Copyright 1997 The
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
February 5, 1997, NEWS, Pg.
A1
C'VILLE
OFFICIALS TO VOTE ON LONGER TERMS;
ANGRY VOTERS
WON'T BE CONSULTED
By Colleen Carroll The Commercial
Appeal
Tennessee elected officials may extend their own terms without voter consent, but in the case of Collierville, not without controversy.
Despite citizen opposition, the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen plans a special meeting at 4 p.m. today to consider a town charter amendment that would lengthen board terms by a year and a half.
The change would create staggered terms for town officials and align local elections with the national vote in November 2000 - so voters in the southeast Shelby County town would elect town officials while electing the president and Congress. Tennessee law allows such a change, but some national experts and Collierville residents have expressed disbelief that elected officials would try to lengthen their own terms - and succeed.
''Frankly, that's never come up,'' said Michelle Frisby, deputy communications director with the Washington-based International City/County Management Association, when asked about the Tennessee practice of elected officials extending their own terms without voter approval. ''I don't think most people would even dream of doing that.''
Tommy Neal, who studies election laws and legislative ethics for the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver, said most states approve charter changes using ''a vote of the people. That's the way it's done . . . I've never heard of . . . where they could (change the charter) if they didn't want to put it up to the voters.''
The term extension proposal arrives at a crucial point in Collierville's development: The town boasts about 25,000 residents and ranks as Tennessee's fastest-growing city. That growth has fostered tensions among many Collierville citizens, who seem to form activist groups with each new subdivision proposal and direct most of their criticism toward Mayor Herman W. Cox Jr. and other longtime town officials. The scheduled May 1999 election promises a rough ride for Cox and veteran board members, and the proposed switch to a November 2000 election has infuriated some Collierville voters intent on ousting members of the town board in 1999.
According to the Tennessee General Assembly's Office of Legal Services, Collierville's private-act charter allows its elected officials to extend their own terms if a legislator sponsors their charter amendment, the state legislature passes the amendment, the governor signs it and it is ratified at the local level. Two options exist for ratification: The approval of two- thirds of the local officials or the support of a majority of the voters. Many Collierville residents say town officials have purposely ignored the second option, a referendum.
Collierville City Atty. Tom Cates answered board calls for staggered terms and fewer, costly elections with an October legal opinion advocating the term extensions with board ratification. Cates said he just learned of the second option.
''We have not directed our attention to that before because we were going to do it the routine way,'' Cates said.
Mark Pullen, a legal consultant for the state Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS), said term extensions by charter change are ''quite common'' in Tennessee. Pullen said ratification by board approval is a logical choice for Collierville, since holding a special election on the issue would cost several thousand dollars. Though some Collierville residents - including members of the Alliance for a Better Collierville Inc. - have advocated adding the term extension issue to the November 1998 ballot, Pullen said Collierville must ratify charter changes by December of the year the General Assembly passes them. So town officials who initiate the changes this year can't wait until November 1998 for their ratification.
But why call a special meeting on the resolution, when Collierville's regularly scheduled board meeting date, Feb. 10, is less than a week away?
''The mayor wants to go ahead and do it,'' said Collierville City Administrator James Lewellen.
Cox, who has been in office since 1959, will be 77 in 2000. Critics have questioned his motive for endorsing term extensions, asking why he chose his sixth term to support staggered terms and aligned elections.
''Why is it not a good time to do it?'' answered Cox, adding that he was not aware of the second method of ratification, a referendum.
When asked why he chose to lengthen his own term and those of the current aldermen rather than applying the changes to the next group of officials, Cox said he merely followed the recommendation of Cates, and it doesn't ''make any difference one time or another.''
''I'm not worried about criticism,'' Cox said. ''. . . I'm going to do what I think is right.''
Cox also noted that Collierville Alderman Linda Kerley - a first-term board member and leading opponent of the term extensions - first suggested the charter changes.
But Kerley said term extensions of the current board would be an arrogant usurpation of voter's rights.
Many of the voters agree.
''How could this be in a democracy?'' said Niki Campbell, an alliance member and term extension critic.
Dorothy Todd, president of the Collierville NAACP, said a referendum is needed on the issue, and if Cox ''looked deep down in his heart, he would agree.''
''He's trying to hold on to something, I guess because he's been in there many years,'' Todd said.
