- (female announcer) Production funding for Behind the Headlines is made possible in part by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund and by viewers, like you, thank you.

- Priorities for the new County Commission, tonight on Behind the Headlines.

[intense orchestral music] I'm Eric Barnes with The Daily Memphian.

Thanks for joining us.

I am joined tonight by three members of the newly elected County Commission.

We'll start with David Bradford, representing District 2 and including parts of Germantown, all of Collierville, portions of unincorporated Shelby County.

Thanks for being here.

- Happy to be here.

- Britney Thornton is newly elected, is representing District 10, which includes Orange Mound, South Memphis, Whitehaven, Sherwood Forest, parts of Cooper-Young and Midtown, I think I got that right.

- Yes.

- Thanks for being here.

- And Mickell Lowery.

- Yes.

- Chairman of the Commission, District 8, including Downtown Memphis, parts of North Memphis, South Memphis, Frayser, and Central Gardens.

I think I have that right.

- That's it.

- Okay, and Bill Dries is a reporter representing all of Memphis for The Daily Memphian.

[all laugh] But I do like to include that.

I know it's a little long-winded, but the districts are so odd sometimes and drawn strangely, and it's helpful when I remember to do that.

So thanks for everyone's patience and thanks for your patience.

I'll start really just, briefly, if you would, just talk as we go into this new session.

You, Britney, as newly elected, you all, you were just re-elected, I believe David.

- That's correct.

And you I don't think were up, or were you up?

Were you just re-elected?

- I was just re-elected as well.

- You were too.

Okay.

As everyone knows, 13 years of doing this show, I get very confused about the election cycles, and I apologize.

But it's good to clarify.

I'll start with you as chairman, and for each of you, just briefly, your priorities as you go into this new term for the Commission and where you all need to be focused and where you can have an impact.

- Sure.

There's a lot there.

First, let me say, I'm honored to be chair of this Commission.

It's the most diverse Commission that we've ever had in the history of Shelby County.

The board of Commissioners, with seven women this year.

You think about that, it was only, there was three last year.

And so, it's historic in nature, so I'm honored to be chair, but there are a lot of priorities we have here.

We could spend an hour talking about that.

So I'll talk a little bit about the low-hanging fruit that we all know about to be, you know, we hear in the news, things of that nature.

We can go around to my fellow Commissioners.

First and foremost, Regional One obviously is something that Shelby County is responsible for, for health concerns, obviously.

And there's a large ticket item looming there to make sure that it has the adequate facilities and everything that it needs for us to continue to not only serve our citizens, but serve regionally as well.

Obviously, that ticket amount of money we just don't have lying around somewhere.

- This proposal is some 600, maybe?

I have it in my head.

What is it?

[laughs] - You know, it's, you hear 350, you hear 500, you hear 600, you hear it balloons, right?

- Okay.

- There's a study being done right now by the administration to come back with, obviously, what that number should be and where that funding source should come from.

But at the end of the day, that's something that we're gonna have to make some tough decisions on because it has to be done.

But again, we just don't have that laying around.

So, that's first and foremost.

And one other thing when you're talking about priorities is everyone's hearing about what's going on, our Clerk's Office and everything else.

Our job is to make sure we're supporting all of our clerks, but, also, to make sure the citizens are getting services they deserve.

So we put some resolutions in place to set some action items to get some resolution there as well, so.

- And this is the issues with Wanda Halbert, the County Clerk's Office with marriage licenses, driver's licenses- - Sure.

- Business licenses, taxes, a lot of questions going on there.

- Sure.

We have a lot of priorities, but a lot that affects everyone.

So I want to talk about that one just to let people know that we're working to get some resolution there.

- Okay.

And we'll talk about other things as we go around.

Britney, for you, you're now newly elected.

You've had, I think, now two meetings that you've attended.

Your priorities just, or top priorities if possible.

- You know, I don't know if it helps, but it's been three.

