MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After many new appointments were announced last week, this week mayor-elect Jim Strickland got an earful from several committees about how and what need to be the priorities of his new administration.
Did this new type of citizen engagement have the effect Strickland was hoping for?
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It's a crucial year ahead for the city of Memphis.
Mayor Jim Strickland joins the Informed Sources to discuss the year ahead in his first public sit-down TV interview.
He was just sworn in Jan. 1 to lead the city for the next four years.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Mayors Jim Strickland and Mark Luttrell put together a so called wish list of things they want from Nashville in the upcoming year.
There's everything from public safety to education reform.
The duo said it was time for the city and county to get its fair due from the state, and that meant providing state legislators with an outline of some of Memphis' and Shelby County's joint priorities for state investment and upcoming legislation.
"They're the ones who make the decision, pass the law, the budget," Jim Strickland told WREG.
Speaking at the Pink Palace on Monday, Strickland said many of the issues were things initially discussed by former Memphis Mayor A C Wharton and Shelby County Mayor Luttrell.
When asked what was something that was particularly important to him, he said he really wanted to push for harsher sentences for domestic violence offenders.
"Domestic violence is a huge issue across the country, across the state. It's a large portion of our crimes and we can better prevent it."
The mayors encouraged lawmakers to make a third domestic violence crime a felony, rather than a misdemeanor.
"Right now if someone is convicted of domestic violence its a misdemeanor the first time, the third time, the sixth time."
They also want it to be easier for victims to be able to get orders of protection.
Another issue only Strickland addressed was something WREG has been pushing for answers more answers about - body cameras for Memphis Police Officers.
"After my first day on the job I've learned we have a long way to go before implementing body cameras," he said.
He said legalities involving children and how that information is shared needs to be looked into.
"Obviously children are involved or have a lot of encounters with police."
He also said he plans to ask the state for money to help with the storage of video, which he said is extremely costly.
"This would be money to help store and retrieve information because it helps with state prosecutions."
He couldn't say how much money will be needed or when we should expect to see the cameras fully deployed on the streets.
It's only his first week in office, but already Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is tackling some of the issues we've been hearing a lot about including MPD body cameras and your safety.
The mayor joined us on Live at 9 Thursday to talk about that and much more.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It was a very busy first week for Memphis' new mayor, Jim Strickland.
The week culminated with the unexpected announcement from Police Director Toney Armstrong that he's leaving sooner than expected. The mayor's team also learned it may have a billion-dollar fight on its hands over retiree benefits for teachers with the old city school system, and he's taking some heat about how much he's paying his top directors.
The Informed Sources discuss all this and more.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Two of Memphis and Shelby County's top officials will be in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for President Obama's State of the Union address.
Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell will be a guest in the first lady's box, and newly elected Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is going as a guest of Congressman Steve Cohen.
Luttrell said he's excited to not just attend the State of the Union address but to represent an issue that Obama has made a priority for his final year of office, criminal justice reform.
"I feel very honored to be invited to represent this particular interest."
Criminal justice reform is something Luttrell has been involved in for years. As a former warden and Shelby County sheriff, he's built federal partnerships, which also took him to D.C. in September. The Republican leader met the Democratic president then.
When WREG brought up their different parties, he said his invitation is definitely noteworthy.
"There seems to be so few things going on in Washington where you can build bipartisan support. This is an area where you can build bipartisan support."
Luttrell said there are several reasons why Shelby County is getting attention from the White House, including special courts, juvenile justice programs and workforce re-entry programs.
"We're really the only large county in Tennessee that has a strong re-entry program from people transitioning from prisons back into the world of work," he explained.
Luttrell said Shelby County specialty courts that have recently been created like veterans, drug, and mental health courts are also being looked at as cost effective and alternatives to incarceration.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland also announced on his Facebook that he would be going and plans to meet with Sen. Bob Corker and Sen. Lamar Alexander.
Luttrell said he plans to accompany Strickland in meeting some lawmakers before the State of the Union speech to talk about the needs for the people in our area — everything from transportation to mental health issues, infrastructure, concerns on roads.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Mayor Jim Strickland said he was just “days away” from announcing an interim police director.
The new mayor also told WREG his office is just days away from entering into a contract with a search firm who will help them find a permanent police director.
Their goal, he said, was to have someone selected in the next six months.
The news comes just days after Armstrong announced he would be stepping down from the position to take the head security job at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Armstrong’s retirement was no surprise as he had already enrolled in the DROP program.
He was originally set to retire in 2017.
His last day on the job will be January 31.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Mayor Jim Strickland and the City of Memphis Chief Operating Officer Doug McGowen met Tuesday with the president and CEO of the Memphis Zoo, Chuck Brady, and the executive director of the Overton Park Conservancy, Tina Sullivan.
