County voters cut out of mayoral selection process

One question raised by this vote to appoint a county mayor to finish the final year of A C Wharton's final term is whether the Shelby County Charter sufficiently deals with vacancies. The amended county charter says that if the county mayor's office becomes vacant, the Commission Chairman (in this case, Joyce Avery) becomes acting mayor, and the Commission is required to appoint an interim within 45 days of the acting mayor's oath of office. That interim is to serve "until a successor is elected and qualified at the next countywide election allowed by the state election laws."
 
So now we have a situation in which the county's 600,000-plus registered voters have no direct say in choosing a mayor who will serve for nine months -- presiding over an entire budget process, trying to save The Regional Medical Center at Memphis, serving as figurehead as a Metro charter commission considers consolidation. There is no special election provision, as there is with the City of Memphis (hat tip to Carol Chumney, who reminded us several times during the special election campaign that she presented the idea to the City Charter Commission to change the succession process in case Willie Herenton resigned). Read literally, it is possible for an appointed county mayor to serve for two full years without being answerable to voters (if, for instance, an elected county mayor resigned a month before a regularly scheduled county-wide election).

Commissioner Steve Mulroy said he and Commissioner George Flinn both pushed to include a special election provision, but it was ultimately decided that it would not be worth the cost of special elections.

"We were unsuccessful in getting nine votes," said Mulroy, a University of Memphis law professor who is an expert on election law and voting rights. "I would be open to that though I have to acknowledge the counter argyment is that special elections are expensive and cumbersome and not worth the trouble for a few months. And you usually have an abysmal turnout so that a tiny, tiny percentage of the electorate is deciding it."

Joe Ford, one of the two leading candidates in today's 4 p.m. selection process (along with J.W. Gibson II), believes now it was a mistake not to take into account a situation where an interim mayor would serve for more than six months. He and Gibson both are claiming that various political alliances and ambitions among their colleagues are determining the vote as much as the central question of who is most qualified to serve as mayor.

"We probably made a mistake when we rewrote the charter," Ford said. "If we could revisit it, we probably would revisit it."

Yet, considering that the City of Memphis special election got only 25 percent turnout, if a countywide election were being held on, say, Dec. 1, can you imagine the election fatigue among voters?