- Oh, three, Okay.

- Yeah.

- It has been three.

- So I'm two months into my first elected office.

So a lot of this is just riding this learning curve and the wave.

The priorities for me that I'm most mindful of stem from my district, so District 10 priorities.

And for me, I've just rooted those in housing, transit and economic development.

So of course, you know, having a fully funded transit system that is accessible to, you know, us in the present is important.

And driving for us to be able to position, you know, our workforce to access the jobs that we're opening up.

It's very important.

As well as building density within, you know, the city core, the lack of...

The blight, the vacancy rates, particularly for District 10, they directly impact us as well as the lack of affordable housing.

You know, this inaccessible housing market.

So those issues are very pressing.

I recently visited our 201 Poplar jail and that's of concern for me.

You know, it's a very dated facility and it's no longer serving the workers or those people who are, you know, pretrial in their status.

And so lots of priorities.

You know, we have a lot of mindfulness, but those are just a couple things that are pressing for me.

- Okay.

And David, last but not least.

- Well, certainly Regional One was one of the ones I was just going to discuss.

We just recently overhauled the county's MWBE policy.

And so there's still a little bit of work to be done there.

- That, that being the policies around minority business, minority and women-owned businesses.

- Yes.

Doing business with the county.

And so there's still some work being done there that we need to help that EOC department work through.

Crime is certainly an issue.

So trying to help the sheriff to make sure he has the resources available.

Also make sure there's, you know, mental health facilities and that type of stuff available to the people that need it.

Those are certainly important.

Shelby County Schools is always gonna be on top of our mind, trying to make sure they have the proper funding in place.

Obviously, we're waiting to hear who the new superintendent's gonna be through that search and working with them to help make sure they have what they need to help the education system.

- Okay.

Let me bring in Bill.

- Let's start with Regional One.

The figure that Dr. Coopwood has talked about for Regional One is $750 million.

And the thought is, I don't believe you all actually put a specific dollar figure in the resolution at this point, but at one point, the talk was about three and fifty million dollars of that, the first $350 million coming from Shelby County Government.

Is this a choice between doing that and trying to do more in terms of new school construction for Memphis-Shelby County Schools?

Mr. Chairman, I'll start with you.

- Yeah.

I don't think it's a choice.

I think it's us understanding what the full dollar amount should be.

Initially, that first dollar amount you were referring to was put by the previous Commission.

And understandably so, they wanted to do something before they left.

I understand that, this has been a looming item for so long and this is what happens in government sometimes.

You wait until you just have to make a move.

The administration wants to come back and give us a comprehensive plan of what that should be.

Then we need to look at as far as where the funding sources come from.

Is there federal money for that?

Obviously, county.

Are there items where the city should be responsible for some items?

So I think we need to look at the whole comprehensive plan to understand what the full dollar amount is, and then that way, we can go to the taxpayers and say, this is what we have to do going forward.

- Can I do, just for those not as close to this as we are, that number from 350 to now 750 is 100% capital improvement, I mean construction and building, or is that also increasing the operating expense and the operating spend of Regional One?

- What most of it is talking about is CIP, which is capital improvement.

We already fund the operating budget of somewhat 30 million every year.

That's our responsibility.

So we're funding the operations, so I don't want anybody to, you know, misconstrue that.

- Right.

- Operating funds- - This is overhaul, updating, expanding facility, okay.

- Basically a new, basically a new regional one.

- Thank you, just for those- - Exactly.

- Okay.

- And Commissioner Bradford, I'll put you on the spot here.

So, even though you're awaiting the study, I think most Commissioners are probably doing a mental inventory of what kind of sources do we have to fund capital improvements?

Where do you think the money, whatever the amount is, might come from?

- Oh, that's a great question.

I have not delved into that very deep at all.

I'm still kind of, as the chairman said here, trying to look to see what that total number is, that total ask.

