In looking through the minutes several things jump out at me. First you have to understand that the pension board is made up mostly of insiders who have a self interest in the results of the boards decisions. Look at the make up in the attached file. There is only one public member representing the interests of the taxpayers who pay for a large portion of these pensions.

I find the following areas of interest.

Disability retirements, ordinary versus line of duty
Disability retirements in general in most cases are approved and where they are not there are lawyers available to take the matter to court.

It appears that line of duty pensions are more generous than ordinary pensions and therefore there is a great interest in getting a line of duty disability pension approved. I have attached a section of the pension ordinance on this subject.

Several other items in the minutes are interesting. Page 29 (Jack Sammons), Page 48 (Keith McGee and W. W. Herenton) and page 56 (Yalanda McFadgon).

Click here to see the makeup of the City of Memphis pension board
Click here to see the City of Memphis pension board minutes for the last year

What happened? Well it turns out that Sara Hall and certain Herenton administration officials twisted the language and determined that if a civil service employee was later moved to an appointed position after the revocation of the January 2001 ordinance and if they had 12 years or more of service, they could retire regardless age. Some have and more are probably lining up.

It is a disgrace and it points out that the pension system should be changed so that all future employees should be covered by a 401K like the people who make the whole system possible, the taxpayers. It is time for the taxpayers and voters to take back control of the system and their pocketbooks.

I have been investigating two local government bureaucracies through open records requests. They are the Memphis City Schools (MCS) and the Shelby County Schools (SCS). I first asked for a list of job titles, number of employees, salaries and benefits. I had to finally sue the MCS in order to get the information which was 1334 sheets which undoubtedly came from an electronic spreadsheet which they refused to furnish. The SCS furnished the information in electronic format. I have attached several files showing a recap of the information I received. Here is my initial take on this information.

There seems to be an overabundance of custodial helpers (1017) in the MCS system. I do not find this in the SCS system.
There seems to be a lot of maintenance people in the MCS system (electricians, carpenters, sheet metal workers, etc). It seems to me that this work could be contracted out on an as needed hourly basis.
There seems to be a wide range of salaries with the same job titles. e.g. in the SCS system, elementary teachers range from $100,000 down to the $40,000 range. There is a similar range at the MCS system.
I find no reference to the MCS nutrition center workers although they may be in the list I got. The past scandal there requires further information which I am investigating.

The files that I have attached include the MCS salary schedule organized by job titles a to z with salary ranges and number of people in each job title designation. Also the MCS salary schedule high to low but not including Dr. Kriner Cash who makes over $250,000. Also I included 12 sample pages from the 1334 pages of information I received from the MCS system. On page 3 of 12 your will see the Chief Contracting Officer, Sybille Nobile at $145,000 salary plus benefits.

For the SCS system I included a pdf version of the spreadsheet they sent organized by salaries high to low and another by job titles a to z. Finally a file that shows the number of job titles in the Shelby County School system.

I know this is lot of information but the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission need to analyze these two systems and figure out a way to reduce cost and make them more efficient without hurting the students. More money thrown at the system is not the answer. The answer is opening up the system to competition from private systems such as the Catholic Jubilee schools, voucher and charter schools and reform of the present two systems. More money thrown from Washington is still your tax money.

Click here to see the MCS salary schedule and job titles a to z

Click here to see the MCS slary schedule high to low

Click here to see some sample pages from the 1134 pages of the Memphis City School
job titles and salary and benefit schedule

Click here to see the SCS high to low salary and benefit schedule

Click here to see the SCS job titles and benefits listed alphabetically

With all the talk about consolidation panels and school problems, the one clear fact that I have found is BIGGER IS NOT BETTER. The further you move away from the voters, the taxpayers, the parents and students and the more layers of bureaucracy that are involved, the worse are the results. The optimum and the most efficient size of a school district is about 40,000 students.

I have attached several results of studies of school consolidation. My conclusion is that consolidation of government is probably similar. Bigger is not better.

Mike Carpenter responded to the above email to say that no one is considering consolidating the City and County school systems. I would be willing to bet that there is a substantial element that would love to see this happen during any City/County consolidation effort. My point is that consolidation in and of itself may be a bad idea as bigger is not necessarily better. e.g. (our Federal Government). I would even propose that the Memphis City School system would be better if it was broken up into two smaller systems concentrating on neighborhood identities with more parental involvement and smaller and more efficient school administrations. Crazy, maybe, but why not study this option?

Click here to see the history of school consolidation

With all the talk about possible consolidation in Shelby County and the formation of a consolidation study panel, I decided that the first thing that should be done was to gather information about Metro Shelby, Metro Davidson (Nashville) and Metro Jefferson (Louisville). Little did I know that this would be easier said than done?

I started with the CAFRs (Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports) for Memphis and Shelby County and all the incorporated cities in Shelby County and then attempted to compare them to Metro Davidson (plus their incorporated cities) and Metro Jefferson (plus their incorporated cities). The purpose was to take a broad view and comparison of the three counties and see if there were any possibilities of savings before going down this study path.

I admit that I am not a financial expert but I can read a CAFR. I wanted to concentrate on the broad numbers without getting into the details. I am interested in the population, the overall spending and the major spending items such as police, fire, education and debt payments. If there are areas that stand out as red flags of possible savings, then I would point them out.

What I found was that it is very difficult to get all the information but most of the CAFRs are on line. Metro Jefferson has a very different organization with the state involved in some of the major areas such as courts. I have no doubt made mistakes or left out important points but I would appreciate public comments and corrections. This would be done much better by an independent financial panel and the consolidation panel should consider doing this. Here are my major findings from the CAFRs ending June 30, 2008.

The population of Metro Shelby (MS) is 906825, Metro Davidson (MD) is626144, Metro Jefferson (MJ) is 713877 Total government spending MS ($3.41 billion), MD ($2.11 billion), MJ ($1.85 billion) Government and public school employees, MS (38399), MD (19666), MJ (15166) Annual expenditures per resident MS ($3765), MD ($3380), MJ ($2601) Public school employees MS (22638), MD (10013), MJ (8048) Public school students MS (151000), MD (74733), MJ (79931) Total education expenditures MS ($1.61 billion), MD ($780 million), MJ ($739 million) Total cost education/student MS ($10704), MD ($10446), MJ ($8777) Police/Sheriff employees MS (5239), MD (2715), MJ (1680) Police/Sheriff employees/1000 residents MS (5.77), MD (4.33), MJ (2.35) Fire Employees MS (1843), MD (1182), MJ (1493) Fire Employees/1000 residents MS 2.03), MD (1.89), MJ (2.09) Annual interest on debt MS (125 million), MD ($77 million), MJ ($52 million)

The red flags for Metro Shelby are City of Memphis employees which have gone up in ten years while population has gone down. The increase is 1204 employees (6560 to 7774). This is somewhere around $60 to $100 million extra expense. The figures in the Memphis School system are even worse with an increase as shown below.

Memphis City Schools number of students 1998, 109137, 2008, 103,000, minus 5.6%

Memphis City Schools, number of employees 1998, 10693, 2008, 16500, up 54%

Memphis City Schools, general fund budget, 1998, $550 million, 2008, $931 million, up 69%

Consumer Price Index from 1998 to 2008, up only 31%

Here we are talking about $200 to $300 million dollars extra. Another critical item is our OPEB (Other Post Employment Benefits, mainly retiree health care) unfunded liability. It is currently over $3.5 billion dollars for Memphis, Shelby County, MLGW, City and County schools. Until we address these three big red flags, no consolidation plan will lower our cost of government. Here is a statement in the 2008 Metro Davidson CAFR report. Long term liabilities increased by 20.4% due to the issuance of new general obligation debt in excess of principal payments and due to the inclusion of the Governments liability of $137 million for other post employment benefits (OPEB), discussed further under Other Matters below. The City of Memphis unfunded liability is over $800 million and the Memphis city Schools is over $1.25 billion. I have attached my spreadsheet mentioned in this report.