They met to discuss zoo parking in light of the zoo’s controversial removal of 27 trees from the Greensward area of Overton Park.
Sullivan said the trees were removed without their permission by the zoo and they’re taking action.
A spokesperson with the zoo said the trees were removed for parking space, especially on days when the zoo is extremely busy.
In the Tuesday meeting, Strickland asked the zoo and OPC to agree to a mediation process. Each will discuss the matter with its board and respond later this week.
For now, the Greensward will continue to be used as an overflow parking space.
The City of Memphis has commissioned a parking study for the park to help figure out a long-term solution.
MEMPHIS, Tenn-- To say the least, it wasn't a pretty picture of Memphis.
Trash illegally dumped not far away from the busy intersection of Winchester and Ridgeway in the Hickory Hill area made for an eyesore.
A.J. Kelly, who lives in Memphis, told WREG he's bothered by just how bad the problem has gotten.
"I think Memphis could be a lot better. It's dirty down here. I think it should be cleaned up and everything," Kelly said.
It was hard to miss as city work crews used heavy equipment try to remove tons of garbage.
It was all in response to the outcry of people wanting areas such as this one cleaned up.
City Councilman Berlin Boyd appeared on WREG's Live at 9 to talk about efforts to reduce blight.
"I think once we tighten up on legislation to address that issue, we will have a full way and initiatives of fighting our blight in our city," he said.
While he's looking to the law, others have taken to the streets to get things cleaned up.
Memphians gathered together to fight blight in what's being called Bluff City Snapshot Initiative.
To help fight blight, volunteers used cell phone apps to keep track of which properties needed to be cleaned up.
City leaders will soon begin reviewing data collected on more than 200,000 parcels of land.
"We have to figure out where it is, the severity of it and when can we look to put our resources because we have limited resources," said the Memphis Public Works Director Robert Knecht.
"Cleaning up this city and cleaning up the trash, cleaning up the blight is very important to me. That's why we wanted to jump on this in the first 30 days. We need to measure where we are and then work on cleaning it up" Mayor Jim Strickland added.
It's a clean up plan that could lead to a more picturesque view of Memphis and one with less blight.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tuesday was a show-and-tell of sorts for the Memphis City Council as a member of the Memphis Police Department showed how police body cameras will be worn.
City Council members wanted to know why the cameras are taking so long to hit the streets.
"I hope a lack of money is not a reason we can't do particular things. Go ahead and get this done," City Councilman Edmund Ford said.
Police likened the process to putting a man on the moon. It's a lot of work.
Right now only 150 MPD cars have cameras, and only three officers are wearing them for field testing. That has already produced 22,000 videos.
"For every hour of video, it can take up to three hours to process, review and redact," Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said.
It's why the city said it has to hire 10 new video analysts who can also handle video requests to see the footage. That doesn't even include what the District Attorney will need.
Police did give some new details on how the cameras will operate. In-car cameras come on when a car speed reaches 75 miles per hour or when a blue light is turned on.
The video will be saved for 90 days for traffic stops and longer for certain other offenses.
Video will be uploaded to a service provided by the company that sold the city the cameras.
"What's it gonna cost to store the video? At a minimum for five years, its $4.1 million total, not per year," said Strickland.
The big question in the room: When do police turn off the cameras?
"What will the policy be about turning cameras on and off during their work?" Memphis City Councilwoman Patrice Robinson asked.
"We know there are gonna be some circumstances where an officer is worried more about safety than popping that camera on. This is a work in progress," said Police Director Mike Rallings.
Investigators on the scene can also order cameras to be turned off, like in the recent deadly police shooting.
Police will start expanding body cam testing to a shift of officers at the Crump Police Station and begin adding more car cameras each year.
They said slow progress doesn't mean a lack of commitment.
"We are gonna do it. We are going to get it done and be transparent about the whole process," Strickland said.
In two weeks, Strickland will take to the City Council a fee proposal, staffing proposal and camera review policy.
Police said they do have possession of 1,700 cameras right now that are sitting in storage at the Airways Police Precinct.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland says he is behind his police force and crime is top on his agenda as the city's new leader.
When WREG tried to get him to comment on the latest string of crime, another series of rapes, the Mayor turned his back on our cameras and walked off.
The Mayor ran on a platform of fighting crime, but his Communications Director Ursula Madden told us he can't comment on every police incident.
Is a possible 'series' of rapes an everyday crime?
Police thought it was serious enough to put out a warning.
"We saw some similarities, some incidents. We wanted to get it out to the public in case there is some information that someone had that we could use," said Interim Police Director Michael Rallings.
Police said these recent cases, like the apartment rapes they finally connected last year, included both robberies and sexual assaults.
"There may be two individuals. We are not sure. We see similarities in one group of crimes. Now we see similarities in the group we put out yesterday," said Deputy Director Mike Ryall.
