Wharton Turns in 10 Names for Consolidation Commission
BILL DRIES | The Daily News
Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton Jr. has come up with 10 appointees to a metro charter commission and has sent the names to the Shelby County Commission for approval.
The commission will consider the appointments Wednesday in committee sessions. The full commission is scheduled to vote on the names later this month.
The nominees are:
•Millington Mayor Richard L. Hodges
•Former Collierville Mayor Linda Kerley
•County Commissioner J.W. Gibson of Memphis
•Julie Ellis, an attorney at Butler Snow PLLC
•Lou Etta Burkins, FedEx Express project engineer of unincorporated Shelby County
•Andre Fowlkes, Memphis Small Business Chamber executive director
•Billy Orgel, Tower Ventures developer, of Memphis.
•Chris Patterson, an attorney at Wiseman Bray PLLC of Germantown
•The?Rev??Randolph Meade Walker, pastor of Castalia Baptist Church
•Rufus Washington, retired U.S. Marine and president of Southeast Shelby County Coalition
The charter commission is to draft the proposed structure of a consolidated city and county government. The draft will then be taken to voters in Memphis and Shelby County outside of Memphis in a pair of referenda set for Nov. 2010.
The proposed charter must pass in each referendum to become the new structure of local government.
The consolidation charter would not have the effect of consolidating the six suburban municipalities outside Memphis into the proposed new consolidated government. But it would probably affect the delivery of services to Arlington, Bartlett, Collerville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington and from what is now Shelby County government.
The Memphis mayor has five appointments to the metro charter commission. But in approving the creation of the commission last month, the City Council also said it would not vote on appointees by the Memphis mayor until its Oct. 20 meeting. That means whoever wins the Oct. 15 election will make the appointments.
If Wharton wins the special election, he could make those five appointments as well as the 10 he’s forwarded to the County Commission. But Wharton has said he would not make all 15 appointments in that scenario.
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