The sponsor of Collierville's resolution - like the town officials who submit the changes - has the power to amend it and call for a referendum on the matter. Sen. Tom Leatherwood and Rep. Larry Scroggs, who Lewellen cited as likely sponsors, both said Tuesday they had not seen the resolution yet. Leatherwood said he understands the concern of Collierville voters about extended terms, but he hopes the ratification issue can be resolved before Collierville officials turn the resolution over to the legislature.
Leatherwood also said Collierville's new charter will contain numerous changes, and as a private act, such changes usually move through the General Assembly easily on a consent calendar.
The General Assembly's Office of Legal Services cited charter changes made by Algood, Tenn., in 1994 and 1995 as examples of term extensions in Tennessee. But according to Algood City Recorder Elise West, term extensions for the 2,500-population East Tennessee city were ratified by Algood voters.
Other Shelby County suburbs could face similar situations. Like Collierville, Millington has a private-act charter and no staggered terms. Lakeland and Arlington have special municipal elections like Collierville, and Arlington has no staggered terms, though both cities have general law charters. But according to Pullen, general law charters don't require state legislature approval for charter changes, so term extensions are even easier for those city officials: ''They can just do it by ordinance.''
Copyright 1997 The
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
February 6, 1997, NEWS, Pg.
A1
COLLIERVILLE
PROTESTERS SLAM PLAN TO EXTEND TERMS WITHOUT VOTER OK
By Colleen Carroll The
Commercial Appeal
About 20 angry citizens gathered outside Collierville's Town Hall Wednesday to protest a proposal that would extend the terms of elected officials without voter consent.
Confusion abounded among Collierville residents as several of the citizens arrived at Town Hall expecting a special meeting to consider the term extensions. Collierville City Administrator James Lewellen told The Commercial Appeal Tuesday evening that a special meeting had been set for 4 p.m. Wednesday at the request of Mayor Herman W. Cox Jr.
But when some Collierville citizens called Lewellen and Cox Wednesday morning, the officials told them the meeting was never scheduled. Controversy over the term extensions, proposed to create staggered terms and align local elections with the national vote, marks the latest in a series of Town Hall battles waging in Collierville. The population of the southeast Shelby County town has jumped from about 14,000 in 1990 to more than 24,000 in 1996, and Collierville leads Tennessee in growth. But the influx of new voters and a wave of new activist groups signal a rising tide of citizen discontent aimed at Cox and other board veterans.
Collierville citizens - and Alderman Linda Kerley, who has criticized the proposal - express outrage that board members facing shaky election prospects in May 1999 would attempt to lengthen their terms to November 2000 without voter approval.
''I think that we need to work on a recall for these people,'' said Bob White, a Collierville resident who came to Town Hall Wednesday anticipating a special meeting.
No Collierville officials addressed Wednesday's crowd. Lewellen told The Commercial Appeal on Wednesday afternoon that he and Cox decided together to cancel the meeting late Tuesday afternoon. Lewellen added that since a public notice wasn't issued, the meeting wasn't official. Cox told The Commercial Appeal on Wednesday that he didn't cancel the meeting, but he thought Lewellen canceled it sometime Wednesday morning, and he didn't know if the controversial resolution would be discussed at Monday's regularly scheduled meeting.
Despite the cancellation, a healthy-size crowd arrived at Town Hall. Some said they didn't know the meeting was canceled; others said they didn't trust Collierville officials to alert the public about the meeting.
''This isn't the first time they've done this,'' said Jean Glemser, a member of the Alliance for a Better Collierville Inc., one of several activist groups represented at Town Hall.
Glemser labeled the term extension ''just ridiculous.''
Collierville City Atty. Tom Cates issued a legal opinion in October responding to board requests for staggered terms and the alignment of local elections with the national vote, so Collierville citizens could elect town officials while voting for the president and Congress.
Cates recommended board members extend their own terms by a year and a half, using a change to Collierville's private-act charter that must be approved by the Tennessee General Assembly, signed by the governor and ratified. Though two ratification methods exist - approval of two-thirds of the Collierville board or the support of a majority of Collierville voters - Cates suggested ratification by the board.