This time instead of being attacked in their homes, women were assaulted while going to their cars.
In at least one case the female was driven to a secluded area and attacked.
The description of the attacker and the getaway car were similar in five different crimes.
One happened last September while the latest was just two days ago.
"It does seem to be random attacks in different parts of the city. Not any particular locale," said Ryall.
So at a time when many women worry if they are safe anywhere and if police are taking sexual assaults seriously, police released the following statement:
"We are putting it out to you letting the public know. I think that's the big step in any precaution is letting the public know. When you have a hot camera, a hot mic you can get to 600,000 people real fast."
So until the police decide to tell us exactly where "all" the attacks happened and how they are preventing them and getting the rapist behind bars, your best bet for safety may be policing yourself, and being aware of what's around you.
The suspect police are looking for is 25- to 30-years-old, 6 feet tall with a fade hairstyle.
He was in a red or maroon Toyota Camry with tinted windows.
Call Crime Stoppers at (901) 528-CASH if you have information.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- City Hall may have been closed, but Monday morning Mayor Jim Strickland was on the job talking city contracts.
"It is shameful that only about 1 percent of business receipts in our city, according to a recent study, went to businesses owned by minorities or women," Strickland said.
So he has hired Joann Massey as the new director of Minority and Women-Owned Business Development.
With 15 years of consulting under her belt, she will focus on getting more women and minorities at the table to win contracts with the city.
"We plan on building a team that is actually going to get out of our offices, get into the community and actually meet with business owners where they are, not necessarily just having them to come to city hall," Massey said.
Strickland said last year women and minorities had only 12 percent of the contract business with the city, down from 14 percent in 2014.
Women owned businesses like Data Facts in Cordova know the challenges. Data Facts is working on a city contract for its background screening services and sees the new office as a way to open more doors.
"It makes it easy. Sounds like there is a go-to place and person to cut through the red tape. For smaller businesses who don't have many resources maybe, make this process easy," said Lisa May, the senior vice president of Data Facts.
The mayor isn't setting a participation goal but said there is plenty of room for improvement.
"City government cannot change this over night, but we can do our part and certainly lead by example and challenge the private sector to do the same," Strickland said.
Joann Massey's position is a result of the mayor combining the Office of Contract Compliance with the Memphis Office of Resources and Enterprise, also known as MORE.
The mayor said that combination will improve city performance on contracting and create more efficiency for taxpayers.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland released a statement following the violence this weekend, saying the city will not tolerate violent crime as the norm.
He said his administration is focused on addressing this issue.
He joins us live this morning to tell us how they plan to do that.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland responded to the recent wave of violent crime taking over our city, saying the problem is bigger than city government alone can handle and he needs help.
Strickland ran his campaign on the promise of reducing crime, so two months into the job, we wanted to know where that campaign promise stands.
A string of shootings and stabbings over the last couple of days has left those who live in Memphis worried that instead of getting better, crime in their city is getting worse.
It's not just a feeling; it's reality. Since January, 45 people have been killed in Memphis.
"This problem we're having in America really. Our violent culture is way beyond what local governments can do by themselves. We need the community involved," Strickland said.
Strickland said a shortage of officers contributes to the problem, but he's got more officers patrolling today than 30 days ago. They work overtime to compensate while the city prepares to hire 250 more.
"We have to go out and recruit more police officers," he said. "We have a hiring class this spring and one in the fall."
What about his campaign promise? Strickland made a promise to make Memphis streets safer, bring back data-driven police where officers saturate crime-ridden areas of the city.
"It's tough, and there's not going to be a short-term solution. It's going take some time to turn this around, but I'm very optimistic that we're going to do it," Strickland said.
Strickland said policing is only part of his solution.
"We'll have a program that we reach out to businesses to try to sponsor our community centers to give kids something productive when they're not in school," he said.
Putting more people to work is another way he plans to reduce crime.
"We're working very hard on job training. We have thousands of jobs in Memphis that cannot be filled, so we're working very hard with the state and the county on job training opportunities," the mayor said.
For those hard core criminals, Strickland has another plan for them.
"We're working with the state legislature to increase the penalty for violent crime, particularly domestic violence, this session," he said.
Currently someone arrested 10 times for domestic violence gets the same misdemeanor charge as someone arrested for the first time. Strickland wants to make it like DUI where after the first two offenses, the penalty gets more serious.
Strickland said he also supports the district attorney's gang injunctions that make it against the law for gang members to congregate. A defense attorney is currently challenging one of those cases in Memphis, saying it's unconstitutional.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The city's growing murder rate has many demanding something must be done.
The panel will talk about whether Mayor Jim Strickland should be taking all the heat.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said he is open to de-annexation in South Cordova and Southwind as long as other areas stay a part of the city, a spokesperson for the mayor said Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Strickland called the bill potentially devastating and said it could cost Memphis more than 100,000 residents, $64 million in property tax revenue and $15 million in sales tax revenue.
