This post was previously published in the November issue of Memphis magazine as its City Journal feature:
No lawyer in Memphis has racked up more hours of legal work in the past year than Julie Ellis.
And, none of it was billable.
It says volumes about the tenacity that Ellis brought to her work and the citizenship of her law firm Butler Snow. It also says volumes about the contradiction of terms when it comes to “part-time volunteer leadership” of a public board and commission.
In Ellis’s case, it began with a call from then-Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton asking her to serve on the Memphis and Shelby County Metropolitan Charter Commission, a 15-member group charged with writing a new charter for the consolidation of city and county governments. Later, the Wharton Administration sent word that she was also the choice for chairman.
Thus began almost a year of intensely personal work that put Ellis at the eye of the hurricane as town mayors and some Democratic politicos attacked the commission’s work from its first gavel. It also began a roller coaster ride of emotions, from elation over the commission’s ability to reach across racial, party, and geographic lines to frustration about misinformation spread about the new charter.
And yet, all in all, she said it was a “phenomenal experience with special people.” “The members of the Charter Commission didn’t know each other, but it proves that when we come together around the same table, we can work together, no matter where we come from, what race we are, or what political party we support.
“We were the example of what the new Metro Council could be – one body instead of 13 county commissioners and 13 city council members who never work together to solve issues but instead remain warring factions. Having just one government allows for an informed electorate who doesn’t have to figure out which government is accountable and one government can’t blame another one.”
Her belief in the power of change to unity the community was bruised in the process by the reality of a community “in need of selfless statesmen.” “There is a total selfishness in too many people in power to keep their power,” she said. “It is the biggest risk to democracy: People are so impressed with keeping their own power that they’re bullies willing to let their community tread water.”
The Charter Commission’s work was complicated by lack of coverage by most news media, with the notable exception of the Memphis Daily News. Even as early voting began, The Commercial Appeal treated the charter vote as just another political horse race with an emphasis on “he said, she said” coverage. Even as voting machines were being delivered for the referendum, the daily newspaper still had not printed a summary of the proposed charter or comparisons with other consolidation governments.
In fact, if it were not for Drake and Zeke’s morning drive time radio program, no one in Memphis would have interviewed Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, architect of the city-county consolidation that inspired the consolidation effort here. “Too many people never learned about the,” said Ellis.
Darrell Cobbins, chairman of Rebuild Government, the advocacy arm pushing for passage of the charter, said Ellis and the Charter Commission could have taken one off the shelf from another place, but instead, “they did the hard work.” “Unfortunately, there was very little in-depth, investigative reporting on this, which left the public without the information they needed to have to understand its monumental opportunity,” he said.
The process left Ellis and Cobbins excited about the momentum for government reform that has begun. Cobbins said: “This experience has taught me that for this community to truly move forward, we have to deal with the realities that exist in us as individuals and around us in our communities. The seeds we sow as a community, good or bad, will bear fruit for our children and their children. When my baby son is a man, I don’t want him to deal with city versus county, poverty, race, declining growth, underperforming schools that this community is grappling with at that time.”
“I’ve learned that cheering for the Tigers in the NCAA Championships is not enough to truly bring our community together,” said Cobbins. “We have to get out of our ‘bubbles’ and begin to understand that we can’t succeed without us all, methaphorically, in the same boat and paddling in the same direction. We have to roll up our sleeves and all start on that as a community. There is never a bad time to try and be better tomorrow than we are today.”
betcha she is pizzed…..
She is committed to this community so I’m sure she’s not pissed.
I think it was clear from the start that the elements were not there for a successful consolidation effort. I think Ms. Ellis and the other charter commission members had little knowledge about government and were all pretty naive.
Anonymous:
With all due respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Not only are they most knowledgeable people in Memphis about government structure and operations,they put together a proposed charter that’s already being used as the template in other cities.
There was a way for this campaign to have won, but that’s beside the point, because that wasn’t the Charter Commission’s job. They prepared a balanced, level-headed document that incorporated all the elements required by state law (these were some of the things that the Commission was vilified for, by people who apparently don’t know what the state law said).
One thing I can said for sure: there is nothing naive about Julie Ellis.
Ms. Ellis is high up on the “Committed to Memphis” list. The Charter Commission is only one of her civic endeavors.
How could the campaign have been won?
SCM, this is another anonymous. I agree that the document was put together rather well and Ms. Ellis is apparently very knowledgeable about government. What she and many of the other leaders of this effort are not good at is rough and tumble politics and apparently weak on marketing.
I voted for consolidation but the campaign was amatuerish and reeked of a white collar effort to tell the dumb peons what’s best for them.
If they do it again, I would suggest spending more time anticipating the opposition and being ready for them.
The people in the campaign knew who the opposition would be – burbs and politicians – because that’s who’s always fighting for the status quo in votes of this kind. There was a segmented, targeted campaign that could win, but it would have cost more than what proponents had to spend.
As for Ms. Ellis, we’ve never seen anybody as willing to confront the rough and tumble politics of this place, but she wasn’t ready for the cynical manipulations and the personal agendas that would put present personal power ahead of future city success.
Finally, the campaign wasn’t put together by a “white collar effort.”
As we said the other day, there are a lot of myths circulating about the charter commission and the campaign.
I know Julie and there’s noboby NOBODY that I’d rather go into a foxhole with. You don’t have to keep looking back to see if she’s still there. Unlike our political class. We need more of her kind who are only concerned about improving Memphis rather than those only interested in improving their position in the power structure.
In all seriousness, from my vantage point, Julie was the best on the pro-consolidation side to debate. She was very good, knew her stuff, and tough as nails.
Thanks, Tom. That’s high praise.
How could the campaign have been won?
split memphis off from the rest of the county.
you want it. you got it.
We should sue the news stations here for perpetuating ignorance with stupid news casts based in paranoia. I believe we could calculate the damages caused to the community and put all three out of business in a week. Then we could get some REAL reporters and owners in with concern about the people instead of the shallow bubbleheads we have now.