I, personally, when I'm not working on the Commission, I work in design and construction, and I think the 350 to 700 million is probably low for what Dr. Coopwood really wants to do out there.

So I have some concerns about what is that total dollar value?

I think we also need to figure out how to reach out to, you know, Mississippi and Arkansas because Regional One, you know, whenever there's a trauma, a lot of those states fly their patients in here as well.

So I'd be curious to know is there any opportunity to reach out to those states to help fund it?

- Commissioner Thornton, this is a huge dollar figure, whatever the dollar figure is, for a Commissioner just arriving on the Commission.

What's your thought about how this works in terms of setting priorities?

Because as I mentioned, Memphis-Shelby County Schools has quite a list for new school construction, and the former Commission had a lot of discussions about that even before Regional One came in with the need for this.

- Yeah.

I think, you know, on the Commission internally, it's kind of, it's starting to turn into something that's predictable, that I'm going to ask where is the vision?

And so for me, when it comes to setting priorities, I always look to see are those priorities set?

I don't believe in having to be, you know, one track minded.

I think that we can walk and chew gum at the same time, that we can make strategic investments into our healthcare system, as well as into our school system.

Understanding that, you know, some students started school this year with ceilings caving in on them.

It's a priority, it's a clear priority.

And I'm, personally for me, really gonna push for us to figure out where our commitment list is and where our energy needs to fall at any given point because we need to know how strategic investments in one area is gonna alleviate some of the cost burden in another, and particularly in the healthcare system.

I'm curious about that.

If we make strategic investments in our communities, how will that lessen some of the demand that the hospitals are picking up on the back end.

And so I'm just curious on how the dollar figures flow around us being more proactive in how we fiscally allocate our funds.

- How hard is it for a group of 13 people to set priorities, Commissioner Thornton?

I mean, you're looking at this with fresh eyes.

What do you see when you have seen the Commission gathered together and talking about an issue on which all of the Commissioners do not necessarily agree?

- First I'll say I'm really thankful that I have a lot of respect and high regard for my colleagues, and trust me, if I didn't, I would actually say otherwise.

I think that my colleagues are competent, they're compassionate.

And for me, it's just the disconnect.

You know, we are 13 professionals with, you know, lives outside of this part-time work that we do.

And I think that there's a great sense and interest in us coming together to get it right.

But we do have to carve out strategic time for us to go into strategic vision casting.

And I know that we had a retreat, and we're talking about doing neighborhood tours.

That perspective is lacking because we all go into 13 different directions outside of the Commission meetings, right?

But we need it to be able to make big decisions that we're tasked with making.

So I think the interest is there, but it's gonna be incumbent upon us to actually carve out the space, to do bigger vision casting work that doesn't inherently fall into your lap.

You know, I came in asking like, where's the vision for this?

Where's the vision for this?

And I'm really, I'm disturbed to not be presented with a vision for the things that we're doing.

And I'm the first person always to say there's a difference for me in doing good actions.

And good actions aligned with good vision, you know?

We can allocate funds to good actions all day, but how that falls in accordance with the actual vision.

You know, I'm a teacher, you would never walk into a classroom and not see a big goal on the wall where every student is going to have an individualized plan to back into that goal.

You know, Dwayne's pathway will look different from Bill's and as a teacher, I can't sacrifice, you know, one plan over the other, and that's all because I know where I'm going.

So I question sometimes at Shelby County and our government, where are we going, and at any given point, where are we?

And we have to do that when we have vision.

- Go ahead.

- Commissioner Bradford, kind of a different take on this question.

You are one of four Republican Commissioners on a body that has Democratic and Republican Commissioners.

Is there a partisan divide among this group of 13 on most of the things that you vote on?

- Most of the things, no.

I don't think there is on most of the things.

I think you can look at the voting record.

There are certain items that we fall right down party lines, but I think for the most part, we've got to do a little bit more compromising about, you know, the items coming up.