The state bill would allow residents of six Tennessee cities, including Memphis, to vote to de-annex their communities if their city absorbed them after May 1, 1998.
Some of the recent communities annexed by Memphis include South Cordova, Wyndyke and Southwind.
The bill passed the House Monday and is now headed to the Senate floor where it could be voted on as early as Thursday.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Today is Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland's 100th day in office.
How's he doing? The Informed Sources will grade the mayor on his efforts against crime, his efforts to improve the city's economy, his leadership and his record on diversity and minority hiring.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Mayor Jim Strickland presented his budget proposal for the 2017 fiscal year Tuesday.
The budget totals $667 million, $9 million more than the current budget, but Strickland said there is a small uptick in revenue.
The proposal does not include a property tax increase and does not dip into reserves, he said.
Strickland said his priorities are public safety, pensions and paving streets.
For public safety, he proposed an increase of $6 million. He also wants $3.8 million to make pay more competitive for police and $1.9 million to raise pay for firefighters.
He also wants to fund two more recruiting academy classes since the city is short 400 officers, and the union said more are leaving every week because of poor pay and benefits.
Strickland also proposed $54 million to go toward the city's pension fund, up from $50 million.
The budget allots $16.5 million in capital funds for repaving streets, 10 percent more than last year. These nicer roads would be driven on by improved transportation, as Strickland proposed a $5 million increase in capital spending for MATA along with $2.5 million more in operating money.
MATA's president said this increased funding means he could get more buses.
“These budget proposals are the substance of what I mean when I say our administration pledges to be ‘brilliant at the basics’,” Strickland said. “We’re prioritizing public safety, pension funding and street paving. The more we invest in those key areas, the more we can multiply all the good things going on in Memphis today.”
Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams said the proposal is a step in the right direction.
"Crime is up. Homicides are up 47 percent. Violent crimes are up 24 percent," he said. "The Strickland administration said that they are going to try to get us equal to what the comparison study says. We understand that it would be a big chop to do that all at once."
Memphis Firefighters Association President Thomas Malone said he's content with the budget proposal.
"What I'm waiting to see cautiously is what happens in these committee meetings. What does the council try to cut," said Malone. "If we don't stop this bleeding, and the attack on public safety then it's going to reflect all over the city."
The council will start its budget discussions next week, and will have to approve the final budget by June.
Mayor Strickland told WREG he's expecting changes to be made.
"I was on the council. There's not one budget in the history of the city of Memphis that ever goes through that hasn't been amended. We just hope it doesn't substantially get changed. We will work with the council if they have a concern. We will work with them," he said.
Capital Improvement Program budget
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- On Wednesday WREG questioned Memphis Mayor Jim Stickland about his proposed budget he presented before the city council Tuesday afternoon.
The budget banks on an extra $9 million with 70 percent being funneled into public safety, with raises for police and firefighters. WREG sat down with the mayor today to ask him where all the money is coming from and where are the cuts?
If Memphis mayor Jim Strickland has his way next year men and women, on the police force and fire department, rushing to an emergency will have a raise, MATA will have more money and streets will be repaved.
"You have to balance. You have to live within means and we have to prioritize," said Strickland.
Here's a breakdown of how he's planning to pay for his priorities, $18.9 million will come from predicted growth revenue in sales, state and income tax. Another one million will come from Bass Pro is also coming from $1.9 million from Graceland. Three million dollars will also come from ambulance and auto registration. Finally, court fees and costs along with an MLGW pilot are estimated to bring in $4.6 million combined.
As far as the money going out, besides more money for cops and firefighters, $4.2 million will also go into the pension arc.
$2.5 million will go to MATA improvements and $4.6 million for other city investments like Sky cops. However cuts have to come.
$2.2 million of expenditure decreases in a category called various so WREG asked the mayor about that too.
"When I first took office we had over a million dollars in reductions in people. We eliminated 10-12 positions. Since then we've also tried to combine positions. I talked yesterday where we had two areas in HR we combined them and saved $300,000," he said.
Strickland believes combined it roughly adds to $2.2 million.
$6.4 million was also cut from post employee pensions.
"We had to cut that out over the last two years to move money to the pensions," he said.
Tough cuts Memphian John Purvis is OK with.
"If it's to the benefit to the police and fire department I think it's all in the name of public safety," said Purvis.
The council has until June to approve the new budget.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is in the hot seat.
He's only been in the job a little more than four months, but he's already discovering many challenges of the position, including a homicide rate no one could have predicted that's twice that of Chicago's.
How is the search going for a new police chief? How are efforts going to turn around the city's economy? And what about minority contracting?
The Informed Sources talk with Strickland about all this and more.