That suggestion infuriated some Collierville residents, who say their elected officials shouldn't be able to make such an important change without consulting the voters. Cox acknowledged Tuesday the mounting citizen opposition but said he plans to do what he believes is right, and applying the change to the next group of board members wouldn't make ''any difference.''
Sen. Tom Leatherwood, whom Lewellen named Tuesday as a likely sponsor of the resolution, said Wednesday that he hoped Collierville could solve the controversy before it reached the General Assembly. Though Leatherwood said he didn't want to impose his views on Collierville officials, he encouraged the involvement of Collierville citizens on the issue.
''I'm still hoping they'll do what I would consider the right thing to do, '' Leatherwood said. He noted that Collierville officials could pass the resolution next year and include its referendum on the November 1998 ballot. He said the board could also apply the election date change to the next group of officials and establish varied term lengths in May 1999. Officials with the most votes in 1999 could serve longer terms than those with fewer votes, thereby achieving staggered terms.
Leatherwood said Tuesday that most charter changes move easily through the legislature on a consent calendar. But he declined to speculate Wednesday on the passage of Collierville's current term extension plan because he said he hadn't seen Collierville's final proposal.
Kerley, who first heard of the special meeting by reading The Commercial Appeal on Wednesday, said she was ''fed up'' with hastily called special meetings that neither she nor the public knew about in advance. ''I want people to know . . . that I strenuously object (to the meetings).''
Copyright 1997 The
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
February 7, 1997, NEWS, Pg.
A1
PRIVATE
DRAWINGS HELD TO DECIDE COLLIERVILLE TERMS;
OFFICIALS HALT
CONTROVERSIAL PLAN
By Colleen Carroll The Commercial
Appeal
Collierville officials on Thursday scrapped a controversial proposal to extend their own terms without voter consent.
But questions about staggered terms lingered in the Shelby County suburb, as several Collierville officials admitted they had already drawn numbered balls privately to decide their future term lengths.
''I won't do anything that looks as though I'm validating what they're doing,'' said Collierville Alderman Linda Kerley, who said City Administrator James Lewellen contacted her Jan. 17, asking to bring a hat to her house so she could grab a straw attached to a numbered ball that would determine the length of her next term. Kerley said Lewellen didn't have time to tell her whose idea the drawings were: ''I just cut him off and said I won't be a party to it.'' Members of the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen said Thursday the unpublicized drawings were conducted by Lewellen in January, when town officials anticipated extending their terms from May 1999 to November 2000.
The board now plans to consider proceeding with the scheduled 1999 election, according to a Town Hall announcement Thursday afternoon that credited Rep. Larry Scroggs for recommending the change. To achieve staggered terms and elections that coincide with the national vote in November 2000, Collierville will consider staggered terms for the next board.
So can public officials reach into a hat, pull out a straw connected to a ball and declare the length of their next term, pending re-election?
''It sounds bizarre,'' said David Arant, a media law professor with the University of Memphis journalism department.
Even though board members did not meet as a group for the drawings, and the results may now be irrelevant, Arant said a violation of the Tennessee open meetings law may have occurred because officials did not announce the drawings to the public.
''Somewhere they talked about this,'' Arant said, referring to the Tennessee law that says a quorum of elected officials who assemble in person or by conference call to discuss policy decisions must inform the public of their meetings. ''Clearly, what they're doing is . . . making decisions in secret, which is a violation of the open meetings law.''
Attorney Russell Headrick said although Lewellen may have contacted each board member individually for the drawings, a ''hub and spoke conspiracy'' - which pegs Lewellen as the ''hub'' who told each board member about the procedure - ''implies a violation . . . because they haven't assembled in a public place and said 'this is the way we're going to do it.' ''
Alderman Sidney Turnipseed said he pulled a two-year ball when Lewellen brought the hat to his office. Turnipseed said he didn't look at the four other balls - the plan called for a four-year mayoral term, with the five aldermen choosing from two four-year balls and three two-year balls - but he didn't mind receiving a two-year term.
''We had to figure out a way to stagger it,'' said Turnipseed. ''I would assume that would be the way to do it.''
Alderman Tom Brooks said he drew a four-year ball when Lewellen stopped by his home. Brooks said he couldn't remember who decided to hold the drawing or when it was held: ''I don't know if we're even going to go ahead with this thing to tell you the truth.''