Tennessee Regulatory Commission Taxes
Personalty Taxes
Realty Commercial
Realty Residential
Realty Other

The astounding thing is that state law charges interest on delinquent taxes as shown below. Sounds like your Visa bill. It is true that some of these tax debts are in dispute and in the process of appeal. The interest could be as high as 20% or higher.

Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 7-4-204

(a) Taxes due and payable that are not remitted to the tax collection official on or before the due dates are delinquent.

(b) The person owing the taxes shall be liable for interest on any delinquent taxes from the due date at the rate of eight percent (8%) per annum, and, in addition, for a penalty of one percent (1%) for each month or fraction of a month that the taxes are delinquent. The interest and penalties shall become a part of the tax required to be remitted in this chapter.

See the attached article from the current Memphis Flyer concerning the following appointment and my work as the Watchdog.

Myron Lowery, the longtime City Council member and temporary Mayor of Memphis after Willie Herentons resignation, called me in September and asked if I was a member of any board or commission. I said I was not. He then asked if I would like to be and I said that depended on which board or commission. He said How about the pension board of the City of Memphis. I said that would certainly be interesting.

Myron and I go back a few years and we are friendly. He has met several times with groups such as the effort by John Lunt to get rid of the January 2001 pension resolution and the formation of the Charter Commission. While we do not agree on every issue, I believe his repeated statements that he is for absolute transparency in government, my holy grail as far as politicians go. His performance as Chairman of the Charter Commission was outstanding, fair and balanced, and his grasp of Roberts Rule of Order demonstrated that he knows how to run an orderly and fair meeting.

Well the actual confirmation process for the only citizen member of the Pension Board turned out to be more than interesting. I was told to attend the personnel subcommittee meeting first which I did on September 1. There were a number of other potential appointees there for various jobs and they all sailed through without objection. Then my name came up and I gave a one minute resume of my life. My appointment was moved and then Janice Fullilove jumped up and said that she would like to have the appointment delayed. Harold Collins agreed with Janice but eventually I was approved (3 to 2, Flinn, Strickland and Hedgepeth) as the appointment was subject to a full City Council vote two weeks hence.

On September 15, I showed up at the full City Council meeting dressed in my best sport coat and tie. Most of the meeting was devoted to the effort to get rid of the current City Attorney, Elbert Jefferson. Then a curious thing happened as Allan Wade, the City Council Attorney, opined that the City Charter required seven votes (a majority of the full 13 members rather than a majority of those present and voting) for approval of the motion to get rid of Jefferson. This opinion torpedoed the effort and Jefferson was retained.

Eventually my appointment to the pension board came up and two union members spoke about how my serving on the board would undermine morale, harm widows and children and generally threaten world peace. Barbara Swearengen Ware agreed and I requested a prompt vote so I could return home and continue beating my wife.

A vote did eventually come and somehow I won on a 6 to 5 margin. As I was leaving City Hall, I was called back and told that I lost as Allan Wade said I needed 7 votes, not just a 6 to 5 margin of those present and voting.

In my response to Ware and the union members, I pointed out that I was the only non interested (public) member of the incestuous pension board. I had no authority to change pension rules and I was only one chicken in a henhouse full of seven foxes. Alas, my pleas fell on long pointy deaf ears.

My brother and I ran a manufacturing business here in Memphis for over 40 years. We employed over 50 people including welders, metal workers, press brake operators, machinists, electricians and engineers. We provided competitive wages and benefits including health care insurance and profit sharing.

Over the years, until we sold the business in 1993, the laws concerning health care changed and we had to change to remain competitive with firms in other states and around the world. Our health insurance cost was a major cost factor but we managed to survive with changes in our program.

I was in charge of hiring employees both for the fabrication end of the business and the engineering department. Engineering, testing and innovation were major factors in our success. During that time I hired a number of great employees who helped us grow into the computer age of modern manufacturing. One employee comes to mind because of his interesting background and experiences.

His name is Roman Mitelman. He was born in the former Soviet Union and is of the Jewish heritage. He was trained as an engineer in Russia and he is an intelligent and thoughtful person and was an excellent employee. He was also a trained woodworker and model maker and crafted a working small scale model of one of our fire door systems which we used in sales presentations.

Recently Roman called me and asked me about my thoughts concerning the most important national issue today, the reform of health care. I told him that I was against a government run plan but that there were changes that needed to be made in the current system. Tort reform and regional or national health insurance competition in my opinion were two of the most important. Also more oversight of medicare claims to prevent fraud is a major factor.

Roman and I discussed the various factors and then he told me about some of his experiences in Russia that I think are important for native born Americans to hear. It is a fascinating story.

Roman was born in 1935 in Minsk in Belorussia. His father was a woodworker, very smart, but had no formal university education. He joined the Communist party in 1927 when living in Georgia. He was young and idealistic but over time he came to realize what a fraud the Communist system was and he became privately very anticommunist. Naturally it was dangerous to publically express such an opinion. He and his wife and Roman were in Minsk when the Germans invaded. The family retreated to the southeast in advance of the German army, getting out of Minsk on the last train to leave that doomed city. Romans father was an officer in the Red Army and was wounded three times in combat in defense of Moscow. Because of his multiple wounds, his father was put in charge of all cultural and entertainment programs in a major hospital near Moscow. When the hospital was moved west to within 15 miles of the front, Roman was put in the orphanage because there was no one to take care of him as his Mother was ill. It was not a pleasant experience since he was Jewish. He was taunted by the other boys and life was very hard for him.

After the war, Roman and his wife worked as engineers. Whenever they or their two children needed medical services, they would have to go to the local center and take a number and wait for hours in an overcrowded hallway until their number came up. Then you would be seen and the medical attention and service was basically good but minimal. Many doctors were well trained and mostly dedicated but poorly paid. You had no rights of protest and the medicine and equipment were inferior. Of course everyone in Russia knew that the party members, politicians and important business people had access to special hospitals, not open to people like Roman and his family. These special facilities had the latest western equipment and medicines which were not available to the general public.

Life in Russia during this time was very hard for Roman and his family. He wanted to leave but it was very difficult and dangerous to apply for an exit visa. During this time he was approached by members of the KGB and questioned and Roman felt that he was pressured to report on other Jews, friends and past contacts. He never knew what would happen to him if he failed to cooperate but finally he strongly refused to cooperate with them. He had put his familys name on the list to leave Russia but his place in the list was near the end and the pace of approval was very slow. But something happened in 1978 when American senators Jacob Javitts, Scopp Jackson and Abraham Ribicoff came to Minsk. For political reasons, the Russians allowed Roman and his family and many others to leave. The trip was by train through Poland, Czechoslovakia and finally into Austria. His description to me of the passage through the last barrier of seven fences into Austria was very moving.

With the help of organizations the family came to Detroit and eventually to Memphis where Roman went to work for a company previously owned by Walker Wellford Sr. Roman was experienced in wood kiln engineering and woodworking. His wife found a job also and now they are both retired. The Mitelmans two children have a very interesting story also. Olga is 39 and is currently working for Merck. She went to Williams College, the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and Wharton Business School. She is a medical doctor and also has a BA in business administration. Anna is 34 and went to Wesley College and MIT business school. She has a masters degree and currently works for an investment firm. Both are grateful for the opportunities they had available in the free USA society and feel that the proposed single payer government run health care plan that the current administration wants to impose would be a mistake and the first step back towards the Russian style imposed health care system, that is one system for the masses and another for the political and business elite.

Despite what politicians say, a two tier system is what is being proposed. The state run single payer system will be for us and the upper tier system will be for the politicians, bureaucrats and their political friends. If a government run single payer system is ever imposed on this country, it is hoped that it will never become the two tiered Soviet system, but it will certainly move it in that direction.

Here is the article that I published before the recent indictments.

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT? LOCALS FLIP JUST ONE PROPERTY THREE TIMES AND MAKE OFF WITH $684,000

Last week there was an interesting article in the CA concerning fraudulent appraisals of properties. The lead conspirator was not named at that time. The appraiser would take low priced properties, get an inflated appraisal, and then through a series of transactions, the property was sold and mortgaged and the difference was pocketed. In many cases, Fannie and Freddie or some bank and eventually the taxpayers would end up eating the difference between what the parties paid for the property and the amount of the inflated mortgage. These people would flip the same properties three and four times in the period of a few years.