It's interesting and difficult because obviously I represent Collierville and so the needs of the folks in Collierville may differ very greatly from Commissioner Thornton's district and that kind of stuff.

And so, ultimately, we've got to all come together and get the best decision for all of Shelby County.

And so it kind of sometimes does put you in a little bit of a tough area 'cause you do right by what your constituents in your district need or what's right by the full county.

So you kind of have to really look at the totality of what's in front of us when you vote.

- Mr. Chairman, you have perhaps a unique perspective on this because you run the meetings.

You run the agenda, all the organization that goes into the meetings and the committee sessions.

What do you see when you see this group of 13 people sitting around the table as opposed to the previous Commission?

- Well, when you have so many new members, you get a lot more questions, and why do we do this, and why was that done?

Which is a good perspective.

People aren't bashful about wanting to know issues and wanting to know questions and holding people accountable.

So I think that's fresh, that's a fresh perspective as opposed to the previous term where you had a lot of returning Commissioners who probably knew the business and probably knew the business of government.

Probably some of the new Commissioners at the time, like Commissioner Bradford and I were, you know, probably sitting in the background doing a lot of listening and to make sure we understood.

So I think this gives a fresh perspective.

I think that everyone is on notice, in a good way, from the administration and the public that this body is gonna ask the questions, the tough questions that need to be and they're not gonna be ashamed about it.

And at the end of the day, we're trying to do what's best for Shelby County.

We're trying to do what's best for our individual districts, and I think that's refreshing.

- What are you looking at in terms of budget season?

Is this gonna be a difficult budget season?

Is this gonna be a walk in the park, or are they ever a walk in the park?

[Bill laughs] - I was gonna say Bill, there's never been, since I've been there a budget season that's a walk in the park.

But that's what this process is designed for.

It's a process that's designed for the administration to give us their budget, to have their priorities.

It's for us to take a look at it, obviously as well, to see where there are other priorities that come into play for us as well.

There are clerks and every other body that we're responsible funding that wants more.

The school system's gonna want more.

Regional One wants more, everyone wants more.

At the end of the day, we wish we could do it all.

We can't be everything to everyone, but we have determined where the priorities are, what's good for now and what's good for later.

So no, it's not gonna be a walk in the park.

Our last budget meeting ended at 1:45 AM.

Hopefully, we don't take that long, but if we need to, that's what we're gonna do.

- Let me, you mentioned the county clerk, Wanda Halbert, you all had, she was at Commission recently.

You all voted 13-0 to ask her, you can't order her, but to ask her to make some changes.

People are very frustrated and we talked about some of those frustrations.

Bill's story about it reads a bit sort of like, it's kind of comical if it weren't real because there's such a disconnection on the facts between what the administration is saying down to how many employees there are, how fast it takes to get people hired.

I mean it's, it looks from the outside, as a person, you know, that needs to get their license renewed, as an incredibly dysfunctional situation.

You all can't remove or direct County Clerk Halbert.

Do you all have confidence that she can turn this around?

I guess I'll start with the chairman.

- Sure.

I think us putting in that resolution shows the confidence that she's agreeable to come down to give us updates on a monthly basis.

The resolution we put in place is a matter of to support what's going on in that office.

So if you have obstacles, what are they?

How can we remove some of those barriers or how can we support?

So it has to get done, our citizens need the services.

So, I'm confident they're gonna get done.

And I'm hopefully confident that the fact that she's coming down to give us updates regularly, that she's committed to that.

- Confident she can pull, get this fixed?

- I think we have to have confidence, right?

I mean she's in place so we need to, just as Commissioner Lowery said, we need to support her.

I mean, trying to tear her down and that kind of stuff is certainly not gonna help her, you know, compromise with us and that type of thing.

- Do you get calls from constituents, I assume, saying, "Hey, this is a disaster."

- Yes, I would say I have.

- "Why can't you fix this?"

