This is fucked up right here.
Channel 5 did some research and made a rather interesting discovery. Thaddeus Matthews could be successful in getting the recall of Willie Herenton on the ballot, and the voters of the City of Memphis could recall him. However, in spite of that, it is still possible that the City Council, after the initial 20-day term of Council chair Tajuan Stout-Mitchell, could REAPPOINT Herenton. For a Councilperson to accept the appointment, they would have to resign their seat.
Yes, you read that right. It is theoretically possible that, even if all the pieces fell into place and the voters of our city told him to take a hike, he could be reappointed.
Is that likely? Well, I can think of at least four probable NO votes on the council (and not all of them are white by any means), but you would need SEVEN.
My head is spinning......
3 comments:
It's not the end of the world if the city council reappoints Herenton. I think he would have been incredibly damaged and the city council would have serious questions to answer. There's a decent chance that would galvanize the Herenton opposition for the 2007 election. Another aspect to think about would be how much damage that would do to the city itself. The opinion of the city and its residents would fall even more. Corruption would appear so endemic that there is no hope. People would leave the city even faster than they already are.
Plus why would the city council want Herenton back. How many council members want to run for mayor themselves. It would be to their benefit to get rid of Herenton for their individual self-interest and for the institutional interest of the council. After being beaten into submission by Herenton all these years, the council would be in a position name a weak interim mayor and re-establish its authority. I'm not sweating the council reappointing Herenton.
if the recall goes through, there should be a plan being made right now to make sure that every citizen listed on the petition gets a sheet of paper with the number, email address of every council member so that the citizens can make sure that if herenton is re-instated by them, they will never hold another office in this town.
This thing could give the people a lot of power. I am of the opinion that the local government is run by people who think they are in charge instead of thinking the truth which is they work for us and we call the shots.
This statement by Wade is a calculated tactic. The lawyers of Herenton knew this is a theoretical possibility at least a couple weeks ago. They waited to say it until they saw how the recall started. With all the free media coverage and the high number of signatures, the possiblity was made known in order to try to slow the recall momentum. If we are stil tlking about this by Thursday, than it was effective, but if the story ends today, the tactic didn't work.
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