There are hundreds of these type transactions listed locally in Shelby County and DeSoto County and I have shown some listed in the attached pdf files. However the one that stands out is at 744 Melrose. Mykisha Williams bought the property in April 2004 for $145,000 and sold it in May for $385,00000 ($240,00000 profit). Then in January 2005 Gloria Buntyn bought the property for $170,000 and in February sold it to Mykisha Williams for $385,000. ($215,000 profit). Then in February 2006 Kieth Threatt bought the property for $190,000 and in May 2006 sold the property for $419,000 to Sanchez Richmond ($229,000 profit). Total profit $684,000 less a few expenses.

This is a good local example of what happens to large government programs where there are people just waiting to scam the system. We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars here and this is just in Shelby County Tennessee and Desoto County Mississippi. This is a local example of how this current economic crisis happened and who is responsible, namely scam artists and politicians buying votes. Are you listening Barney and Chris?

I have listed below just three pieces of local property. There are many more and I hope that the FBI is investigating these transactions.

Basically the scheme illustrated by the attached pages of transactions from Tom Leatherwoods site shows properties at 144 Person, 395 Edith and 744 Melrose. The scheme goes like this.

A foreclosed property is bought for a low price. The buyer then sells the property a few months later to an associate for three to four times the purchase price. An inflated mortgage is obtained and sold to Federal National Mortgage Association or a bank. Then later, the property is foreclosed after no payments are made on the mortgage. Then, unbelievably, the same cycle happens again to the same property just a few months later. Another example is shown below.

144 Person: Federal National Mortgage Association sells property to Washington Mutual Bank for $7500. The same day, Washington Mutual sells the property to Mykisha Williams for $7500. A little over a month later, Mykisha Williams sells the property to Melanie Wilkes for $60000. The same day Melanie Wilkes gets a 90% mortgage from Argent Mortgage for $54000. Argent Mortgage must have unloaded the mortgage to Wells Fargo Bank as they ended up buying it on the courthouse steps for $50000 on December 2005. Then in June 2006 Wells Fargo sells it to Keith Threatt for $18000 and in October 2006 Keith Threatt sells the property to Onitsha Paige for $59000 and Onitsha gets a mortgage for $50150. Unbelivably a third flip is in the process.

I think you get the idea. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of such deals in the records. Why is this happening? Is there no oversight? Why is no action being taken? Why is the paper concentrating on $5 payments for favors in the County Clerks office when here it is obvious that millions are being lost.
Some of my friends say the government has only the best of intentions. Just look at the results and guess who gets to pay the bill for each of these transaction. THE TAXPAYERS AS USUAL TAKE A BATH AND THE GOVERNMENT SHRUGS OFF SUCH DEALS AS ISOLATED INCIDENTS.
Well, take a look at the article on the link below. The title is 5 Indicted and 1 guilty plea in Tennessee flipping fraud allegations

Click here to see the article on indictments

This is going on all over the country and this is not the only local frauds. Thanks to Barney Frank, other DC politicians and Freddie and Fannie, we are seeing billions in fraud and they are only indicting a small fraction of the crooks. This is your Congress at work.

I have attached the indictments. They make interesting reading.

Click here to read one of the indictments

It was obvious that the majority of people attending and the majority of doctors who spoke all had grave doubts about the house proposed plans, three of which are working their way through the baloney making process in Congress.

A number of questions were asked and answered (kind of) but the real knee slappers were the following.

You will be able to keep you present insurance that you like
Illegal aliens will not be covered
Congress will be forced to take the same plan that finally develops for the citizens
No one will make a decision to deny you treatment when you are old
Your waiting time after adding 47 million new people and no new doctors will not be increased
The house plan will be revenue neutral

There were many others that got raucous laughter but the above came to mind. One interesting sign behind where I set read 83% love single payer plan. When I asked where she got the sign, she said MOVEON . ORG.

One question that I wanted to ask but did not get to was this. What is the unfunded liability of medicare and social security? I looked up an answer from the Wall Street Journal.

According to the trustees, Medicare's unfunded liability is $74 trillion -- five times that of Social Security. According to the Congressional Budget Office, health-care spending is on a course that could crowd out all other government programs. Clearly the time has come for fundamental reform. (February 28, 2008).

Clearly Medicare and Social Security need reform. The Obama plan is not it. There was an article in yesterdays Commercial Appeal by the smartest national writer in the country, Charles Krauthammer. Here is what he said.

(1) Tort reform: As I wrote recently, our crazy system of casino malpractice suits results in massive and random settlements that raise everyone's insurance premiums and creates an epidemic of defensive medicine that does no medical good, yet costs a fortune.

An authoritative Massachusetts Medical Society study found that five out of six doctors admitted they order tests, procedures and referrals -- amounting to about 25 percent of the total -- solely as protection from lawsuits. Defensive medicine, estimates the libertarian/conservative Pacific Research Institute, wastes more than $200 billion a year. Just half that sum could provide a $5,000 health insurance grant -- $20,000 for a family of four -- to the uninsured poor (U.S. citizens ineligible for other government health assistance).

What to do? Abolish the entire medical-malpractice system. Create a new social pool from which people injured in medical errors or accidents can draw. The adjudication would be done by medical experts, not lay juries giving away lottery prizes at the behest of the liquid-tongued John Edwardses who pocket a third of the proceeds.

The pool would be funded by a relatively small tax on all health-insurance premiums. Socialize the risk; cut out the trial lawyers. Would that immunize doctors from carelessness or negligence? No. The penalty would be losing your medical license. There is no more serious deterrent then forfeiting a decade of intensive medical training and the livelihood that comes with it.

(2) Real health insurance reform: Tax employer-provided health care benefits and return the money to the employee with a government check to buy his own medical insurance, just as he buys his own car or home insurance.

There is no logical reason to get health insurance through your employer. This entire system is an accident of World War II wage and price controls. It's economically senseless. It makes people stay in jobs they hate, decreasing labor mobility and therefore overall productivity. And it needlessly increases the anxiety of losing your job by raising the additional specter of going bankrupt through illness.

The health care benefit exemption is the largest tax break in the entire U.S. budget, costing the government a quarter-trillion dollars annually. It hinders health-insurance security and portability as well as personal independence. If we additionally eliminated the prohibition on buying personal health insurance across state lines, that would inject new and powerful competition that would lower costs for everyone.
Will this sensible solution happen? Not likely with this Administration but keep up your letters, emails and telephone calls because this crazy Obama care needs to be stopped and real reform put in its place.

I have attached a picture of Cohen. He ran a good meeting.I wish there was another choice than Cohen or Herenton.

Look at the City of Memphis CAFR for 2008 (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) and the Shelby County CAFR. I have attached four pages from the City report and two pages from the County report that has to do with the property tax assessed values for residential and commercial property in the City and County. You will see that the residential property assessed value in Memphis went from $3.2 billion in 1999 to $5.2 billion in 2008, an increase of 62%. The commercial and industrial assessed value went from $3.6 billion to $4.3 billion an increase of 19%. For Shelby County the residential property tax assessed value went from $6.1 billion in 1999 to $10 billion in 2008, an increase of 64%. The commercial and industrial value in the County went from $4.4 billion to $5.4 billion, an increase of 22%. The total tax levies from 1999 to 2008 for the City and the County went from $545 million to $1.1 billion, an increase of 100%, basically doubled. The population increase from 2000 to 2008 for Shelby County is 1%.

Does any of this make sense to you, the taxpayers? The property tax assessor told us that the 8.8% increase in property values for Shelby County was perfectly alright and in accordance with reality. I went to zillow.com (an outstanding real estate valuation site) and found the following information.

Shelby County home values during the last year are down 10%, not up 8.8%.
Shelby County home values are up 17% in the last ten years, not 64%.
Inflation is up 30% over the last ten years, not 100% which is the take from property taxes.

