Still anticipating the resignation of Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, a transition team formed under City Council chairman Myron Lowery (below, after Herenton's June 25 resignation announcement) is already planning an agenda for their 90 days in office.
When Lowery is sworn in as mayor pro tem on Friday - provided Willie
Herenton resigns as planned - the Lowery transition team's main goal
will be to keep services running, said team member Jack Sammons, a
former councilman and Lowery's presumptive chief administrative officer."Of utmost importance is, if you call 9-1-1 someone answers the phone; that garbage gets picked up," Sammons said.
Meanwhile, Lowery is expected to meet with Herenton this afternoon to discuss the transition.
Sammons said the five-member team, headed by City Councilman Bill Boyd, has been flooded with calls and e-mails from constituents with ideas and requests for the interim administration.
Realistically 90 days isn't enough time to cure all of the city's ills, including crime, Sammons said, but the transition team is hoping to coordinate a city cleanup.
"We won't cure cancer and we won't bring peace to the Middle East, but we would like to do some things that will have a discernible effect on the community and cleaning up the streets is a fairly routine matter," Sammons said.
Last week Lowery weathered some heat from Herenton's supporters who said he was presumptuous to form a transition team before actually being sworn in as interim mayor. Sammons said the team isn't paying attention.
"In the game of politics, I just call that noise," he said.
This isn't the first time Sammons will have a "front row seat" in a mayoral transition.
In 1982, Wyeth Chandler resigned to take a judgeship and councilman J.O. Patterson Jr. replaced him to become the city's first black mayor. Under Patterson, Sammons was appointed to serve on the Mid-South Coliseum board.
While Sammons said Memphis was a different time and era back then, he recalls the CAO at the time, Wallace Madewell, worked hard to ensure a seamless transition of services. "He did that well," Sammons said.
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