Super District 9 encompasses roughly half the city, being made up of Districts 1, 2 and 5, and a small section of Districts 3 and 4. Three council positions are carved out of that swath and five people are trying to get voters to elect them to Position 2.

On Friday, Early Voting begins and will continue through Oct. 3. Candidates of Super District 9, Position 2 – as are the candidates for other races on the Oct. 8 Municipal Election ballot – are maneuvering to present themselves to as many voters as possible. That’s the context that drew Super District 9, Position 2 candidates to the Rotary Club of Memphis forum at the University Club on Tuesday.

Three of the candidates – Stephanie Gatewood, Paul Shaffer and Kenneth T. Whalum Jr. – were there for the opening bell. Lynn Moss arrived late, delayed, she said, by an emergency. Philip Spinosa did not show up.

Guided moderator Jackson Baker, the fast-moving forum yielded no fiery exchanges. And with the candidates allowed to see the questions in advance, there were no “gotcha” moments.

Fiscal solvency/

public needs

With no incumbent in the race, each candidate was asked what he/she would have advocated as the best means for maintaining a balance between fiscal solvency and public needs.

Shaffer, head of the electricians union, said a big part of the problem was the absence of a “real comprehensive long term plan” for our city government.” Going forward he advocates such a plan that would detail spending priorities and include a focus on transportation and economic development.

Whalum, pastor of The New Olivet Baptist Church and a former member of the Memphis City Schools board, and its successor, the Shelby County Schools board, said he would have followed a two-pronged approach. First, he would have advocated that every decision be made “with the children in mind first,” as a family would make decisions.

Secondly, said Whalum, he would have been guided by the state comptroller’s concerns about the city’s finances, including the aggressive use of PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) in recruiting businesses.

“If we are going to have to cut, let’s cut based on what the comptroller said he was concerned about. That would have gotten us beyond personalities and pet projects,” said Whalum.

Gatewood, a family and community engagement specialist for Shelby County Schools, also pitched the need for a comprehensive plan. She said budget conversations should not be limited to budget season and committed to eliminating what she said appears to be duplication of services by various offices.

Crime & safety

Gatewood pushed continued use of current resources, such as the crimestoppers and neighborhood watch programs, and advocated community policing, particularly citing models in Chicago and Denver. She then appealed to the business community to get involved in youth develop, particulary for those in the 15-24 age group

Whalum said the City Council really can’t legislate anything to reduce crime.

“One of the reasons crime is so prevalent is because of a poor educational structure. …Blight breeds crime. …Guess what the school board did? Close 19 inner city schools in the last two or three years, creating blight in the neighborhood thereby promoting an atmosphere for the increase in crime.the school board did? Close 19 inner city schools in the last two or three years, creating blight in the neighborhood thereby promoting an atmosphere for the increase in crime.

Saying it’s already too late for a generation of young people, Whalum said the community “must develop a sense of urgency. …Somebody has got to say stop closing schools in our community. Let’s improve the education in our community so we can stop (young people) from (seeing) crime as the only viable alternative to pay their cell phone bill. …”

Shaffer put the priority on making sure the police department is properly funded. He envisions “neighborhood police officers on the beat like we used to” and substations in the areas of town that need more attention.

More activities are needed for young people, particularly after school, said Shaffer, also calling for opening community centers and meaningful jobs for 16 to 24 year olds.

City’s role in

public education

If elected, Whalum said he would take a public stand to have the question of Memphis creating it’s own municipal school district put on the ballot as the area’s suburbs have done. “Memphians should get a do-over. Let that first vote be a mulligan. It was a bad, bad, bad mistake to give away our schools. …”

Citing the City Council’s subpoena power, Whalum said he would use it to initiate an officiofficficobe of the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program, zeroing in on why there have been countless PILOT recipients who have not kept their end of the bargain and why they have not been punished.

Shaffer put the emphasis on the City Council addressing early childhood development, saying “we really need to push as a council to reawaken the push for Pre-K for all children” as a ballot initiative, or find funding elsewhere.

Gatewood talked about the City Council embracing the role of a public advocate for bringing in agencies that help businesses and various groups come together to provide wrap around services for youth.

PILOTS, EDGE and

economic development

Gatewood said the Economic Development Growth Engine is giving way too much power and that the reins must be pulled back. That means more reporting and accountability.

Saying the City Council has the right and authority to “leverage companies that come to town,” Gatewood said she would request the companies provide mentoring/internships.