I will be reporting further on what politicians are doing with the tax rate and what they are hiding from you, the taxpaying public.

Go to this website to verify this information.

Click here to go to zillow.com to see actual real estate values

I am still doing what I do and that is investigating and publishing information on the cost and excesses of our local political system and the need for REFORM.

I have attached to this email the expensive and inflated portion the City of Memphis personnel manual. We need to cut back on these benefits to bring them in line with the for profit world of taxpayers. I call you attention to the following candidates for reform.

Appointed employees- page 1. The charter needs to be changed to allow only a few appointed positions, if any.
Age requirements- page 2, an employee can go to work at age 18, work 25 years and retire at age 43 with his pension. The cost of health care to the City is huge between age 43 and the Medicare age and this early retirement age needs to be revised to the Medicare age.
Holidays- pages 3-4, 11 days
Vacations- pages 5-9, 5 weeks after 25 years. Too many, cut back to three or four.
Sick leave (2/1/2 days per MONTH) after 15 years. That is 6 weeks per year)/bonus days- pages 10-19. Way too many. Cut back to 1 per month.
Jury/witness duty- page 20-22
Death in family leave- pages 23-26, 3 days
Time allowed for voting- page 27, 3 hours
On the job injury- pages 28-31, 6 months with pay
Educational leave- pages 32-33, w/0 pay, 1 year plus
Personal leave w/o pay- pages 34-35
Retirement-pages 36-37 ( I will publish the complete pension system terms later).
Tuition reimbursement- pages 38-40
Rest Periods- page 41, hour per day
Parking City Hall Garage- pages 42-43

I call on the Memphis City Council and the new Mayor (if we get one)to cut back these inflated benefits to the levels available to the people who pay the bills, the taxpayers.

Click here to see the above sections from the City of Memphis personnel policy manual

Click here to see the first half of the complete City of Memphis Personnel Manual

Now that our Mayor is getting a City of Memphis pension and a School System pension when he retires, he is going for the BIG BANANA in Washington to add Federal Perks to his haul. And the worst of it all is that it is legal.

For those of you who are not aware of the terms of our pension system, I have shown below a brief resume from the City of Memphis CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report)and the City of Memphis Retirement System showing the details of the system. Some important points are

The City of Memphis Retirement System is administered by a Board of Administration under the direction of the Mayor. Separate financial statement for the plan are not issued.
The assets of the plan are down 33% from July 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009.
As of June 30, 2008 there were 4070 retirees receiving benefits or entitled to receive them
There were 3056 active employees fully vested and 3165 non vested.
Generally employees may retire after 25 years of service regardless of age.
Those appointed people may retire after 12 years of service regardless of age due to the disastrous January 2001 pension resolution which Tom Marshall said would help the City get and retain good people.
ONE SIGNIFICANT PART OF THE PENSION SYSTEM IS THAT THE PENSION IS BASED ON A PERCENTAGE (2-1/4% OR 2-1/2%) OF AVERAGE MONTHLY COMPENSATION. THE DEFINITION OF AVERAGE MONTHLY COMPENSATION IS AS FOLLOWS. "THE HIGHEST AVERAGE MONTHLY COMPENSATION RECEIVED FOR ANY FIVE CONSECUTIVE YEARS OF SERVICE, OR THE MOST RECENT YEARS EARNING, IF GREATER".

Now do you see why Willie put his cronies in these high paying jobs last year? So they could increase their pension payout.

Also I have attached a list of employees and salaries from a 2005 open records request listed by top to bottom salary. Those with NO in a column are appointed employees. These salaries are up 5 to 7% from 2005.

Click here to see a 2005 list of appointed employees listed by salary many of whom will be retiring and start receiving their pensions

Click here to see the terms of the pension plan which is run by the Mayor and his cronies and which allows the pension to be increased after only one year at a new higher salary

The recent budget farce in the City of Memphis was acted out and the result is the confirmation that our government is run by an incompetent administration and a majority on the City Council that has never run a business and has never seen a public job that they do not love.

The annual farce started with our Mayor who predictably presented a $617 million dollar budget that was higher than the year before ($580 million). The City Council initially was determined to get tough with the Mayor this year and demanded that he cut the budget by $50 million dollars or about the amount that they previously cut from the Memphis City Schools. That cut is in litigation and may come along to add to our already existing highest in the state property tax rate. The Mayors answer was the old trick that he has used before, presenting a budget with cuts in public safety, senior citizen centers, libraries etc. The City Council, of course, rejected this and then determined that they would go through the budget line by line and make the cuts they wanted.

After weeks of meetings of various subcommittees, they were able to come up with $14 million in savings. (Remember the old maxim about a camel is a horse designed by a committee). The defining characteristics of "design by committee" are needless complexity, internal inconsistency, logical flaws, banality, and the lack of a unifying vision.

Then enter Jim Strickland who at least had a plan and a unified vision, but alas, he did not have the seven votes. There was no majority to cut the pay raises for employees (3% on top of 5% the year before last). There was no majority to cut their own pay and those of top overpaid and incompetent City crony employees. There was no discussion of cuts in benefits which allow a 15 year employees to have off 13 weeks a year with pay. There was no discussion of the condition of the defined benefit pension plan and the deep losses in the plans assets. (Please note that Keith McGhee, chief administrative office at a salary of about $145,000, is retiring at age 43). There was no discussion of the promised retiree health care benefits which has an unfunded liability of $823 million dollars.

We are cursed with an incompetent and self interested administration and a City Council with a majority that cares only about preserving their jobs and those jobs of City employees and have no interest in the tax payers of the city of Memphis. Unfortunately, the County Commission is very similar in structure and operation.

Last week there was an interesting article in the CA concerning fraudulent appraisals of properties. The lead conspirator was not named at that time. The appraiser would take low priced properties, get an inflated appraisal, and then through a series of transactions, the property was sold and mortgaged and the difference was pocketed. In many cases, Fannie and Freddie or some bank and eventually the taxpayers would end up eating the difference between what the parties paid for the property and the amount of the inflated mortgage. These people would flip the same properties three and four times in the period of a few years.

There are hundreds of these type transactions listed locally in Shelby County and DeSoto County and I have shown some listed in the attached pdf files. However the one that stands out is at 744 Melrose. Mykisha Williams bought the property in April 2004 for $145,000 and sold it in May for $385,00000 ($240,00000 profit). Then in January 2005 Gloria Buntyn bought the property for $170,000 and in February sold it to Mykisha Williams for $385,000. ($215,000 profit). Then in February 2006 Kieth Threatt bought the property for $190,000 and in May 2006 sold the property for $419,000 to Sanchez Richmond ($229,000 profit). Total profit $684,000 less a few expenses.

This is a good local example of what happens to large government programs where there are people just waiting to scam the system. We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars here and this is just in Shelby County Tennessee and Desoto County Mississippi. This is a local example of how this current economic crisis happened and who is responsible, namely scam artists and politicians buying votes. Are you listening Barney and Chris?

I have listed below just three pieces of local property. There are many more and I hope that the FBI is investigating these transactions.

Basically the scheme illustrated by the attached pages of transactions from Tom Leatherwoods site shows properties at 144 Person, 395 Edith and 744 Melrose. The scheme goes like this.

A foreclosed property is bought for a low price. The buyer then sells the property a few months later to an associate for three to four times the purchase price. An inflated mortgage is obtained and sold to Federal National Mortgage Association or a bank. Then later, the property is foreclosed after no payments are made on the mortgage. Then, unbelievably, the same cycle happens again to the same property just a few months later. Another example is shown below.

144 Person: Federal National Mortgage Association sells property to Washington Mutual Bank for $7500. The same day, Washington Mutual sells the property to Mykisha Williams for $7500. A little over a month later, Mykisha Williams sells the property to Melanie Wilkes for $60000. The same day Melanie Wilkes gets a 90% mortgage from Argent Mortgage for $54000. Argent Mortgage must have unloaded the mortgage to Wells Fargo Bank as they ended up buying it on the courthouse steps for $50000 on December 2005. Then in June 2006 Wells Fargo sells it to Keith Threatt for $18000 and in October 2006 Keith Threatt sells the property to Onitsha Paige for $59000 and Onitsha gets a mortgage for $50150. Unbelivably a third flip is in the process.