Another four-year term was drawn by Alderman Jimmy Lott, but like Brooks, he said he doesn't remember how the method was chosen, who decided on the drawing or when it was held. Lott said, ''several discussions were done'' to decide the drawing, but he doesn't recall any details, such as where he chose the ball or who was present at the drawing.
Alderman Buddy Rowe said he received a two-year term, but because he was out of town, someone else chose the ball for him. Rowe said a phone call informed him of the term length for his position, but he can't remember who called him or who made the decision to draw for term lengths.
Lewellen refused comment on this story.
Ed Young, associate executive director for the Tennessee Municipal League, said he couldn't comment on the legality of the drawings, but, ''I've heard of things like this being done before. . . . Doing it at random seems to me a fair way to do it.''
Kerley said she suggested at a September work session that the board members choose term lengths after May 1999 by drawing straws, but the other board members ''didn't like that at all.'' She criticized the pre-election drawings, noting that if she wanted to serve another four-year term, she could simply run for another aldermanic position. Scroggs, who encouraged Collierville officials to abandon term extensions, said Collierville officials need some time to decide on a method for staggering terms of the next board.
''I know there (are) different ways you can do that,'' Scroggs said, suggesting Collierville officials discuss their ideas with a city attorney and work a feasible plan into the charter-change resolution. ''I think that would give everybody a very clear picture of how it's going to be done . . . (so) it's very carefully spelled out on the front end.''
Copyright 1997 The
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
February 8, 1997, NEWS, Pg.
A1
COLLIERVILLE
ALDERMAN THREATENS SUIT;
SAYS MAYOR
EXCLUDES HER AND THE PUBLIC
By Colleen Carroll The
Commercial Appeal
Collierville Alderman Linda Kerley issued a letter Friday saying that Mayor Herman W. Cox Jr. routinely conducts closed-door Board of Mayor and Aldermen meetings without alerting her or the public, and she threatened to sue.
Attorney Ralph Gibson said he can verify that at least one board meeting occurred without Kerley in October.
The letter capped a tumultuous week in the southeast Shelby County town. Controversy over a charter change that would extend the terms of board members without voter approval led town officials to table the proposal Thursday. But trouble continued to circle Collierville officials, who admitted Thursday that Aldermen Tom Brooks, Jimmy Lott, Buddy Rowe and Sidney Turnipseed engaged in private drawings in January to decide the lengths of staggered terms beginning in November 2000. An attorney with Norfolk Southern Corp., Gibson said Friday that Collierville board members met in Nashville with representatives of the Tennessee Department of Transportation and the railroad Oct. 2 to settle issues surrounding proposed railroad crossings in Collierville. Gibson noticed Kerley - whom he said endorsed a feasibility study that was suggested by the railroad and rejected earlier by the other board members - was not at the meeting.
''She's the only one who voted for us,'' Gibson said. He added that when he asked Cox if all board members were present at the meeting, ''(Cox) said, 'All but one.' ''
''He really hates her,'' said Gibson, who also recalls Kerley's absence from conference calls conducted with board members to discuss railroad issues.
Cox did not return repeated calls Friday. Collierville City Administrator James Lewellen declined comment on this story Friday.
Homer Branan, one of several attorneys for the town of Collierville, said Friday that Collierville's board had already made decisions to condemn the railroad crossings at public meetings in July and August, and the October meeting with the state Department of Transportation was called to resolve issues with the railroad.
''We basically tried to see if there was some way to settle those lawsuits that we were going to file,'' Branan said, of the condemnation motions that will be heard Feb. 14 in Circuit Court. ''Nothing was resolved.''
When asked about Kerley's absence, Branan said he did not know why she wasn't there and he didn't ask.
''It was mainly for the lawyers and the engineers to go up and hear what the railroad had to say. Maybe I should've thought about it, but I did not.''
Brooks said he asked where Kerley was at the October meeting and someone told him she was called but couldn't attend. He couldn't remember who said that.
''We discussed the lawsuit and Ms. Kerley, to my knowledge, was invited,'' said Brooks, who added that the board members received information but made no decisions at the meeting. ''It was certainly no private secret deal. . . . That was not a violation of the Sunshine Law. But as to whether Kerley was invited to the meeting, I don't know.''
According to attorney Russell Headrick, ''There probably was a problem if no public notice was given, if what they're trying doing is deliberate toward a decision on something, that's a public meeting.''
