (see Rule #1).

Rule #3: Appeal to most people’s sense of ‘calmer heads prevailing’

If you present your case like this: “We want the Overton Park Conservancy to have a voice, and we support the ongoing mediation efforts. We’re not asking you to vote against the zoo, we’re asking you to vote against this ordinance at this time to give the mediation a chance to work.”

Does that get you what you want? NO

But its a way to keep you from getting what you absolutely don’t want…Conrad’s ordinance.

In those conversations, whether they be in person, on the phone, via email, or by mail, you may get some feedback indicating the Council member’s inclination. Start Counting

There are some other things you can do with 7 votes that I won’t get into. Get the 7 first, then give me a call.

Now, you may have tried this on some level, but what I’ve observed of City Council meetings, this hasn’t been presented to the Council this way. I’ve heard a lot of anger, and finger pointing, but not a lot of solutions. Choose any speakers wisely. Project calm. Project that you’re the more reasonable party than Conrad and his hastily written ordinance.

Conrad’s already taken some of that away from you by holding fire on the Second reading. Praise him for that.

The ordinance is the stick. Mediation is the carrot. Take the carrot and be happy, or get 7 votes and kill the ordinance.

Thinking Long-Term

While mounting a recall of a sitting Council member may be a waste of time, mounting an effort to change the way the City Council is elected may not be.

Right now there are 7 single member districts and 2 “Super Districts” with 3 members each.

How we got to this is a long and storied tale, but basically it came about as a result of an agreement between a Federal Court and the City Council way back in 1996.

If you want all the gory details, you can find a post I wrote about it in 2011 here.

Here’s what’s important. There are 7 districts with between 89,000 and 95,000 people in them, and 2 districts with over 323,000 people in them. What this does is makes everyone in the city have 4 City Councilmen, which is fine in theory, but as we’ve seen in the two decades since this arrangement has been in effect, has led to less diversity and more groupthink.

By pushing for a change in the way the district system works from the current arrangement to 13 single member districts, the districts get much smaller…just under 50,000 people per district.

What this would mean is it would take less money to get elected (especially compared to the Super Districts) and some areas of town that have never been home to a representative on the City Council since this arrangement was conceived would suddenly have more of a voice.

It puts the elected leaders on the Council closer to the people and thereby, more directly responsible to the people.

Would such a system prevent someone like your least favorite member of the Council (whomever that is) from getting elected? That would be more up to you than its ever been. And that’s the point.

The City Council doesn’t redistrict until before the 2023 election, but it will take a lot of pressure, and probably a Federal Court ruling approving of the new system to put it into effect. And it will meet some stiff resistance because some very powerful people will suddenly be less powerful and have to deal with people they’ve never had to deal with before, ever.

Just something to think about….but for now, start building bridges and rallying the votes to get 7 in the City Council. Because that’s how you get what you want… or at least keep from getting what you don’t want in a representative democracy.

17 Replies to “On #RecallKemp”

  1. I hear you, but disagree. It is time Memphis’ citizens stand up to abuses of power at City Council. The Recall effort isn’t solely aimed at a recall, but more acutely aimed at ensuring Conrad doesn’t have a chance at winning other positions. This reign has lasted too long to go unchecked. Too many well-meaning people are willing to allow the injustice to continue hoping to win a battle instead of a war–the battles are rarely won and we are losing to war. Time to change the battlefield.

    1. Solutions were offered to city council. In Chris Herrington’s May 18th 9:01 article he quoted one of my many common-sense ideas for getting cars off the Greensward immediately. I also emailed each council member individually with said solutions.

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