Look at the other two sheets showing 744 Melrose and 395 Edith.

I think you get the idea. I have also attached a list of transactions from Tom Leatherwoods site for Mykisha Williams and Southern California REO LLC. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of such deals in the records. Why is this happening? Is there no oversight? Why is no action being taken? Why is the paper concentrating on $5 payments for favors in the County Clerks office when here it is obvious that millions are being lost.
Some of my friends say the government has only the best of intentions. Just look at the results and guess who gets to pay the bill for each of these transaction.

THE TAXPAYERS AS USUAL TAKE A BATH AND THE GOVERNMENT SHRUGS OFF SUCH DEALS AS ISOLATED INCIDENTS.

Click here to see the transactions from Tom Leatherwood's site. This is one of hundreds of such local transactions

Click here to see the transactions on 395 Edith from Tom Leatherwood's site. This is one of hundreds of such local transactions

Click here to see the transactions on 144 Person from Tom Leatherwood's site. This is one of hundreds of such local transactions

Click here to see the transactions in which Mykisha Williams was involved from Tom Leatherwood's site. This is one of hundreds of such local transactions

I think it is instructive to see what was said in the December 31, 2007 document which is attached. In reading through the document, it sounds like the Captain of the Titanic saying that there is no danger to the ship from icebergs as the ship has a double hull. According to the article in the paper, The refinancing and an accompanying transaction known as an interest-rate swap helped reduce the sports authority's payments to about 4.25 percent. However, the financial crisis pushed the interest rate to about 9 percent. Interest rates are low now, and the authority believes it could reduce its payments by switching to a fixed rate. Read through the December 2007 document and you will read many statements that the risk of interest rate increase in the swaps was low.

Where does the money to pay these bonds and interest come from? The Senior Lien Revenue Bonds shall be payable from the following sources.
1) A $ 1.15 per seat use charge on paid Arena events..
2) Rebate of sales tax revenues to the City and the County for the exclusive use of the Sports Authority derived from NBA Franchise events, concessions and the sale of NBA franchised merchandise in the County.
3) City Hotel/Motel Tax Revenues derived from certain hotel/motel taxes imposed by the City pursuant to the provisions of City Ordinance 4824. (A 1.7% tax was added to the existing 5% plus the + the 8.25% sales tax for a total of 14.95%). This tax has been dedicated until 2016 to the payment of debt service for the expansion of the Cook Convention Center.
4) Certain County Hotel/Motel Tax Revenues (to the extent certain tourist
development zone sales tax increment moneys are received) and subordinate to certain pre-existing debt which is pledged for the Cook Convention Center Bonds, the County Bonds for the Pyramid and a specified amount to the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
5) Payments in lieu of taxes from the Water Division of MLG&W pursuant to that certain PILOT Agreement between the City and MLG& dated July 1, 2001. The payment will be $2.5 million per year until 2028.
6) A new 2% County-wide car rental tax imposed pursuant to Section 67-4-1907 of Tennessee Code Annotated.

If these revenues are not enough to pay the bonds, then the taxpayers are on the hook except that property taxes (ad valorem) are not to be used. (This restriction was the result of the 2001 petition by Heidi Shafer to get the taxpayers the right to vote on the building of the Arena). However we will still have to pay one way or the other or maybe we will get a bailout.

The Mayor or his designee
The comptroller
5 employees with at least 10 years of service
1 citizen member
1 retiree of the plan
1 member of the City Council, non voting
Director of personnel, ex officio member, non voting

The important points here are two facts.
1) The pension promises are full faith and credit promises backed up by the taxing authority of your elected officials regardless of our ability to pay.
2) This whole process needs to be opened up with more public members (read taxpayers) on the pension board as it is their taxes that guarantee these promised pensions. The employees do contribute but so do the taxpayers and the guarantee is from the taxpayers.

Unless we have a miraculous market recovery, we will see huge pension increases in contributions from the taxpayers. We need to reform this system so that future new employees have a defined contribution plan (like a 401k) rather than a defined benefit plan. This is what taxpayers in the for profit world have and this is what public employees should have.

Click here to see the June 30, 2008 pension valuation report

Click here to see the latest monthly pension valuation report to see what it has lost

Click here to go to the City's website

It was taken down after two rape victims were turned away recently from the Sexual Assault Center. Also you will see that the City Attorneys section is missing but you find it under the second listing for Grants and Agencies.

I have found the missing section and have attached it to this email. No wonder they are hiding it. There is over $500,000 difference between what the City received from the state and what they spent. Where is the money?

Concerning the 2010 proposed budget, the most ridiculous statement is in the Mayors letter in the introduction to the budget. He says the following.

"Weve gone through it line by line to identify areas where we can cut costs, modify services and make necessary personnel adjustments. One way we have realized cost savings is by modifying our service delivery model as it relates to our Parks and Public Services Divisions. For example, City golf courses will be open fewer hours, as will community centers and libraries. These measurers enable us to make sure that every full-time employees working for us today has the opportunity to work for us tomorrow. However, since personnel costs make up about 70 percent of our operating budget, we focused on other opportunities to cut expenses in this area. Therefore, rather than laying off a single full-time employee, we have eliminated funding for over 125 vacant positions across the organization. "

Why do they include vacant positions in the budget in the first place? The answer is padding so that they come in under budget.

How about laying off some cronies. Here is some information from a Commercial Appeal article in February 2008 about cronyism appointments for Deputy Directors in Memphis.

Janet Hooks left the City Council after the legal problems of her husband and was appointed as the Director of Multicultural and Religious Affairs (part of the Public Services and Neighborhood budget) at $75,000/year. Then she went to Community Enhancement at $100,000/year.

LaSonya Hall, executive division, $100,000

Tony Elison, public works/solid waste, $100,000

Michael Gray, library services, $100,000 and last but not least

Yalanda McFadgon, public services and neighborhoods, $100,000

Think about all of the above as you look at your checkbook as you pay your property taxes this year.

Click here to see the missing 2009 budget section

I have reviewed The City of Memphis 2010 proposed operating budget which is now on line. I would like to point out some facts.

The FY 2010 projected budget is $577 million with a funded staffing level of 6215. Compare this to FY 2006 Actual budget of $479 million and a funded staffing level of 5162. Both of these are up 20%. And also consider that the City Council took $57 million out of the budget in 2009 (School Funding) and it is still up 20% from 2006.

In the budget summary there is this ridiculous statement. "The largest cost impact across divisions is the 3% salary increase for all employees over FY2009 budgeted at $11 million. To balance this increase, we have eliminated funding for over 130 vacant positions (without laying off any employees).

GASB 45 requires the City to value the cost of providing post employment health care benefits (OPEB). In FY 2008, we established an investment trust to pre-fund $3 million in future OPEB obligations. For FY 2010, $6 million has been budgeted for post employment benefits. GUESS WHAT THE UNFUNDED LIABILITY WAS IN 2007? $823 MILLION DOLLARS.
It is time to bite the bullet and reform and cut the budget.

My recommendations for the 2010 budget year is the following.

1) A 10% personnel cut in the City of Memphis. The cuts should be actual jobs, not phony ghost jobs.The actual funded staffing level for 2007 was 5534. The adopted 2009 funded staffing level was 6309, an increase of 14%. A 10% cut is not unreasonable. It should be across the board from the top to the bottom. For instance, we do not need a deputy director in each department. This is a layer of bureaucracy that we can do without.

2) We need a fundamental change in our personnel policy to bring it more in line with the "for profit" world where all the tax money originates. We now have at the top end of years in service (15 years or more) 5 weeks vacation, 6 weeks of sick days, 11 holidays, 4 bonus days and three days death in family leave. This amounts to over of the year. On top of this we have the federal FLMA (Family Leave Medical Act) which allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for various reasons. Private for profit companies do not have anywhere near this level of days off. We could cut our work force by 15 to 20% by bringing days off down to private levels.