Headrick said the meeting may have violated Tennessee open meetings laws, despite discussion about possible lawsuits, because lawyers from both sides were present. The attorney-client privilege that allows officials to discuss pending litigation with their lawyer doesn't apply, Headrick said: ''That doesn't work if the opponent in litigation was there.''
In Friday's letter, Kerley said she has consulted an attorney and is ready to sue Cox under the Civil Rights Act and the letter was her ''final attempt'' to resolve the problems.
''The Mayor systematically cuts me off or ignores me at public meetings . . . when I attempt to ask a question or voice opinions,'' the letter said. ''. . . Public business is routinely discussed by the Mayor and Aldermen (excluding me) behind closed doors, and in violation of the Tennessee Open Meetings Act. Deliberation is conducted, informal 'votes' taken at these meetings, and decisions made, in contravention not only of my rights as an Alderman, but of the rights of every citizen in Collierville, and of the press.''
Kerley said Friday, ''There are too many things that are decided by too few people. Too few people are thinking of Collierville as their town. It doesn't belong to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the staff of Town Hall.''
Copyright 1997 The
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
February 9, 1997, NEWS, Pg.
A1
'HOUSEWIFE
ALDERMAN' SHAKES UP THE STATUS QUO IN COLLIERVILLE
By Colleen Carroll The
Commercial Appeal
When she's nervous, she gets quiet.
Her familiar grin fades softly, as her grip tightens around the phone and her eyes fix on something in a corner of the kitchen. Fruit-filled wallpaper rings the cold room: Linda Kerley likes to keep the windows open to hear the sound of the rain, and maybe to remember the cooler days in her Cincinnati home.
Her days have heated up considerably in the last week: The Collierville alderman issued a letter Friday accusing Mayor Herman W. Cox Jr. of excluding her from board decision-making sessions and holding illegal closed-door meetings. The letter arrived after Collierville officials dropped a plan to extend their own terms without voter consent and admitted conducting private drawings to determine the lengths of their next terms. Kerley, 48, didn't participate in the drawings, and she objected to the term extensions, siding instead with Collierville citizens who believe board members were violating their rights. Her ties to citizen activist groups, volunteer projects and down-home approach to representation have won her many friends around Collierville but also left her isolated on the Collierville board.
After defeating five-year incumbent George Walker, the town's first black alderman, Kerley became the first female member of the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen in 1995.
''At first I was treated . . . as an equal,'' said Kerley, who said board members began treating her differently when she started asking more questions. ''People don't have to respect me, but I expect them to respect the position I'm in.''
Mention of her antagonistic relationship with Cox - evidenced by their voting patterns and terse exchanges at Town Hall meetings - makes Kerley bristle.
''He's not including me,'' Kerley said, and ''he's not going to change.''
Cox was unavailable for comment on this story.
Despite the tumult, Kerley joked frequently while fielding constant phone calls Friday at ''her office,'' a kitchen counter.
''I'm the housewife alderman,'' Kerley said, laughing.
Kerley's husband, Ken, took a sales position with Memphis soap-maker Valley Products Co. in 1989, and the couple moved with their son, Kevin, to Collierville. Since then, Kerley has immersed herself in Collierville parent-teacher groups, neighborhood associations, meal programs, festivals, and her parish, Collierville's Church of the Incarnation.
While rushing to an inevitable round of meetings or shuttling her 13-year- old to events, Kerley totes a cellular phone to connect with her constituents.
''I get quite a few phone calls to check out situations,'' said Kerley, an alderman at-large who argued unsuccessfully with other board members for district representation and roll-call voting. ''Some problems I'm able to remedy; some I'm not. But (from) each person who calls me, I learn more about the city.''
Dorothy Todd, president of Collierville's NAACP, said she appreciates Kerley's interest.
''She shows concern. She listens to the people,'' Todd said. ''Whereas the other aldermen look at you as if (to say), 'Where did you come from?' ''
Kerley now spends most of her energy wrestling with inner tensions and plodding through a political minefield. Many Collierville citizens have invested their hopes in Kerley - whom they see as a catalyst for reform - but Kerley sometimes squirms under the glare of their admiration.