Shaffer said an economic development priority must be making sure area residents citizens are prepared for the jobs brought into the city. PILOTs are a fact of life that must be done in a responsible manner, he said, calling for an audit of existing PILOTs and an emphasis on making sure obligations are met.

Shaffer backed ensuring that youth can move into available jobs, if they choose not to attend college, and expanding programs that teach young people the basics such as preparing resumes.

Whalum reiterated his call for use of the City Council’s subpoena powers for an official inquiry into PILOTs. That includes, he said, what politicians consistently receive donations from PILOT recipients.

No right-minded person is against PILOTs as a tool for recruiting businesses, said Whalum. “But why on earth would we keep letting them come in, not hiring the people they say they are going to hire, not doing the community improvements they promise…?”

Arriving as the question was posed, Moss, a former small business owner who has been in the medical office management field since 1999, said that PILOTs – on the whole –are a good idea.

“Unfortunately, all of our PILOTs have not been managed well and …some cases were not projects that would benefit Memphians as a whole…I am for pilots when managed properly (and) sensible projects,” said Moss, adding a pitch for the need to lower the tax rate

Firmly anchored in the present, Tennessee State University President – and Memphis product – Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover takes a look back to her January 2013 start and peeks forward in a sit-down exclusive with the TSD.

“It’s an honor to have grown up in Memphis and then to attend TSU and then to come back as president. It’s such an awesome blessing and I don’t take that lightly. I don’t for any reason think that that is a given,” said Glover during an interview at The Peabody Hotel as the Southern Heritage Classic Weekend of activities unfolded.

“I know there are expectations. You asked if there was something the alumni expected. They demand accountability and rightly so. … I am enjoying it, embracing it,” she said, tipping her hat to a quality team of administrators.

Together, and with the support of alumni, the team has managed to increase enrollment, even as enrollment at the other five Tennessee Board of Regents universities stayed the same or declined. And it has done so against the challenge presented by the Tennessee Promise initiative, which offers two years of tuition-free community or technical college to Tennessee high school graduates beginning with the Class of high school graduates beginning with the Class of

Karanja A. Ajanaku: On a macro level, what do you see as the purpose of a university?

Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover: A university exists for more than one reason. It exists first to educate students, to impart the knowledge they will need to function in their daily lives in a professional arena. Then secondly, it is to improve the well being, the overall well-roundedness of our students. So education academically, as well as the mind academic functions. That’s what a university is for.

KAA: So coming down to the micro level and looking at Tennessee State, how well do you say you are doing?

Dr. Glover: We are doing an outstanding job of educating students. Over the years I can give you the names of TSU alums who have done well and made their marks on life. We continue to carry out our mission of serving a population that really needs us. We serve largely Tennessee students but we are open to all students who apply and meet the standards and criteria we have set for TSU and approved by our governing boards.

KAA: Coming in, you had something in your mind, like a baseball manager with a three to five year plan. A few years in, where do you see that you are relative to the plan that you came in with?

Dr. Glover: We are on track, maybe a little bit ahead of schedule. When I came, I had a five-point vision. I knew it would take three to five years. First and foremost was student progress, make sure students are progressing as speedily as necessary through the academic system. (And) to improve the customer service as it related to students. Students who go to TSU deserve the right and opportunity and support they need to graduate. And that is our mission. To get the students the proper amount of knowledge and understanding so that when they are deposited back into the larger community, the larger world, they will be able to function and excel.

KAA: So you had plan and you come in. Did you find anything that you didn’t expect and you said, “Wow, I’ve got to adjust my plan?ot to adjust my plan?

Dr. Glover: There were some things that caught me off guard. The quietness of the faculty and staff, initially there was not much communication. I’m not sure if there was some reason perhaps that they thought they might be penalized for speaking with the president, for being open and candid. So I wanted to make sure that they understood that I am here because the students are here. Whatever it takes to advance the students, I want to hear that. I want to know if there is an issue that has come up obstructing the path. We want to be open, honest and transparent. There are no hidden agendas when it comes to this administration. We are totally focused on students and making sure that students get a better life when they graduate. And the professional world they are looking for, we make sure they are ready for that.

The second amazement to me …one of the rules that we have in Tennessee is that as you grow and need new buildings, somehow TSU is responsible for 25 percent of that. That was a shocker. I’ve never been in a system where the actual administration was responsible for a fourth of the funding of a facility. That was quite new, but again, once I learned the rules, I have to function within those rules and we function very well within those rules.