3) We have over $800 million of unfunded liability in OPEB costs (other post employment benefits) that represent promises made by politicians for retiree health care costs but without the money set aside to pay for them. We are now promising to pay 70 to 75 percent of these costs. We need to reduce this promise by 5% a year for the next 14 years so that the retirees can prepare for this reduction and to not make this promise to future employees.

4) We need to move to a defined contribution pension plan similar to a 401K used in the for profit world of companies for all new employees. The present plan for existing qualified employees would be maintained.

5) We need to look at changing the retirement age of employees which currently is after 25 years of service regardless of age. The highest cost of retiree medical insurance is for retirees at ages before they become eligible for Medicare. I have recently gotten current financial reports for the MLGW and have asked for the same from the City and the County. It is not a pretty picture. The MLGW is increasing their contribution by $18 million dollars because of losses in the market.

I have requested and received annual reports from Memphis, Shelby County and MLGW. I have also received current monthly reports from MLGW and Shelby County. The City of Memphis has not sent the latest monthly report but hopefully they will in the next few days.

First, we all hope that the market will improve for our own investments and also for the pension funds. Regardless of your political persuasion, the last 25 years (excluding 2008) have been a good time for investments. However here are the facts from the annual MLGW report and from the current Shelby County monthly report.

MLGW. Total recommended plan contributions for 2009 are $40+ million (26.7% of payroll), compare to $22 million (15.18% of payroll) for 2008. This is an increase for 2009 of $17.69 million.

Shelby Countys pension fund is down $325 million as of the end of March 2009 from the end of June 2008. This is a 32.3% drop. It is not know yet what the 2010 contribution requirement will be.

These are legal full faith and credit obligations for the rate payers and taxpayers of Memphis and Shelby County. No doubt the City figures will be the same or worse which is probably why they are dragging their feet in not letting me have the information. I have attached the MLGW and the Shelby County documents mentioned above.

Click here to read the December 31, 2008 MLGW annual pension report

On Tuesday, April 28, I had an appointment at 10 AM in the office of Debbie Stamson, the Shelby County Clerk and her assistant, Susan Henning. This was a meeting that I requested pursuant to my open records request concerning automobile registration and other functions of the Clerks office. In response to my initial request I got a very oblique answer from Mr. Craig Willis, the Assistant County Attorney. Not satisfied with this answer I asked to meet with Ms. Stamson and the meeting was graciously granted.

The next day, I heard on the news that eight employees from her office have been indicted and that Councilwoman Ware was also involved. What a shock.

My investigation had nothing to do with the criminal charges against the eight employees. All I was asking was What are the duties of your office and are you sure you are collecting all the fees that are due to you? They had no answer and basically depend on the honesty of the average citizen to do the right thing. Take a look at other cars as you drive around and see if everyone has a 09 or 10 little sticker on their license and is it a legitimate one or one cranked out on their computer.

What I found was a typical bureaucratic mess that is symbolic of practically all government, local and national. Their main job is selling more than 650,000 vehicle license plates per year. (the wheel tax is about $106.00 for city residents and $30.00 less for a county car).They have no way of checking to prove if everyone is paying their legal fees which is different in the City limits versus the county. Suppose someone who paid last year simply does not pay? How about the owner of a car from another state who moves here? The penalty for not paying is practically nonexistent. The person can claim that it was setup and not driven for the last year. There seems to be very little cross checking with other data bases. Moreover, they collect the hotel and motel tax (about $150 million per year), take 5% for the support of their office and turn over the rest to the County Trustee.

Here is another fact from the previous City of Memphis reports that points out the fact that the Memphis City budget is all about jobs, not efficient government. With the improvements in computer management and government computer programs, they should have been able to reduce the number of employees from 1996 to 2008 with only an 8% increase in population. But their objective is not efficiency, it is about jobs. Look at the figures below.

In 1996 the population of the City of Memphis was 614,289. In 2008 it was 664,215, up 8%

The funded staffing level of City employees in Memphis in 1996 was 4764. In 2008 it was 6225, up 30%.

One other point. I asked last week for a copy of the proposed budget. I was told that it was not on line and would not be available until after it was finally adopted. I complained and asked how the public could review the administration requested budget without a copy on line. I have been told that Council Chairman Myron Lowery will have it on line by the end of this week. I have posted below the budget committee meetings, dates and times. Let us show up and let them know that we want real reform and cuts in the budget.

Here is what needs to be done.

My recommendations for the 2010 budget year is the following.

1) A 10% personnel cut in the City of Memphis. The actual funded staffing level for 2007 was 5534. The adopted 2009 funded staffing level was 6309, an increase of 14%. A 10% cut is not unreasonable. It should be across the board from the top to the bottom. For instance, we do not need a deputy director in each department. This is a layer of bureaucracy that we can do without. Also crony friends of the Mayor who have been given plum jobs should be laid off.

2) We need a fundamental change in our personnel policy to bring it more in line with the for profit world where all the tax money originates. We now have at the top end of years in service (15 years or more) 5 weeks vacation, 5 weeks of sick days, 11 holidays, 4 bonus days and three days death in family leave. This amounts to over of the year. On top of this we have the federal FLMA (Family Leave Medical Act) which allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for various reasons. Private for profit companies do not have anywhere near this level of days off. We could cut our work force by 15 to 20% by bringing days off down to private levels.

3) We have over $3 billion of unfunded liability in OPEB costs (other post employment benefits) that represent promises made by politicians for retiree health care costs but without the money set aside to pay for them. We are now promising to pay 70 to 75 percent of these costs. We need to reduce this promise by 5% a year for the next 14 years so that the retirees can prepare for this reduction and to not make this promise to future employees.

4) We need to move to a defined contribution pension plan similar to a 401K used in the for profit world of companies for all new employees. The present plan for existing qualified employees would be maintained.

5) We need to look at changing the retirement age of employees which currently is after 25 years of service regardless of age. The highest cost of retiree medical insurance is for retirees at ages before they become eligible for Medicare. I have recently gotten current financial reports for the MLGW and have asked for the same from the City and the County. It is not a pretty picture. The MLGW is increasing their contribution by $18 million dollars because of losses in the market.

I have been studying the various school systems for months such as Nashville, Louisville, Memphis and Shelby County. I have been going through the budgets and reports. Finally, someone suggested I look at the student population, number of employees, the budgets and the CPI from 10 years ago (1998) and compare them with 2008. Bingo!!

Here is all you need to know about the Memphis City School System (MCS). Yesterday when I first published these figures I had the student population at the MCS as 110,000. I since found out that Dr. Cash confirmed in a Flyer article that the figure is 103,000 and this was confirmed by a School System executive. This then shows a 5.6% decrease over ten years in student population but a 54% increase in employees and a 69% increase in budget.

Number of students- 1998 109,137, 2008 103,000 difference -5.6%
Number of employees- 1998 10,693, 2008 16,00 difference +54%
General fund budget- 1998 $550,147,000, 2008 $931,966,000 +69%
Consumer Price Index over this 10 years, +31%

It is obvious that the objective of the MCS system is not education, it is jobs. The control and the increase of jobs is what gives politicians power. Minus 5.6% decrease in students over 10 years but 54% increase in employees. There is no excuse. The results of the system are abysmal. On top of this fiscal outrage in employment is the cost of new schools for a static school population which has seen a huge increase in the debt of Shelby County.

One answer is to cut the employment and cut deep. Another is reform of the system. Moreover we need competition. We need an educational experiment. Lets take half of the average cost per student, $4500, and offer it to the families of students to buy an education at a qualified private school and take the other $4500 and add it to the budget of the MCS. This would give the MCS more money per student and then lets track the performance of those students who leave for private schools and see the results versus the MCS.

1) There is no need to inspect new cars in the first four years of their use.

2) Why inspect only City of Memphis cars if County cars outside of Memphis are not inspected?

3) The whole process should be done away with as the inspection process is a waste of money and is just intended to create city jobs.