''I didn't take on this job to be an activist. . . . I wanted to make this town more open,'' Kerley said. ''I'm a worker bee, not a queen bee. I'm not comfortable being 'on.' ''
Phil Ryan, president of Citizens for Collierville Inc. and an outspoken critic of the Baptist Memorial Hospital proposed for Collierville, said he admires Kerley's honesty.
''I don't see any hidden agendas,'' Ryan said. ''She's always soliciting views from people across the community, and I think that's a very noble feat. ''
Alderman Tom Brooks denied Kerley's charges that board members exclude her from meetings and said that, despite their differences, ''I try to be as pleasant as possible. She's entitled to her views, and I'm entitled to mine.''
''She has always taken a different view on things with the board,'' said City Administrator James Lewellen, who said Kerley not only disagrees with final board decisions, but also with ''how things get done.''
''She's been involved in a lot of things in the community. . . . She and I have always had a good working relationship.''
While she won't rule out running for another term in any office - or the mayor's seat - Kerley said she hasn't looked that far ahead yet.
''My family is the most important thing,'' Kerley said, adding that she would only want another term if she knew she could make a difference.
According to Ryan, she already has.
''I'm just amazed at the woman.'' He said Kerley's attention to diverse Collierville groups breaks down social barriers: ''Rich, poor, white, black, young, old, she crosses all of them. It really makes you sit back and challenge yourself and say, 'Hey, maybe I could do better.' ''
So how did a Catholic woman from the North find herself surrounded by veteran aldermen on Collierville's board?
''They basically talked me into it,'' Kerley said, referring to 14 Collierville families she vacationed with in 1994 in Destin, Fla. When the families banded together to fight a nearby subdivision proposal at Town Hall, ''We really didn't like the way we were treated.''
So Kerley and friends launched the grass-roots campaign that ultimately unseated Walker in a runoff election.
''It was such a good feeling, but a mixed feeling,'' Kerley said of her victory. Her eyes twinkling, she chuckled.
''Be careful what you wish for.''
INFORMATION BOX: LINDA KERLEY
Position: Collierville alderman
Age: 48
Family: Married, one son
Hometown: Cincinnati
Education: Attended Mt. St. Joseph's College for 3 years
Role model: Mary Martin, her mother
Type car: Plymouth Voyager
Last movie seen: The First Wives Club
Copyright 1997 The Commercial
Appeal (Memphis, TN)
February 11, 1997, NEWS, Pg.
A1
ANGRY RESIDENTS QUESTION ETHICS OF COLLIERVILLE BOARD
By Colleen Carroll The Commercial Appeal
Accusations peppered the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting Monday night when about 75 residents packed Town Hall to observe or join the friction.
Six Collierville citizens demanded answers from board members about ethics questions: Five attacked Collierville Mayor Herman W. Cox Jr. and the other longtime board members, and one criticized first-term Alderman Linda Kerley.
But the audience participation - ranging from angry outbursts to derisive laughter - told the story of a town rumbling with division and discontent.
Monday's meeting followed several tempestuous days in Collierville, where officials proposed, then tabled, a charter change that would extend their own terms by a year and a half without voter consent. Before dropping the term extensions, members of the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen said Thursday that they held private drawings in January to decide the lengths of their next terms, assuming re-election in November 2000. Kerley - who did not participate in the drawings and objected to the term extensions - issued a letter Friday accusing Cox of routinely conducting closed-door meetings that excluded her and the public. In her letter, Kerley said she had contacted an attorney about the matter and was prepared to sue Cox.
Hostility erupted during Monday night's meeting when several residents fired off complaints and allegations to board members who rarely responded.
''I came up here tonight to talk about ethics,'' said Charlie Trim, who launched unsuccessful bids to unseat Alderman Tom Brooks in 1991 and Alderman Jimmy Lott in 1995. Trim said after 18 years in Collierville, he never saw longtime board members disclose information about potential conflict-of-interest issues. ''If you do not have disclosure and you do not have recusion, then you do not have ethics.''
Trim's comments followed the final approval of annexation and zoning plans for the controversial Estanaula Trails subdivision. Collierville resident Preston Duke raised conflict-of-interest questions at a Dec. 10 meeting, noting a land partnership for Estanaula Trails that initially included Lott and William Cox, the mayor's son. Duke also suggested conflicts for Brooks, Lott and the mayor by noting their positions as members of First Federal Bank's board of directors, which granted a 1993 loan for the Estanaula Trails property.