- Exactly.

I've probably had more calls about that than mask mandates or anything else we've done.

I mean, the license plates really affects a lot of people.

And so trying to make sure we can help the clerk get to a point where, you know, she can serve the constituents better is where we've got to get.

And if we can't get there, then yes, we probably need to look at, you know, what are the proceedings to, you know, remove her?

- Okay.

Okay.

Commissioner Thornton, can she get it done?

- Yeah, for sure.

You know, I'm reminded the hierarchy of how this flows.

The citizens are our bosses, and so if our bosses decided to reelect her into office then I trust that the person that they put into position will be able to execute that responsibility.

Also, we have to know it's been since 2006 that this office has had to go through this particular process, and just by nature of time, like it's, we're gonna work ourself out of the issue.

What these next couple of months look like, you know, we can try to minimize some of the discomfort, but eventually though the issue will be resolved.

- Do you get calls?

Have you gotten calls from constituents?

- I get more calls about MATA.

I'm sorry.

- About MATA.

And problems that pick up in time and routes and that kinda stuff?

- Yeah, lots of issues with MATA.

- Someone, you mentioned crime.

You mentioned the jail, criminal justice, so you know, like the whole country, we're seeing this big spike in crime in Memphis and Shelby County, violent crime, some very high profile ones, but some that, you know, I don't wanna call them routine cause they all involve humans.

What, from the County Commission point of view, what can you all do?

I mean, you mentioned, I'll start with you, you mentioned the sheriff, you mentioned the jail which is overseen by the sheriff, which is a separate elected official.

There's a lot of funding that runs through the Commission.

What do you think the County Commission should do to address the increase in crime?

- I'm definitely, my background is in social work, so I've never been someone that ever views crime as the first thing to address.

Crime to me is indicative of the poverty indicators here.

So for me, we need to address, you know, some of the root causes of poverty.

I'm not predispositioned...

I just saw something released as an op-ed in The Daily Memphian that was talking about how we need to address the criminals.

And I thought that the angle was very condemning of people who we don't honor our victims, you know?

In the district that I serve directly, and I live in Orange Mound.

You know, I just moved into Orange Mound from Bethel Grove and I've been living in my home community, or trying to do so, for the past seven years.

It's not an easy existence.

You know, the the crime is, is a reaction to the disinvestment in communities.

I mean, people in Orange Mound are going to failing schools.

They're in a place that physically is not, I mean, I look forward to us doing our tours honestly, because I think that, you know, even Commissioner Mills, she dropped me off after one of our conferences, and I couldn't get into my house because of, you know, I don't know, like a policing that was on the main road.

And I just wonder how many times she's been impeded from getting to her house for the same type of issues.

Literally, the health department just produced data and said the difference between living in my district and living in Commissioner Bradford's district is a 10-year age gap.

You literally, by nature of living in my district, will likely live 10 years less, and so, you know, when we talk- - That's not all crime I assume, but these are the indicat...

Puts some more- - If this is your reality, then how- - That's what I was saying.

- How do you, how do you react, you know?

- Yeah.

- And I think that what choices do you make?

If your community center doesn't serve you and you're a young, youthful person that wants to get into something, maybe getting into someone's car would be a better option if there's nothing else for you to do.

So I think that we need to spin, you know, our angle on crime to address other issues.

- Okay.

Your take on what the County Commission can do?

- Well, I think Commissioner Thornton kinda hit the nail on the head.

If we address crime right now, that only addresses us right now, honestly.

We've gotta address the education system, we have to address workforce and that type of stuff.

'cause that will help us in the future.

Because then those that are turning to lives of crime now, in the future they won't have that opportunity.

I mean, obviously that opportunity will still be there, but they'll have other opportunities in their lives to grow.

So I think, I think you've gotta support the sheriff's department now to help take care of that.

But at the same time, you've gotta work on workforce development, you've gotta work on education.

