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Mayor Strickland gives an ‘Amen’ to opportunity

“We are in intense times ripe with opportunity.”

The observation was offered by one of the many people musing about “Where do we go from here?” The context, of course, is the 50th commemoration of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

What one makes of the quoted observation is an indicator of whether the person is nearer the half-full or half-empty state of mind about Memphis. Asked for his reflection on the observation, Mayor Jim Strickland said, “Amen!”

“I think Memphis is a city of opportunity. We created a website called opportunitymemphis.com. There are so many opportunities currently existing that most people are not even aware exists. And, I think we can make more opportunities.”

Amid that view is a public pronouncement by members of AFSCME Local 1733, which represents sanitation division workers. On Feb. 1, at a wreath-laying ceremony marking 50 years since sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker were crushed to death inside of their trucks’ garbage barrel, Keith Johnson, a union representative, told the crowd that sanitation workers still are being treated in a manner similar to 50 years ago.

The tragic fate of Cole and Walker sparked the sanitation workers strike. Strickland was in the crowd when the comparison to 68 was made.

“I respectfully disagree,” Strickland said in an interview with The New Tri-State Defender this week. “In ’68, their wages were poverty level and they had no benefits and no retirement. Right now, they’re all making a livable wage. Full-time employees in fact make over that, over $15 an hour. They have really good health insurance….

“And for the first time ever, public works employees now have a retirement system equal to other city employees because we created that supplemental plan last year.”

Union reps have expressed fears about sanitation services being privatized and concern about loss of incentive pay.

Strickland said he has heard the privatization talk.

“There is no plan to privatize and we’ve given no indication that we are. …”

Noting that roughly 20 percent of the city is serviced by a private contractor, he said, “There is no plan to grow that and we’ve not indicated any plan.”

The incentive pay provision, as Strickland explained it, once allowed workers in a defined group to leave for the day if they completed their route by 11 a.m. Through negotiation that provision was altered to apply to groups or workers in a defined area being allowed to leave for the day if finished before 11 a.m., he said.

As far as he knows, there is no reason to fear that incentive pay provision being  done away with.

In a ranging interview, Strickland was asked what criticism about him is most accurate.

“We haven’t solved the number one complaint we get and that actually involves public works, the trash issue. That is all the garbage or yard waste that is outside the can. The can is picked up every week and thanks to our great employees we are 99.5 percent accurate on that. It’s mostly yard waste that is outside the can. Our service agreement is (pickup) every 21 days and nobody knows that. That’s one challenge. And the second challenge is we don’t always do it in 21 days. The challenge is meeting our public’s demands. They want it picked up every week, which would require a significant increase in the solid waste fee, up to $10 per month.”

What would he say is the one thing that he has done that most affects the African-American community on the positive?

“Giving better service, answering 911 calls on time, increasing the MWBE (minority, women, business enterprise) spend, running a more efficient government, paving more streets, filling more potholes. I’ve been to neighborhood meetings in black and white neighborhoods alike…the number two thing I get complimented for is paving streets.”

Leading the way on the MWBE spend is huge, said Strickland.

“We increased it from 12 percent to 21 percent.  The cities that do the best are at about 30 percent, Chicago and Atlanta. So we’ve got room to improve. I think we’ve got the right lady in charge to get us there.

And building wealth is important, he said.

“(Former City Councilman) Fred Davis, 25 years ago, at a Kiwanis meeting told me that only one percent of our collective business (and that’s more than city government) goes to African-American-owned businesses. Unfortunately, we are still at the 1 percent after 25 years,” he said.

“We have to do better internally, lead the way, get the private sector to do better. And then we have to diversify the businesses owned by African Americans. There are a huge number of contracts I sign that have zero percent assigned to them because there is no minority-owned or women-owned business in the sphere….”

As for the existing opportunities, Strickland noted that there are 15,000 jobs in this area that are not filled; and he pointed to free workforce development, emphasizing that Tennessee is the only state in the union to have free community college and tech school for those who do not already have a degree.

On a smaller scale, he noted a partnership with United Way for free income tax preparation, extensive programming at community center and libraries that people don’t know about, and the workforce development network.

As for creating more opportunities, he talked about the importance of universal, needs-based pre-K.

“I think we started the ball rolling and I think within the next couple of months we will lock that in. Not only will we have $17 million in government spend to make universal pre-K a reality, but that is going to be matched by $40 million in private sector money for wraparound services.”

Does he  see underlying barriers? And how would he measure his outreach to the corporate community to help in such areas?

“I think there are underlying barriers. One we touched on, communication, knowledge that those (opportunities exist.) I think another underlying barrier to workforce development is literacy. Twenty percent of third graders read at third grade level.  I think the state considers about 10 percent of our high school graduates as college ready. Those are clarion calls to correction. We collectively have got to move that figure up….”

Does he feel that he is pushing as far as he can with the private sector?

“No, no, no. We can always do better. I think we have made some progress. One example of where we need more progress, the private sector needs to help step up and provide more summer jobs for our young people.  We are going to shortly announce an effort in that regard….”

It was suggested to Strickland, that policy notwithstanding, there has to be a tone for change and that people look to the mayor to set that kind of tone. He was asked whether he is sensitive to that.

“Yeah, and I think we have succeeded. The response I get in the community, all over the city, black, white areas, Hispanics, is enthusiastic and responsive because they like better service and they like a mayor who listens. I was elected on a platform of change and we are making change. We’ve increased the MATA operating budget by 11 percent and we need a lot more than that…

“We have the most diverse administration, ever…black, white, male, female. Two-thirds of my senior leadership team is African American. I think our message of change has been responsive…”

Acknowledging that some critics would say that he is not on the same wavelength with them rhetorically, he said.

“ I am not a guy of rhetoric. I am a guy of action.”

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