KAA: You get a lot of Memphis students historically. They have been trying to raise the standards here. I am curious as to what (caliber) you are receiving and what, if anything, special you have to do to help students that are sort of academically challenged.

Dr. Glover: Actually, Memphis students are no different from students across the country that we admit. We have excellent students from Memphis and we have some others who have some challenges. We want to make sure that we serve the students and service the students and meet their needs where they are. Everybody is not cut out to be an engineer major or a CPA. On the other hand, they might be cut out to be a music major. We help students find their proper pursuit and then move in that direction.

KAA: Are there any new programs or initiatives that you are bringing on board this year, or soon?

Dr. Glover: Yes. We know that STEM and health care, those two areas, are probably hottest in the academic arena, in the professional arena…. So we combined the life and physical sciences – biology, chemistry, math, physics – so we could have a better focus on the STEM areas and keep those students who are really STEM oriented and make sure that we provide an education for them that is conducive to what they need…We have engineering by itself and put the others together.

KAA: We ran a story in our newspaper this week where a couple of HBCU graduates were really making a plea for alumni to not forgot the schools and to step up, particularly from a financial standpoint. What are you experiencing with your alumni?

Dr. Marcia Bowden and her husband, Ira Marche, are to be in court on Sept. 16 to answer charges related to a Southaven, Miss. traffic stop that degenerated into an experience – including jail – that the Memphis doctor says has left her “completely undone.”

Bowden told The New Tri-State Defender (TSD) on Friday that she had not been at work for the last couple of days since the Labor Day incident. “I just had to cancel my patients for the rest of the week. I just couldn’t concentrate.”

The encounter began about 4 p.m. on Sept. 7 on Church Rd. in Southaven. The TSD has been in pursuit of the Southaven Police Department’s account of the incident since learning of it on Wednesday evening.

On Friday (Sept. 11), The TSD received an email from the Southaven Police Department regarding the arrest of Bowden and Marche. The email explained the process for requesting and receiving arrest records, along with a request form, which the TSD faxed back to Southaven Police Friday afternoon. When asked how fast such requests are turned around, a reporter was informed that all such requests must be approved by Southaven Police Chief Tom Long.

The TSD reached out to Chief Long and Deputy Chief Steve Pirtle several times on Friday. A spokesperson said Long and several senior police administrators were out of the office attending the funeral of a fellow police officer who recently died of cancer.

Later Friday afternoon, contact was made with Deputy Chief Pirtle, who declined to comment specifically on the case. Pirtle said a request for the police report must be reviewed and approved by the city attorney before it could be released to the TSD. That review is expected next week.

In an account the TSD published Thursday, Dr. Bowden, a 2008 TSD Women of Excellence honoree, said she and her husband were traveling along Church Rd. in his Jaguar when a motorcycle officer pulled them over. Marche was driving and he was speeding, Bowden said in her written account to the TSD.

What happened next will likely be contested. From Bowden’s account, neither she nor her husband had their licenses readily available. Dr. Bowden said the couple had been out to an event the night before and her husband’s license was in his tuxedo jacket. Dr. Bowden said she thought her license was in the purse she was carrying but she still has not found it.

According to Bowden, the exchanges that ensued after they were pulled over, particularly with a second officer called to the scene, had her fearful.

“I looked out of the door (and) Officer Delany had his hand on the trigger of his revolver and had it lifted in the holster on his right hip,” her account to the TSD read. “I was terrified that he would shoot my husband in the back. ‘I said officers don’t shoot us, we are law abiding citizens….PLEASE, you do not have to take your gun out, I am afraid.’”

Bowden, who has Asthma, was treated at a hospital while in police custody after complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath. Later she was jailed and released.

The charges?

“I was charged with failure to obey (an officer) and disturbing the peace,” said Bowden on Friday. The charges against her husband involve the use of profane language, she said.

Marche on Saturday afternoon said he was charged with disorderly conduct and speeding. He was not charged with driving without a license.

On Monday, Bowden and Marche are scheduled meet with an attorney in preparation for the court appearance.

“I know this is what happens to our people every single day. To hear about it is so very different from experiencing it,” she said during Friday’s conversation with the TSD.

“It puts me in a place that I can hardly tolerate. I remember my father telling me a story about his father – and this would be in the 1940s – who was accused of something and the sheriff just burst into their house without any warrant, without any kind of information and searched their home when he was a 4-year-old kid.

