Monday, November 13, 2006

OK, let's talk about this for a minute....

What, you may ask? Well, it's the idea that we need a SECOND Juvenile Court Judge in Shelby County.

Now, Commissioner Deidre Malone is absolutely correct when she notes that the Legislature authorized the second position way back in 1967. However, I suspect this was because they had an idea that the person likely to be elected as Judge, Kenneth Turner, was NOT a practicing attorney. This would have been to create a new position in case anyone challenged the idea of a Judge who was not an attorney.

Again, I'm tickled beyond words that we have a majority on the County Commission, but I am concerned that we are spending our political capital unwisely. I voted for Veronica Coleman, too, but this does not necessarily mean we need to fill that extra position now, especially since we now HAVE a practicing attorney, Curtis Person, holding that office.

This space stands open for Commissioner Malone, or any of the other Democrats, to put up a post explaining WHY this is necessary.

We finally got control of the Commission, folks, let's be careful out there.

UPDATE, hat tip to SgtLarry: Apparently Smart City Memphis had been having a similar discussion, and newly elected Commissioners Mike Carpenter and Steve Mulroy explain the reasoning for a new judicial position, go read it HERE.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I created a listserve email today so people could send an email to all county commissioners. (It's on the blog and on the webpage )The budget and the commissioner's desire to write checks when there's no money in the bank prompted me to create this link. There's also a png file that I would love to see propagated all over Memphis regarding being 2 billion in debt. Thaddeus has it on his blog tonight and it's on mine too. Click here

With a debt of over TWO BILLION dollars, they commissioners need to start looking at ways to consolidate and cut costs, not expand. We also don't need to spend another 200 million on a new jail that would probably cost 300 million (if they say 200, it will be 300).

Steve Steffens said...

You will also note, I hope, that Chairman Ford appointed Commissioner Carpenter to chair the Committee to review this situation, reaching across the aisle in a show of bipartisanship!