So then in the future, those people have, you know, opportunities.

- Your take.

- You know, similar.

There has to be different phases of it, right?

While I agree with both of my colleagues there, you're exactly right, but there are people who need help now, right?

So if you're, you know, if you're living in my district or anyone's district and you're thinking about crime that takes place or people littering or whatever it may be, they want something to be done now.

So the support for our sheriffs has to be done looking to have, hopefully, him partnering with the MPD, what could be done there.

Then there needs to be some things done for our youth and certain stop gaps from a mental health standpoint.

So it's not just one facet, right?

It's what do we do for our youth?

Okay, when they get in trouble, what do we do there?

All right, when they're released, what intern programs, what do we do when that happens?

How are we fully staffing our courts to make sure people aren't waiting for trial and waiting for bails at a obviously disproportionate matter?

So there's several stop gaps, but there needs to be something done immediately so people feel safe today.

The people who are not worried about, I need 15 years from now and things that we are reaching our youth to show them different pathways.

- Just a couple minutes left, Bill.

- All right.

I'll go back to the election.

Mr. Chairman, you were elected without opposition.

The best way that an incumbent can run in an election.

Two ways of running, unopposed or scared.

So let me ask you, not just in the Commission races but in the countywide races where we saw changes in the District Attorney's Office, where we saw a change in a juvenile court judge, what do you think voters in Shelby County were saying and where do you think voters are at based on what happened in that county election?

- They're definitely looking for a new direction.

We saw two of the top positions change over a long period of time.

You just mentioned, we talked about crime, what's taking place, so you mentioned the DA's office and juvenile court.

We have to do some things differently there.

So thankful for people that serve.

It's a thankless job sometimes.

So thankful for the people that were in those positions previously.

But we have to have a new course of direction, and I think that's what you saw the voters overwhelmingly spoke out and say for those countywide elections.

So we're looking forward to see what DA Mulroy is going to do going forward.

He just got there obviously, right?

He has eight years in his term, but we're hopeful that some things will be done differently as it relates to those offices.

- Commissioner Bradford, what do you think the voters were saying?

Keeping in mind that we sometimes have a partisan divide, not sometimes, we have a partisan divide where the city is majority Democratic, but the suburbs outside of the city are majority Republican.

- Well, I'm gonna go back a little bit to also what you asked Commissioner Lowery.

I was also unopposed.

And to me that's, well, we loved it, it was easy.

I think that's part of the issue is I think we need more people to be involved, more smart people to get into politics and run for these positions.

The whole point of the system is to have options when you vote.

And so when you go to the polls and there's only one name, then really we're not doing the citizens a good service.

As far as the partisanship, I think it makes it very difficult in what we do.

There's a lot of things that come before us that I have a lot of the Republicans in my district saying, "You've gotta vote this way 'cause it's Republican," and that kind of thing.

And it makes it tough on me because sometimes, you know, the compromise lies in the middle between the Rs and the Ds.

And so, we've had several issues that have come in front of us that somebody has said, "Well, that's the Republican item."

And without even looking at it, it gets voted down because none of the Democrats want to look at it.

So it makes it difficult.

- Let's give 20 seconds to you.

We're almost done here.

Yeah.

- Commissioner Thornton, what were the voters saying?

- What are the voters saying?

[Eric laughs] - What were the voters saying in the election?

- I mean, I think the voters are saying we're impacted and we understand it, which is a big statement here because we don't cultivate our voters.

And so for that message to resonate, it's personal.

- Yeah, sorry, and sorry to step on you and just leave you a couple seconds there, thank you for being here.

Thank you both for being here.

We'll have other County Commissioners on over the, you know, the course of the next months.

And I appreciate you guys being here.

That is all the time we have this week.

If you missed any of the show, you can get the full show on WKNO.org, or you can find it on YouTube or The Daily Memphian site.

You can also download the full podcast version of the show, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks, we'll see you next week.

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