4) Turn the inspection process over to private service stations.

Then I sent an open records request to the Shelby County Clerks office as follows.

HERE IS MY REQUEST

Ms. Debbie Stamson, County Clerk
150 Washington Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38103

Dear Ms. Stamson,

In accordance with instructions and as a taxpayer of the Shelby County, I would like to inspect the municipal documents in accordance with the Tennessee Open Records Law that contain the following specific information.

1) I want to inspect your records and documents that show how many licensed vehicles have owner registrations at Memphis addresses and how many have addresses outside of Memphis but in Shelby County.The period should be for 2008. I do not need to see any restricted information but only the total numbers for 2008 fiscal period.

2) I want to inspect your records and documents that show how many of the above vehicles have paid the registration fee in the same 2008 period.

I trust that you will inform promptly whatever department and personnel are necessary to make this information and documents ready for my inspection. If you need any additional information or have questions about this request, I am available during working hours at 754-0699.
Sincerely yours,

Joe Saino
6560 Kirby Forest Cove
Memphis, Tennessee 38119

HERE IS THE ANSWER!!

Mr. Saino:

In response to your March 23, 2009 email to Ms. Debbie Stamson, Shelby County Clerk, please take note of the following:

Registration data for 2008 requested by you is not available in any existing record. It is not possible for the Office of County Clerk to indicate how many registered vehicles were in Memphis or in Shelby County outside Memphis during the year 2008. There is no existing record that compiles this information, and it is not possible to generate such a record.

The Office of the County Clerk can provide the total number of registrations, but only as of the date the data is extracted. Only current vehicle registration information is available.

It is anticipated that this information can be provided to you on or about April 6, 2009.

In addition, the Office of the County Clerk can provide information indicating payments to the City of Memphis and the number of registrations paid for in the calendar year of 2008.

This information would also be available on or about April 6, 2009.

In accordance with provisions of the Tennessee Public Records Act, specifically, Tenn. Code Ann. 10-7-503(a)(7)(C)(1) and Tenn. Code Ann. 10-7-506(a), you would be responsible for the reasonable labor costs in excess of one (1) hour in producing the information and records you request. Pursuant to these provisions, it is anticipated you would be billed for labor charges in the approximate amount of $240.00. Additionally, you would also be billed for reasonable copying charges in an amount yet to be determined.

If you would like for the Office of the County Clerk to provide the information and records described above, please provide advance payment in the amount of $240.00. Checks should be payable to the Office of the Shelby County Clerk. At the time the information is produced you will be billed for any labor amounts in excess of this plus reasonable copying charges. (If actual labor costs excluding the first hour are less, charges will be adjusted accordingly.)

Any delay in providing advance payment will result in a delay in providing the information described above.

If you have questions please contact me or my paralegal, Edna Ward, who can be reached at (901) 545-3101.

Thank you.

Craig Willis

Craig E. Willis
Assistant County Attorney
Shelby County Government
160 N. Main Street, Suite 660
Memphis, TN 38103
Tele: (901) 545-4917
Fax: (901) 545-4687
Craig.Willis@shelbycountytn.gov

I got on line and looked at the camera photos from the three Memphis inspection stations. I looked at the one on White Station but you could not tell how long the wait was since the camera is mounted on the station and only shows the line that is backed up on the entrance driveway. You cannot see if the line extends out in to White Station and around the corner as it does from time to time. I finally decided to go on a Wednesday at 9:30 AM in the middle of the month since I am not working at a full time job as I am retired. I had to wait about 45 minutes which was better than normal. I feel for the working folks who do not have my options. (My suggestion is that a current waiting time be regularly posted on the website in addition to the photo which is worthless).

This is a problem for every Memphis vehicle owner that got me to thinking about this issue. The recent CA article about special treatment for friends of politicians makes all of us who wait in line and pay the full fee boil. First, why do the people in the County not have to have their cars inspected? Will the exhaust from their cars and trucks stop at the boundary line of Memphis and not foul our air? Also the question occurred to me about how many vehicles are registered in Shelby County (both in the City and in the County outside the City) and are they all paying their fees? I asked the Clerk (Debbie Stamson) for the number of autos registered in Memphis and Shelby County for 2008 and how many paid a fee. Simple question you would think.

Her first answer was as follows. As far as reviewing our records, all motor vehicle records contain personal information and are covered under the Federal and State of Tennessee Drivers Protection Act.

My open records request was as follows. 1) I want to inspect your records and documents that show how many licensed vehicles have owner registrations at Memphis addresses and how many have addresses outside of Memphis but in Shelby County.The period should be for 2008. I do not need to see any restricted information but only the total numbers for the 2008 fiscal period. 2) I want to inspect your records and documents that show how many of the above vehicles have paid the registration fee in the same 2008 period.

The Storm Water Fee started out in Fiscal Year 2007 at $2.54/SingleFamilyUnit/month and then it escalated to $2.88 in FY 2008, $3.30 in FY2009, $3.64 in FY2010 and then $4.02 in FY 2011.
This is a 58% increase in 4 years. I have attached the original ordinance and you will see that the increases are built into the ordinance. I have also attached the 2009 budget section showing the amount of money raised by this fee, $14 million in 2008 and $20 million in 2009. Back door taxes.

Click here to see the hidden taxes built into the storm water ordinance passed in 2006

The truth is that no one can stop the borderline ethics violations such as giving jobs to unqualified cronies, giving no bid contracts to friends by setting bid restrictions that only the friends can meet and seeing that legal business goes to supporters and contributors. There are many ways to bend and stretch the ethics codes and politicians are savvy at finding loopholes.

I have been pushing and recommending for some time the use of the internet to use as a bulletin board for transparency in government. Now with the explosion of blackberrys and iphones and with the introduction of new and advanced software there is no excuse for politicians to not put every important document on the internet.

Recently I looked at the City Council Agenda on the internet. I noticed that there were two proposed ordinances that were listed on the agenda. One was an ordinance to provide for Minimum Energy Efficiency in Rental Properties, Ordinance #5292. The other was an ordinance to amend Chapter 2, Article XI, Code of Ordinance, City of Memphis so as to Change the Reporting Requirements for Small Businesses, Ordinance #5293. I contacted Councilman Jim Strickland and asked him why the full text of the ordinance was not put on the internet. He, as a councilperson, of course had the full text of the ordinances sent to him in electronic format. He checked with the council staff and was told that the law only required that the full text be published in the Memphis Business Journal and that it was published weeks ahead of showing up on the agenda for action.

He urged the Council staff to change the procedure and they agreed to publish the full wording of the ordinances and also the resolutions on the internet which they are hopefully now doing. Then I decided to check with the Shelby County government and to my surprise I found that they had been doing this since May of 2008 and I found that the program and webpage was outstanding. Click here to see the County website with all the document information that the Commissioners get. Not only do they publish all resolutions and ordinances but they publish contract awards. They purchased a program called S.I.R.E. and it seems to work quite well.

Upon further checking I found that the City has a similar program called GRANICUS which could provide similar information but they chose not to provide the same level of disclosure as the County Commission. Also it is to be noted that Shelby County government did not outsource their IT (Information Technology) department like the City of Memphis did when they gave the work to ACS in a controversial contract.

We are making progress in transparency with these developments but it is a work in progress. The next thing that I would like to see is for all public contracts put on the internet with the wining and losing bids exposed and with the reason for the selection of the wining bidder explained if the winner was not the low bidder. The Mayor of Memphis has the contract authority whereas the Shelby County Mayor must get Commission approval of all contracts.

The Mayor told the citizens of Memphis and Shelby County that he had to sign the agreement and that it was a good deal for Memphis because the Grizzlies (Hoops L.P.) had agreed to pay all operating expenses as expressed in the section 7(b) (page 19 of 53) of the operating agreement.