Attorney Brian Kuhn rebutted those charges Dec. 17, citing a 1957 case that allows elected officials in small towns to serve on bank boards. Kuhn said the land partnership involving Lott and the mayor's son did not warrant investigation because neither Lott nor Cox had any direct financial interest in the property when they voted on the subdivision.
Waving blank conflict-of-interest forms, Tina Kerdavid blasted Brooks, Cox and Lott for failing to ''fill out these forms properly.'' Kerdavid said she traced the forms back to 1991, and all forms were blank, indicating no new potential conflicts had arisen in the last six years. She added that neither Lott nor Cox included the 1993 Estanaula Trails land partnership on the forms and said Brooks, Cox and Lott should have listed their affiliation with First Federal.
When questioned directly by Kerdavid, Lott did not reply. Cox said he listed the First Federal involvement earlier, though he said he couldn't answer when he had listed it. Brooks said his First Federal involvement was legal, and did not create a conflict.
Bob Collins focused his criticism on Kerley, citing her threat to sue Cox. He suggested that if Kerley can sue Cox, Collins can sue her.
''He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone,'' Collins said.
Tom Allen, a formal mayoral candidate, criticized Cox and other longtime board members for what he called the ''powerball lottery'' - private drawings of balls from a hat held by some board members in January to determine staggered term lengths. He noted that Brooks and Lott would have emerged with four-year terms from those lotteries if the extensions had not been dropped.
Copyright 1997 The
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
February 16, 1997, NEWS, Pg.
A1
CRITICS SAY COX TOO AT HOME; FANS LIKE HOMEY TOUCH
By Colleen Carroll The
Commercial Appeal
Love him or not, there is only one Herman Wright Cox Jr.
Supporters of the six-term Collierville mayor praise his unadorned rhetoric and fidelity to friends. Critics decry his stubbornness and imperious commands.
But both camps agree that the 74-year-old father of five wields enormous influence in Shelby County, Tennessee and even Washington. That clout partly explains Cox's staying power: He first won election as a Collierville alderman in 1959 and has survived five challengers in six mayoral elections since 1975. ''I think people enjoy a stable administration,'' Cox said when asked to explain his tenacity. ''I just run, and if they want to elect me, fine. If they don't, fine.''
Though Cox said he ''wouldn't even think'' about running for his seventh term yet, recent events in the southeast Shelby County town have fueled speculation about his political support. An influx of nearly 10,000 residents since 1990 propelled Collierville's population to about 25,000, many of whom don't share longtime loyalties to the mayor.
Cox and veteran members of the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen supported a charter change to extend their own terms by a year and a half without voter approval. The proposal - designed to stagger terms and align Collierville elections with the November 2000 vote for the president and Congress - outraged Collierville citizens who accused Cox of arrogant disregard for voter opinions. The mayor said he only wanted to save taxpayers money by combining local and national elections.
Town officials dropped the proposal Feb. 6, but controversy continued to fester as board members admitted conducting private drawings to establish staggered term lengths after November 2000.
First term Alderman Linda Kerley - who criticized the term extensions and refused to participate in the drawings - accused Cox of conducting illegal, closed-door meetings without notifying her or the public, and she threatened to sue. Town meetings seem to have crystallized the tensions, as citizens angrily question the ethics of Cox and other Collierville officials.
''These proceedings here tonight reek,'' said Charlie Trim, a former aldermanic candidate who criticized Collierville Planning Commission members for approving a controversial Baptist Memorial Hospital plan in September. ''. . . It reeks of the sheer arrogance and the sheer power of one man to totally control and impose his power on one town. It simply stinks.''
Cox declined to respond to the attacks when asked last week for a reaction to the turmoil. Inside a cluttered, unassuming office at the McGinnis Oil Co. - a 70-year-old family business where he has worked since his high school days in 1939 - the mayor sat in a worn leather rolling chair with his back to Collierville's historic Town Square.
Silence lingered for a few minutes. Finally, the mayor lunged forward to comment.
''You do not publicly embarrass anyone intentionally,'' Cox said, his eyes quivering behind thick glasses. ''I don't understand why people enjoy doing it. Ought to be a better way.''
His allies agree.
