In the unlikely event that Mayor Willie Herenton actually retires or
resigns or whatever he wants to call it on July 30th, Hizzoner says
there will be a “retirement reception in my honor” in the Hall of
Mayors on July 31st from 2 to 4 p.m.
In the even more unlikely event that you should be invited to attend
that reception, you should respond properly.
On page 400 of her book Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly
Correct Behavior, author Judith Martin offers some advice. The
acceptance should say “Mr. and/or Ms. (your name) accepts with pleasure
your kind invitation.”
Tell him you’re coming. Then change your mind.
It’s not like there won’t be other options. There will be plenty of
partying on the day Herenton finally leaves office. Memphians will
celebrate in homes, bars, block parties, and restaurants like it’s an
NBA championship, an NCAA title, and a new millennium.
The question is, will that day ever arrive?
City Council chairman Myron Lowery, who would become the interim
mayor, said, “You have to take an individual at his word.” But what if
the individual already has unresigned twice?
Then “it is up to every individual to make up his own mind,” said
Lowery, who appears to be resigned to waiting it out. As former city
councilman Jack Sammons said, “Unfortunately, he [Herenton] has got the
ball, and there’s not a lot anyone can do about it.”
The mayor who has been in office since 1992 suddenly discovered last
week that “there remains some important city business matters that I
need additional time to complete.”
Then he finally got around to the nature of that important business.
The new city charter is “silent on some important issues,” like whether
or not the mayor pro tem can hold an executive and legislative position
at the same time.
“Should the citizens in a special election vote for a mayor and your
vacant council seat?” Herenton asked. “We need answers. An immediate
friendly lawsuit may be necessary.”
There it is. The way out of getting out. A friendly lawsuit filed
with a friendly judge so Herenton can say his departure date depends on
the court. This sudden concern for the separation of powers is as phony
as everything else about Herenton’s charade.
“The charter is carefully written,” said Steve Wirls, a political
science professor at Rhodes College and adviser to the Memphis City
Council and Memphis Charter Commission. “Had the authors thought that
the chairman of the council would need to vacate his seat in order to
become the interim mayor they would have said so clearly. They clearly
did not say so.”
Wirls said that neither the charter nor the amendments approved by
voters in 2008 say anything about the council chairman’s seat being
“frozen” if he or she becomes mayor pro tem, as city council attorney
Allan Wade wrote in an opinion this week.
“I was appalled and angry at Wade’s opinion,” Wirls said. “It is not
a good-faith reading of the charter. It is a convoluted attempt to get
around the charter’s clarity on this point. He is acting more as
Herenton’s personal attorney than as a public servant.”
In his opinion, Wade wrote:
“Myron Lowery does not lose his seat on the council because of the
mandate of the charter that he become mayor pro tem; however, his
status as a council member is frozen as of the date he takes the oath
of office as mayor pro tem until he returns or becomes mayor.”
Wirls said the charter language on the interim mayor is “an
exception to take care of an exceptional circumstance.” It does not
require him to resign or devote his entire time to mayoral duties.
“It says, in plain language, exactly the opposite,” Wirls said. “The
language clearly states that he will be both at the same time.”
The issue is complicated by the fact that Lowery was an elected
member of the charter commission that drafted the amendments and is an
announced candidate for the job of mayor if there is a special
election.
“I have no fight at all with the mayor,” Lowery said. “I didn’t
encourage him to resign.”
No, he didn’t. Herenton did that all by himself. Not that it makes
any difference.
