A City Council meeting to determine whether Memphis Mayor Willie
Herenton is planning to resign ended in confusion with nothing
accomplished.
A sneak peek of the mayor on the elevator (in the middle of the photo at left) did nothing to calm the unrest.The executive session was designed as the forum for the council to approve the mayor's vacancy either on Friday or July 30, the five-term mayor's second resignation date.
But members of the City Council were not sure whether Herenton was actually going to resign at all, after the director of human resources said she received a letter from Herenton asking her to rescind all letters of intention to resign related to his pension.
Some council members said they still wanted to declare the mayor's office vacant July 30, while others said that would be premature.
The meeting ended when councilman Harold Collins suggested that they couldn't take a vote without knowing whether Herenton was resigning on July 30 or not at all.
"I submit to you that if we get the mayor or his second, because he doesn't have a CAO at the moment, to tell us what this means, then we could take some action today," Collins said. "Otherwise I don't feel comfortable taking action."
City Atty. Elbert Jefferson left the meeting to presumably get some definitive answers.
He was followed by a swarm of reporters, who lingered in the hallway unsure of what was going on.
A secret meeting between Jefferson, human resources director Lorene Essex and another city attorney in the hallway did nothing to quell the confusion.
Jefferson then left reportedly to prepare a statement.
And it was at that moment that the elevator doors swung open, showing a stunned-looking mayor, who wouldn't provide any comment to the cameras and tape recorders waving in his face.
"Are you going to retire?" barked one TV reporter.
"People want to know if you're going to retire," said another.
"I don't want to talk to you right now," Herenton said. "Have a good day."
"Why don't you want to tell anything to the citizens?" another reporter said.
"I'm not talking to the citizens right now," Herenton said.
Everyone is still sitting around the hallway waiting for Jefferson to come back with some answers.
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