The Metro Charter Commission has a “project manager” to help meet its tight deadline for a consolidation charter proposal.

The concept is a new one to government undertakings. But at its Thursday meeting, the group agreed to make Lou Etta Burkins, a project manager at FedEx Express, its project manager. The move was suggested by commission Chair Julie Ellis and adopted by the group with no objections.

Meanwhile, Millington Mayor Richard Hodges questioned whether an attempt to consolidate the Memphis and Shelby County fire departments that reached a critical point earlier this year is encroaching on the charter group’s work.

“Are we not getting ahead of the game right now – talking about joining forces with Memphis?” Hodges asked. “If they’ve got five or six groups like that to automatically do it before we’re even through with this, it’s over. … If things like that start happening, then where is the opinion of the people?”

Two sides become one

The fire services talks between former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton and A C Wharton Jr., who was then Shelby County mayor, resulted in a written interlocal agreement that Wharton agreed to. However, Herenton – the most vocal elected official in favor of government consolidation for the last 15 years – refused to sign off.

Herenton resigned at the end of July. City Council Chairman Myron Lowery became Memphis mayor pro tempore and took a long look at the proposal. But he left office in October without signing off on it either.

Wharton took office as Memphis mayor and told The Daily News shortly after taking the oath of office, “I’m in the unique position of having known what I was willing to do on the county side. Now I know what I’m willing to do on the city side. So, I can probably just sign that contract with myself.”

That still hasn’t happened.

It’s not as simple as combining the two fire departments to cover just the city of Memphis and the unincorporated areas of Shelby County. Fire fees paid by homeowners in the unincorporated areas are also paid by Lakeland residents. The town relies on the county fire department for its fire protection. The Millington Fire Department provides fire coverage for a part of unincorporated northern Shelby County and even has a fire station there, outside its city limits and its annexation reserve area. Millington receives fire fees for providing the service.

“We’ve been working very hard – the county has – in the last few years to get things like that that make better sense for us not to travel 18 miles when another department can do it in three (miles),” said Kelly Rayne, an assistant to interim Shelby County Mayor Joyce Avery who also worked as an assistant to Wharton.

“But consolidation changes all that, possibly,” Hodges replied.

Timelines and dates

Rayne said interlocal agreements are usually temporary solutions whose longevity depends greatly on the individuals in the mayors’ offices who make the deals.

The charter group has a tight timeline. Their charter draft is due by Aug. 10 under terms of state law and probably a week or so earlier to be presented to the Shelby County Commission and the Memphis City Council.

The proposal will be voted on in a pair of referenda – one inside Memphis and the other in the county outside of Memphis – on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Working backward from the Aug. 10 deadline, Burkins came up with a timeline that puts the start of charter recommendations in March and developing draft language for charter provisions by the end of April. Taking the draft language to the public for reaction and input would be in May. That would be followed by the more precise language and final form of the charter in June with a commission vote on the precise wording and scope of the charter in July.

The timeline is tentative. The August deadline and November ballot date are not.

The body already has started to gather information about consolidated or metro governments in Nashville, Jacksonville, Fla., Louisville, Ky., and Indianapolis.

And at its meeting last week, heads of five task forces were chosen to gather further information on specific areas of governance.

Richard Smith, a FedEx executive and son of FedEx founder Fred Smith, will head the transportation and utilities task force.

Carmen Sandoval, an administrative director at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, will head the health and human services task force.

Developer Billy Orgel will take the economic development task force.

Rufus Washington will head the public safety group.

And attorney Chris Patterson will oversee the judicial and legal task force.

Each task force will include expertise and input from citizens not on the charter commission in making its recommendations due by late February.

The group’s next meeting is Dec. 17 at the Shelby County Administration Building.