Bowden said her father was in his 70s when he was telling her the story.

“His heartbreak was palpable. They put his father on the chain gang. …I would look at the look on his face and I was sympathetic, but empathy is a different thing.

“It was such a different day in that time,” said Bowden, “but the situation is exactly the same. We haven’t made any progress in our nation. I love America; I love being an American. But what is happening in our country, we’ve got to address!”

Marche on Saturday said he and his wife are appreciative and humbled by an outpouring of community support.

A pipeline connects West Memphis-area high schools with Arkansas State University/Mid-South and through it flows young people who get a head start on graduating from college as qualified technical workers.

The U.S. Department of Labor and the Southern Regional Education Board consider the ASU Mid South dual enrollment program a success model. That helps explain why approximately 51 Shelby County School Technical Career teachers toured the college on Friday during District Learning Day. They were there to soak up what they could about the program that regularly provides high school students with 25 to 30 college credits they can use on their transcripts by the time they graduate high school.

An effort is underway to get a similar program going in Shelby County. The push partners Shelby County Schools (SCS) and area colleges with the Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce (GMACW). SCS Supt Dorsey Hopson reached out to the GMACW to facilitate Friday’s four-hour tour.

Dr. Glen Fenter, CEO of GMACW and former ASU Mid-South president, gave a presentation to the instructors.

“When you talk to some of these instructors, you can see they’re very excited about the potential this represents for their students,” said Fenter.

“It’s a tremendous step forward in helping us create the vision of what we believe to be an important part of our work at the Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce, which is to create a steady pipeline of students coming out of our K-12 institutions that have a skill set ready to hit the workforce and put them in a position to create career opportunities.”

At the same time, the GMACW vision includes putting the business community in “a set of circumstances where they see that there are programs designed to meet their needs, and (that) they’ll have access to a steady stream of workers who are skilled and prepared in an unprecedented manner coming out of our school system,” said Fenter.

Talking to the instructors, Fenter said research shows that only 11 percent of employers believe that college graduates have the skills needed by employers.

And, he said, obtaining a good job, one capable of providing a family-sustaining wage, has become the ultimate standard for educational adequacy.

Nobody who still supports besmirched former housing and community development agencies mainstay Robert Lipscomb – and there are many – condones sexual misconduct with a minor. So let’s not get things twisted they are saying.

No charges have been filed against Lipscomb, who has resigned as director of the City of Memphis’ Housing and Community Development division and stepped away from the Memphis Housing Authority, where he long had been the executive director. There are, however, disturbing allegations, both in the nature of the accusations and the number.

Information from Mayor A C Wharton Jr.’s office details that since the investigation began August 21, nine individuals have made similar allegations that are currently under investigation by the Memphis Police Department.

For many who “know” Lipscomb, this matter goes beyond surprise. It’s painful to them on a gut level. In part, that is because the bond formed with the Lipscomb known by them is directly and/or indirectly associated with making sure the children of Memphis, particularly, its African-American children, are safe, protected and increasingly provided with the opportunity to be their best selves.

It’s painful, they say, because the Lipscomb who exists beyond being the most visible public force for housing and development for decades has shown time and again that he is a human being who truly cares about others. So much so that time and again he has pulled from his own pockets to help the needy, off the record, outside of the limelight, with no request for compensation or recognition.

“He reached in his own pocket when I called him to help me with assisting the mother of Michael Orr, who the film “The Blindside” was about,” said state Rep. Barbara Cooper (District 86). He reached in his own pocket to help out without hesitation.”

It’s painful, they say, because if the allegations were to prove true, there likely are a number of people in need of help and who have needed it for a long time. That would mean Lipscomb among them.

And it’s painful, they say, because it is difficult in a media-saturated world to balance waiting for the investigation to yield its findings and jumping to conclusions. Speculation is rampant. Some openly wonder if the yet-undetected hand of election-year politics is at play.

“It is a terrible accusation. But even if it is true, why did they make a public spectacle of this. This could have been done privately,” said Cooper. “It makes you wonder if there is a motive behind this. I cannot believe he did something like this, but this was definitely manipulated. Robert has been too honorable for this type of treatment.”

Lipscomb’s leadership at HCD goes back to 1992. He has been involved in major development projects for the past 20 years. That string started to unravel last Friday when a call came into the mayor’s office.

At Monday’s news conference, Wharton said a 26-year-old man alleged that “he had a sexual relationship with Director Lipscomb when he, the complainant, was 16.”