Archive for August, 2010

Open Records at City Hall

Monday, August 30th, 2010

I have a long record of sending and following up on open records requests locally and across Tennessee. I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Mostly things have improved except for the Memphis City Schools and there the situation has gone from bad to terrible. They are just too big and (more…)

Posted in Consolidation | 1 Comment »

Compare Metro Memphis and Metro Davidson

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

With all the paid advertising I am seeing and hearing from the proponents of consolidation I have put together some figures from information that I have been gathering from across the state.

I have said from the beginning of the consolidation push that I have nothing (more…)

Posted in Consolidation | 3 Comments »

115% Increase In Your Sewer Charge

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Although this has been reported recently in TV stories, many people have missed the impact until they opened their August 2010 utility bills and looked on the back side at the fees that MLGW collects and sends to the City of Memphis. These are the Sewer Charge, the Solid Waste Fee, the (more…)

Posted in Financial | 1 Comment »

Our Memphis Teachers

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

I keep butting up against the ultimate local bureaucracy, the Memphis City Schools. It is large, costly and mostly unresponsive. I have several open record requests on file and have had no response in the allotted time.

(more…)

Posted in Schools | No Comments »

The Big Sell

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Well the final consolidation charter is ready and available. Now the push is on to sell this document to the public. You are already hearing ads telling us all the good things that will happen if you approve this in November. As you (more…)

Posted in Consolidation | 5 Comments »

More Information on Needed Reforms

Friday, August 13th, 2010

I want to continue to let the public know about needed reforms in our local pension, salary, benefit and OPEB structure. Last Tuesday I sent you information on total paid days off that a local government employees can (more…)

Posted in Financial | 1 Comment »

Where is the Real Money in City and County Budgets?

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

I love researching numbers and recently I decided to put together a large spreadsheet of information about benefits and policies and compare Memphis and Shelby County with Metro Davidson (Nashville), Knoxville, Chattanooga and Hamilton County (where Chattanooga is). I want to (more…)

Posted in Financial | No Comments »

Over $600 Million That Could Have Been Saved

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

I recently wrote an article in the Flyer concerning pension and OPEB (other post employment benefits) at the MLGW. As I have stated in past articles I had the privilege to work on the Shelby County Retirement Task Force, an (more…)

Posted in Financial, OPEB | 2 Comments »