This section says: (b) Operating Expenses. In addition to the rent (rent consists of $1.15 per ticket, no ticket sales, no rent) required to be paid by HOOPS, HOOPS shall be responsible during the entire Term for all costs and expenses of every kind and nature related to the use, occupancy, possession and operation of the Arena Complex, including without limitation all operating loses. In addition, HOOPS shall be obligated to reimburse CITY/COUNTY in the amount of any deductible related to insurance coverage maintained by CITY/COUNTY in accordance with Section 9(a)(i) hereof.

However the hooker here is the next section, Section 8, Arena Repairs and Maintenance (page 19 of 53) Section (a) states that during the term of the agreement, the City and County will be responsible for and, at its cost shall make all Capital Repairs as shown in Exhibit B (pages 48 and 49 of 53). In other words, the big ticket items are to be paid by the tax payers, not HOOPS. HOOPS is responsible for (1) making all minor repairs, (2) undertake normal and routine maintenance, (3) provide adequately trained janitorial, maintenance and support staff and keep the Arena in a safe, uncluttered, clean, sanitary and sightly condition and (4) provide security for the Arena Complex 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In addition the City and County have to pay for all fire insurance policies and other perils.

And for this, we gave up the right to have events in the unpaid for Pyramid and the Coliseum. [See section 21, 29 and 30(b), pages 34 of 53, 37 of 53 and 38 of 53]. Also HOOPS has a way to get out of the agreement if Memphians do not buy enough seats under Section 31(page 40 of 53), EARLY TERMINATION RELATING TO SHORTFALLS.

This terrible, stupid agreement was signed by Mayor Herenton and Mayor Rout on June 29, 2001. Mr. Heisley has stripped the investment of the well meaning local Memphis investors of their equity. No one ever accused Mr. Heisley of being dumb like our two Mayors.

A local Memphis School Board member asked me recently why I did not report on the unfunded OPEB (Other Post Employment Benefits) figure of the Shelby County School System. I did then ask them for this information and they promptly reported that their unfunded OPEB liability was $548 million bringing the total of the unfunded OPEB liability to $3.63 billion dollars for the City of Memphis, the Memphis School System, the Shelby County government, the MLGW and the Shelby County School System.

This got me to thinking about the rest of the state of Tennessee and I wonder what the total is for the entire state of Tennessee and then for the entire country. Add in Medicare, Social Security, the coming universal health care, etc. etc. etc. and you have to conclude that there is no promise that politicians will not make as long as long as you keep voting them into office.
In case you dont remember, the local $3.63 billion dollar problem has been caused by local politicians promising to pay 70 to 75% of retirees health care cost without putting the money aside to pay for it in the long term. We must solve this problem by cutting this promise by 5% a year for the next 14 years so that the retirees can prepare their lives for other medical insurance. To continue to ignore this problem is unconscionable.

I have attached a file showing the relevant pages from the five actuarial reports with the unfunded figures shown. Also I have attached the five full reports.
POLITICAL DIVISION OPEB UNFUNDED LIABILITY
City of Memphis $823,000,000
MLGW $709,000,000
Shelby County $353,000,000
Memphis City Schools $1,250,000,000
Shelby County Schools 548,000,000

Total $3,683,000,000

Click here to see the relevent pages from the complete OPEB reports shown below

I have been going through this massive document and trying to make sense of it. I have attached two spreadsheets on which I have made a partial analysis. One shows the 312 job titles from A to Z and the other shows the job salary ranges high to low. I have not finished yet but I wanted to make publish this so that I could get some public comments and input. My partial spreadsheets covers only about 11600 employees but there are over 17000 employees working at the Memphis School System. This does not cover the Shelby County School System as I as still trying to get their information.

I have also attached some sample sheets out of the 1335 pages. You will see job codes, salary grades, salary ranges, the FICA cost, the retirement cost, the insurance cost, the unemployment cost, the job title and the employee name.

I would appreciate public comments from people who know more about this bureaucracy than I do but some things I wondered about and noted below.

The school system pays 7.65% for social security and medicare and I presume the employees pay an equal amount. I assume that when they retire and reach medicare age, their state pension is reduced when they start receiving social security. As I understand it, other City and County employees pay only the medicare portion of social security which is 1.45%.
The school system pays 6.2% for the retirement pension fund and I assume the employee pays a matching amount. The system as I understand it is run by the state of Tennessee as the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System. This is a defined benefit pension plan.
The medical insurance payment is substantial but it varies as a percentage of salaries. I assume this depends on whether the insurance is for the employee only or for a family. The difference can be as much as $6000 per employee. I do not know at this point how much the employee pays for this insurance but I will enquire about this.
As I understand it, teachers work 10 months during the 12 month year. I am not sure about holidays, sick days, personal days or any other benefits but I will inquire.

In looking through the list I find lots of high priced employees with titles that make you wonder what it is they do. Also note that executive directors make more than directors. Then there are 174 librarians, 1014 custodial helpers, 1098 educational assistants and 228 professional school counselors. It should be noted that the custodial helpers work at a relatively low pay scale but they receive insurance coverage the cost of which in some cases is almost to 1/2 of their salary.
I did not find the name or salary of Dr. Kriner Cash but he has a base salary of $258,000 per year. I will continue to try to get further information on the Memphis School System and the Shelby County School System and let you, the taxpayers, know what it is that you are paying for to the combined tune of $1.5 billion dollars.

Click here to see a partial list of job titles listed alphabetically

Click here to see a partial list of job salary ranges, high to low

TRANSPARENCY AT THE CITY VERSUS SHELBY COUNTY

I keep learning about government and the things I discover continue to amaze me. I recently complained to several City Council members that when they published an agenda on the internet and it contained a proposed ordinance, that the full wording of the proposed ordinance was not shown on the internet. For example, I have shown below two proposed ordinances that are on the agenda for the January 6, 2009 meeting.  

11.                          ORDINANCE  to provide for Minimum Energy Efficiency in Rental Property, up for FIRST reading.

Ware                                                                                                                                     Ordinance No. 5292

12.                          ORDINANCE to amend Chapter 2, Article XI, Code of Ordinance, City of Memphis so as to Change the Reporting Requirements for Small Businesses, up for FIRST reading.

Halbert                                                                                                                                                Ordinance No. 5293

I emailed this to Jim Strickland and he referred me to the City Council staff. They told me that the full wording was published in the Memphis Business Journal weeks ahead of it appearing on the agenda. I said that this was not satisfactory as it met the requirements of the law but not the spirit of transparency. (Remember the January 2001 pension resolution which slipped through without a remark). That will eventually cost the taxpayers millions of dollars in extra pension costs.

 I complained again about Ordinance 5292 and 5293 which are on the upcoming agenda. I sent information to several city council members and the City Council staff person has agreed to change to procedure and in the future they will post all ordinances and resolutions in full with the agenda.  

Then I checked the Shelby County website agendas and I find that Shelby County has been doing this since the early part of 2008 as they use the SIRE system. You can see this if you go to the following site. It is quite outstanding and includes also copies of public contracts.

http://agendapub.shelbycountytn.gov.

I then called the Shelby County Information Technology office and they told me that the system cost $400,000 and that the City of Memphis also has a similar system. Apparently they could have published all this information like the county but have chosen not to do so.

Take a look at the County system and then ask several questions.

• Why has the City of Memphis not given the taxpayers the same public information that Shelby County has done?
• Why have the City of Memphis spent millions on outsourcing their Information Technology to ACS whereas Shelby County has kept their IT in house and apparently done a much better job at a lower cost?

We need some answers to these questions and we need the full matching website information format that Shelby County is giving to their taxpayers.

In 1996 the population of the City of Memphis was 614,289. In 2008 it was 664,215, up 8%

The funded staffing level of City employees in Memphis in 1996 was 4764. In 2008 it was 6225, up 30%.

One other point. I asked last week for a copy of the proposed budget. I was told that it was not on line and would not be available until after it was finally adopted. I complained and asked how the public could review the administration requested budget without a copy on line. I have been told that Council Chairman Myron Lowery will have it on line by the end of this week. I have posted below the budget committee meetings, dates and times. Let us show up and let them know that we want real reform and cuts in the budget.

Here is what needs to be done.

My recommendations for the 2010 budget year is the following.