''I know when you grow this fast you have the growing pains,'' said Marvalene Maki, owner of a Town Square flower shop, former president of the Collierville Area Chamber of Commerce and native of Shelby County. ''I feel like the people who move here . . . should give it a little time before they try to change things.''
Maki recalls the ice storm of 1994 that knocked power out of Collierville homes. Cox checked on elderly residents and contacted Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division, Maki said, and the mayor's influence meant power was promptly restored in Collierville.
''They don't tell him no,'' said Maki. ''He cares about this town. He's one of the most respected people in Shelby County government. And that's because he's been around so long.''
Answering charges that Cox has manipulated his position to benefit extensive land holdings and private interests, Maki said: ''You can't help where you own land. . . . Nobody's perfect, but I think our mayor and board will stand up against anybody.''
Cox has called Collierville home nearly all his life, and his family ties in Collierville stretch to the mid-1800s. His great-grandfather, T. J. Morris, returned from the Civil War in 1866 to found McGinnis Lumber and Hardware Co., which still operates on Town Square. Cox said his grandmother, Mary McGinnis, instilled his strong Methodist faith.
Tommy Shepherd, a Collierville Planning Commission member appointed by the mayor who frequently votes against the commission majority, said he and Cox both returned from World War II in 1945.
''Herman and I've been good friends,'' Shepherd said, recalling VFW dances staged where cotton bales were once sold and Collierville's depot now sits. ''Herman is a . . . businessman. . . . He's a serious-minded person.''
The mayor loves trains and antiques and proudly relates his heritage. But newcomers to Collierville seem less likely to share his passion for the past, preferring a more modern governing approach.
''He's an old school gentleman,'' said Ella Jean Whalen, executive director of the Chamber. ''He just tells you the way he feels about things.''
Whalen, who has spent less than two years in Collierville, said the leadership provided by Cox and the board is ''unbelievable. . . . The vision that they have had has made Collierville what it is.''
As for complaints that Collierville's rapid development is unchecked by Cox, she added: ''Whether people want it to grow or not, we're gonna grow.''
Collierville Alderman Tom Brooks, the town's vice mayor and a member of the Shelby County School Board, was appointed to Collierville's Planning Commission the same year Cox became an alderman. The pair ascended the political ladder together and now weather similar criticism from activist groups in Collierville.
''Never in all the people I have worked with . . . have I ever found or run into a more dedicated person,'' Brooks said. ''They get a full-time mayor for a part-time salary.''
Collierville City Administrator James Lewellen said town employees ''think the world'' of Cox.
''The thing that stands out most,'' Lewellen said, ''. . . is the people that he cares for. He's always checking on people to make sure they're OK. Especially the elderly.''
That hometown touch - bringing a newspaper to the door of a shut-in widow or mobilizing town employees to answer constituent complaints - has kept Cox in office for nearly four decades.
The high school graduate spends most days in his Main Street service station, not Town Hall, and he favors Republican Party principles of small government and support for private business.
''Our society will not let a person open a door,'' Cox said. ''I've given my life to doing just that. Helping people.''
Though he emphasizes the service aspect of his tenure, Cox knows how to fight. He supported former Germantown mayor Charles Salvaggio's plan to form a new county, Neshoba, when faced with the possible merger of the Memphis and Shelby County school systems. ''Save Our County Schools'' became his campaign slogan in 1991, when he defeated Woody 'Pat' Dewberry, the first substantial challenge the mayor faced since 1975.
The mayor prefers to talk about the $ 60 million Federal Express Corp. complex planned for Collierville's south side, the Baptist Hospital slated for Poplar and Shea and a YMCA facility billed for Schilling Farms. Cox says he was pleased to bring industry - like Carrier Corp. - to Collierville, which he said was a struggling farming town when he took office.
Cox said he now concentrates on completing Collierville's greenbelt plan, south side infrastructure, additions to Collierville Community Center and road improvements.
''I don't have time to fuss and fume. I want to continue our efforts in bringing these projects to completion.''
INFORMATION BOX: HERMAN W. COX JR.
Position: Collierville mayor
Age: 74
Family: Divorced in 1990, remarried in 1991, five children, 12 grandchildren
Hometown: Collierville
Education: One year at University of Memphis
Type car: 1980 GMC gray pickup
Last movie seen: The Firm